Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 654

412

Défense of an Essay, &c.

Nov

that

aspects of yin and yáng ; i. e. as passive or active. Of the yin k'i, or primordial substance which has vis inertiæ, they say kwei is the ling spirit; and of the yang k'i, or primordial substance which moves, or is active, shin is the ling spirit. They also say the shin is the hwan soul of the yáng, active principle; and that the kwei is the peh anima, of the yin, the passive principle. These last explanations of the skin and kwei throw much light upon the subject, and seem to point very clearly to the source from whence these philosophers borrowed the ideas on which their scheme of cosmo- gony was founded, viz., the compound being man.

Having thus conceived of a primordial substance possessed of a spirit or soul, and of an anima, like unto the microcosm man, they fancied they had now an agent suited to the work to be performed; and accordingly, to this compound primordial substance, so inform- ed by shin and kwei,—this yin yang chi k'i — is ascribed the making of the heavens and the earth and all things. E.

陰陽之氣一,

g.

368-370,

"Heaven and earth are only a thing or creature of the Yin and Yáng ; they are what the yin-ed and yang-ed k'i

(ie. the primordial substance of which they predicate Yin and Yang, passivity and activity) generated of old." See July No., p. 378, also pp. Man's distinction above all other things arises not from his having an intelligent, moral, accountable, immortal spirit, unlike to that of the beasts which perish, and wholly different from anything possessed by the inanimate beings around him, but from his having been made from the finest parts or particles of this primordial substance. # 惟 ^

"but man, having obtained its most subtle or finest part, is most noble." All things being made from this one compound, primordial substance k'i, according to this system, it follows that Heaven, earth and man, and all things, are composed of the finer or grosser parts of this k'i, as to the material part of them and that they also share one common shin and one common kwei, viz. the kwei and skin which are inherent parts of the eternally-existing, compound, primordial principle k'i. Hence we read, "The spirit of the great one above is the informing divinity or spirit (Shin) of the wide expanse; the spirit of Heaven and earth is the informing divinity or spirit (Shin) of the Yin and Yung, the active and passive principles of the primordial substance; the spirit of men and beasts is the informing divinity or spirit (Shin) of flesh and blood : that in which they are the same is the possession of the same Shin divinity or spirit, (F) but that in which they differ is (observe,

(其同者神)

;