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.