THE TAIJI DIAGRAM: A META-SIGN IN CHINESE THOUGHT

Transcription

1 ming dong gu THE TAIJI DIAGRAM: A META-SIGN IN CHINESE THOUGHT In the Chinese tradition, there are a number of tu or diagrams that attempt to give the Dao, the metaphysical principle believed to control the operations of the universe, a visual representation. Among them, the most famous is the Taijitu or the Taiji Diagram. A number of drawings are associated with or claim to be the Taiji Diagram, but the most widely known is the so-called Xiantian Taijitu [The Pre-Heaven Taiji Diagram]. There are a few variations, but according to the accepted tradition, the standard Taiji Diagram should be a circular diagram that inscribes a Yin Fish and a Yang Fish embracing each other within and eight trigrams or sixty-four hexagrams outside the circle: 1 In China, though scholars are still debating its origin, dating, and meaning, it has nevertheless been regarded as the No. 1 Diagram of the Chinese nation. Globally, it has become an international symbol, the function of which ranges from the mascot of a sports organization to the emblem of a nation s flag. Its universal appeal lies not only in its fascinating shape but also in the profound thought it represents. After years of fascination with this diagram, it suddenly dawned on me one day that the Taiji Diagram is not just a graphic representation of the principle of the Dao or Taiji. It is literally and figuratively a sign in the modern sense of the word. Moreover, it is an archetypal MING DONG GU, assistant professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Rhodes College. Specialties: Chinese literature and comparative literature. gu@rhodes.edu Journal of Chinese Philosophy 30:2 (June 2003) Journal of Chinese Philosophy

2 196 ming dong gu sign and a meta-sign, because it incorporates a number of visual representations of philosophical ideas, links different strands of thought from different philosophical texts, and graphically captures ancient Chinese thinkers trajectory in wrestling with the problems of thinking, language, and representation. Reconceptualizing the Taiji/Dao as a Sign The view of the Taiji Diagram as a visual representation of the principle of the Taiji is not new. Since Zhou Dunyi ( ), an ancient Chinese philosopher, promulgated the Taiji Diagram transmitted by a Doaist priest Chen Tuan (? 989) in the Song dynasty, the tradition of using diagrams to represent the complex intricacy of the Zhouyi [Book of Changes] has been in existence up to the present day. 2 What is new in my proposition is that the diagram is a sign with a semiotic principle that corresponds fairly well with contemporary theories of the sign. My proposition takes a few steps to unfold itself. The first step I will take is to reconceptualize the traditional Chinese views on the Taiji into a sign system. There are as many definitions of sign as there are schools of semioticians. My focus will be limited to sign as a means of representation. In his lifetime, C.S. Peirce proposed over a dozen definitions of the sign, one of which reads: I define a Sign as anything which is so determined by something else, called its Object. 3 Emile Benveniste s definition gives us more reasons to regard the Taiji Diagram as a sign because he states: The role of the sign is to represent, to stand as a substitute for something else. 4 Jacques Lacan simply defines sign as that which represents something for someone. 5 Umberto Eco offers the broadest possible definition: I propose to define a sign everything that, on the grounds of a previously established social convention, can be taken as something standing for something else. 6 In terms of these theorists conceptions of the sign, we have every reason to view the Taiji Diagram as a sign. If we regard the Taiji Diagram as a sign, what does it stand for? In the Chinese tradition, the Taiji Diagram is a graphic representation of the metaphysical principle called Taiji (the Great Ultimate). But what is Taiji? Xicizhuang (the Appendixes to the Book of Changes ) presents perhaps the first mention of the concept: The Yi has the Great Ultimate, which begets the two dichotomies (yin and yang). The two dichotomies beget four images (the sun, moon, heaven, and earth). The four images beget eight trigrams. The eight trigrams distinguish the auspicious and inauspicious. The auspicious and inauspicious beget the great accomplishment. 7

3 the taiji diagram 197 But Xicizhuan does not tell us much about what the Taiji is. Lüshi chunqiu [Lü Buwei s Spring and Autumn Annals], which appeared about the same time as the Xicizhuan, has a similar statement: The Taiyi begets two dichotomies. The two dichotomies begets yin and yang. 8 Obviously, the Taiji and the Taiyi (the Great One) are similar concepts. Yu Fan ( ) considered the two concepts as one: The Taiji is precisely Taiyi. 9 After the Han, however, the Taiyi became a personal deity, but the Taiji remains a philosophical concept. Scholars in the Han dynasty, basing themselves on the understanding of the Taiji as a self-generating process of the universe, also regarded the Taiji as yuanqi or the primal energy: The Taiji is primal energy. It gathers three into one. 10 Toward the end of Former Han,Yang Xiong (53 B.C.E. 18 C.E.), in imitation of the Taiji in the Xicizhuan, created a similar concept called Taixuan (The Great Mystery). In Yang Xiong s conception, the Taixuan is the origin of all things under heaven and it exists everywhere and yet transcends everything. Zhang Dainian, a well-known modern Chinese philosopher, maintains that though the Taixuan results from an imitation of the Book of Changes, it actually originated from Lao Zi s idea of xuan (mysterious). Xuan was an adjective to describe the Dao, but Yang Xiong took it over and used it as the name of ontology. Hence, Yang Xiong s Taixuan is another name for the Dao. In Zhang Dainian s opinion, the Taiji and the Dao were different concepts initially, but Yang Xiong treated them as the same and made no distinction. 11 In Yang Xiong s conception, we can see perhaps the earliest convergence of the Taiji and the Dao. The equivalence between the Taiji and the Dao was based on solid philosophical ground. First of all, in the Book of Changes, the Taiji is a concept that describes the amorphous and indescribable status of the universe before the yin and yang, heaven and earth were distinctly distinguished. This is exactly the status of the universe characterized by Lao Zi s idea of the Dao. Second, both the Taiji and the Dao are perceived to be the origins of the world. In describing the selfgenerating process of the universe, Lao Zi s Doade jing [the Classic of The Way and Virtue] has a passage which is almost a reworking of the same statement in the Book of Changes: The [Dao] way begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two. 12 In another ancient text, instead of saying The Dao begets one, we find the Taiji as another link in the self-generating process of the universe: The Dao begets the Taiji. In this case, the Yi and Dao are interchangeable. According to the accepted interpretation of Lao Zi s passage, one refers to the totality of the Taiji,

4 198 ming dong gu two stands for the dyad of yin and yang, three refers to the trinity of heaven, earth, and man. 13 Although the Zhouyi statement and Lao Zi s statement are slightly different in wording, their conceptions of the origin and genesis of the universe are exactly the same. The comparison provides solid basis for the equivalence between the Taiji and Dao. Starting from the Song, the Taiji became not only equivalent to but also interchangeable with the Dao through another concept, the Wuji. In his Explanation of the Taiji Diagram, Zhou Dunyi made the famous remark: Wuji er Taiji (The Non-ultimate! And also the Great Ultimate). 14 He also declared that Taiji ben Wuji ye (The Great Ultimate originated from the Non-Ultimate). 15 Thus, the Taiji and Wuji are essentially two names for one ontology. In his explanation of Zhou Dunyi s idea, Zhu Xi ( ) made this statement: The idea of Non-Ultimate only means that it reaches the extreme of the ultimate and has nowhere else to go. That it has nowhere to go further means that it is the highest, the most subtle, the most essential, and the most mysterious. Zhou Dunyi was afraid that people might say the Taiji has tangible shapes. He therefore proclaimed that there is the Non-Ultimate and then the Great Ultimate. 16 Zhu Xi s explanation reiterates the same ontological basis for the Taiji and the Dao. The project to merge the Taiji and the Dao was completed by Shao Yong ( ), a philosopher of the same period, who viewed the Taiji as the exact equivalent of the Dao. He unequivocally declared that Dao wei Taiji (The Dao is the Taiji). 17 He further clarified their relationship: Taiji Dao zhi ji ye (The Taiji is the ultimate of the Dao). 18 Thus, by the time of Song, the Taiji became completely merged with the Dao. Since the Song, the convergence of the two concepts has been widely accepted. Zhu Bokun, a leading modern scholar on the Book of Changes, compares the concept of the Dao with the ideas conveyed by the Taiji Diagram in the Daozang [The Treasure of Daoism] and comes to the conclusion that the Great Ultimate is precisely the Dao in the Laozi. 19 Fung Yu-lan draws the same conclusion: What we call the material force of the true source is the Ultimate of Non-being, and the totality of all principles is the Great Ultimate. The process from the Ultimate of Non-being to the Great Ultimate is our world of actuality. We call this process The Ultimate of Nonbeing and also the Great Ultimate. The Ultimate of Non-being, the Great ultimate, and the Ultimate of Non-being-and-also-the-Great- Ultimate are, in other words, the material force of the true source, the totality of principle, and the entire process from material force to principle, respectively. Collectively speaking, they are called the Tao (the Way). 20

5 the taiji diagram 199 The convergence of the Taiji and the Dao has great significance for a semiotic inquiry into the Taiji Diagram. Like the Taiji, the Dao in the Chinese conception is a cosmic principle, which seeks to recapture in language the origin, inner mechanism, and development of the universe. Ostensibly, the illustration of the workings of the universe is metaphysical in nature, but if we take the trouble to engage in some further reconceptualization, we will be able to see that the timehonored explications of the whole process, as imparted to us from antiquity, is essentially a semiotic process. Like the Taiji, the Dao is but a makeshift name for the first principle of the universe. The designation of the Dao is a naming process, hence a semiotic process. The word dao is polysemous and multivalent. Literally, the word has the primary meaning of road or way. Another literal meaning is speak or account. This second meaning refers to the linguistic way of describing or representing a way or things. The opening line of the Daode jing, The Dao that can be dao-ed (spoken of) is not the constant Dao, is not just a play on words. It reveals a subtle awareness of the linguistic difficulty in naming the first principle of the universe. From the primary sense, dao comes to mean a way of doing things, as in the term daoli (reason or rationale). With this meaning, it started to assume a metaphysical connotation as the way of man, which refers to human conduct, truth, the way of life, or social organization advocated by an individual or school of thought. 21 But the most significant aspect of the word is its metaphysical meaning, which refers to the constant cosmic principle that gives birth to the myriad things and governs the operations of the universe. As Fung Yu-lan, the leading historian of Chinese philosophy, aptly sums it up, it is the assumption that for the universe to have come into being, there must exist an all-embracing first principle, which is called Tao. 22 And in the eyes of different schools of thought, this cosmic principle is different in nature. To the Confucians, it is ethical in nature and intimately related with human existence; to the Daoists, it is amoral and irrespective of human activity. As a linguistic representation of the first principle, the Dao is a sign in the sense that it stands for something else. Chinese thinkers have explicitly stated this notion. Zhuang Zi, for example, observes: Nothing escapes from Tao. Such is perfect Tao, and so is great speech. The three, Complete, Entire, and All, differ in name but are the same in actuality. They all designate (chih, mark) the One. 23 This notion becomes even clearer when we examine Chinese thinkers related notions in relation to modern theories of the sign. In the light of the aforementioned semioticians definitions of sign, the Dao is exactly a sign that stands for the idea of the cosmic principle, the first princi-

6 200 ming dong gu ple of the universe. In Chinese, the Dao, like the Logos, or Plato s idea, is a constant and invariable cosmic principle that controls the operations of the universe. To represent this cosmic principle, one has to give it a name. But Lao Zi categorically asserted that no concrete and changeable name can do justice to it. Hence, he gave it a provisional name Dao (way): There is a thing confusedly formed,/ Born before heaven and earth./ Silent and void/ It stands alone and does not change,/ Goes round and does not weary./ It is capable of being the mother of the world./ I know not its name/ So I style it the way./ I give it the makeshift name of the great. 24 Here Lao Zi entangled himself in a paradoxical act of naming. While admitting that The Tao [Dao] is for ever nameless, 25 he nevertheless assigned it a name. Zhuang Zi, the second great master in the Daoist school of thought, reiterated Lao Zi s idea that the name designated for the Dao is merely an artifice for practical purpose: While there are names and realities, you are in the presence of things. When there are no names and realities, you exist in the absence of things....in calling it the Way [Tao] we are only adopting a temporary expedient. 26 The provisional name is in essence a makeshift representation in language. As such it is essentially a designated sign. We can describe it in terms of the structure of a sign: Signifier Dao Dao Taiji Signified Way? Reason? Dao The word way is only a possible signified for dao. Hence, it is a term under erasure. In a way, I may put reason in its place, because dao in Chinese may also mean daoli (reason or rationale). In his explication of the implications of the word dao in the opening section of the Daode jing, Qian Zhongshu states that it is the dao of daoli. He also maintains that despite the play on the word, that which runs through the section is daoli or reason. 27 Since the Taiji is equivalent to the Dao, their mutual defining relationship can be written as one between a signifier and signified: Dao/Taiji or Taiji/Dao. Either way, the Dao and Taiji become signs. The Taiji/Dao as a Semiotic Principle Having redefined the Taiji/Dao as a sign in the Chinese tradition, I venture to argue that we should not view it merely as a philosophical or cosmic principle; instead we ought to view it as a semiotic principle, too. My second step starts from the premise that I have drawn in the above section: the Dao is a sign. The sign structure that I have

7 the taiji diagram 201 constructed with regard to the Dao: dao/reason in the above is only a partial story of the Dao. It only touches the interpretive process involved in understanding the Dao. There is another dimension to the story, which concerns the concept in the process of signification and representation. On this dimension, the Dao is not simply a sign that stands for a regressive process of interpreting the sign. It stands for a totalized and totalizing Gestalt, a meta-sign the implications of which go beyond as well as correspond with the ramifications of the sign in the Saussurean sense of the word. According to Saussure s widely known theory, a sign, when analyzed into its deep structure, actually includes three elements: signifier, signified, and unity of the sign, which is the associative total of the first two terms: 28 In this structure, the signifier and signified represent two planes: The plane of the signifiers constitutes the plane of expression and that of the signifieds the plane of content. 29 The line between signifier and signified represents the union of opposition. The arrows represent the reciprocal relationship between the two. Jacques Lacan, in his integration of Freudian psychoanalysis with Saussure s linguistic sign, argues that the relation between signifier and signified is extremely unstable and is influenced by the workings of the unconscious. To display the psychological dimension of the sign structure, he replaces Saussure s diagram of the sign with an algorithm: 30 S --- s The capitalized S stands for the signifier, and the small letter s for the signified. Thus, he reverses the position of the signifier and signified in the Saussure s diagram and emphasizes the primacy of the signifier. The arrows and the circle are abandoned, indicating the absence of a stable or fixed relation between signifier and signified. The line between the signifier and signified no longer represents union but the resistance inherent in signification. 31 I believe that the relation between the signifier and signified is one of correlation, a union in separation, or a unity of opposites in representation. Barthes metaphor for the union of a signifier and signified (in the fashion of the recto and verso of a sheet of paper) 32 is an apt way of describ-

8 202 ming dong gu ing the paradoxical relation between the signifier and signified. For this reason, I am more disposed to accept a version of the sign structure based on Saussure s original conception and modified by Lacan s reconception: signifier sign signified In Lacan s reconception, he makes another important point. He asserts that the algorithm defines the topography of the unconscious. 33 In a topographical way, the algorithm shows how the signified is located beneath the signifier, illustrating the repression of the unconscious below the level of consciousness. Along this line of reconceptualization, one can posit an equivalence between signifier and consciousness, signified and unconscious: signifier consciousness sign signified unconscious This model of the structure of the sign not only relates the sign to the mind but also adequately reflects the inner workings of the mind, which, as Freud observes, is a constant process of unconscious desire seeking outward expression. In addition, this model, which integrates the Freudian model of the mind and Saussure s sign structure, coincides exactly with the denotations and connotations of the Dao/Taiji. The word Dao is but a linguistic representation of the metaphysical principle that inheres in the universe. Like a sign that unites opposites, the Dao as a metaphysical concept is essentially a principle of the unity of opposites. Fung Yu-lan, after studying various scholars views of the Dao, sums up the daily renewal of the substance of the Dao into four group of binary oppositions: (1) production and extinction; (2) progress and retrogression; (3) increase and decrease; (4) transformation and penetration. 34 The concept of the Taiji came from the Book of Changes, which is not a philosophical text exclusively devoted to the study of the Dao. As the title suggests, its central topic is Yi or changes. However, the concept of Dao is discussed in relation to the Yi through the complementary opposition between yin and yang. In Lao Zi s and Zhuang Zi s conception, the Dao is composed of the yin and yang dichotomies. The Book of Changes holds exactly the same idea: Yi yin yi yang zhi wei Dao (One yin and one yang are called the Dao.) 35 The traditional explication maintains that this saying means that the mutual exchange of the yin and yang principles underlies the unity of contradictions and mutual changes of things in the universe. I may

9 the taiji diagram 203 offer a semiotic explanation: One yin and one yang constitute the Dao, which results from a semiotic correlation. Thus, this semiotic idea can be diagrammed in terms of the sign model: Yang Dao Yin In this diagram, Yang is the visible signifier; Yin is the invisible signified; Dao is the totality of the two. We have mentioned that the convergence of the Dao and the Taiji is based on the ontology of the universe. Now that ontology is conceived of as constituting the yin and yang. In the Book of Changes, the statement, The Yi has the Great Ultimate, which begets the two dichotomies, the two dichotomies are respectively yin and yang. In a reverse way, this statement can be rewritten as: yin yang cheng Taiji (the yin and yang constitute the Taiji). This correlation is graphically represented in the Taiji Diagram (see the visual representations below). The correlation of the yin and yang in the Taiji can also be written as a sign structure: Yang Taiji Yin The Taiji Diagram as a Dynamic Model of Sign My above discussion has paved the way for the central thesis of my proposition. It facilitates my effort to show that the metaphysical principle underlying the concept of Dao/Taiji is one of semiotic representation. To prove my argument, I need to examine The Diagram of the Great Ultimate in relation to transmitted knowledge about the Taiji. Let us look at the two visual representations: These two diagrams are different representations of the inner core of the standard Taiji Diagram that I have cited in the opening of this paper. They are one and the same thing. One differs from the other only by an angle of 90 degrees. Besides being called the Xiantian Taijitu (Pre-Heaven Taiji Diagram), it is also known as Tiandi ziran

10 204 ming dong gu zhi tu (the Diagram of Heaven, Earth, and Nature). Zhao Huiqian, a scholar of the Ming dynasty, views it as a representation of the intricate principle of the Taiji: It is endowed with the natural intricacy of the Taiji which embraces the yin and yang, which in turn embrace the eight trigrams. 36 Hu Wei ( ), a scholar of the Qing dynasty, synthesizing the various scholars explanations, regards it as embodying a complete operating principle of the universe. 37 I suggest that the diagram is not just a graphic representation of the operations of the universe. It is also a sign in the modern sense of the word. It inscribes within its encircled space the structure and signifying principle of the modern theory of the sign. With some imaginative reconceptualization, we will be able to view it as a Gestalt comparable to the modified sign structure that grows out of the integration of Freudian theory and Saussure s algorithm. In some texts, the diagram is rotated 90 degrees and takes on an oval shape, which further facilitates my efforts to semioticize it. If I straighten the s- shape line separating the black and white portion of the diagram, I will get a new diagram that is close to the structure of the sign with the opposition between the signifier and signified separated by a line. A comparison between the Taiji Diagram and Saussure s pictorial representation of sign will enable us to see a striking similarity: Signifier Signified Modified Sign Diagram The Taiji Diagram It differs from Saussure s diagram only in the use of terminology. While in Saussure s diagram, the binary opposition is between signifier and signified, in the Taiji Diagram, the opposition is between white portion and black portion, which are traditionally called respectively Yin Fish and Yang Fish, because they resemble the shape of a fish. In Saussure s diagram of the sign, the line between the signifier and signified represents a union of opposites, but in Lacan s conception, the line represents the repression of the signified. The s-shaped line in the Taiji Diagram has implications that coincide with Saussure s reconception of the sign. In Saussure s conception, the sign appears as the vertical extension of signification in depth: the signified is, as it were behind the signifier, and can be reached only through it. 38 Lacan differs from Saussure on two points: i) the signifier (S) is global, made up of a multi-leveled chain (metaphorical chain): signifier and signified have only a floating relationship and coincide only

11 the taiji diagram 205 at certain anchorage points; ii) the line between the signifier (S) and the signified (s) has its own value (which does not exist in Saussure): it represents the repression of the signified. 39 In the Taiji Diagram, the mutual relationship between the black and white portions not only captures Saussure s conception but also gestures beyond Lacan s reconceptualization. The curved line separating the two portions, according to the standard explanation, conveys the idea that the black and white portions embrace and intertwine with each other, thereby endowed with the potential to change into each other. This idea of mutual change between yin and yang has several important points. First, it suggests Hjelmslev s model of the sign: there is a relation (R) between the plane of expression (E) and the plane of content (C). Second, it indicates that the relationship between signifier and signified is a floating one. Third, the repression of the signified may at times be overcome and the resistance to signification removed. Just as in Saussure s conception of the sign, there is the totality of the sign, so in the Taiji Diagram, the totality is represented by the outer circle surrounding the white and black portions. Since the white portion stands for yang and the black portion for yin, the opposition is really between yang and yin. We can represent the opposition in two diagrams modeled after Saussure s visual model and abstracted model: The figure on the left is a modified Taiji Diagram; the figure on the right is a reconceptualized Taiji Diagram in terms of Saussure s modified sign structure. In the Chinese tradition, yin and yang have an endless series of associations. Among them the notable oppositions are those between light and darkness, visible and invisible, known and unknown, manifest form and latent content. In psychological terms, these oppositions may be viewed as those between the perceivable and imperceivable, consciousness and unconsciousness. In this respect, the yin and yang opposition in the Taiji Diagram coincides with Lacan s reconception of the sign as a structural opposition between the conscious signifier and unconscious signified. According to the accepted explanation, the black and white portions are not static. In fact, it is suggested by various sources that they are in constant, reciprocal rotation and mutation. When both portions turn 180 degrees, the black portion

12 206 ming dong gu turns into its opposite and becomes white, while the white portion turns into its opposite and becomes black. The rationale behind this reciprocal relationship has been regarded as the opposition and unity of conflicting parts in a contradiction. I, however, may regard it as a graphic representation of the alternation between the conscious and unconscious and the endless play of signification. The dynamic model of the Taiji Diagram also captures two fundamental principles governing the operation of the mind: condensation and displacement. Through a process like condensation, the yin and yang coexist in the same thinking space of the psyche, where the relationship between the conscious and unconscious is not static but dynamic. Through a process like displacement, the yin and yang mutually change into their counterparts. Freud once used the example of the interface between red ink and black ink in a bottle to indicate the interrelationship between the conscious and unconscious. The Chinese Taiji Diagram, in my opinion, is a more effective example to illustrate the interpenetrating relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. The Taiji Diagram has two small holes, which are called the eyes of the Yin Fish and Yang Fish. One is white; the other is black. What is interesting is that the white hole is located in the black portion, whereas the black portion is located in the white portion. I suggest that the black in white may be understood to represent the unconscious element in consciousness, while the white in black may represent the potential of the unconscious becoming conscious. There is another accepted explanation about the presence of the two holes. According to this explanation, the two holes are not solid white and black holes but are two miniature Taiji Diagrams, each of which contains the graphic opposition between yin and yang. Each of the two miniature diagrams contains a further set of holes, each of which is even smaller diagrams. This regressive miniaturization, as the explanation goes, is endless. If one wishes to seek deeper and deeper, he/she will be able to discover an incessant regression. The endless regression has multiple implications. First, it may be viewed as a process like displacement, one of the chief principles governing the workings of the mind, which describes how libido, desire, or mental energy are displaced from one object to another. Through displacement, a yin gives rise to a pair of yin and yang, or a yang gives rise to a pair of yin and yang. Second, it resembles the endless sliding of the signifier on the signifying chain. In his reconception of Saussure s structure of the sign, Lacan claims that the signified is not a concept but another signifier. As a signifier seems to be matched with a signified, that signified becomes another signifier, and so on to infinity. 40 In the same way, just as yang reaches the position of yin and passes its counterpart, it

13 the taiji diagram 207 turns into another yang, and the mutual exchange starts all over again, and so on to infinity. Third, the endless regression may be viewed as representing an intuitive understanding of the purposeful production of sign relations and semiosis. Peirce insists that the sign relation is triadic. A sign inevitably involves thirdness: In its genuine form, Thirdness is the triadic relation existing between a sign, its object, and the interpreting thought, itself a sign, considered as constituting the mode of being a sign. A sign mediates between the interpretant sign and its object. 41 In Peirce s conception of the sign relations, the three terms are the sign itself, the object that the sign represents, and the interpretant, a mental construction of the relationship between the sign and its object. The interpretant is itself a sign and thus stands in the same triadic relation to a further interpretant. The production of the interpretant is what Peirce calls semiosis. The process of semiosis results from understanding the sign. Every time one interprets a sign, he will produce a new interpretant. The production of interpretants is largely purposeful, because the act to understand a sign is intentional. If another person wants to understand the sign, he will produce another interpretant. In theory, the production of interpretants is unlimited. This incessant production of interpretants is just like the unceasing regression of the fish eye into new miniaturized Taiji Diagrams. My reconceptualization of the traditional ideas about the operation of the Taiji Diagram shows that it is a meta-sign, the implications of which encompass not only the mechanisms of representation and signification but also processes in reading and interpretation. More Semiotic Functions of the Taiji/Dao According to the accepted opinion, the standard Taiji Diagram has eight trigrams or sixty-four hexagrams arranged outside the circle. In the Chinese tradition, there is another diagram known as Fu Xi Bagua Cixu Tu [Fu Xi s Diagram of the Order of Eight Trigrams]. As a different representation of the Taiji, it is a clearer illustration of how the concept of the Taiji is structured like a sign and operates in a way like semiosis, the incessant production of interpretants:

14 208 ming dong gu This two-dimensional diagram is in fact another attempt to represent the workings of the Taiji Diagram. It shows even more clearly the signifying practice of the Taiji. For the reader to see its signifying process, I may transcribe the above diagram in terms of an elaborate sign structure: yang yang yin yang (signifier) yang yin yin Dao (Taiji) yang yang yin yin (signified) yang yin yin In the diagram, the Taiji as a sign signifies more than the sign does in modern semiotic theory. The presence of yin element (black bar) in yang element (white bar) and the alternation between yin and yang suggest that even in recognizably visible, audible, and conscious elements, there may lurk elements of the invisible, inaudible, and unconscious. In the light of the two planes of the sign: those of expression and content, Fu Xi s Diagram may have touched upon Hjelmslev s notion that each plane comprises two strata: form and substance. According to Barthes recount, The form is what can be described exhaustively, simply and coherently (epistemological criteria) by linguistics without resorting to any extralinguistic premise; the substance is the whole set of aspects of linguistic phenomena which cannot be described without resorting to extralinguistic premises. Since both strata exist on the plane of expression and that of content, there are actually four categories: (1) a substance of expression; (2) a form of expression; (3) a substance of content; (4) a form of content. 42 In the case of Fu Xi s Diagram, the black and white bars may represent fullness and emptiness, which in turn may represent content and form. The alternation between black and white may be understood to represent the inseparableness of content and form. A semiotic reading of the Taiji Diagram also suggests that the endless play of signification works in both directions, not just confined

15 the taiji diagram 209 to the incessant downward regressions. In this sense, the Taiji model of sign structure touches upon the sign structure of connotation, metalanguage, or what Barthes calls myth, the existence of a hidden second order system in the first order system. In connotative semiotics, there are two systems: the first system is the plane of denotation, and the second system is the plane of connotation. A connotative system is a system whose plane of expression is itself constituted by a signifying system. 43 In the situation of metalanguage, a metalanguage is a system whose plane of content is itself constituted by a signifying system; or else, it is a semiotics which treats of a semiotics. 44 Barthes draws the following diagrams to illustrate the structures of connotation and metalanguage: Sr Sd Sa Sd Sr Sd Sa Sd Connotation Metalanguage Barthes diagram can be rediagrammed in terms of Saussure s algorithm: Connotation: Metalanguage: signifier signifier signifier signifier signified signified signified signified If we compare the Dao structure of the sign with Barthes diagrams, we can see that Fu Xi s Diagram is one that combines connotation and metalanguage and captures the condition described by Barthes: In connotative semiotics, the signifiers of the second system are constituted by the signs of the first; this is reversed in metalanguage: there signifieds of the second system are constituted by the signs of the first. 45 In another of his works, Mythologies, Barthes calls metalanguage myth in the sense that the signification hides a second order system and implies concealed meanings related to culture, history, and ideology: [M]yth is a peculiar system, in that it is constructed from a semiological chain which existed before it: it is a second-order semiological system. That which is a sign (namely the associative total of a concept and an image) in the first system, becomes a mere signifier in the second. 46 Barthes further explains that, be it linguistic or pictorial representation, myth only sees a global sign, the final term of a

16 210 ming dong gu first semiological chain and the final term becomes the first term of the greater system that it builds and of which it is only a part. He draws a diagram to illustrate the myth structure: In everyday life, some of the signs that we encounter seem innocent of bias, prejudice, or privileged ideas, but on closer examination, one may discover hidden ideological implications. Barthes s semiological analysis of the picture in which a black soldier salutes the French national flag aptly illustrates how semiological myth works to hide connotated ideology. 47 The rationale of Barthes myth is graphically captured in Fu Xi s Diagram. The appearance of black bars in the Yang section suggests that even in known, conscious, and perceivable categories there are hidden spots loaded with concealed implications. A semiotic reading of the Taiji Diagram may enable us to find a clue as to why ancient Chinese developed the monistic model of the universe: the model seems to be predicated on a thinking process that intuitively grasps the interrelatedness of conscious and unconscious, the known and unknown, yang and yin. Just as the unconscious can be made conscious, so yin can be turned into yang. Conversely, just as the yang can be turned into yin, so conscious perception may be repressed into the unconscious. Everything is related to everything else; all are related in the One, the Dao or Taiji. It is natural for a mode of interrelated thinking to give rise to a monistic, selfgenerating model of the universe. The thinking model represented by the Taiji requires me to reconsider the psychoanalytic model of the thinking process. In the psychoanalytic model, what separates the conscious and unconscious is repression. Repression has been understood to be brought about by the desire to forget and repress undesirable and traumatic experiences. In the light of the Taiji model, I suggest that repression has multiple dimensions. One dimension comes into being as a result of past unpleasant experiences. Another dimension of it is brought about by the inability to think through a problem or to disclose concealed potentials. Heidegger regards the poet as a thinker in the sense that he is capable of thinking through a hitherto unclear problem and giving it an expression. 48 In a way, we may say that it is through the overcoming of repression that a poet becomes a thinker.

17 the taiji diagram 211 A different form of the Taiji Diagram shows the sixty-four hexagrams arranged outside the circle. I consider it another attempt to capture in visual terms the major theme of the Book of Changes, which is essentially a treatise on the operations of the sixty-four hexagrams. The theme of the sixty-four hexagrams is ingeniously represented in a drawing called Fu Xi Liushisigua Cixu Tu [the Fu Xi s Diagram of the Order of the Sixty-Four Hexagrams], which may be reconceptualized to illustrate the content of the Book of Changes in semiotic terms: This diagram starts from the Taiji at the bottom and moves all the way up to the sixty-four trigrams at the top. If Fu Xi s Diagram of Eight Trigrams captures the dynamic relations and interactions of a sign, the Diagram of Sixty-Four Hexagrams may be regarded as a graphic narrative narrating the genesis of the phenomenal world. I make this suggestion for a number of reasons. First, some scholars believe that the hexagrams were first used as a substitutive tool for written language before writing was invented. Ma Xulun, a renowned scholar of ancient Chinese philology, speculates that Bao Xi [Fu Xi] first invented the hexagrams, not for the purpose of using them as tools for divination. Most likely, before the writing signs that we use today were created, the hexagrams were meant to be a substitutive tool for written language. 49 Zhang Binling, another renowned philologist, also observes: The eight trigrams are ancient writing symbols before they developed into full forms. 50 In a recent study of the relationship between Hetu Luoshu (Diagrams of the Yellow River and Luo River) and the origins of Chinese writing, a scholar makes this statement: The images of eight trigrams are endowed with the functions of recording thoughts, language contents, and storing information. In a way, they constituted an instrument for recording thinking and language and have the function of written language. 51 Second, from a semiotic point of view, the hexagrams can indeed be viewed

18 212 ming dong gu as a writing system. A semiotic analysis of the hexagrams will make my point clear: Trigram Name Qian Kun Zhen Xun Kan Li Gen Dui Trigram Image: Symbolic Meaning: heaven earth thunder wind water fire mountain valley The most fundamental elements of a trigram are two kinds of lines, the broken line for yin and the unbroken line for yang.they may be viewed as the rudiments of alphabets, since each trigram is composed of three of these lines. The alternation of broken and unbroken lines enables the eight trigrams to be differentiated from one another. Here I wish to mention an interesting observation by Lacan, which relates the broken and unbroken lines of the eight trigrams to Freud s psychological observation of the genesis of a child s language. Freud relates the Fort-Da game played by his grandson, where the child produces a phonemic opposition between fort and da, to the presence and absence of persons and things. 52 Lacan relates Freud s discovery in the child play to Chinese trigram: And from this pair of sounds modulated on presence and absence a coupling that tracing in the sand of the single and the broken line of the mantic kwa of China would also serve to constitute there is born the world of meaning of a particular language in which the world of things will come to be arranged. 53 The Chinese kwa [gua] (trigram) is relevant to Lacan s discussion of child language simply because the child s utterance of o-o-o-o (disappearance) followed by a da (return) parallels the opposition between presence and absence suggested by the alternation between broken and unbroken lines in a trigram. Just as the child s fort and da constitute a rudimentary language, Lacan seems to suggest that the single and broken lines of the trigram form the basis of a language. The eight trigrams stand respectively for heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, valley the commonest phenomena that were directly related to the life of the primitive people. From this point of view, the eight trigrams already form a system of writing symbols. Essentially, they constitute a semiotic system because they conform to the cardinal semiotic principle discovered by Saussure: the negatively differentiated relations of a sign system. The trigram of qian stands for heaven, kun for earth, zhen for thunder, and so on, not because they contain within themselves any positively identifiable

19 the taiji diagram 213 qualities of heaven, earth, thunder, etc.; nor even because they have any inherent correlations with the named categories, but because they are artificially designated as relating the symbols to the concepts. The fundamental characteristic that entitles the eight trigrams to be regarded as a semiotic system is that among these trigrams, there are no positively defined qualities but only negatively differentiated relations. Among the eight trigrams, qian stands for heaven precisely because it does not stand for earth, thunder, wind, etc. The same is true of the other seven categories. Third, the descriptive caption beside the diagram indicates that it is a graphic narrative, which can be rendered as: The Taiji gives rise to the dyad (yin and yang); the dyad gives rise to four images (the sun, moon, heaven, earth); the four images give rise to eight trigrams; the eight trigrams give rise to sixteen trigrams; the sixteen trigrams give rise to thirty-two trigrams; the thirty-two trigrams give rise to sixty-four trigrams; the sixty-four trigrams represent the myriad things under heaven. Thus, the diagram illustrating the generative process of the universe constitutes a graphic narrative. As a narrative, it forms a signifying chain that consists of a series of signifiers (black and white bars) linked together. Just as a signifying chain can never be complete, because it is always possible to add other signifiers to it, ad infinitum, the signifying practice of the sixty-four trigrams is endless. The signifying chain in language is endowed with both linearity and circularity. In semiotics, the idea of linearity means that the signifying chain is the flow of speech, in which signifiers are combined in accordance with the laws of grammar. Saussure calls this combinatory process syntagmatic relations; Jacobson locates it on the metonymic axis of language; and Lacan, integrating Jacobson and Freud, equates it with the psychological concept of displacement. The idea of circularity means that the signifying chain is a series of signifiers linked by free associations, which move through the network of signifiers which constitutes the symbolic world of the subject. Saussure designates it associative relations (now it is commonly called paradigmatic ); Jacobson locates it on the metaphoric axis of language; and Lacan, integrating Jacobson and Freud, equates it with the psychological concept of condensation. Thus, the signifying chain is both diachronic and synchronic. In its diachronic dimension, it is linear, syntagmatic, metonymic; in its synchronic dimension, it is circular, associative, metaphoric. 54 The Chinese Taiji Diagram captures all these qualities. From the starting position of Taiji at the bottom of the diagram to the sixty-four trigrams at the top, there is a linear, diachronic, metonymic movement, which represents the generation of myriad things. We need to recall that in a complete visual representation of the Taiji Diagram, the sixty-four hexagrams form a circle sur-

20 214 ming dong gu rounding the Yin and Yang Fish. This suggests that from the left to the right of the diagram, there is a circular, synchronic, metaphoric movement, which is further implied by the repetition of and alternation between black and white bars. Moreover, it also captures the cross-over between syntagm and paradigm, metaphor and metonymy, condensation and displacement in the signifying practice, as is described by Lacan: there is in effect no signifying chain [diachronic chain] that does not have, as if attached to the punctuation of each of its units, a whole articulation of relevant contexts [synchronic chains] suspended vertically, as it were, from that point. 55 Thus, in one graphic diagram, the Fu Xi s Sixty-Four Hexagrams combines the two types of relationship (syntagmatic and paradigmatic in discourse, condensation and displacement in mental representation) that exist between signs. Conclusion: A Sign of Universal Significance The Taiji Diagram inscribes within its encircled space a system of the structure and signifying principle of a sign and graphically represents the interrelations of some central ideas in the Chinese tradition. I anticipate one question: Did ancient Chinese intuitively discover the signifying principle of the sign? My answer is: Sort of. Even though the origin, dating, and pristine meaning of the diagram are still open to debate and discussion, one thing is very certain: in the discourses on the diagram over history, there has been an unceasing endeavor to philosophize it. The Taiji as the most important Chinese philosophical concept implies a signifying principle with some major ideas of sign theory. The Taiji Diagram represents that principle and its ramifications in a visually perceivable form. In Chinese history, a number of thinkers made conscious attempts to represent the Yi, the Taiji, and yin and yang. We can find in their efforts an intuition that comes close to insights into the mechanism of sign representation. Zhu Xi, for example, once made an interesting observation: Guishan once took a piece of paper, drew a circle, painted half of it black, and said, This is the Yi. His explanation is wonderful! The Yi consists of only one yin and one yang, which generate a great variety of changes. 56 The visual representations of the changes of the Taiji, yin and yang were only a few steps short of the signification of the sign. What I have presented is no more than a creative reconceptualization that brings out all that has been implied in traditional Chinese thought. Ancient Chinese thinkers may not have presented their theories of the Taiji in strictly semiotic terms required by formal logic, but my study has provided enough evidence for us to believe that

21 the taiji diagram 215 ancient Chinese thinkers have already worked out the major semiotic functions of the sign with remarkable clarity. If we inquire further in this direction, we will find that the Taiji Diagram and its variations may offer more fascinating insights into the operations of the thinking process in representation. In a way, it may be viewed as a graphic representation of the rationally structuring mind. This is a topic that I will explore in another project. In conclusion, apart from being the first principle of the universe, the operating principle governing the theory of the Taiji Diagram is a semiotic principle of signification and representation underlying thinking and language. Since it is capable of generating new ideas and concepts, the Taiji Diagram may be viewed as a meta-sign born out of the human efforts to come to terms with the difficulties in thought, language, and representation. As such, it is a meta-sign of universal significance, endowed with transcultural appeal. RHODES COLLEGE Memphis, Tennessee Endnotes 1. Zhang Qicheng, Yin-yang yu yuanliu kao (Inquiry into the Sources and Origins of the Taiji Diagram with Yin-Yang Fish), Zhouyi yanjiu [Studies of the Book of Changes] Vol. 31 (1997), No. 1, p This tradition started with Zhou Dunyi s Taijitu shuo (Explanation of the Taiji Diagram) and reached its culmination in the Qing scholar Feng Daoli s systematic study, which draws 330 related diagrams to illustrate the complete theme of the Zhouyi. See Zhouyi sanji tuguan [An Illustrated Study of the Zhouyi and its Three Ultimates] (Beijing: Beijing Shida chubanshe, 1992). 3. Semiotics and Significs, edited by C. Hardwick (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1977), p Emile Benveniste, Problems in General Linguistics, translated by Mary E. Meek (Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1971). 5. Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, translated by Alan Sheridan (London: Hogarth Press, 1977), p Umberto Eco, A Theory of Semiotics (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1979), p Translated from Zhouyi yizhu [Zhouyi Annotated and Translated] (Shanghai: Guji chubashe, 1989), p Lüshi Chunqiu [Lü Buwei s Spring and Autumn Annals], juan 5 (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1989), p Requoted from Zhang Dainian s Zhongguo zhexue dagagang [Outline of Chinese Philosophy] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1982), p Hanshu [Historical Records of the Han], Lülizhi (Records of Music and Calendar). Requoted from Zhu Bokun et al., ed. Zhouyi zhishi tonglan [A Comprehensive Reading Knowledge on the Zhouyi] (Jinan: Qilu shushe, 1993), p Zhang Dainian, Zhongguo zhexue dagagang [Outline of Chinese Philosophy], p Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, translated by D. C. Lau (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963), p Han Yongxian, Zhouyi tanyuan [An Exploration of the Origin of the Zhouyi] (Bejing: Zhongguo huaqiao chuban gongsi, 1990), p. 31.