IV. Transformations of the Elements.
a) In Heaven:—the Celestial Bodies and the Five Planets.
The whole universe, the material as well as the intellectual world
are nothing else than transformations of the Five Elements. The world
has been evolved from the primary essences the Yin and the Yang, of which
the elements are derivates or compounds.
We have seen that Kuan Tse (p. 450) joined the heavenly bodies to
the different quarters:—the earth to the centre, the sun to the south, the
moon to the north, the stars to the east, and the zodiacal signs to the
west. It is natural that the earth should be regarded as the centre of the
universe and the sun be connected with the south, the seat of heat and
light. The moon then had to go to the opposite direction, the north,
where cold and darkness reign. Then the stars had to take the two
remaining quarters, the east and west. We learn from Wang Ch`ung that
in his time not only the sun was regarded as fire, but that the moon also
was believed to consist of water (cf. I, p. 268 and 357). Fire being the
element of the south and water that of the north, the celestial bodies were
believed to be formed of the element belonging to their quarter. The Earth
consists of earth, the element of the centre. Then the stars must be of
wood and the zodiacal constellations, of metal.
But the combination of the Five Planets with the Five Quarters or
the Five Elements is much more common than that of the celestial bodies
in general. Huai Nan Tse III, 3 r. seq. declares the Five Planets:—Jupiter,
Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury[1989]
to be the spirits [OMITTED] of the Five Quarters.
The Shi-chi chap. 27 says that the Five Planets are the elements of the
Five Quarters ruling over the Seasons, e. g., "Mars is said to be the fire
of the south and governs summer"[1990]
(eod. p. 18v.). Of course one may
translate that Mars corresponds to the fire, but the literal translation seems
to me preferable and more in accordance with the materialistic views of
the Chinese to whom Mars, the Fire Star [OMITTED], is made of fire, and
Jupiter, the Wood Star [OMITTED], is made of wood. These characteristic
terms of the Planets are frequently used in the Shi-chi. The Chin-shih
(14th cent. A.D.) distinctly states that in heaven the fluid of the essence
of the Five Elements becomes the Five Planets, on earth, the Five Substances
and in man the Five Virtues and the Five Business.
[1991]
From
another modern treatise we learn that looking up to the Five Planets at
dusk we see their five colours quite clearly, without the least confusion,
because they are the essences of the Five Elements.
[1992]
Here again we notice
quite analogous conceptions in
Agrippa (
loc. cit. p. 198), who likewise takes
the planets for products of the elements. Mars and the Sun he pronounces
to be fiery, Jupiter and Venus to be airy, Saturn and Mercury to be watery,
and the Moon to be earthy.
We do not know which consideration led to the connexion of each
element with each planet. Probably it was in the different colours of the
planets that the Chinese imagined they recognised the five colours:—green,
red, yellow, white, and black of the elements. That at dusk we see the
five colours quite distinctly, without the least confusion, as the above quoted
Chinese author would have us believe, is out of the question. The ancients
as well as the moderns are at variance in regard to the colours of the
planets (see above p. 443). There only seems to be some unanimity about
the red colour of Mars and the white one of Venus.
Valens goes so far as to give the reasons why the planets logically
must have the colours which he assigns to them:—Saturn, he says, is
black, because it is Time or Kronos which obscures everything. Jupiter
is radiant, because he cares for glory and honour. Venus shows various
colours owing to the various passions which she excites, and Mercury is
yellow, for he governs the gall which is yellow.[1993]
These arguments are
very queer, but quite in the Chinese way of reasoning, and it would not
be surprising to find them slightly modified, in an ancient Chinese writer.
As we have learned from Huai Nan Tse in the Chou epoch already
the Five Planets were regarded as the spirits of the Five Quarters. As
such they were venerated and named the "Five Emperors." They were
distinguished by their colours as the Green Emperor = Jupiter, the Red
Emperor = Mars, the Yellow Emperor = Saturn, the White Emperor =
Venus, and the Black Emperor = Mercury. (Cf. Shi-chi chap. XXVIII,
Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 449).
b) On Earth:—the Inorganic and the Organic Kingdom; Man.
The element earth embraces all kinds of earth and stones; metal,
the various metals; so the entire inorganic kingdom is the outcome of
these two elements. Of water different kinds are distinguished according
to their origin, such as spring water, rain water, water from ditches, lakes,
the sea, &c. Fire may take its origin from wood, from oil, from stones
or other substances, from lightning, or it may be the glowing of insects,
or a will-o'-the-wisp. The whole flora belongs to the element wood which
includes trees, plants, and flowers. But here we meet with a difficulty.
If all plants are produced by the element wood, how is it that in the
Liki the five kinds of grain:—wheat, beans, millet, &c. are connected with
the Five Elements, and not with wood alone, so that beans correspond
to fire, and millet to water? A Chinese philosopher would probably reply
that all these cereals issue from the element wood, but have an admixture
of one of the other elements. So wheat would be wood in wood, beans
fire in wood, and millet water in wood.
It would be logical, if the whole animal kingdom were classed under
one chief element also, but they are distributed among the Five Elements,
and it is difficult to understand the plan of this division:—The scaly
creatures, fishes, and reptiles e. g., snakes and dragons belong to the element
wood, the shell-covered or crustaceous animals:—turtles, crabs, oysters, &c.
to the element water. The element earth embraces all naked creatures,
among which are found toads, earthworms, silkworms, spiders, eels, and
man. Fire is the element of all feathered animals or birds, and metal,
that of all hairy ones or beasts.[1994]
Consequently the Five Sacrificial Animals:
—sheep, cock, ox, dog, and pig should be looked upon as transformations
of the element metal save the cock corresponding to fire, but the Liki
makes them correspond to all the Five Elements, and we would again have
combinations of two elements:—metal and wood = sheep, metal and
earth = ox, &c.
Here the views of Agrippa von Nettesheim (loc. cit. p. 198) are very
instructive. He teaches us that from the Four Elements of Aristotle issue
the four principal divisions of nature:—stones, metals, plants, and animals.
Each of these groups consists of all the elements combined, but one predominates.
Stones are earthy, metals watery, because they can be liquified
and by the Alchimists are declared to be the products of living metallic
water (mercury), plants depend upon air, and animals upon fire, their
vital force.
Among stones which as such are earthy, the opaque ones are earthy,
the pellucid ones and crystal which have been secreted from water, are
watery, those swimming on water like sponges are airy, and those produced
by fire like flints and asbestus are fiery. Lead and silver are earthy,
mercury is watery, copper and tin are airy, and iron and gold are fiery.
As regards animals, vermin and reptiles belong to earth, fish to
water, and birds to the air. All animals with great warmth or with a
fiery colour such as pigeons, ostriches, lions and those breathing fire, belong
to this element. But in each animal the different parts of its body belong
to different elements:—the legs belong to earth, the flesh to air, the vital
breath to fire, and the humours to earth.
Man is treated in the same manner by the Chinese. As the foremost
among the three hundred and sixty naked creatures (cf. Vol. I, p. 528,
Note 2) he belongs to the element earth, but the parts of his body and
his moral qualities are connected with the different elements and produced
by them. From the Liki and the Huang Ti su-wên (p. 448) we have learned
the correspondencies of the Five Constituent Parts of the body:—muscles,
veins, flesh, skin and hair, and bones, and of the Five Intestines with the
elements. An inner reason for this classification is difficult to discover,
but there has certainly been one, although it may not tally with our ideas
of a scientific classification.
The transition of the Five Elements from the material into the spiritual
world is by some writers believed to be a direct one, whereas others see
in the parts of the human body the connecting links. Chu Yung of the
Sung period informs us that the Five Elements are the Five Organs of
the human body, and that the fluids correspond to the Five Intestines.[1995]
The Five Organs are the ear, the eye, the nose, the mouth, and the body
serving to produce the five sensations. Wang Ch`ung (Vol. I, p. 194 and 381)
is of opinion that the Five Virtues are closely connected with the Five
Intestines which are their necessary substrata. By a destruction of these
inner parts of the body the moral qualities of man are destroyed as well.
According to this view the elements appear as moral qualities only after
having been transmuted into parts of the human body. Other writers
assume a direct process of transformation. We have seen the Chin-shih
maintaining that in heaven the fluid of the Five Elements becomes the
Five Planets, on earth the Five Substances, and in man the Five Virtues
and the Five Businesses (above p. 462). The Taoist T`an Ch`iao (10th cent.)
also merely states that the Five Virtues are the Five Elements, setting
forth the following classification:—"Benevolence is equivalent to fostering
and growing, therefore it rules through wood. Justice means assistance
of those in need, therefore it rules through metal. Propriety is enlightenment,
whence it rules through fire. Wisdom denotes pliability, whence is rules
through water, and faith is the same as uprightness, wherefore it rules
through earth."[1996]
The reasoning is rather weak, but we find the same
distribution of the Five Virtues in the following list of the Sung school of
thought.
[1997]
That its classification does not quite agree with that of the
Liki
and the
Huang Ti su-wên given above is not to be wondered at, since in
reality the elements have nothing to do with moral qualities, and the
supposed relations are pure imagination:
| 5 Elements |
5 Parts
of Body |
5 Intestines |
5 Souls[1998]
|
5 Senses[1999]
|
5 Impulses |
5 Virtues |
| wood |
muscles |
liver |
mind |
smell |
joy |
benevolence |
| fire |
hair |
heart |
spirit |
vision |
gaity |
propriety |
| earth |
flesh |
spleen |
reason |
touch |
desire |
faith |
| metal |
bones |
lungs |
animal soul |
taste |
anger |
justice |
| water |
skin |
kidneys |
vitality |
hearing |
sorrow |
wisdom |
We have seen above (p. 443) how Ptolemy joined the parts of the
body and the senses to the seven planets, and how Proclus made the different
spheres of the human mind correspond to the spheres of the stars. In
this respect they were only the successors of the Chaldeans and Egyptians,
who first connected the parts of the human body with the twelve signs
of the zodiac. A human body was thought extended over the vault of
heaven, its head resting on Aries. Then its neck lay on Taurus, its
shoulders and arms on Gemini, the breast on Cancer, the flanks on Leo,
the stomach and the bladder on Virgo, the buttocks on Libra, the genitals
on Scorpio, the thighs on Sagittarius, the knees on Capricorn, the legs
on Aquarius, and the feet on Pisces. In the Kabbala the three elements,
fire, water, and air were combined with the three parts of the body:—the
head, the breast, and the belly. The Seven Planets correspond to the
Seven Orifices of the Head, and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac to the
Twelve Human Activities (p. 444). These ideas were taken up by Agrippa
as appears from his table (p. 445). A similar scheme was in vogue among
the Central American Mayas. (Cf. P. Carus, Chinese Thought, 1907, p. 87.)
The Chinese do not lay much stress upon the relation between the parts
of the human body and the planets, but it exists, since the planets are
nothing else than manifestations of the Five Elements in the celestial sphere,
the parts of the body, its sensations, feelings, and moral qualities being
manifestations of the same elements in the human sphere.
