The term tan-li 丹礫, “cinnabar gravel”, is another one for “cinnabar”. Kuo P’u 郭璞 (276 - 324), Yangtse rhapsody (Chiang-fu 江賦), has the line: “Below it there were gold ore and cinnabar gravel.”
955Tzu-lu 紫籙, Scarlet amulets, defined as “secret writings of Taoists”.
956Tung-hua-men 東華門, the name of a gate of a palace in Heaven.
957yi-k’e 依科, “to accord with the categories/prescriptions.
958T’ai-chi 太極, Grand Ultimate:
i) Anon. (6th century BC or earlier), Changes classic (Yi-ching 易經). “Hsi-tz’u”, says: “In the Changes there’s a Grand Ultinate, from which are born the Two Entities/Bodies (Liang-yi 兩儀) [= Heaven and Earth];” An exegesis to that says: “The Grand Ultimate refers to before Heaven and Earth had divided, when the Original Breath-energy (Yȕan-ch’i 元氣) was mixed and formed one, that being the Grand One of the Grand Beginning (T’ai-ch’u T’ai-yi 太初太一).”
ii) the title of a reign-period, AD 712, of the T’ang dynasty.
959Wu-chung 無中, in Non-existence.
960yin-yang 陰陽: the compound term’s most primitive meaning signifying “facing and backing against” (hsiang-pei 向背) the light of the sun, “facing” being the Male Force and “backing against” being the Female Force. By extension, it meant the hot and cold of climate. China’s early intellectuals used this as a metaphor for the positive and negative (cheng-fan 正反) of things or events.
Anon. (fourth or early third century BC), Sir Old (Lao-tzu 老子), says: “All things of Creation shoulder the Female Force and hug the Male Force.” Thus the two aspects, positive and negative, are inherent to things and events themselves, which stand in opposition to each other, but also assist and fulfill each other.
Ch’eng Yi 程頤 (1033 - 1107), Commentary on “Changes” (Yi-chuan 易傳), says: “One Female Force and one Male Force make up Cosmic Law/ the Principles of the Cosmos (tao 道).” This regards the interplay of Female and Male Forces as the fundamental rules of the cosmos. Tsou Yen 鄒衍 (late Warring States) of the School of Female/ Negative and Male/Positive Forces (yin-yang-chia 陰陽家) further combined the ideas of “the production and ceasing (hsiao-hsi 消息) of Female and Male Forces” and “the inter influence of Heaven and Mankind (t’ien-jen kan-ying 天人感應).”
Tung Chung-shu 董仲舒 (fl. ca. 179 - 93 BC) in his exam-answers (tui-ts’e 對策) particularly emphasised these ideas, and that later rulers didn’t venture to contravene them or try to revert to previous notions, standing in awe of Heaven, from which it may be seen how great was the influence of this theory on Chinese politics. Astrologers and diviners (hsing-pu chih-t’u 星卜之徒) further used the Female and Male Forces as grounds for their arguments.
The deepest influence, however, of the theories of the Dual Forces was on traditional Chinese medicine, e. g. regarding internal organs (tsang-fu 臟腑), system, organisations (tsu-chih 組織) and positions (pu-wei 部位):
FEMALE FORCE
MALE FORCE
internal organs [heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys]
other viscera (tsang 臟) [stomach, gall, the three visceral cavities, urinary bladder, big intestine, little intestine (fu 腑)]
breath-energy (ch’i 氣)
blood (hsueh 血)
back (pei 背)
belly/ abdomen (fu 腹)
The Dual Forces theories indeed combine with other theories to form the basis of Chinese traditional medicine.
The term for Female Force and Male Force is also found translated as the Dual Cosmic Forces, the Male and Female Cosmic Forces, the Dark/Negative/Female/Soft and Light/Positive/Male/Hard Dual Interacting Forces Of Existence, etc. The term can have many meanings, some metaphysical, some specific such as “fortune-teller”, “necromancer”, “fortune-telling”, etc. It also means the same as “moon and sun”, seen as arbiters or indicators of Time.
961Yu-chung 有中, in Existence.
962shui-huo t’ao-chen 水火陶甄, “clay figures with water and fire thrown and pottered”, i.e. the creation of human beings. Chang Hua 張華 (232 - 300) in his Female scribe’s admonition (Nü-shih chen 女史箴) has the lines: “Vast faintly seen Creation, After Heaven and Earth had parted, Dispersed the breath-energy and flowed their forms/bodies, both pottery-making and pottery-throwing.” A note to Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), History of the [Former] Han (Han-shu 漢書), “Pan Ku chuan”, says that a potter’s making earthenware vessels was called chen. The expression t’ao-chen was also used, on the analogy of a potter’s manufacturing vessels, as a metaphor for “to train/cultivate a man of ability”.
Is the reference here to the first creation of human beings? Ying Shao 應劭 (fl. ca. AD 178), Compendium of common customs (Feng-su t’ung-yi 風俗通), as quoted in Li Fang 李昉 (925 - 966) and others, Grand Peace imperial survey (T’ai-p’ing yü-lan 太平御覽, scroll 78, says:
It’s commonly said that when Heaven and Earth were opened forth, and before there were any people, [the goddess] Nü-wa 女媧 modeled ochre-yellow clay between her fingers and made humans. In the haste of her task, she had no spare time in her efforts to do all required, so she pulled strings through liquid clay, then picked them up to make humans. So the wealthy and eminent are the yellow-clay humans, while the poor and lowly are the pulled-string humans.
963Wu-ting 五丁: Five Able-bodied-men. Li Tao-yȕan 酈道原 (AD? - AD 527, Northern Wei dynasty) Rivers classic annotated (Shui-ching chu 水經注) [Sang Ch’in 桑欽 (Han dynasty), Rivers classic (Shui-ching 水經注), “Mien-shui”], says: “King Kind-and-cultured [i.e. Hui-wen-wang 惠文王 (reigned 337 - 311)] of Ch’in wanted to campaign against Shu, but didn’t know of any route there. So he made five stone oxen, and placed gold under their tails, letting it be known that they were able to shit gold. Fu-li 負利, the king of Shu, ordered five able-bodied men to haul them, and it created a path there.” Tu Fu 杜甫 (712 - 770), in his poem Bridge Mound (Ch’iao-ling 橋陵), has the lines “Assessing merit, you surpass the Five Able-bodied Men.”
964Liu-chia 六甲:
i) the Six Cyclical Numeral pairs with chia in them: i.e. chia-tzu 甲子. chia-yin 甲寅, chia-ch’en 甲辰, chia-wu 甲午, chia-shen 甲申 and chia-shu 甲戍. Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), History of the [Former] Han (Han-shu 漢書), “Lü-li chih”, says: “The sun/ day has the Six Cyclical Numeral pairs with chia in them.”
ii) refers to “the techniques of Following the Chia Cyclical Numerals (hsȕn-chia 循甲)”. Pan Ku, Han history, “Yi-wen chih”, mentions a work: Wind-drum Six Chia Paired Cyclical Numerals (Feng-ku liu-chia 風鼓六甲) in 24 scrolls.
Wang Hsien-ch’ien 王先謙 (1842 - 1917), Supplementary notes to “Han history” (Han-shu pu-chu 漢書補注), quotes Shen Ch’in-han 沈欽韓 (1775-1831) as saying: “A note to [Fan Yeh 范曄 (398 - 445) and others,] Latter Han history (Hou Han Shu 後漢書), “Fang-shu chuan”, says: ‘Following the Chia Paired Cyclical Numerals, means deducing from the Female Force of the Six Chia Paired Cyclical Numerals and secretly following them. Among the Seven Records (Ch’i-chih 七志) of nowadays writings there’s Following the Paired Chia Cyclical Numerals classic (Hsȕn-chia ching 循甲經).”
iii) the name of a god, Sixth Armoured-one. Ou-yang Hsȕan 歐陽玄 (1273 - 1357) and others, Sung history (Sung-shih 宋史), “Lü-li chih”, says: “Sixth Armoured-one is a messenger of Heaven, who drives the hailstorms, and bamboo horse-whips demons and spirits.”
iv) the name of a star. Liu Piao 劉表 (Sung dynasty), Stars classic (星經), says: “The six stars of Sixth Armoured-one are beneath Flowery Canopy (Hua-kai 華蓋), and to the side of Carry-pole Star (Kang-hsing 杠星), and govern the division of the Dual Forces (yin-yang 陰陽), and match with the entries and exits of the seasonal junctures (chieh-hou 節候).”
v) a term for “Taoist secret magic text/ amulet” (fu-lu 符籙). Chang Chȕn-fang 張君房 (fl. ca. AD 1001), Seven labels of Cloud Book-box (Yȕn-chi ch’i-ch’ien 雲笈七籤), says:
“As for expelling evil spirits and demons, one should write the Six Paired Chia Cyclical Numerals and the Six Paired Yi Cyclical Numerals (Liu-yi 六乙) and progress grasping them, at the same time calling out Chia-yin 甲寅, then all the spirits and demons will flee.”
vi) colloquially, a woman’s being pregnant is termed “body conceiving/ harbouring the Six Chias” (shen-huai liu-chia 身懷六甲). Wei Cheng 魏徵 (580 - 643) and others, Sui history (Sui-shu 隋書), “Ching-chi chih”, mentions a Six Chias threading-embryo writing (Liu-chia kuan-t’ai shu 六甲貫胎書), from which “the term ‘body conceiving the Six Chias’ arose, it not being baseless.”
965yȕn wu-chi 運戊己, “to wield wu and chi”. perhaps meaning “to operate the centre”, or “to operate Commandants of the Centre” (wu-chi hsiao-wei 戊己校尉)”, the latter a term which was a designation for some commanders of Chinese military garrisons in the modern Sinkiang region during the Han dynasty from 48 BC onwards, or maybe means “to occupy the (political/geographical) centre and hold down the world’s Four Regions” Wu and chi were cyclical numerals paired to make a Taoist term for “the centre”.
966yang ying-erh 養嬰兒, “to rear babies” Found defined as a Taoist term for “mind/ thinking/mentality/state of mind/mind (hsin-hsȕeh 心血), but is it horribly meant literally.
967t’iao ch’a-nü 調姹女, “to mix in/ transfer/bring in young girls.” Found defined as a metaphor for “kidney essence” (shen-ching 腎精) using”, for refining quicksilver. Again conceivably meant literally.
For the term ch’a-nü 姹女, meaning “young woman”, see Fan Yeh (398 - 445) and others, Latter Han history (Hou Han Shu 後漢書), “Wu-hsing chih”.
968p’ei yi-keng chin-mu 配乙庚金木 “to match yi and keng, metal and wood”. Yi and keng were two of the cyclical numerals known as the Ten Heavenly Stems (T’ien-kan 天干), and paired. Metal and Wood were two of the Five Activators/ Elements (Wu-hsing 五行), Metal governing the Western Region and Wood the Eastern Region. The paired yi and keng are a Taoist term. Also referring to cinnabar elixir.
969chin-chi 金雞, “gold cock”:
i) Wei Cheng 魏徵 (580 - 643) and others, Sui history (Sui-shu 隋書), “Hsing-fa chih”, tells us that: “On a day of amnesty in the Northern Ch’i dynasty, the Military Treasury ordered the setting up of a Gold Cock and drums to the right outside Ch’ang-he Gate (Ch’ang-he-men 閶闔門), assembled the haltered convicts in front of the city-wall gate-tower, struck a thousand beats on the drums, and undid the convicts’ cangues and chains.”
Liu Hsü 劉昫 (887 - 946) and others, Old T’ang history (Chiu T’ang-shu 舊唐書) (AD 945), “Pai-kuan chih”, says: “On a day of amnesty, a Gold Cock was erected south of the imperial-guard insignia, the pole being seven feet tall, on it a cock four feet high, its head decorated with yellow gold, holding a crimson streamer in its beak, it being borne on a many-coloured dish, and tied to it with crimson rope.”
Huang T’ing-chien 黃庭堅 (1045 - 1105) has a poem with the lines, “The cuckoo has no blood to follow on its tears, when will there be an amnesty by the Gold Cock?”, to which a certain Jen Yȕan 任淵 gives a note, citing a Star divinations in the sea (Hai-chung hsing-chan 海中星占): “The Heaven-cock Star (Tien-chi-hsing 天雞星) moves, and because of it there’s an amnesty.”
From this it seems that the Gold Cock represents the Heaven-cock Star, the movement of which was originally viewed as signaling the need for an amnesty.
ii) another name for the “brocade cock/chicken” (chin-chi 錦雞), the golden pheasant, Phasianus pictus. Fan Ch’eng-ta 范成大 (1126 - 1193), South Sea forest-warden and water-guardian gazetteer (Kui-hai Yü-heng chih 桂海虞衡志), says: “The brocade cock/ chicken is also called the gold cock/chicken, and looks like a little pheasant (hsiao-chih 小雉).”
970Yü-t’u 玉兔, Jade-white Hare/Rabbit. Legend has it that there is a hare/rabbit in or on the moon, so the moon is called, “the jade [pure white] hare”. Fu Hsien 傅咸 (239 - 294), Imitating “Heaven questions” (Ni “T’ien-wen” 擬天問), has the words: “What is there in the moon, a jade hare pounding elixir (tao-yao 搗藥), sending down divine blessings of good fortune and happiness.”
Chia Tao 賈島 (fl. ca. 793 - 865) has a poem with the line: “The Jade Hare sinks to the bottom of the deep pool.” Hsin Ch’i-chi’s 辛棄疾 (1140 - 1207) tz’u-lyric Mid-autumn (Chung-ch’iu 中秋) has the line: “I concentrate and go upstairs, and gaze straight out at the Jade Hare.” The term Moon Hare/Rabbit (yȕeh-t’u 月兔) is also found. Lu Yu’s 陸游 (1125-1210) poem Plum-blossom (Mei 梅) has the lines: “The Moon Hare pounds frost (tao-shuang 搗霜) to supply the changing over of bones, The Hsiang Charmeuse (Hsiang-e 湘娥) plays her se-dulcimer in order to beckon the spirit.”
Comprehensive meaning of the Five Classics (Wu-ching t’ung-yi 五經通義) says: “Why are there a hare and a toad in the moon? The moon [should it be “hare”?] is Female Force (yin 陰), while the toad is Male Force (yang 陽), and shining together with the hare, the Female Force is connected with the Male Force.” [Unclear] The pairing wu-t’u 烏兔, “raven and hare/rabbit” is found, being a poetic term for “sun and moon”.
Jade Pestle (yü-ch’u 玉杵) means “the Moon Rabbit’s pestle”. Lu Yu 陸游 (1125 - 1210) has the poetry lines: “The Moon Rabbit pounds Frost to supply for changing one’s bones [becoming an immortal], And the Hsiang Fairy-beauty plays her se-dulcimer so as to summon souls.”
971k’an 坎, li 離, mao 卯 and yu 酉, two pairs of the Ten Stems (T’ien-kan 天干) cyclical numerals. Presumably also Taoist relativity pairs?
972Huang-t’ing 黃庭, Yellow Courtyard, a Taoist term for “the centre”. Chang Chȕn-fang 張君房 (fl. ca. AD 1001), Seven labels of Cloud Book-box (Yȕn-chi ch’i-ch’ien 雲笈七籤), says: “This Yellow means the colour of the centre (chung-yang 中央), and the Courtyard means the centre of the world’s Four Regions (Ssu-fang 四方). …”
973Tzu-chi 紫極, Scarlet Ultimate/ Bound, defined as the name of a palace in Heaven.
974Tzu 子, wu 午, k’un 乾 and ch’ien 乾, two pairs of the Ten Stems (T’ien-kan 天干 cyclical numerals. Presumably also Taoist relativity pairs.
975Hsü-mi 須彌, Sumeru, i.e. Mount Sumeru (Hsü-mi-shan 須彌山). A Buddhist term, also found transliterated as Hsü-mi-lou 須彌樓, Hsiu-mi-lou 修迷樓, Mi-lou 彌樓, Su-mi-lou 蘇彌樓 and Su-mi-lu 蘇迷盧, and translated as Wondrous Height (Miao-kao 妙高). Buddhist scriptures say it’s at the centre of the Four Great Islands/ Continents (Ssu Ta-chou 四大洲), Jambudvipa（Nan-shan Pu-chou 南贍部州) etc., situated in the middle of a great sea, being three hundred and thirty-six li-miles high, with its summit occupied by the heaven Sovereign Sakra (Ti-shih-t’ien 帝釋天) i.e. the heaven Trayastrimsas (Tao-li-t’ien 忉利天), and, halfway up it, the heaven Catur-maharaja-kayikas (Ssu-wang-t’ien 四王天).
976yu-yen 由延, yojana, a Sanskrit, Buddhist linear measurement, variously explained as:
i) “the distance of “a royal day’s march for the army”,
ii) forty li-miles,
iii) (nearly) thirty li-miles, about nine British miles, i.e. four krosas (chu-lo-she 拘羅舍).
iv) sixteen li(miles),
v) eight krosas. A krosa is found defined as “the distance at which a bull’s bellow can be heard”. Other renderings of yojama are yu-hsȕn 由旬, yü-hsȕn 俞旬, yü-hsȕn 揄旬, yü-shan-na 踰繕那 and yü-she-na 踰闍那.
977Four Great Islands/Continents (Ssu Ta-chou 四大洲), the Four Continents (Ssu-chou四洲), Catur-dvipa in Sanskrit, being the four inhabited continents of every universe, situated south (Chan-pu-chou 瞻部洲: Jambudvipa), east (Tung-pi-t’i-he 東毘提訶: Purva-videha), west (Niu-huo 牛貨: Apara-godiniya) and north (Ch’ü-lu 瞿盧： Uttara-kuru) of the central mountain Sumeru.
978Yi-wan-pai-ch’ien 憶萬百千, “millions of ten thousands of hundred thousands”, a vaguely defined vast number, “millions”, “billions”. The yi is a numeral the val
ue of which varies from the usual Chinese one hundred thousand, to the Buddhist one million, ten million, and a hundred million.
Possibly, at a stretch, this expression refers to, or vaguely remembers, the term San-ch’ien Ta-ch’ien Shih-chieh 三千大千世界, “Three Thousand Big Thousand World”, Tri-sahasra-maha-sahasra-loka-dhatu in Snskrit, a Great Chilocosm. The term is abbreviated to Three-thousand World (San-ch’ien Shih-chieh 三千世界). It means the world “transformed by instruction” (chiao-hua 教化) by one Buddha. At the centre of that one world is Mount Sumeru, surrounded by Seven Mountains and Eight Seas, and in the seas there are the Four Great Continents (Ssu Ta-chou 四大洲), while beyond the Seven Mountains and the Eight Seas it’s further wrapped round with the Great Iron-encirclement Mountains (Ta T’ieh-wei-shan 大鐵圍山), which is why it’s called One Small World (Yi-hsiao Shih-chieh 一小世界).
The combined one thousand Little Worlds are called a Small Chilocosm. (Hsiao Ch’ien-shih-chieh 小千世界). One thousand of such Small Chilocosms combined are called a Middling Chilocosm (Chung Ch’ien-shih-chieh 中千世界). And one thousand Middling Chilocosms combined, are called a Major Chilocosm (Ta Ch’ien-shih-chieh 大千世界). The establishment and destruction of such occur simultaneously. Above the Major Chilocosms they are capped with a further three thousand, showing that such Major Chilocosms are formed out of Small/ Minor, Middling and Major Chilocosms. Requires clarification. See Anon., Prajna-paramitã sastras (Chih-tu lun 智度論), and Vasubandhu, Abhidharma-kosa-sastra (Chü-she lun 俱舍論).
979Yen-fu-chieh 閻浮界, Yen Floating World, Jambu world. Yen-fu is the Sanskrit word jambu, the name of a tree, which name was used in the name Jambudvipa (Chinese Yen-fu-t’i 閻浮提). Jambudvipa is one of the seven continents/ large islands said to surround Mount Meru, and to be called either after the Jambu trees that grow everywhere there or after one huge such tree on Mount Meru and visible “like a standard” to the whole continent. Jambudvipa is also found defined as “the central division of the world”. Jambudvipa is said to be the southern continent of the Four Continents, shaped like a triangle that resembles the triangular leaf of the Jambu tree, and is called after the forest of Jambu trees on Mount Meru.
Appendices and Endnotes Page 49
