By Simon Kim, Professor, South Baylo University
During the past one year, I tried to persuade readers of the Hani Times the philosophical foundation of Eastern medicine. It conveyed the idea that without understanding the qi worldview common to Confucianism and Taoism in the East Asian tradition, it would be difficult to explain qi and meridians, and if the reality of qi was not acknowledged, the whole system of the Eastern medicine would collapse.
In order to comment on the Jingqi worldview (精氣世界觀), whenever there is an opportunity, I quotes the Whitehead’s philosophy of organism and describes the commonality and coincidence between the two worldviews. In the upcoming series of Hani Times column, I plan to discuss the similarities between the Qi worldview and the organic philosophy of systematically viewing the universe, nature, and the human body.
First of all, two perspectives of Eastern Medicine and Organic philosophy open a new cosmology to overcome the material world view which ommits the metaphysical basis of life and spirit. The macroscopic horizon based on two philosophies can explain the great cosmology of the heavens and the world. The heavens imply trillions of stars and galaxy in astrology and the world means nature and human on the earth. The cosmology of Heaven and Earth in the I-Ching also claims a unity or union of Heaven and Human (天人合一).
Whitehead dissects the universe into a threefold scheme; The Whole, That Other, and This My-Self. (Modes of Thought; p.110) We experience the universal reality in a three-fold character; Totality, Externality, and Internality. (ibid; p.116) I try to apply these three concepts in Whitehead’s cosmological metaphysics to the conception of Heaven, Earth and Human (HEH) in the East Asian philosophy.
天 Heaven: The Whole, Totality, Creativity
地 Earth: That Other, Externality, Many
人 Human: This My-Self, Internality, One
In the Process and Reality published in 1929, Whitehead interprets the universals of ultimate universal by dividing into three category; Creativity, one, many. (PR; p.21) Why did Whitehead need this cosmological idea? He pondered that within this general concept of nature (or cosmos), there have somehow to be interwoven the further concepts of ‘Life’ and ‘Mind’. (MT 129) This is in line with my view that, without approving the Jingqi worldview, we cannot talk about life and mind, the reality of nature.
Cosmic speculation of Whitehead concluded that the entire existence from the inorganic to the human consciousness can be embraced by the same categorical system, and all phenomena can be explained by one and the same schematic system. There is the totality of actual fact; there is the externality of many facts; there is the internality of this experiencing which lies within the totality. (MT116) These three divisions are on a level. No one in any sense precedes the other. There is the whole fact containing within itself myself and the other facts. (MT117)
We as human being on the earth looking up the sky share this general commonsense notion of the universe. The fact that the heavens, the earth, and the human beings are connected organisms is the key point of human physiology in the Hwangti Neijing.
De of Heaven 天德 à Qi of Earth 地氣 à Life of Human (人)生
à Essence 精 à Shen 神 à Hun 魂 à Po 魄 à Intent 意 à Will 志 à Heart 心
In the next month series, I will compare what are the most microscopic elements of the universe based on the main concepts of the two philosophies.
