Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/354

 which in a conscious way exercises complete sovereignty. As regard the element of Measure, there are established typical forms which are called Reason (Tâo). The laws of Tâo, or Measures, are determinations, figurations; not abstract Being nor abstract Substance, but figures or signs of Substance, which may either be understood in a more abstract sense, or else are to be taken as the determinations for nature and for the spirit of man, the laws of his will and of his reason.

The detailed statement and development of these measures would comprise the entire philosophy and science of the Chinese. Here we have only to treat of the principal points.

The measures in abstract Universality are quite simple categories: Being and Not-Being, One and Two, which is equivalent in general to the Many. The Chinese represent these universal categories by lineal figures; the fundamental figure is the line; a simple line signifies the one, and affirmation or “yes;” the interrupted line  two, division, and negation or “no.” These signs are called Kuâ, and the Chinese relate that these signs appeared to them upon the shell of the tortoise. There are many different combinations of these, which in their turn give more concrete meanings of those original typical forms. Among these more concrete meanings we may specially remark the four quarters of the world and the centre; four mountains which correspond to these regions of the world and one in the middle; five elements, earth, fire, water, wood, metal. In the same way there are five fundamental colours, of which each belongs to an element. Each ruling dynasty in China has a special colour, an element, and so on. In like manner there are also five keynotes in music; five fundamental determinations for the actions of man in his relations to others. The first and highest is that of children to their parents, the second is reverence for deceased ancestors and the dead, the third obedience to the Emperor, the fourth the