Needham and the Yijing

Smith, Richard; Wu, Shellen Xiao

doi:10.37282/991819.22.17

Cited by 3 publications

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“…This paper begins with a literature review of physics and metaphysics, drawing the overlapping explanations of quantum science, thermodynamics and complexity science with reference to the Yijing framework (since their contribution to modern science is underexplored in extant literature (Smith & Wu, 2022). 22 I.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Dialogue on Yijing -The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence.

Leong

2023

SSRN Journal

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Dialogue on Yijing -The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence.

Leong

2023

SSRN Journal

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A new dialogue on Yijing -the book of changes in a world of changes, instability, disequilibrium and turbulence

Leong

2023

Asian Philosophy

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This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the Chinese worldview on equilibrium/nonequilibrium and yin-yang. Important terminologies and concepts that constitute Yijing have correlative aspects with irreversible thermodynamics and quantum reality-instability, nonlinearity, nonequilibrium and temporality. Ilya Prigogine is a Nobel laureate noted for his contribution to dissipative structures and their role in thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, complexity and irreversibility. His expressions, as argued in this paper, resonate with the principles in Yijing. Thus, this paper attempts to re-state existing interpretations of Yijing's ideas with reference to science. Understanding Yijing's terms and concepts must be contextualised to account for its pervasiveness of temporality and the change process. Otherwise, these cardinal concepts may be misconstrued as a hodgepodge of Eastern traditions with no relevance to modern science. This paper concentrates on the fundamental role of indeterminism in nonlinear systems on classical and quantum levels using Yijing's conceptual framework. It concludes that the dominant ideas in Yijing and ancient Chinese philosophy resonate with the current scientific belief -the end of certainty. Instability, far-from-equilibrium, irreversibility, probability, bifurcation, and self-organisation are intrinsic properties of nature appearing at all levels, from particle, protein folding, and DNA double helix to cosmological scales. Information is the basis of all changes, and the agency of change is the human ('ren') with a consciousness existing in the probability space between heaven ('tian') and earth ('di'). Finally, this paper outlines a modelling approach with the self-organising human in the centre between heaven and earth, representing living systems as discrete dynamical systems presented with binary choices (yin-yang). The interplay of yin and yang lines in a hexagram is thought to reflect the changing dynamics of a given situation, and the interpretation of the hexagram is based on the relationships between the yin and yang lines based on informational availability. In this way, the concepts of yin-yang and information causality are central to Yijing's understanding of change and are clarified in this paper.

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A New Dialogue on Yijing - The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence

Leong¹

2023

Preprint

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This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the Chinese worldview onequilibrium/nonequilibrium and yin-yang. Important terminologies and concepts thatconstitute Yijing have correlative aspects with irreversible thermodynamics and quantumreality- instability, nonlinearity, nonequilibrium and temporality. Ilya Prigogine is a Nobellaureate noted for his contribution to dissipative structures and their role in thermodynamicsystems far from equilibrium, complexity and irreversibility. His expressions, as argued inthis paper, resonate with the principles in Yijing. Thus, this paper attempts to re-stateexisting interpretations of Yijing’s ideas with reference to science. Understanding Yijing’sterms and concepts must be contextualised to account for its pervasiveness of temporalityand the change process. Otherwise, these cardinal concepts may be misconstrued as ahodgepodge of Eastern traditions with no relevance to modern science. This paperconcentrates on the fundamental role of indeterminism in nonlinear systems on classicaland quantum levels using Yijing’s conceptual framework. It concludes that the dominant ideas in Yijing and ancient Chinese philosophy resonate with the current scientific belief – the end of certainty. Instability, far-from-equilibrium, irreversibility, probability, bifurcation, and self-organisation are intrinsic properties of nature appearing at all levels, from particle, protein folding, and DNA double helix to cosmological scales. Information is the basis of all changes, and the agency of change is the human (‘ren’) with a consciousness existing in the probability space between heaven (‘tian’) and earth (‘di’). Finally, this paper outlines a modelling approach with the self-organising human in the centre between heaven and earth, representing living systems as discrete dynamical systems presented with binary choices (yin-yang). The interplay of yin and yang lines in a hexagram is thought to reflect the changing dynamics of a given situation, and the interpretation of the hexagram is based on the relationships between the yin and yang lines based on informational availability. In this way, the concepts of yin-yang and information causality are central to Yijing's understanding of change and are clarified in this paper.

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Needham and the Yijing

Abstract: Modern science and technology arose in the West after Galileo, but did not similarly arise in China. Was it the Yijing that stood in the way of Chinese scientific development?

Cited by 3 publications

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A New Dialogue on Yijing -The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence.

A New Dialogue on Yijing -The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence.

A new dialogue on Yijing -the book of changes in a world of changes, instability, disequilibrium and turbulence

A New Dialogue on Yijing - The Book of Changes in a World of Changes, Instability, Disequilibrium and Turbulence

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