Changing Yin and Yang

[jane b]

Why did Ohsawa change yin and yang?

Didn't the Chinese have thousands of years of experience at understanding the world. Did G.O. think he knew better than them?

I am not sure he contributed at all to understanding yin and yang, but rather confused it.

Any opinions?

Jane B

[Roy Collins]

Hi Jane. Ohsawa did not change yin/yang but rather gave his interpretation of it, which conforms to the original, "physical" idea of this dialectical system developed during the Yang Shao culture
with Fu Xi's Early Heaven Ba Gua. Over its 5,000 year history of usage there have developed two schools of thought regarding how people perceive yin/yang -- the physical school (or Old Text) and the metaphysical school (or New Text).

If you read the various interpretations of yin/yang over the ages you will see that there is no one definition that all agree upon. However it is possible to group these various interpretations into the two groups listed above.

Here is a partial listing of those who allign themselves with the physical school of yin/yang:

Fu Xi (2952-2836 BCE)
Lao Tzu (604-531 BCE)
Zuangzi (369-286 BCE)
Xunzi (298-238 BCE)
Prince Huai-nan Tzu (179-122 BCE)
Wang Chong (27-100 CE)
Chia K'ue (30-101 CE)
Chang Heng (78-139 CE)
Wang Wei (699-759)
Ouyang Xiu (1007-1070)
Shao Yong (1011-1077)
Zhu Xi (1130-1200)
Wang Tingxiang (1474-1544)
Ekken Kaibara (1630-1716)
Yen Yuan (1615-1704)
Zhia Xun (1763-1820)
George Ohsawa

Some who allign themselves with the Metaphysical School:

King Wen (1231-1135 BCE)
Duke Zhou (r. 1038-1031 BCE)
Confucius (551-479 BCE)
Wen Zhi (active mid 3rd c. BCE)
Zou Yan (305-240 BCE)
Dong Zhong Shu (179-104 BCE)
Zhang Zhongjing (150-219 CE)
Wang Bi (226-249 CE)
Sun Si-Miao (581-682 CE)
Tamba Yasuyori (active Heiian Period)
Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073)
Wang Angshih (1021-1086)
Li Shizhen (1518-1595)
Hui Tong (1697-1758)
Kurozumi Mundeteda (1780-1858)
Ch'oe Suun (1824-1864)
Michael Tierra and most followers of TCM

For your information the physical yin/yang system was first to begin and was utilized for some 1500 years before it was changed by King Wen at the beginning of the Zhou dynastic era.
The vast majority of macrobiotics follow the older physical yin/yang system. Please read my book Fire Over Heaven (Xlibris, 2001). Also look in the article section on Original Yin/Yang system posted at cybermacro.

In peace, Roy