TheSchool of Naturalists or theSchool of Yin-Yang (simplified Chinese:阴阳家;traditional Chinese:陰陽家;pinyin:Yīnyángjiā;Wade–Giles:Yin-yang-chia;lit. 'School of Yin-Yang') was aWarring States-era philosophy that synthesized the concepts ofyin-yang and theFive Elements. It was one of theNine Schools of Thought.
History
editThe School of Naturalists did not have any one ethos and came from separate schools.
K.C. Hsiao believed that they were an off-shoot of Confucianism, but the discovery of theMawangdui Silk Texts includes various Daoistic texts.[1]
Overview
editChinese philosopherZou Yan (鄒衍; 305 – 240 BCE) is considered the founder of the school,[2] and is the best known as the representative thinker of theYin and Yang School (or School of Naturalists) during theHundred Schools of Thought era inChinese philosophy. Zou Yan was a noted scholar of theJixia Academy in the state ofQi.Joseph Needham, a British biochemist andsinologist, describes Zou as "The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought."[3] His teachings combined and systematized two current theories during theWarring States period:Yin-Yang and theFive Elements/Phases (metal,wood,water,fire, andearth).
His theory attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth).
In its early days, this theory was most strongly associated with the states ofYan andQi. In later periods, these epistemological theories came to hold significance in both philosophy and popular belief. This school was absorbed into thealchemic and magical dimensions ofTaoism as well as into theChinese medical framework. The earliest surviving recordings of this are in theMa Wang Dui texts andHuang Di Nei Jing.
During the Han dynasty, the concepts of the school were integrated into Confucian ideology, withZhang Cang (253–152 BCE) andDong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE) being the chief instrumental figures behind this process.