Varieties of Yin and Yang in the Han: Implicit Mode and Substance Divisions in Heshanggong's Commentary on the Daodejing

Abstract

In the study of Chinese thought, the products of the Han dynasty have historically been identified as those most antithetical to Western rationalism. In many of these narratives, the commentarial tradition and systems of complementary yin and yang receive the most attention. The present work draws on Mawangdui texts (Guan, Cheng, and Cixiong jie), the writings of Dong Zhongshu, the Huainanzi, and ultimately Heshanggong's Commentary on the Daodejing to complexify this view. Within these examples one discovers divergent philosophies of opposites and yin and yang that confound the notion of a monolithic and solely holistic Han cosmology. Ultimately, this paper seeks to promote Heshanggong's Commentary as an exemplar of Eastern Han Daoist yin-yang theory that subdivides these two principles into mode and substance. Such an interpretive move explains the commentary's valorization of yin modes (non-action, weakness) but not yin substances (cold, corpses), and yang substances (spirit, essential qi, living beings) but not yang modes (action, aggression, violence). Furthermore, this approach unveils new insights about the relationship of the Dao and Heaven, the history of Daoism, and the varieties of correlative cosmologies in the Han.

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At first glance, the yin-yang conception at the heart of Heshanggong's Commentary on the Daodejing appears contradictory: it propounds the superiority of yin, grounded in Daodejing ideals, while simultaneously exalting yang, commonly favored during the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce).¹ However, a concerted investigation of contemporary milieux and historical antecedents yields a different revelation. Beneath Heshanggong's seemingly paradoxical exterior, its integrated vision of yin-yang – and by extension the cosmos – represents a rich worldview built on sophisticated internal reasoning.

The Heshanggong is a product of its period. It teaches us much about Han Daoism and its particularly complex value system.² We will argue that said system implies a subdivision of yin and yang into “mode” and “substance.” Here “mode” refers to behavior and states of existence: yang modes involve movement, outward intent, intensity, visibility, rigidity, aggression, and violence; yin modes reflect stillness, inward focus, moderation, obscurity, adaptability, gentleness, and peacefulness. Substance indicates the full range of “matter” and “spirit” that comprises Heshanggong's world: yang is refined and united as with qi, spirit, and Heaven, while yin is dense and divided as with flesh, emotion, and Earth.

This cohesive and creative structure that underlies Heshanggong's philosophy resulted from its synthesis of antecedent yin-yang theories’ divergent values and must be understood by examining a multiplicity of yin-yang and proto-yin-yang conceptions from the Han. Resultantly, we find the two major strains of Han yin-yang thought that Heshanggong incorporates into his system. The result is an ideal where the yin mode that encompasses the values of the Daodejing (emptiness, softness, weakness, obscurity) generates the yang substances prized in the Han (Heaven, spirit, and original qi). For clarity in comparison and contrast, Lisa Raphals’ theoretical yin-yang parameters will serve as the interpretive framework for models sourced from Mawangdui texts, the work of Dong Zhongshu, the Huainanzi, and Heshanggong itself. This analysis seeks to resolve the “paradox” of Heshanggong's worldview, and in so doing complexify our understanding of yin and yang, Chinese holism, Han thought, and the historical continuity of Daoism.

1. Variations of yin and yang

Heshanggong uses yin and yang to construct its cosmology, but its notion of these two is a departure from the ahistorical, essentialized one promoted by many scholars of East Asian thought. That limiting conception deems the holistic binary to be eternally complementary and mutually generating, and suggests that, as a result of its absolute relativity, no single thing is identifiable as yin or yang. For example, A. C. Graham (1986: 28) contrasts the complementary nature of yin-yang with that of a conflict-minded Western perspective. Hall and Ames (1995: 158–160; 1998: 127) offer a comparable analysis of yin and yang as a “polarity” as opposed to Western “duality.” Needham (2004: 94) puts it best: “Yin and Yang … were always seen as relational, not contradictory; complementary, not antagonistic.” These views represent the “classic” holistic yin-yang conception, though analyses of yin and yang have begun to shift toward more refined perspectives.³

Lisa Raphals offers just such insights, which can assist in explaining Heshanggong's departure from other schools of thought. Noting the variegated history of yin and yang, Raphals identifies oppositional “dualities” in addition to complementary “polarities” and the like. Slightly reformulating her categories produces four yin and yang types: complementary (I), oppositional (II), hierarchical (III), and cyclical (IV).⁴ Unpacking this collection unveils an array of possible yin-yang relationships.

First, the complementary (I) sort represents the “normal” yin and yang dynamic where the two sides are interdependent and relative. Next, the oppositional (II) approach involves yin and yang cosmologies that emphasize fixed essences. Yin and yang do not exchange places or roles and are not fully interdependent. This conception of pairs tends to be associated with Western Medieval scholastic correlations, matching dualities like good/evil, light/dark, male/female, and mind/body. The third, the hierarchical (III) model is by nature most revealing of a cosmology's values: whether it honors yang or valorizes yin. It may also coincide with either the oppositional or the complementary types. For instance, in a complementary hierarchy (I & III), both sides are essential and valued, but one is bestowed more power and status, e.g., Heaven and Earth together produce all life, but the yang of Heaven remains superior. As for an oppositional hierarchy (II & III), one side is absolutely preferred while the other is absolutely rejected. Lastly, the cyclical (IV) pattern describes gradual alternation between extremes such as day and night or summer and winter. This dynamic can also accommodate hierarchy: night is inferior to day, but its role in the cycle remains vital.

In the following sections, we shall apply the rubric of these relationships to a range of contending Han-era yin-yang and proto-yin-yang models to draw out their worldviews, and to set the groundwork for the mode/substance reading of Heshanggong. In three Mawangdui texts, two opposite-gendered pairs appear to illustrate contradictory hierarchical values: the cow is presented as inferior to the bull (pin-mu 牝牧), yet the hen is understood to be superior to the cock (ci-xiong 雌雄). In contrast, the paradigmatic Han cosmologist Dong Zhongshu is overwhelmingly partial to yang, identifying it with goodness and the higher aspect of human nature. Chapters 1 and 7 in the Huainanzi celebrate the importance of stillness and softness, qualities commonly connoted by yin, but also focus on the attainment of spirit (jingshen 精神), which is typically linked to Heaven, a premier signifier of yang. While these two chapters do not present complete correlative systems overtly identifying qualities and entities with the labels yin and yang, they set up a functioning prototype for the double hierarchy at work in Heshanggong. As a descendant of the foregoing texts, the Heshanggong commentary threshes their respective permutations and emerges with its own, fully articulated expression of Daoist yin-yang thought: a causal relationship between yin modes (stillness, non-action, etc.) and the yang substances of spirit and virtue in the body or abundance and unity in the state.

2. Pin-mu 牝牧 (cow/bull) and Ci-xiong 雌雄 (hen/cock) in the Mawangdui texts

Edmund Ryden, in his investigation of opposites in Mawangdui's Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi sijing 黃帝四經), posits that two different male and female sets – pin-mu 牝牧 (cow and bull) and ci-xiong 雌雄 (hen and cock) – cannot be reduced to the single relational paradigm with which they are identified in later yin-yang history. He instead proposes that the complementarity of the first contrasts with the antagonism of the second (Ryden, 1997: 16–39). Raphals’ classification system highlights further distinctions between the two, along with their related correlates. The inversion of valuation for male-female characteristics in the ci-xiong duo, when framed in context with more common yin-yang hierarchies, points to contending alternate worldviews even within this single collection. Additionally, it is important to note that in spite of superficial similarities, the two gendered animal sets appear in disparate contexts. Pin and mu correlate with categories of things (e.g. Earth and Heaven) and actions (e.g. receiving and giving); ci and xiong operate independently of things, and are solely defined by behavioral modes (e.g. humility and arrogance). The categorical, value-based, and contextual differences gleaned from these early pairings help to illumine hidden divergences in the usages of yin and yang throughout the Han that inform the worldview of Heshanggong.

Pin and mu are the cosmic gendered principles in both Guan 觀 and Cheng 稱 cosmologies. In Guan, the pair respectively correlates with yin and yang, soft and hard, virtue and punishment, and warm and cold seasons, all of which are what Raphals might call cyclical complements (I & IV). Yin and yang, however, represent the foundational pair: “When yin and yang were not yet fixed, I had no way to bestow names. At present, they are separated in two and are divided as yin and yang” (Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 62).⁵ The primacy and division of the duo precipitate all emergence and differentiation, such as the subsequent appearance of pin (cow) and mu (bull): “When the cow and bull seek each other, there is a meeting of the hard and soft. When the hard and soft complete each other, the cow and bull attain their forms. Below [one] congregates as Earth; above [the other] congregates as Heaven” (Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 62).⁶ Pin and mu, as described here, undergo a necessary process of mutual completion before taking on ensuing substances and forms that eventually manifests as Earth and Heaven. Overall, the reciprocal completion and transformation into foundational natural powers, consistent with pin and mu's yin-yang properties, point to the primordiality of complementary relationships in this worldview.

Later in the text, this complementary dynamic of yin-yang, pin-mu, and Earth-Heaven is applied to the true raison d’être of the work: rulership. Rather than let his arbitrary will prevail, the ruler is exhorted to accord with the alternations implicit in nature. “In the spring and summer employ virtue, and in the fall and winter employ punishment. Place virtue first and punishment last to nourish life” (Yates, 1997: 108; Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 62). This seasonal approach to governance brings a cyclical dimension to the text's view of opposites (I & IV) and introduces a shade of Raphals’ hierarchy (III) as well. Within the world of this text, life (a yang substance) is presumed to be better than death, and it is best nourished in accord with spring/summer/virtue (also yang substance). Still, both life and death remain part of the natural cycle of opposites.

In Cheng, pin and mu similarly integrate within complementary (I) and cyclical relationships (IV), though this vision of correlative thinking is more stridently hierarchical (III), placing a greater emphasis on the supremacy of yang, mu, and men. Within this worldview, pin and mu are primal principles of the cosmos: “The Way of Heaven has a left and a right, a cow and a bull” (Yates, 1997: 161; Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 82).⁷ Yet, the complementarity of pin and mu, when viewed in concert with their yin-yang correlations, does not signify equality. “Heaven is yang and Earth is yin … man is yang and [woman is yin] … the noble is yang and the lowly is yin … controlling others is yang and being controlled by others is yin … giving is yang and receiving is yin” (Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 82–83). Sourced from a much longer list of comparable phrases, these pairings unequivocally evince a significantly stronger sense of hierarchy than the Guan passages, with yang, and by extension mu, in the dominant position.⁸

In Guan and Cheng, the cosmic male-female pair pin and mu exist within a yin-yang based world related in various ways to questions of governance and social order. They belong to a set of cosmic binaries operating in a combination of complementary, cyclical (proper timing), and hierarchical manners. Between the three, hierarchy lends itself to a fully integrated correlative model, i.e., superior substantive yang things such as Heaven, man, and the warmth of spring and summer are matched with superior yang behaviors like controlling, giving, and virtuous actions. Conversely, inferior yin substantive things accord with inferior yin behaviors. This effectively codifies norms within the value system: men should be active and women should be passive, just as Heaven gives and Earth receives, etc. Such prescriptions tint the complementarity of the “inferior” entities and have major implications for the social order at large. It is this tendency that most significantly sets such hierarchical yin-yang models apart from the other types.⁹

So far, the pin-mu inclusive worldviews within the previous texts reveal complementary, cyclical, and hierarchical yin-yang models that do not stray much from its “classic” form. In contrast, the radically antagonistic “female and male” opposites – ci-xiong (hen and cock) – that Ryden (1997: 39) insightfully identifies in the text Cixiong jie 雌雄節, reject balance and complementarity. Instead, they portray in this third Mawangdui work what Raphals would call an oppositional pair (II), and one where the female hen is held superior to the male cock (III). The ci-xiong pair, as it is used here, not only inverts the Guan and Cheng valuation of female/male, but also diverges from the pin-mu model in that it is neither associated with yin-yang nor related to any substantive or cosmic entities. In fact, this pair simply exemplifies types of behavior. To illustrate this point, Ryden chose to translate the more specific terms cijie 雌節 and xiongjie 雄節 as “hen mode” and “cock mode.” The Cixiong jie contrasts them as follows:

Brazen, prideful, haughty, and arrogant: this is what is meant by “cock mode.” Tactful, modest, reverent, and frugal: this is what is meant by “hen mode.”¹⁰… Now cock mode is the companion of excess and hen mode is the companion of moderation. (Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 70)¹¹

While this passage offers no mention of them, understanding why later thinkers correlated the gentle restraint of a hen and the aggressive chest puffing of a cock with yin and yang, respectively, is not difficult.

Unlike the seasonal uses of virtue and punishment in the Guan, the proto-yin-yang female and male pairing in Cixiong jie does not suggest that one should sometimes be belligerent and sometimes amicable. The two opposites are presented as absolutist values where cock mode is harmful and proscribed, while hen mode is beneficial and prescribed:

In every instance, when people love to employ cock mode this is what is meant by “obstructing life.” If a great person uses it, they will be destroyed; if a lesser person uses it, they will be lost. Holding to it you will not be at peace … you yourself will not live long, and your children and grandchildren will not multiply. In every instance, when people love to employ [hen mode], this is what is meant by “inheriting wealth.” If a rich person uses it, they will flourish; if a poor person uses it, they will have enough to eat. Holding to it you will be at peace … You yourself will [live long, and your children and grandchildren will multiply]. (Mawangdui Hanmu boshu zhengli xiaozu, 1974: 70)¹²

This passage claims a general, universal truth: cock mode invariably breeds destruction and hen mode inevitably generates prosperity. Interestingly, the parallel structure inferred in the phrasing for cock mode indicates that hen mode promises to fulfill all of the classic goals valued within pre-modern Chinese social orders: wealth, health, and progeny.

As was perhaps the case with our first citation from Cixiong jie, the lack of direct reference to yin and yang in this segment may lead one to assume that the oppositional relationship represented by hen and cock has nothing to do with that pair. But in addition to fitting into familiar previously discussed parameters for genderized yin-yang attributes, ci and xiong are explicitly matched with yin and yang in later works.¹³ What makes the ideas espoused by Cixiong jie seem unusual, particularly in juxtaposition to those voiced by companion texts in the Mawangdui cache, is their elevation of the female over the male, the gentle and demure over the aggressive and arrogant.¹⁴ This value system may be possible because the text avoids the word Tian 天 (Heaven), unlike in the sections involving pin-mu built on a preference for the naturally elevated Heavenly yang. Ryden (1997: 36) raises this point to demonstrate an outlier status, how Cixiong jie represents a different philosophical strain than the rest of the Huangdi sijing.

Pin-mu and ci-xiong deviate because one hierarchy, based on the observable position of Heaven, is inverted by the other: one prefers complementarity and the other oppositionality. Furthermore, one suggests the integration of substance/season with behavior, while the other simply depicts a “mode” of behavior. In this contrast, one finds the seeds of two important strands of yin-yang thought. In the next three cases, those of Dong Zhongshu, Huainanzi, and eventually Heshanggong, the thinkers play out these incipient tensions and disagreements on these issues of hierarchy, behavior versus substance, and complementarity versus oppositionality.

3. Dong Zhongshu: Xing 性 (nature) and Qing 情 (emotions)

Sometimes identified as the founder of “Han Cosmology,” Dong Zhongshu offers a particular yin-yang system that combines Confucian debates over human nature, Huang-Lao ascetics’ rejection of emotion, and opposites pairs like those seen in Guan and Cheng. As Sarah Queen (1996: 77) has expertly shown, Dong's attributed writings, found in the Chunqiu fanlu, contain contrasting content layers likely related to different stages of his life. Following the earlier stratum Queen identified in the Chunqiu fanlu, chapter 35 provides a prominent instance of his “Han Cosmology,” one which Queen (1996: 225) also suggests emerges from Dong's reworking of the Huang-Lao worldview. Hierarchy (III) is prominent with Dong's vigorous exaltation of yang over yin, often highlighted as male over female, and comparable to what one finds in the Cheng as regarding the active yang/mu man controlling the passive yin/pin woman. Moreover, as in the Cheng, Dong's hierarchical approach remains complementary (I), being part of a holistic moral, ritual, social, and cosmic order. It, however, intensifies the pin-mu-related value system by binding yang and yin to good and evil, and to a human nature subdivided into moral nature (xing 性) and emotional nature (qing 情).

Dong's inventive human nature partition finds explication in chapter 35 of Chunqiu fanlu. It says:

Human sincerity (cheng 誠) includes greed (tan 貪) and benevolence (ren 仁). Both these two qi of greed and benevolence exist in the self, and status of the self comes from Heaven. Heaven possesses both the activities of yin and yang, and similarly the human self possesses the two natures (xing 性) of greed and goodness. (Lau, 1994: 10.1/45/29–30)

This passage discloses three salient details. First, Dong parses human nature into greedy yin and the benevolent yang. Second, this human binary merely reflects the cosmic order. Third, human moral behavior correlates with people's yin-yang substances (qi). Though this passage on greed and benevolence never references evil (e 惡), a questioning of evil's origin precedes it, and a correlation of benevolence with xing (nature) and greed with qing (emotion) further follows it.¹⁵ This equation of one's evil and greedy lesser nature with yin emotion is one of Dong's most crucial innovations.

Unfortunately, this record from Chunqiu fanlu lacks in concrete statements. The best depiction of this conception instead appears in an unconfirmed Lunheng quote:

The great pattern (jing 經) of Heaven has one yin and one yang; the great pattern of humanity has one emotion (qing 情) and one nature (xing 性). Nature is born from yang and emotion is born from yin. The qi of yin is vile (bi 鄙) and the qi of yang is benevolent (ren 仁). Those who say human nature is good observe the yang; those who say it is evil observe the yin. (Lau & Chen, 1996b: 13/38/8–10)

Assuming this reliably exhibits Dong Zhongshu's view on human nature, it confirms that he resolves the early Confucian debates between Xunzi and Mengzi with yin and yang. Robin Wang (2005: 220–222), for one, agrees with this view. She insists that by relying on the pair to solve the problem of human nature, Dong infuses yin and yang with new moral significance – yang becomes good nature and yin becomes evil emotion.

In considering why Dong identifies emotions as human evil, recall Sarah Queen's assertion that Dong's early cosmology is a remodeling of the Huang-Lao one. It follows, more specifically, that this extreme Han Confucian approach, which degrades yin (emotion) and seeks yang (heavenly nature), emerges under the influence of the “Daoist” or “Huang-Lao” inner cultivation traditions dominant during Dong Zhongshu's early life.¹⁶ That strand of Daoism, appearing in the Neiye, parts of the Zhuangzi, and sections of the Huainanzi, emphasizes removing emotions as a key practice for attaining the goal of the pure original qi, jingshen, or xing (nature) of Heaven.¹⁷

Dong preserves this basic cosmic hierarchy, particularly the status of emotions. However, his pursuit of the yang nature xing, the side of goodness, involves a distancing from emotions not attained through asceticism, but through studying classics, performing rituals, and maintaining social order. In the Chunqiu fanlu he says:

Accord with the “three cardinal guides” and the “five relationships”; penetrate the patterns of all the eight virtues; be loyal, honest, and love universally; be sincere, generous, and cherish ritual. Then and only then one can be called good. (Lau, 1994: 10.1/46/23–24)

This passage, also from chapter 35, follows the above quoted section on good and evil natures. It conveys Dong's conclusion that attaining greater goodness comes from fulfilling prescribed social roles and developing a breadth of virtues. In the larger context of the chapter, this section explains that goodness, actually one's yang qi, requires effort and ritual training to be achieved. Dong thus sides more with the Xunzian method of self-development. Put another way, such labors of socialization and education, what we should call proactive yang styles of behavior, are presented as the keys to increasing a person's yang qi, i.e., goodness. Thus, action and being correlate and transform together.

Prior to Dong Zhongshu, the contrasting poles of emotion and heavenly-aspects like jingshen were rarely identified with yin and yang. Dong's key pivot was splitting human nature by affixing good Heavenly xing to yang while affixing evil emotions, what the Daoist held as especially dangerous, to yin. This development incorporates the ascetic rejection of emotions while also tempering ascetic extremes, and results in a complementary and socially integrated theory. Overall, Dong's yin-yang model not only closely conforms to the Guan and Cheng sense of opposites per Raphals’ categories, but also correlates to the corresponding styles of behavior and substances found in these texts.¹⁸ This last point indicates that because human nature is a manifestation of qi, a substance, the yang cultivation methods of learning, ritual, and ordering must by design increase the yang goodness of our benevolent nature (xing).

4. Tensions of Heaven and stillness in the Huainanzi

More or less concurrent with Dong Zhongshu's worldview, Huainanzi chapters 1 and 7 – two of its more Daoist sections – similarly reject emotion and promote Heaven (often in the guise of the ideal substance jingshen). However, unlike Dong's elevation of total yang, the authors of these chapters simultaneously revere the yin-like qualities of the lowly, the still, the feminine, and the soft similarly exalted in the Daodejing and the Cixiong jie.¹⁹ While not fully integrated into a yin-yang matrix, a tension emerges between the positive status of stillness (yin) and the negative place of emotion (yin), and the honoring of Heaven (yang) and the rejecting of activity (yang).²⁰ Perhaps, emotion is not yet fully identified with evil yin, and Heaven/jingshen and stillness have not become wholly opposed as yin and yang. Still, these concomitant values hint at a friction later manifest in Heshanggong not resolvable through classic yin-yang relativity.

Chapter 1 “Yuan Dao” 原道, for instance, presents a cosmic hierarchy of Heavenly nature over emotions (III), but also, in an oppositional fashion, elevates stillness and softness above activity and hardness (II). This suggests an incipient yin-yang hierarchy in regards to placing nature (xing 性) over emotions, though unlike in the work of Dong Zhongshu these two are not identified as yang or yin and these substances do not then correlate with behaviors. The text says:

That which is tranquil from our birth is our heavenly nature. Stirring only after being stimulated, our nature is harmed. When things arise and the spirit responds, this is the activity of perception. When perception comes into contact with things, love and hate [haozeng 好憎] arise. When love and hate take form and perception is enticed by external things, our nature cannot return to the self, and the heavenly patterns are destroyed. (Roth, 2010a: 53; Lau, 1992: 1/2/14–16)²¹

This passage never engages yin and yang, though recategorizing these different components by their potential correlations produces noteworthy results. It pairs stillness (yin) with Heavenly nature (yang), something which activity (yang) stimulated emotions like love and hate (opposite of nature and therefore yin) degrade.²² This passage can be interpreted as a precursor to later explanations that describe the same dynamic from within an explicit yin-yang framework: the honoring of yin stillness and yang nature over yang activity and yin emotions. This suggests an oppositional (II) scenario and a discontinuity between exalting yang “substances” like nature and yin “behaviors” like stillness.

An elaborated explication of the “yin” behavioral preference, paralleling the relationships found in the Cixiong jie, appears in the following passage:

Therefore, the sage guards the Pure Way and holds to hen mode [cijie 雌節]. He accords with things and responds to alterations spontaneously; he constantly follows and does not lead. Through stillness he becomes soft and supple; through a stable [mind] he becomes relaxed and calm. In attacking the great and grinding down the hard, none can compete with him. (Roth, 2010a: 62; Lau, 1992: 1/5/21–22)

Here the exact compound from the Cixiong jie reappears. Harold Roth translates it as “the limits of the feminine principle,” but if Ryden correctly reads the Mawangdui materials, it should be “hen mode.” This mode involves the basic ways of being or behaving that the Daodejing promotes and that later all become classified as yin qualities: adaptation, placing oneself last, softness, suppleness, stillness, and calm. Here the purpose is to stabilize the mind, but as expressed earlier in the text, the most important goal is ruling with the Way. For this reason, the passage asserts this “hen mode” is the path to the kind of power that defeats the great and hard.

Beyond the political efficacy of hen mode are its benefits to vital bodily substances: “Now the more that the essence, spirit, qi, and awareness are tranquil, the more they will be abundant and strong. The more they are agitated, the more they will be depleted and aged” (Roth, 2010a: 76; Lau, 1992: 1/10/7-8). By implication, when the substances (jing 精, shen 神, qi 氣) are fully lost, death occurs. The “substantively” opposed states of life and death emerge from either stillness or agitation, two modes reminiscent of hen mode and cock mode.²³ None of the terms, qualities, or substances in these passages is equated with yin and yang. However, what might be called “yang” substances are elevated,²⁴ while “yin” modes of behaviors are prized. Actually, one could also say that the good “yin” qualities, like stillness, are modes that engender the good “yang” substances like spirit, qi, and life.²⁵

“Yuan Dao” prescribes qualities like stillness, softness, tranquility, and pliancy as the keys to success. It even employs cijie “hen mode” to summarize these behavioral modes or states, paralleling the Way itself. However, the worldview of this chapter hints at tensions with the yet-to-be identified categories of yin and yang because the softness and stillness of hen mode, if organized according to that binary, would contrast with the valorization of heavenly nature over emotion or life over death.

Chapter 7 “Jingshen” 精神 provides a strikingly similar picture, though with more explicit yin-yang integration. In its opening section, the spirits (shen 神) of Heaven and Earth appear as the precursors to the pair yang and yin, and tellingly the chapter depicts humans with their pure refined qi (jingqi 精氣) as superior to the other creatures comprised of agitated qi (fanqi 煩氣). This valorization of the jingqi, or jingshen 精神 is then correlated with the two halves that form a person: jingshen or essential spirit correlates with Heaven and bodily structure correlates with Earth (Roth, 2010b: 240; Lau, 1992: 7/54/26–27). To be fair, the chapter honors both Heaven and Earth, even while elevating Heaven's jingshen over Earth's structure.²⁶ The end result is a complementary hierarchy (I & III).

This hierarchy of qi extends to include the contrast between emotions and jingshen. The chapter records:

Sadness and joy are aberrations of virtue (de 德), pleasure and anger are excesses of the Way; fondness and resentment are the fetters of the mind. Therefore, it is said: “Life is the doing of Heaven (tianxing 天行) and death results from being transformed by things (wuhua 物化). Tranquility is the sealing of all yin; activity is the opening of all yang.” When one's essential spirit (jingshen 精神) is silent and without extremes, and does not become dispersed by things, the empire will naturally submit. Thus, the mind is the ruler of physical form (xing 形); the spirit (shen 神) is the treasure of the mind. When the physical form toils without rest, it becomes exhausted; when the essence is used unceasingly, it runs out. Thus the sages honor and esteem it and do not dare to allow it to seep out. (Roth, 2010b: 246–247; Lau, 1992: 7/56/28–7/57/3)²⁷

This selection centers on a near quote from Zhuangzi that may have originally indicated a complementary outlook on yin and yang.²⁸ Interestingly, the larger passage utilizes it to emphasize the contrast of problematic activity and emotion with cherished stillness and essential spirit. This juxtaposition emerges from how the “doing of Heaven” (tianxing 天行) relates to life, and how “being transformed by things” equates with death. The key reframing of the quote shifts the focus toward life, which make the hua 化 “transformations,” a term often associated with Earth, a problem.²⁹ The distinction is then between the inferior “yin” side of death and earthly “things,” previously identified with denser qi, and the important “yang” heavenly spirit that must be preserved for life.

The text additionally articulates the opposition of Yang/Heaven/jingshen over yin/Earth/physical-form by describing the core of the mind, the spirit, as residing above the body. This opposition of spirit and body conflicts with the subsequent lines, which appear to be equally concerned with exhausting both the mind and body. Yet, when read in context, the two instances of “it” (zhi 之) both refer to spirit, the subject of the preceding sentence. Similarly, the two objects “it” in the final sentence, that which the sages “honor and esteem” and prevent from “seep[ing] out,” should likewise indicate spirit. This reading underscores that the diffusion of the body's shen or jingshen remains the core concern and not the body itself. This is the key point of the entire passage. It starts by listing disruptive emotions, proceeds to the contrast of Heaven and Earth, stillness and action, and then concludes that stillness (implied as an avoidance of agitation) protects one from losing spirit. Again, the whole passage highlights spirit/jingshen as superior to physical form/emotions, and that stillness instead of action is the path to preserve that vital human aspect.

One final point involves the passage's use of yin and yang. This manifestation of the binary does not define the substances of Heaven, Earth, spirit, or form, but instead expresses ways of being. Yin matches with tranquility and yang pairs with activity, with the preference for yin stillness being undeniable. Resultantly, one finds the yang of jingshen, Heaven, and life (substances) paired with the yin of stillness (hen mode?)³⁰ in opposition to the yang of activity (cock mode?) matched with the yin of emotion, Earth, and death (substances). The “Jingshen” chapter's more fully articulated yin-yang cosmology exposes the complication of promoting one type of yin and rejecting the other, valorizing the opposite type of yang while dismissing its pair.

Both authors of the “Yuan Dao” and “Jingshen” chapters espouse a similar worldview variously integrated into a yin-yang schema. Yet, like other inner cultivation-type Daoist authors, their central project is to teach stillness, removal of emotions, and the limiting of sensory disruption. This contrasts with the Confucian method of ritual and moral education that emphasizes differentiation, external division, and activity. The discrepancy of these two approaches emerges from their understanding of opposites. The Confucian, or Dong Zhongshu style, requires the yang of education and ritual action to restrain the yin of emotion and thereby enhance the yang of virtuous nature. The more Daoist method relies on yin stillness and softness to disperse emotion and thus increase the yang of one's Heavenly nature. In both cases, the end goal of self-improvement is to restrict or remove emotion and to increase “yang”; however, the methods diverge.

5. Heshanggong's cosmology: yin-yang mode and substance

Chapters 1 and 7 of the Huainanzi reveal early efforts at combining the glorification of Heaven over Earth with the hierarchies of behavior promoted in works like the Daodejing and Cixiong jie. The insipient tensions of that project become more conspicuous in Heshanggong due to its increased engagement with yin-yang as foundational categories and its overt incorporation of Dong Zhongshu's popular theory of good nature (xing 性) and evil emotion (qing 情).³¹ In this case, we can state unequivocally that idealized behaviors like stillness are yin and idealized substances like jingshen are yang, a combination resulting in a nuanced yin yang conception that mixes the complementary (I) and the oppositional (II) with yin over yang and yang over yin hierarchies (III). Heshanggong does not directly address this latent incoherence, a symptom perhaps of attempting a pure yin-yang cosmology. However, the unique nature of this thought and its actual internal consistency manifests when one analyzes the text's use of yin and yang with the subcategories of “mode” and “substance.”

While one finds traces of these divisions in the Huainanzi and the Huangdi sijing – hen mode (cijie 雌節) from which we borrowed “mode” comes closest to half of this division – the details of the relationship in Heshanggong need to be spelled out. To start with, consider the list in Table 1, which reveals how Heshanggong's pairs of opposites do not easily resolve into two neat categories. Its organization reflects an attempt to group related terms, but even with this effort the asterisked items (preferred by Heshanggong) do not all fall evenly into the Heaven and Earth columns. They do not betray a clear yin-yang value system.

Table 1. Failed Hierarchy of Pairs (Asterisked Side Preferred).

In Table 1, we find other conflicts of value: illumination placed over learning and under the enshadowed, the cow as both superior to the ox and inferior to the profound, and the concurrent adulation of the heavenly and the lowly. Clearly, it remains quite difficult to resolve all binaries into a single set. Furthermore, this issue is not solved with the supposed relativity of yin and yang because the foundational preference for the lowly and weak (yin) in the Daodejing establishes an oppositional (II) framework.

Consider this instead: while Heshanggong's conflicting hierarchies of value might head toward paradox, one finds coherence by subdividing them into mode and substance. Using this division, the columns in Tables 2 and 3 exhibit consistent yin and yang categories. All the pairs related to substance neatly align with Heaven's superior yang over Earth's inferior yin, and all those grouped as modes reveal a comparable preference for yin contra yang. To elaborate, qualities the Daodejing valorizes, including stillness, obscurity, inclusiveness, humility, silence, non-action, emptiness, femininity, softness, and adaptively fall under yin mode; all that is clear, refined, and light (in weight and color), like Heaven, spirit, virtue, qi, and essence, count as yang substance. This clean division speaks to coherent preferences for various yin-yang qualities, and the pattern remains steady throughout the work. Although this analytical language admittedly does not resolve every complexity one finds in Heshanggong, it offers a powerful heuristic³² that unearths a more nuanced vision of the commentary's teachings while highlighting diversity and connections within Han correlative thought.³³

Table 2. Substance Pairs (Yang Preferred).

Table 3. Mode Pairs (Yin Preferred).

To further substantiate this interpretation, the categorization of the above pairs requires closer investigation. This process will also clarify the relationship between groups like yin mode and yang substance, and excavate the roles of the complementary, the oppositional, and the cyclical. Consider ci-xiong and pin-mu. Both pairs appear in the previously mentioned Mawangdui texts, and in the original Daodejing (ch. 6, 10, 28, 61). Unlike in those earlier works, Heshanggong at times employs the pairs interchangeably and at others holds them distinct. These different applications do not reveal an unambiguous division, i.e., ci-xiong as mode and pin-mu as substance. Instead, both sets alternate between functioning as substances and modes.

In terms of substances, both pairs correlate with Heaven and Earth and spirit and bodily form. In chapter 6, the female ci and pin represent the inferior and denser bodily substances received from Earth, and the male xiong and mu signify the superior refined spirit substances gained from Heaven (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 6.2C/37/4–6). This correlation results from the commentator glossing the Daodejing compound xuanpin 玄牝, profound and female/cow, as Heaven and Earth.³⁴ This usage resembles the Guan and Cheng cosmic substance role for pin-mu as well as the hierarchical vision of Dong Zhongshu that elevates all things yang over all things yin. However, aspects of this relationship approach oppositionality (II), as the text encourages the adept to reject all emotion (paired with the yin bodily structure).³⁵

Conversely, when discussing the highest ideals of behavior, ci and pin stand superior in the two pairs. Chapter 61 says:

It is the cow [pin] of the empire. ³⁶

“The cow” means ‘yin categories.’ These are accommodation, humility, and harmonization instead of leading.

The cow always conquers the bull [mu] because of stillness,

The reason women can subdue men and yin conquers yang is because they are still, calm, and do not initiate. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 61.3B/131/5, 61.3C/131/7, 61.4B/131/9, 61.4C/131/11–12)

This discussion of “yin categories” (yinlei 陰類) does not address yin substances like earth and emotion, instead explicating how success and conquest emerge from cow or female modes like humility, accommodation, and stillness. Furthermore, Heshanggong identifies these yin modes as foundational to his teachings.

Additional support for cipin 雌牝 as a preferred “mode” of behavior comes from chapter 10:

Can you act as the hen [ci]?

In regulating the body, one should be like a hen or cow [cipin]: peaceful, calm, accommodating, and weak. In regulating the state, respond to transformations and harmonize instead of taking the lead. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 10.10B/43/1, 10.10C/43/3)

Such a comment suggests that one should “act” like cipin, something comparable to the cijie (hen mode) found in the Cixiong jie or the Huainanzi. Looking at both of the previous passages, one finds Heshanggong proclaiming a hierarchical (III) and oppositional (II) notion of yin over yang, but only in relation to behavior or mode. This value is seen consistently throughout the text, and applying the modifier “mode” in these cases of superior cipin clarifies their different role vis-à-vis their role as inferior substance in chapter 6.

In summary, two inverted hierarchies of yin and yang coexist – yin mode over yang mode and yang substance over yin substance. This reading underscores Heshanggong's unique hybrid of the oppositional/hierarchical and complementary/cyclical approaches to yin-yang cosmology. This hybridity differentiates it from the supposed generic “Han cosmology.”

In regard to cycles, this yin-yang cosmology distinctly involves the alternations of mode and substance. Most importantly, mode stands as the logically prior state, as the quality of behavior or existence that leads to a substantive result. Chapter 45 notes:

When agitation triumphs, there is cold.

“Triumph” means ‘extreme.’ In spring and summer, the yang qi is agitated; it rushes upward, and the myriad beings flourish. When it reaches its extreme then [the qi] gets colder, and when it is [fully] cold things shrivel and die. This indicates that people should be neither hard nor agitated.

When stillness triumphs, there is heat.

In fall and winter, the myriad beings lie still beneath the Yellow Springs. When it reaches its extreme, then [the qi] gets hotter, and this heat is the source of life.

Clarity and stillness lead to an upright empire.

Through clarity and stillness one can be the leader of the empire. Maintain uprightness, and then [the empire] will never reach its end. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 45.8B/105/21, 45.8C/105/23-24, 45.9B/105/26, 45.9C/105/28, 45.10B/105/30, 45.10C/106/1)

This passage corroborates that Heshanggong holds a cyclical view of yin and yang. While one might contend that it only demonstrates alternating extremes of hot and cold qi, not mode becoming substance, on closer examination the key role of mode emerges. The passage identifies warm yang qi with life and cold yin qi with death. These are substances. How do these substances come to be? Cold does not come from an extreme caused by hot yang substances, it emerges from the modes of agitation and hardness. This is why the passage focuses on avoiding these two states. If the hot qi of life really equaled the modes of agitation and hardness, the commentary would insist one should embody them instead. Yet, the stillness of winter remains the key to the source of life – hot yang qi. The final line then confirms the important principle. One should rely on the power of stillness (not cold) to continually generate life and prosperity on a society-wide level. This is yin mode leading to yang substance writ large.

This seasonal discussion could advise harmonizing with the cycle's different phases, as in the Guan, but the added hierarchical exaltation of yin mode and yang substance removes that possibility. The yang substance of living qi appears to be Heshanggong's true objective. In this sense, he sympathizes with Dong Zhongshu and his sort. Yet, that Confucian worldview arises from a fixed hierarchy in which all the yang, male, heavenly, virtuous, ritualized behaviors increase the yang in the world. Heshanggong relies on the Daodejing tradition that prioritizes lowliness and emptiness, and valorizes these as paths to their opposites.³⁷ From this practical and philosophical origin grows the split of substance and mode. This is how to interpret Heshanggong, in the context of a yin-yang cosmology that emphasizes non-action, softness, and weakness as the keys to attaining the substance of Heaven, qi, jing, shen, and even virtue (de). Heshanggong writes as a syncretist, and as such, he strives to resolve the order of the universe through inclusive basic principles. Yin and yang are definitely two of these, but without excavating the implicit mode and substance division, their multifaceted roles remain buried.

6. The Way and virtue

The Way (Dao 道) and virtue (de 德) are the two title concepts of the Daodejing, and their definitions and relationship have been argued throughout the history of Daoism and in the modern age as well. In highlighting the internal complexity of Heshanggong's yin-yang world, we unveil an Eastern Han Daoist conception of these two core notions that have noteworthy philosophical ramifications. Following the current reading of Heshanggong, the Way is total yin mode and virtue is the perfect yang substance.

Why is this so? First, consider how virtue (de) is both substantive and yang in nature. Chapters 51 and 39 taken together substantiate this reading:

Virtue nurtures them.

Virtue is the One. The One directs and spreads qi to nurture and nourish them. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 51.2B/112/22, 51.2C/112/24)

And:

Concerning those of the past to attain the One:

“Past” (xi) means ‘past’ (wang). The One is original qi – the child of the Way. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 39.1B/94/11, 39.1C/94/13)³⁸

These comments define virtue as both the One and original qi.³⁹ Consequently, virtue undergirds the substance of the entire universe; it is unified substance itself, and hence it is the One.

Yet, why is the original substance yang? In chapter 42 we also find:

The One generated the two.

The One generated yin and yang. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 42.2B/100/23, 42.2C/100/25)

This conveys the impression that since the One (virtue) precedes the distinctions of yin and yang it could not be yang. While in one sense yin and yang are mutually generated terms contradicting the nature of the One as a unity, when compared to the manifest world with its many divisions and differentiations (yin substance), the undivided One, and by extension virtue, takes the yang role. This interpretation is confirmed by the identification of fine qi (qing 清) as yang and the gross qi (zhuo 濁) as yin (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 6.2C/37/4–6), where the supremely refined original qi – virtue – must represent the purest yang. Lastly, the previous quote from chapter 51 indicates that the One (virtue) disburses qi to the beings of the world, paralleling the function of yang Heaven and implying once again that virtue must be yang.⁴⁰

In some Chinese cosmologies that begin with One substance or with Heaven (Taiyi shengshui, Chunqiu fanlu, etc.), this original qi or yang virtue occupies the pole position (Chen & Peng, 2011: 21; Lau, 1994: 6.6/26/2, 11.1/49/29). Heshanggong, on the other hand, follows Daodejing chapter 42 in placing the Way as the true origin of the cosmos:

The Way generated the One.

In the beginning, what the Way generated was the One. (Lau & Chen 1996a: 42.1B/100/19, 42.1C/100/21)

According to the previous theory, all yang substances arise from yin modes. Therefore, if the One as virtue is the supreme yang substance, it too must arise from yin mode. Ipso facto, the Way is yin mode. Identifying this root of all existence as yin mode resolves how Dao 道 can be both a method of living and also the governing principle of the cosmic order. While such logic follows from this heuristic, we must consider if it accords with the commentary. Overall, the Way can be called yin mode because the text repeatedly defines it as still, soft, fully encompassing, hidden, humble, non-active, empty, and adaptive; all qualities which fall into the yin mode column in the tables above.⁴¹

Yet, as with the single substance of virtue, Heshanggong chapter 32 likewise identifies the Way as existing beyond yin and yang categories, something that contradicts the theory the author is asserting.

The Way is constantly nameless.

The Way can be yin and can be yang; it can be lax and can be taut; it can be present and can be absent. Thus, it has no constant name. (Lau & Chen, 1996a: 32.1B/83/10, 32.1C/83/12–13)

This recalls the relativity that some argue for in early Daoism.⁴² Yet, the “no constant name” or the “nameless” identifiers for the Way are not relative terms. The Way always remains nameless and is constantly without a constant name. It exists firmly on one side of the pair of the named and nameless. The nameless stands as the yin mode of this pair, being hidden and unknown. It is also the origin of the named (Heaven and Earth), and thus could be said to include the “can be” of yin and yang, or lax and taut.⁴³ This unmanifest potential inclusiveness appears to affirm the Way's ultimate yin nature as confirmed by Heshangong in chapters 15 and 25.⁴⁴

Finally, if one accepts this interpretation of the commentaries’ theory of the Way as yin mode and virtue as yang substance, Heshanggong offers a creative resolution to the confusion over the relationships of the Way, Heaven, and the Way of Heaven.⁴⁵ While historically these terms likely indicate different strands of thought found in composite texts like the Daodejing or Zhuangzi, such a reading explains how the Way and Heaven function as complementary mode and substance combined as the “Way of Heaven.”

To summarize the full cosmology, the “transcendent” complements (I) of yin mode (The Way) and yang substance (virtue and vitality) oppose (II) the complements (I) of yang mode (activity) and yin substance (emotion/death). The first set is superior to the second (III), though they all function cyclically (IV) as well. Heshanggong manages to fully unite Raphals’ categories of yin and yang into one model, though he extols oppositional linear change. This worldview underwrites the cultivation process during which one shifts from the normal human state corrupted by yin substance (emotions) toward a state of pure yang substance (spirit/virtue). The key to this transformation resides in rejecting yang mode and grasping the Way to embody all the yin modes of humility, softness, stillness, lowliness, weakness, emptiness, namelessness, desirelessness, and non-action.⁴⁶

Conclusion

With the assistance of Raphals’ four categories, we have unveiled obscured variations within the opposites and yin-yang models found in the Huangdi sijing, the Chunqiu fanlu, and the Huainanzi. These in turn have facilitated a disentanglement of the interlocking implicit mode and substance layers submerged within Heshanggong. This division not only resolves possible inconsistencies in the inner workings of the commentary's cosmology, but also attests to two major historical strands of yin-yang thought merged within it. Simplistically, these can be caricatured as the Confucian and the Daoist strands.

To start with, the yin-yang and pin-mu of Guan and Cheng invoke cyclical (IV), complementary (I), yang dominating (III) worlds, where behavior and substance correlate. This conceptual vector continues through the work of Dong Zhongshu, accruing the further weightiness of yang's moral dominance and a focus on active yang methods as the way to increase yang goodness and virtue. Taken together, these three inhabit a similar “Confucian” yin-yang universe, and one which plays a significant role in Heshanggong's idealization of yang substance.

As for the Daoists, beginning with the Daodejing and the Cixiong jie proto-yin predominates (II & III), though as a superior form of behavior or perhaps mode. In the Huainanzi, this trend merges with the inner cultivation traditions’ focus on Heavenly jingshen and a tension of mode and substance begins to blossom. Heshanggong, situated firmly within this “Daoist” strain, integrates cycles (IV) and incorporates the Confucian hierarchy, in which yang functions as goodness itself.

Heshanggong's full assimilation of yin and yang within a Daoist context, along with the incorporation of certain elements from the Confucian side, necessitates the mode and substance split. Applying those supplemental terms uncovers the work's approach to the Way and virtue, one which holds deep ramifications for Daoism. In this model, the Way is not a thing but a mode of existence, and amazingly that mode precedes substance itself. This means that the substance of de comes from no-thing, though not from non-existence, as yin mode remains constant. This mode to substance causality avows a conception of reality that the commentary binds to self-cultivation and every other aspect of life.

Aside from the foregoing insights, the mode-substance interpretation inspires other noteworthy reflections. First, the supposed Daoist preference for the feminine requires reevaluation. While the association of men with superior yang, Heaven, and jingshen cannot be traced to the Daodejing, we can now postulate that the ci and pin of the text may simply refer to the proper mode of the male, as in Cixiong jie and Heshanggong. At least by the time of the Han, the status of women in Daoism does not appear to greatly diverge from the often-criticized patriarchal Confucianism. Both elevate yang substance after all. Second, clarifying yang substance (spirit, vitality, virtue) as the ultimate goal sought through stillness (yin mode) provides hints to how the “yin” honoring Daodejing tradition may have evolved into later Daoist incarnations that promote yang, e.g., the pure yang sought in inner and outer alchemy. This suggests a much greater continuity than previously assumed, as Daoism shifts from the pre-Qin toward the post-Han. In total, unpacking the variety within the seemingly consistent world of Han yin and yang theories results in a new angle on Daoism, and reaffirms the importance of this period as a pivotal moment in the development of Chinese thought.