Chapter 35 It is dross and should be discarded

The things of the ancestors have both essence and dross, and with the development of history, there are more and more dross—some were once the essence, but the applicable environment no longer exists, so they have become dross; The essence is artificially distorted and turned into dross. For example, yin and yang are still usable, the five elements are dross, and the five virtues built on the basis of the five elements are even more dross.Why is it said that yin and yang are still usable?Because the theory of yin and yang contains simple dialectics, all things can be roughly divided into two aspects of mutual fusion and mutual exclusion, whether you call it pros and cons, or right and wrong, the ancients called it yin and yang, and it is not necessarily inappropriate .But what about the five elements?Why don't you split everything into five parts to see?Or divide everything into five categories and see?The ancients never figured out this big problem, because there is no way to get through it.

But just as Liang Qichao said: "The theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements has been the base of superstition for two thousand years, and it still has great influence in society today." Still "there is still a great influence in society", and it has not been thrown away.Let's not say that many people now have to arrange a horoscope and five elements when naming their children, and let's not say that Fengshui masters have become very rich in recent years. To give just one example, even in the early years of the Republic of China The "five-color flag" is still said to be the corresponding five elements and five colors.

The five-color flag is the flag of the Beiyang government. From top to bottom, the flag is divided into red, yellow, blue, white, and black five-color horizontal and rectangular strips.As we said earlier, the five colors corresponding to the five elements should be red, yellow, blue, white, and black. The blue color refers to green, not blue. How can there be blue in the five elements?Could it be that it was influenced by Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty?This doesn't make sense. In fact, the five-color flag evolved from the official flag of the first and second ranks of the navy in the Qing Dynasty. Except for black, the first four colors are the colors of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.At the time when Nurhachi weaved the Eight Banners, the Houjin Kingdom was still tossing in the old forests of the Northeast. They were completely uneducated. They didn’t know that the Central Plains Dynasty had always been a positive color of the five elements, so they left out green and came in blue.In other words, it has nothing to do with the five elements.The Beiyang government set the five-color flag. Its original intention was to borrow these five colors to represent the five major ethnic groups of Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan, which is the so-called "five-ethnic republic". You cannot connect these five ethnic groups with the five elements. get up.

Sun Yat-sen hated the five-color flag very much. He once said: "The misfortune of the Republic of China is all caused by the unlucky five-color flag..." Well, he said "unlucky", it seems that the root of superstition in the heart of the founding father has not yet remove everything.Maybe he hated the five-color flag because he hated Beiyang. The topic is far away, let's pull it back.The five elements of yin and yang are part of a primitive cosmology of the ancients. Compared with the four elements of earth, water, fire and wind in ancient Greece and ancient India, they are not necessarily backward, nor are they necessarily superior.This set of theories can more or less explain some phenomena, so the ancients believed and used it.But when society and technology develop to this day, if there are still people who believe in it and even use it, it would be too funny.

The five virtues are based on the five elements.It was first created by Professor Zou Lao in order to find the law of social development and dynasty replacement. Later, Dong Zhongshu, Liu Xin and other great scholars revised it in order to fabricate reasons for the monarchy to be in accordance with the law of heaven.However, since this reason is made up out of nowhere, it is of course impossible to be in line with the facts. Therefore, from generation to generation, they began to re-edit and revise as they wished. So he was finally kicked into the dustbin of history. Let's turn around and look at the deduction of the five virtues in the past dynasties, especially those big debates, and we can see that as long as you are brave enough and have a sharp tongue, everything is reasonable.

Take the Qing Dynasty as an example.The Qing Dynasty did not officially announce its own virtues, so later generations have speculated a lot. The above-mentioned Qing Dynasty's respect for water virtues is just the most common one.However, the strange thing is that until today, there are still people who are studying this issue, and have drawn all kinds of weird conclusions.For example, someone suggested that since the Song Dynasty was the virtue of fire, the Yuan Dynasty should be the virtue of water, the Ming Dynasty should be the virtue of soil, and the Qing Dynasty should be the virtue of wood, so that the latter can steadily overcome the former.The three waters in the name of Manchuria in the Qing Dynasty are because water grows wood, and it is determined for the prosperity of wood.

Others say that the virtues of the Later Jin Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty are actually different. Although the Qing Dynasty belonged to water, the Later Jin Dynasty should belong to gold.Because "in 1616, the wet soil of Bingchen gave birth to gold and the country was founded. In 1619, the soil was prosperous and the gold was born, and the Ming army was defeated in the battle of Sarhu. In 1626, Bingyin was prosperous and was killed by the Ming army. In the year when Zishui was prosperous, the name of the country was changed to Qing, and its attributes of the five elements were changed to water. At the time of prosperity, it was unstoppable from then on. In 1644, Jiashenshui gained longevity, and the Qing army entered the customs. The Qing Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing and began to rule the whole country. ..." I am completely at a loss for this reason, and I don't know who can understand it.

Let's take the example of the Republic of China again. What is the virtue of the Republic of China?Anyway, it makes sense.Assume first that the Qing Dynasty was a virtue of water, then the Republic of China could be a soil virtue that restrained water, or it could be a wood virtue that was born of water. "Blue sky and white sun" has a character "green" (actually blue) which corresponds to Mude, but there is also a character "white", why is it not considered Jinde?And everyone must not forget that later Sun Yat-sen added "red all over the ground" to "blue sky and white sun". Why can't it be fire virtue?The Qing emperor was forced to abdicate, so according to previous examples, the Republic of China can also continue the water virtue of the Qing Dynasty (some people really say that the Beiyang government should still be a water virtue), and according to the man mentioned above, a dynasty There are two virtues that can be divided into two stages. Although the Beiyang government and the Kuomintang government are both named "Republic of China", they can also be divided into two virtues.

You see, the five virtues of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are all complete.Fortunately, although there is still a market for this method in the private sector, the government has long since discarded it, or a large discussion meeting will have to be held. Since it is dross, it should be completely discarded.