Chinese Science: Theory and Practice

Author(s): Steven J. Bennett

Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 439-453
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1398648
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Steven J. Bennett Chinese science: Theory and practice

I. INTRODUCTION

The once-popular notion that Chinese thought was somehow

with science has proved to be an embarrassment to scholars
China.' The demise of the "China-had-no-science" myth has be
by the monumental research project of Joseph Needham, Scie
sation in China, and the coffin nails have since been driven home
ticated studies of Nathan Sivin and Manfred Porkert.2 The "
Chinese science means more than the inclusion of hitherto overlooked materials
into the general curriculum of Chinese studies. An awareness that science was
an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture must alter our beliefs about
the scope of Chinese thought and institutions. A thorough understanding of
Chinese scientific traditions will ultimately reshape our thinking about China's
role in world history.
Needham's researches not only demonstrated that many Chinese ideas and
inventions antedated similar European accomplishments by hundreds of years,
but these researches also have been used to claim that the scientific traditions
of premodern China were as highly developed as contemporary Occidental
traditions. Needham's efforts have been directed at convincing historians of
science that the intellectual substance of Chinese science is commensurate with
that of the sciences of the West. To this end, he has divided the spectrum of
Chinese scientific thinking in a manner that yields Chinese equivalents of the
Western sciences. Accordingly, Needham identifies such Chinese scientific
pursuits as mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, geography, geology, seis-
mology, chemistry, and medicine.
When a template designed by Aristotle is placed over Chinese science, how-
ever, some disciplines will fit nicely-mathematics, astronomy, medicine, for
example-while others will either be distorted or will simply have no place at
all. Under Needham's organizational scheme, the latter are classified as the
pseudosciences of China. They include such seemingly occult practices as
astrology (judicial as in ancient Mesopotamia), as well as Chinese disciplines
which have no Occidental counterparts, such as geomancy (used to place
houses and tombs).
Clearly, Needham's distinction between the sciences and the pseudosciences
is useful insofar as it allows us to readily compare Chinese assumptions about
nature with the world views underlying the European sciences. But one wonders
how meaningful the distinction is when the sciences of China are kept within

Steven J. Bennett received his A.M. degree in Regional Studies from Harvard University. He is
currently a research consultant living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This article is dedicated to my teacher andfriend, Professor Nathan Sivin of
the University of Pennsylvania. I would also like to thank Professor Henry Rosemont Jr. of St.
Mary's College of Maryland and Ms. Dianna Gregory of Tufts University for sharing with me their
keen insights into Chinese science.
Philosophy East and West 28, no. 4, October 1978. C by The University Press of Hawaii. All rights reserved.

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440 Bennett

their own sociopolitical contexts. Because the Chinese sciences evolved unde
social and political constraints unique to China, the value placed on scientifi
knowledge and the use to which it was put in China were drastically different
from the West. Explorations of the vital connection between science and
society in China have prompted alternative approaches to the study of Chinese
science, exemplified by the works of Nathan Sivin.
By focusing on the relationships between the various Chinese sciences and
their social as well as intellectual matrices, Sivin has demonstrated that Chinese
scientific ideas and techniques that appear to be identical with premodern
Western developments, or even striking anticipations of modern scientific
results, often turn out to be fundamentally different when examined closel
and in context. Although, like Needham, Sivin is attempting to use an under
standing of Chinese traditions as the basis of a comparative history of science,
he seeks to compare not individual and isolated innovations but complete lin
of development seen in relation to their backgrounds.3 Sivin has proposed two
useful ways of ordering the spheres of experience attended to by the variou
Chinese sciences, one based on sociological and the other on epistemological
criteria. The former addresses the social relations of the specialist, where h
belonged, and whom he served; the latter addresses the mode(s) in which th
various sciences were applied to natural phenomena.
Although all of the sciences drew from the same conceptual pool, some were
patronized mainly by the imperial bureaucracy, while others were more aligned
with folk culture. Sivin has discussed the former as the "orthodox" sciences
which include astronomy, mathematical harmonics, and astrology.5 The
sciences of the sky were vital to an imperial court which derived its authority
to rule from a celestial mandate. The order of the cosmos was thought to b
embedded in the predictable workings of celestial phenomena. The emperor
was responsible for making that order manifest on earth through his reign
Certain short-lived and unpredictable phenomena, such as eclipses and comets,
might serve as personal messages to the emperor that he had failed in providing
order for humanity. The sciences of the sky were thus indispensable to an
emperor who wished to keep a close check on the pulse of the universe and
to limit the range of the ominous by extending what could be predicted b
computation. The astronomical services were performed mostly by member
of the bureaucracy who, by virtue of having passed the civil service examina-
tions, were respectable members of society.
In contrast, the "unorthodox" sciences, such as alchemy and geomancy, ha
limited practical value to the court and (except when alchemy was an occul
fashion) did not receive the kind of patronage which the orthodox science
enjoyed. Alchemy and geomancy were deemed to be highly unsuitable as
careers for the upper crust of society. Such sciences were perfused with fo
beliefs and rituals, and devotees in general were members of society living on
the fringes of convention-"drop-outs," so to speak.

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441

Traditional Chinese medicine was both orthodox and unorthodox, depending

on the level of society to which the practitioner belonged. Physicians came
from all strata of society, serving clientele of commensurate or higher social
status. It has been the custom to speak of a classical or great medical tradition
coexisting with various folk traditions. Practitioners affiliated with the great
medical tradition belonged to and served the educated elite and based their
knowledge on a large cumulative literature. Folk practitioners relied on diverse
herbal and ritual therapies, combined with indigenous remedies and curing
techniques. The distinction between classical and folk medicine is thus in part
a social one, as ideas continually flowed back and forth between the two
traditions, taking on forms appropriate to the intellectual and clinical setting
of the practitioner.
In addition to ordering the disciplines of Chinese science according to their
orthodoxy, Sivin has also divided the sciences into quantitative and qualitative.6
The quantitative sciences include mathematics, mathematical astronomy, and
mathematical harmonics. The qualitative sciences-astrology, alchemy, geo-
mancy, medicine, and physical studies7 -adapted familiar concepts such as
yin-yang and Five-Phase theory to the specification of various realms of nature.
Distinctions of pure and applied science do not apply to the Chinese sciences,
as all branches were both theoretical and applied; each discipline structured
reality through a conceptual framework, but, at the same time, theoreticians
and practitioners were not as distinct from each other as they have tended to
be in the West, from the Middle Ages on. The Chinese sciences are best charac-
terized as systems of applied cosmology, for all of the theoretical constructs
shared by the sciences are derived from general cosmology.

II. CORE CONCEPTS OF CHINESE SCIENCE

Chinese philosopher-scientists, like their counterparts in the wo

culture, had to reconcile their observation of change with their
constancy in the world about them. While the matter never gen
losophical crisis, as it did for the pre-Socratics, nevertheless, ch
stitute a central issue in Chinese naturalistic thinking.8
Stability derived from regular change. In particular, the key t
and change was embedded in the regular, eternal movements of
bodies; from the diurnal, annual, and longer calendrical cycles,
abstracted fundamental patterns of change. Moreover, the patterns
change underlying all regular celestial phenomena were also manifes
just as the yearly round of the sun mapped out four types of se
all living things passed through annual stages of birth, growth,
decay, and death.
In attempting to understand the dynamics of cosmic change unde
diversity of nature, Chinese philosopher-scientists relied on con
yin and yang, ch'ia, and the Five Phases. Although the metaph

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442 Bennett

ficances of these concepts are familiar to students of Chinese philosophy, they

also have technical meanings in the literature of the sciences.
Yin-yang theory, for example, has widespread use in technical contexts,
well as in general philosophy and metaphysics. Based on an exacting phil
logical study of the Huang ti nei chingb, Porkert has formulated a technic
description of yin-yang theory in terms of "action" and "struction."9 Acti
and struction refer to polar yet complementary functions, which Porke
suggests are roughly equivalent to stimulus and response. Stimulus and respons
are opposite in function, yet they depend on each other for definition-
stimulus is only perceptible through some type of response, and a respon
only exists insofar as it is concretizing or substantiating some type of stimulu
In like fashion, the active aspect of an event can be perceived only throug
some type of structing or responding function.
Porkert illustrates the relationship between action and struction by inte
preting from the Chinese perspective an event (that is, a change in state) with
which we are all familiar:

Let us suppose that the sun (effective position A) emits rays. ... If they strike
another object (effective position B) and if this happens to be identical with a
valuating subject [such as a human being] those specific qualities of the sun's
radiation which man is constitutionally capable of perceiving are positively
and directly perceived as the result of a struction within the perceptive subject.
For the radiation striking the object brings about changes that can be posi-
tively determined.10

If the rays were to hit an inorganic object, or a biological object other than a
human being, a response would still be produced ("structed"), the nature of
which would ". .. correspond to the specific structive capacity of the object." 11
A human being, according to Porkert, could then indirectly qualify the change
in state through rational deduction.
The syntonic relationship between action and struction, stimulus and
response, thus forms a paradigm to which all events conform. This is not to
say that in the Chinese view the physical details of any event are predetermined,
but that events have universally definable modal characteristics. All changes
in state can be understood in terms of an active or stimulating function, formally
designated by the term yang, and a structing or responding function, signified
by yin. Yin and yang may thus be described as modal specifiers of function,
relative to each other. Yin designates all concretizing functions that occur in
nature, while yang embodies the dynamizing tendencies of the cosmos (see
Table 1).

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443

Table 1. Functional Correspondences of Yin and Yang

Yin Functions Yang Functions
Structive Active
Contractive Expansive
Intrasusceptive Extraversive
(absorbing into or (bringing to the surface)
within the individual)
Centripetal Centrifugal
Responsive Aggresive
Conservative Demanding
Positive Negative
From: Porkert, Theoretical Foundations, p. 23.

The myriad things which participate in even

or yang, depending on how they are functioni
connections between yin and yang and things
be followed if four constraints are kept in mind:

1. have qualitative, never quantitative signi

represented by numbers, but the issue remai
2. are relative, and never absolute designation
relation to something else being less yang (that
with respect to a woman, but is yin with respec
3. are labels for characteristics; yin and yang are
or forces, although they may describe things, a
4. refer to modes of function; a thing is eithe
it does.

Yin and yang are not only used to refer to t

teristics of things but also refer to the way such
and space. The diurnal cycle is a good example
be understood as a two-phase system. If we div
from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. and from 6:00 P.M
day, we will obviously have distinguishable li
Chinese view, the two phases embody active
continuous fluctuations between maximal and
discrete periods. When the peak of the active
the next moment signals a decrease in dayligh
active phase, as well as a gradual increase in d
is the maximal state of darkness (and the minima
occurs in which darkness will yield to incipien
in the direction of the minimal state of darkness
The period of activity, of course, is the yang ph
cence is the yin phase (see Fig. 1).13 The patter
diurnal cycle provides a paradigm for general
of the time cycle is irrelevant; the pattern of

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444 Bennett

polar limits remains the same. Thus, on an annual scale, spring and sum
correspond to the active phase, while autumn and winter represent stag
the quiescent phase. The maximal state of the spring-summer (yang) p
means an ineluctable shortening of the days, and the end of the peak pe
of plant growth. The maximal state of the yin phase (that is the winter sols
signals a gradual lengthening of the days and the approaching period of init
plant growth. The same pattern of transformation and change is equa
applicable to planetary or eclipse cycles,14 as well as to time spans cover
the briefest moment; reversion is the universal mode of the Tao.

NOON

6:00 AM 6:00 PM 6:00 AM

| -- Yang
---- Yin
MIDNIGHT

Fig. 1 The fluctuation of maximal and minimal states during t

period. This pattern of cyclical change was used to interp
range of natural phenomena.

In addition to the two-phase system, the Chinese also used a

system for describing change. The attempt of seventeenth-cen
missionaries to understand the Chinese concept in terms of thei
the durable mistranslation of wu-hsingc as "five elements." Bu
scientists did not believe that wood, fire, and so on, were elementar
constituents of things.15 The Five Phases represent certain kinds
that occur during regular time cycles. The phase Wood designat
growth; Fire is the emblem for peak-growth activities; Metal co
torpifying functions, and Water is the emblem for decay. The
which is neutral, represents a point of balance between opposed
The five-phase system of analysis, like the two-phase system, can
to periods of any duration. Wood corresponds to the minor yang pe
Fire corresponds to major yang. The minor yin phase is associated w
and major yin is associated with Water. The balance point betw
and yang phase is designated by Earth. The correspondences be
phases and the seasons are patent. Spring is the period of initial

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445

it is therefore associated with the phase Wood. In like fashion, Fire corres-
ponds to summer, Metal corresponds to autumn, and Water is associated
with winter. Earth corresponds to the end of summer or is divided among the
four seasonal transitions.
Whether one views the world in terms of two or five modal phases, the
underlying pattern of change remains the same. Obviously, the system with
more divisions will have finer qualitative gradations between parts. This does
not mean that five phases are better than two phases, or that the former is
merely an embellishment of the latter; the two systems are different ways
of looking at the same phenomena. The Five Phases, like yin and yang,
became a convenient means for organizing the data of experience; the five
basic categories provided enough variation to order the universe and, at the
same time, were comprehensive enough that many different phenomena
sharing common attributes could be assumed under each emblem.
Beyond the abstract, generative patterns of change which characterize the
cosmos at large, there are concrete things which conform to those patterns.
Chinese thinkers accordingly developed comprehensive theories about the
composition of the physical world, most of which freely used that most elusive
concept, ch'i.
In some trends of Chinese philosophy, ch'i was conceived somewhat similarly
to pneuma, the vital, animating force-stuff of the universe postulated by the
Stoics. What seemed to be the disappearance of one thing and the creation
of another could be accounted for as a simple change in state. Ch'i referred
not only to energy but to the pneumatic stuff that carried it. The phenomenal
world was a continuum of various embodying states of ch'i, ranging from
impenetrably congealed to intangibly rarified. Light and pure ch'i constituted
the planets, asterisms, clouds and winds; heavy, turbid ch'i comprised the
geological and aquatic features of the earth.
In technical contexts ch'i is best rendered as "energy" (in the familiar,
purely qualitative sense). "Matter/energy" has been proposed, but it suggests
the completely different quantitative equivalence in modern physics and puts
the emphasis in the wrong place, on matter. As Sivin has stated:

Ch'i refers to the active energy ... that organizes matter into configurations,
causing change, or that maintains the organization of configurations and thus
resists change. The word is also applied to configurations of matter so orga-
nized. Such configurations are generally defined by their functions rather than
their constituents.16

Different energetic configurations, that is, different types of ch'i, are respon-
sible for an entity's overall characteristics at a given moment. Porkert has
identified some thirty-two types of ch'i recognized by classical medical practi-
tioners, and suggests a useful analogy between

... the multiform terminology of Chinese energetics and the no less diversified
terminology of electrical engineering in which expressions such as direct

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446 Bennett

current, alternating current, light current, heavy current ... low frequenc
and so on, always designate one basic phenomenon, electrical energy, whic
each term describes in regard to one single, narrowly defined, empirica
(technical) aspect which in ordinary usage is not specified.17

In the same way, Chinese scientists recognized many different function

aspects of one phenomenon, ch'i. Medical practitioners, for example, disti
guished between types of ch'i which maintained health from those which were
associated with disease.18 Geomancers were interested in finding areas of t
earth that were loci of energy with dynamizing effects, known as vital c
(sheng ch'id).19
Energetic configurations change from moment to moment, and are respon-
sible for the regular changes-birth, maturation and death-in the life cycl
of the myriad things. The Chinese parsed the solar year into twenty-fo
equal divisions, and each interval was associated with a certain type of ch'i.
During the intervals that coincide with Spring, for example, the ch'i of bi
logical entities has an invigorating and dynamizing function. Thus, Spring
the period of growth and development. During the Winter intervals, the c
of the myriad things has a torpifying nature, and Winter is therefore the perio
of latency and decay.
Since ch'i is of a certain type because of its functions, modal specifiers such
as yin and yang are used to characterize energetic states. Yang ch'i, for exampl
is ch'i with all the stimulating and dynamizing effects embodied by the ya
mode of function, while yin energetic configurations are characterized by yin
modes of function. "Yang ch'i" is primarily the name of a function, and
secondarily the name of the stuff that happens to be embodying it at t
moment. The way things behave in accordance with the universal patterns
change and transformation is described by specifying their ch'i. The ch'i
the yin hours tends to be of a kind that makes things quiescent; most biologic
forms are accordingly dormant during the yin phase of the diurnal cyc
During the day, ch'i is predominantly yang in character, and the myria
things are thus in an active state. Seasonal changes in plant growth are bas
on the same process of changing energetic configurations.
The Chinese used the Five Phases analogously to specify energetic process
The order by which the phases limit the activity of the succeeding phase
a given time cycle describes an energetic situation of a certain quality. Th
most common order is known as the mutual production sequence, in whic
Wood produces Fire, Fire produces Earth, Earth produces Metal, Me
produces Water, Water produces Wood, and the sequence begins again. T
complementary sequence is the mutual-checking sequence. In the checkin
order Wood checks Earth, Earth checks Water, Water checks Fire, Fire
checks Metal, and Metal checks Wood.
Porkert explains that in medical theory:

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447

Energies and stimuli (yang) affecting the organism from without tend to
advance the body functions and energy circuits in the direction of Sequence
I [the production order]. A structive response (yin) ensures that this drive
does not overstimulate the metabolism. This resistance ... engenders a cor-
rective physiological check on the driving yang forces in the direction of
Sequence II [the checking sequence].21

Homeostasis is thus maintained through the interplay of the two complemen-

tary energy states. The Evolutive Phase sequences were used to describe many
dynamic energetic processes that occur in nature.22
III. PRACTICE

All of the preceding concepts were thought to be effective

In medicine, for example, the human body was understood
system, in which the patterns of flow of energy and the p
blood that carried it were consonant with the patterns of
The alchemist's furnace, too, was a cosmos in miniature; alt
accelerated through the alchemical process, the cyclical cha
fire phasing23 -controlled, alternating heating (yang) a
periods-conformed to the general pattern of fluctuation b
and minimal states. Geomancers applied the concepts to lo
the living and the dead.24 These microcosmic regions of s
sites (chaie), were also thought of as energy systems and could
by such concepts as yin and yang and the Five Phases. The r
article will consider how the basic stock of theoretical construc
to sites.

Siting is based on the assumption that human beings are n

natural process, despite their intellectual capabilities, and
proper place in the cosmos, which defines their range of
organism is subject to the constraints of its environment. The
specialist is to understand those constraints. In the Chines
mental constraints include abstract as well as concrete fact
ment means a matrix of temporal and spatial relationship
elements of any region of space limit the biological activi
sustained there; the Chinese were equally interested in ho
change as functions of time.
In brief, siting is used to map out the flow of cosmic ener
through and over the earth,25 so that houses and tombs c
areas with favorable energetic qualities. The proper orienta
the flow of cosmic energy was thought to ensure the inhab
and social success, which meant health, longevity, wealth,
future offspring to continue the descent line. As is well known
Chinese religion, the activities of the living were also thoug
by the state of the dead. Among other things, death involv

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448 Bennett

of vital energy. Proper burial through siting was the means for reenergizi
the remains, an action deemed necessary if the fortunes of the deceased w
to extend to the realm of the living.
The task of the siting specialist was to see that the site (never a static entity
was properly synchronized with the rhythms of the cosmos at large. Th
could be done using theories which differ in abstraction and complexity.
the most concrete level, the site could be properly linked with the enviro
mental time-space matrix by following natural changes in the state of ch
In the earliest siting theory, ch'i was conceived predominately in pneuma
terms.26 A circulation process was envisioned in which ch'i ranged from
congealed to rarified states, the change taking place as ch'i flowed in and
the earth. Specifically, the state of ch'i was modulated by three energet
determinants:

1. Topographical conditions: ch'i flowed along the features of land masses,

and congealed where the land masses tapered-off
2. Wind: the agent responsible for the dispersal of ch'i
3. Water: the agent which constrained ch'i.

Any configuration of these three determinants would generate a specific

energetic situation. Certain terrestrial conditions produce highly favorable
energetic situations, such as those involved with the "lair" formation. The
lair (hsiehf) has been likened to an armchair, as it couches a site in the embrace
of two projecting arms27 (Fig. 2). In some siting theories a watercourse should
be located at the opening between the arms, its function being to bind any
escaping vital energy. In this way, the lair formation protects the tomb from
exposure to wind, which would cause energy dispersal.

OBSERVER

Fig. 2 The lair (hsieh) formation (top view). The "arms" (sha) gene
favorable energetic situations.

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449

The arms of the lair are known as shag, and function as polar complements.
As usual in Chinese thought, the right arm is the yin aspect, the left is the yang
aspect. The two sha model the active and structive polarity of the universe,
thus linking the site with the larger cosmic process. In some siting theories
the lair constitutes the entire site, while others considered the site in terms of
highly complex conjunctions of land forms in which the lair is situated (Fig. 3).
Such sites are comprised of several basic categories of landforms. Note
that a lair formation is still central to the site diagram in Figure 3 even though
it is not the sole element of the site. The land masses surrounding the lair in
Figure 3 are members of a category of landforms which I have labeled "reson-
ance forms."28

~:......... . ...

Fig. 3 A site diagram consisting of various land m

oblique views). Note the lair formation in the
designate watercourses.

Resonance forms harmonize the site with the t

by heaven. Siting specialists established links bet
the celestial bodies, the connection being based
like things activate like.29 One set of correspond
of the five planets known to the Chinese (Merc
Jupiter) and their terrestrial analogs. Land mas
depicted in Figure 4 are the functional analogs
Moreover, since each planet is also allocated to
earth analogs of the planets are also the analogs of

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450 Bennett

The incorporation of the planet-phase analogs into the site maintains th

symmetry between heaven and earth: patterns of time are delineated in pa
by the eternal movements of the five planets and are manifest on earth,
part, through the Five Phases. Just as the various Evolutive Phase sequenc
describe energetic processes based on the relationship between the phases, t
topology of the planet-phase analogs determine the energetic situation o
the site. Much siting literature is devoted to the energetic properties of th
planet-phase analogs.

Water/ Mercury Fire/Mars Wood/Jupiter Metal/Venus Earth/Saturn

Fig. 4 The five planets-Five Phases earth analogues (side views). The five
planets and Five Phases were allocated the above shapes; land masses
found in those shapes were the functional analogs of their respective
planet and Phase. The planet-Phase earth analogues are easily recognized
throughout the site diagram of fig. 3.

Another group of resonance forms consists of the earth shapes allocated

to the seven stars of the Big Dipper and two assistant stars close to it. The
"Nine Stars," as they are referred to in siting literature, also synchronize the
site with the eternal time patterns delineated by heaven. The yearly sweep of
the Dipper embodied the essence of cyclical change, for the constellation
served as a seasonal pointer. The Chinese observed that during Spring the
handle of the Dipper would point to the East, to the North when it was Winter,
to the West during autumn, and to the South during summer. The earth
analogs of the Nine Stars thus enabled the siting specialist to further coordinate
the site with the patterns of the sky.
Beyond establishing analogic links between heaven and earth, resonance
forms were important to the specialist for their individual effects on the flow
of energy. Siting manuals provide detailed discussions of the properties of the
various resonance forms and explain the conditions under which a particular
resonance form will have positive or negative effects on the site. The manuals
also delineate the effects which certain conjunctions of resonance forms will
produce. The conjunctions are assessed in terms of topological rather than
geometric space; what matters in siting is the spatial relationship between
landforms, not the absolute distance. To identify the basic resonance forms
and their conjunctions, the siting expert developed a sense of visual literacy;
that is, he learned to read the lay of the land. But not all specialists assessed
the topography and topology of the site solely by visual means. Some took a

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451

more analytical approach, focusing on abstract temporal and spatial aspects

of the site.30

In the analytical theories, time-space coordinates are marked off with the
ten Celestial Stems and the twelve Terrestrial Branches (kan-chihh). Certain
positions are reckoned to be the loci of vital ch'i at specific intervals, thus
being auspicious coordinates to build on. The same positions are also the loci
of torpid ch'i at certain intervals,31 during which it is unwise to carry on
construction activities.
Some analytical specialists used a compass device to establish auspicious
and inauspicious positions for houses and tombs. The siting compass is a
disc-shaped instrument with concentric bands of characters radiating from
the central magnetic needle. The various bands contain information about the
Five Phases, the various ch'i intervals, magnetic declination of the earth (for
corrections), and astronomical data pertaining to the major divisions and
constellations of the sky.3 2 The compass had the advantage over visual analysis
of not being limited by the diversity of land features. This is not to say that
the compass siting was more advanced than visual siting. Some practitioners
of the intuitive approach found the subjective evaluation of sites to be an
experience of enlightenment, a mystical process of sorts; what appears to be
a lack of precision in the intuitive approach turns out to have been, in some
cases, an attractive feature.
Most siting theory is actually a blend of techniques in which there is little
distinction between the analytical and the intuitive. The Chinese siting tradi-
tion has passed down to us a variety of theories and techniques which have
evolved and, to some extent, have been assimilated into each other. All siting
theories, regardless of their seeming disparity, are based on concepts derived
from general cosmology. Siting is an example of how such concepts can be
applied to a wide range of human experience, and at the same time, maintain
their theoretical integrity.

NOTES

1. Fung Yu-lan in "Why China Has No Science-An Interpretation of the History

Consequences of Chinese Philosophy," The International Journal of Ethics 32, no. 3 (April,
237-263, concluded that ".. . China has no science, because according to her own standa
value she does not need any" (p. 238). Fung Yu-lan was not the last student of Chinese c
who attempted to explain the puzzling lack of science in China.
2. Thus far four volumes (in six parts) out of seven projected volumes of Science and
sation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) have been completed, beginnin
Volume 1 in 1954. Nathan Sivin's work includes explorations into Chinese alchemy, mathem
astronomy, medicine, and the general character of Chinese science. Manfred Porkert is best
for his recent explication of the theoretical aspects of classical Chinese medicine. A compreh

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452 Bennett

listing of the works of Needham, Sivin, and Porkert can be found in Chinese Science 1, No
(May, 1975): 29, 30, 31, 38-40.
3. For examples of Sivin's approach to the study of Chinese science, see his "Cosmos and
Computation in Early Chinese Mathematical Astronomy," T'oung Pao (Leiden), 55 (1969): 1-7
and his "Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time," Isis 67, no. 239 (1976): 513-525.
4. Nakayama and Sivin, eds., Chinese Science: Exploration of An Ancient Tradition (M.I.T
East Asian Science Series, Vol. 2, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1972), pp. xxvi-xxvii.
5. Sivin has described Chinese astrology, in Science and Technology in East Asia (New Yor
Science History Publications, 1977, p. xiii), as the science "... .which recorded and explained t
significance of unpredictable celestial phenomena, just as mathematical astronomy predicted th
rest. Astrology was applied to politics, for Chinese believed that an anomaly in the sky was
warning of inadequacy in the imperial virtue that would also result in social anomaly unless cor
rected. It was, in other words, inductive mumbo-jumbo quite on a par with the economic indicato
and opinion polls which maintain free play for magical thinking in national politics today."
6. Ibid., pp. xii-xiii.
7. Physical studies, which was not practiced to any great extent, would be classified
"orthodox."
8. For a brief but highly informative introduction to Chinese concepts of time, see Nathan
Sivin "Chinese Conceptions of Time," in The Earlham Review, no. 4 (1966): 132-134. For an
in-depth study, see Sivin's "Cosmos and Computation in Early Chinese Mathematical Astronomy."
9. M. Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine (M.I.T. East Asian Science
Series, Vol. 3, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1974).
10. Ibid., p. 17.
11. Ibid., p. 17.
12. The oscillation between polar limits has been summed up by Sivin as a "first law of Chinese
science," which would read: "Maximal and minimal states of any variable are unstable." "Chinese
Conceptions of Time," p. 85.
13. A subdivision of the two phases is often made, in which growing or minor yang is distin-
guished from old or major yang, and minor yin is distinguished from major yin.
14. "Transformation" and "change" connote two different processes, designated in Chinese
by hua' and pien , respectively. According to Porkert, Theoretical Foundations, p. 15, "Hua denotes
a fundamental and essential change... a transformation. However, sometimes one also encounters
the word pien, denoting external, momentary, or apparent change."
15. For further details, see John S. Major, "A Note on the Translations of Two Technical
Terms in Chinese Science: t,u-hsing and hsiuk," Early China 2 (1976): 1-2. See also N. Sivin, ed.,
Science and Technology in East Asia, no. 6, p. xxiii.
16. Sivin, "Chinese Alchemy," p. 516. This is a paraphrase of Porkert's more technical definition
(Theoretical Foundations, pp. 167-168).
17. Porkert, Theoretical Foundations, p. 167.
18. For a comprehensive enumeration of the various ch'i which were important to physicians,
see Porkert, Theoretical Foundations, pp. 168-173.
19. Vital ch'i, according to Porkert, (Theoretical Foundations, p. 173) refers to "The quality of
the energy during the yang hours of the rising sun (midnight to noon). It has a quickening and
invigorating influence on active enterprises."
20. The names of the ch'i intervals can be found in most Chinese-English dictionaries.
21. Porkert, Theoretical Foundations, p. 52. This illustration of the complementary nature of
the production and checking sequences also nicely demonstrates how a familiar phenomenon
(homeostasis) can be interpreted from the Chinese perspective, in terms of action (external stimuli,
yang), and struction (the physiological response to the stimuli, yin).
22. While there are thirty-six possible sequences, the production and destruction orders are
the most common. According to Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2, p. 253, two other
sequences were also standard:
a. the Cosmogonic order: Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Earth
b. the "Modern" order: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth
23. See Sivin, "Chinese Alchemy," pp. 518-520, for examples of fire phasing. A more detailed

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453

discussion will be found in Sivin's contribution to Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 5, part
4, (in press).
24. In "Patterns of the Sky and Earth: A Chinese Science of Applied Cosmology," Chinese
Science 3 (1978): 1-26, I have argued that the term "geomancy" is a misleading designation for
the Chinese science of house and tomb placement. "Topographical siting" or "siting" are reasonable
alternatives for "geomancy."
25. The idea that ch'i coursed through the earth had significance extending far beyond siting
theory. Hoyt C. Tillman, in his "Values in History and Ethics in Politics: Issues Debated between
Chu Hsi and Ch'en Liang," (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1976), has discussed how
Ch'en Liang (A.D. 1143- 1194) based his recommendations for driving foreigners out of the North-
as well as the strategy for doing so-on geographical energetics: "To Ch'en Liang, the tao was
immanent in things; moreover, psychophysical energy (ch'i) was all that people had to work
with.... A difference in geo-environmental energies, which contributed to the gulf between
civilized Chinese and barbarians, had evolved in a world in which only psychophysical energy
existed. Geographical environment and historical evolution had produced sharp differentiations
within this monistic psychophysical energy.... The cosmic and natural energy concentrated in
the Central Plain made it imperative for the Southern Sung state to regain the Chinese heart-
land.... Wu (Chekiang) and Shu (Szechwan), the two centers of the Southern Sung power,
possessed only the 'peripheral energy' (p'ien-ch'i') of heaven and earth" (pp. 180-183).
26. The origins of siting are yet to be definitively established. Tradition awards the founding
of siting to Kuo P'u of the late third century A.D. He is usually credited with writing the Burial
Book (Tsang shum), which served as the model and source of inspiration for many of the enduring
concepts.
27. See M. Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (London: Athlone,
1966), p. 122.
28. See my "Patterns of the Sky and Earth" for a description of tfie different categories of
landforms.
29. For a discussion of resonance theory, see Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2,
pp. 279 ff.
30. By the T'ang and Sung dynasties two approaches to siting were recognized. I have designated
one mode of siting as the "intuitive" approach, in which practitioners would have to "feel" the
lay of the land, as well as pronounce some type of judgment about the suitability of a site. Intuitive
practitioners primarily relied on visual siting techniques. I have referred to the other approach as
"analytical," since the subjective and affective response was subordinated to theoretical considera-
tions.

31. Torpid ch'i (szu ch'i") is the counterpart of vital ch'i and has been defined by Porkert,
Theoretical Foundations, p. 172, as "... The quality of the energy during the yin hours of the
sinking sun (noon to midnight), which have a damping influence on activity and liveliness." In
siting, torpid ch'i was to be avoided, as it would generate disasterous conditions for the inhabitants
of the site.

32. A good photograph of a siting compass and an enumeration of the various rings can be
found in Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 4, pp. 289 ff.
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