cf
Once fori terms are thus defined, the "fori shift" comes in to play. One or bo
t1R
the terms of a pair may be paired with other terms. In this case the meaning of a term will necessarily shift to the reference derived from its relation to the new partner.In her study of Shao Yung, Ann Birdwhistell has coined a term "hemilog" for the compounds that Shao had coined. But they differ radically from Baien's compounds on just the point that Baien's terms may be used in other compounds. She says:
A hemilog has certain characteristics. It is a two-part concept, and the meaning of each part is determined by their mutual relationship .... Each hemilog forms a whole, and one of the parts cannot form a pair with a member from another hemilog. [ 1 989 60]
The parts ofBaien's compounds can and often do pair with members of other compounds. The result of this is that when a term is used separately, one cannot determine its reference without knowing which other term it is paired with in that particular context.
A similar case in English would be the sentence "The smugglers motored over to the headland", which is not understood until one is told whether "motor" derives from "motorboat" or "motorcar". Likewise, the sentence "Mother sat in the car drinking champagne" requires us to know whether "car" refers to "motorcar" or "dining-car".
"Body" is a example. Two of its several uses are "body" of the pair <body and nature>, and "body" of the pair <body and shape>.
i) In <body and nature>,. "body" conveys that which a nature is the nature !U. The pair, <body and nature>, is a difficult pair to grasp. Out of context, lines such as the following convey little except that <body and nature> is a jori pair:
In ''heaven and earth" ... nature is invisible and body is visible. In ''heaven and spirit" . . . body is invisible and nature is visible. NST 406,37]
ii) But Baien spells out <body and shape> very clearly:
If it is round and hollow one can boil water in it, if it is solid and sharp it can be used as a spear. It may be the same lump of iron, but its use differs according to its shape. On the other hand, even though a thing should be round and hollow, ifit is made of wood it may hold water, but it cannot be put on the fire, and even though a thing should be solid and sharp, ifit is made of clay it may be used as a target, but not as a weapon. The shapes are the same as before, but their use differs with the bodies.
NST 447,9]
A
lump
of iron is a body, whose shape, and hence employment, differs according to whether it is made into a kettle or into a spear. These would be useless artefacts if the body were a lump of wood instead, even should they retain those same shapes.The meaning of ''body'' shifts in the two cases. In one, "body" is that which a nature is the nature of: and that which a nature. In the other, "body" is that which a shape is the shape of: and which must have a shape.
"Body" occurs in other pairs, for example:
iii)
<body and function>All things divest from heaven and earth, which endows them with body and function. NST 490 2]
Phantoms and spirits are the function of objects, they are not the bodies of objects. Heaven and earth are the bodies of objects, they are not lei. NST
495,30] .
The realm of body consists of the bodies of heaven and earth, light and humidity. The realm of nature consists of the functions colour and lei, nature and capacity.
App.
VI]
"Body and function" is an old pair from the Neo-Confucian tradition. But whatever meaning it has there, for Baien it conveys contrasting aspects of objects, how they function in time, and how they occupy space.
iv) <body and 1a> contrasts the spatial relations of bodies with the temporal relations of events, which are the operations of dynamic lei.
Touch is the coming and going of body, change is the coming and going of lei. NST 404,3 1]
-
v) <body and motive power>
If one looks at this from the point of view of division, motive power is moving and
still, body is hollow or NST 452,39]
vi) <body and position>
Up and down determine position, hollow and substantial distinguish bodies. [Volume NST 455,37]
It is crucial to understand that there is no parent term from which all these uses of "body" derive. However, it should not be overlooked that there is some semantic connection between them. The connection is elusive but by no means arbitrary, a "shift" in meaning, not a fresh start.
"Jyming", the "ten" of the virtually synonymous terms "ten-un" mentioned earlier, is another
term which shifts:Turning is contrasted with holding within the realm of the manifest,I "turning
westwards" and "turning eastwards" are both "turning"; when "turning" is contrasted with "revolving", "revolving" is applied to images, and "turning" to ki. Within the realm of the concealed, day, night, winter and summer, "turn"; past, present, beginning and end "revolve". [Preface 8]
(Although the terms "ten" and "un" appear as synonyms for "turn", "un" may also be
translated as "convey". It is possible that in his elaborate astronomical theory the contrast was between turning and being turned. I do not understand that theory.)
Of"Slllrit" he says:
When I use "spirit" there are heaven and spirit, essence and spirit, spirit and object, soul and spirit, phantom and spirit, spirit and man, sagacity and spirit, and so on. [Preface 8]
is paired with ki, nature, spirit, event, or man. (Insofar as the two are carefully distinguished, we can say more tentatively that "object" is paired with "body".)
The word "ki" is the old Chinese that has ranged in meaning from air or ether to
"material force". In was written before the introduction of the term "fori" and the systematic style of the final version, Baien comments on the different uses that the word
"lei" has had, and adds, "and it does Dot have the same meaning throughout this book" ["Void", Zenshii I 742]. The reader is left to infer that Baien is relying on context to convey his own array of meanings.
By the final version of this sort of meaning shift has developed into a clearly stated policy. He says in the Preface:
When I use the word "ki" there are the kinds: ki and object, ki and body, ki and shape, ki and matter, ki and image, heaven and ki, mind and ki, ki and colour" ... When I use "heaven", there are the kinds: heaven and earth, heaven and spirit, heaven and object, heaven and man, heaven and destiny, and so OD .... Ifwe did not rely on the pair we might mistake the subject. [Section 8]
Not every term in thejori pairs takes part in ajori shift. Baien has no policy which dictates which terms might be subject to thejori shift and which not. There is no shift in "yin" or
"yang", "warp" or "woof', "dynamic flux" or "chaotic content", all of them also pervasive and fundamental terms; and, for different reasons in each case, we do not expect a shift with these pairs. However, ''heaven and earth" is a fundamental pervasive pair, the two chapters of
are called "Yin and Yang" and "Heaven and Earth". Yet "heaven" has many shifts, and "earth" as a single term has none. None of the terms of the only slightly
less pelVasive pairs <fine and coarse> or <hollow and sub�tantial> are subject to the shift. Nor, understandably, are most terms as specific as those in <man and woman> or <land
and water animals>.
When we have gone some distance towards mastering the jori system, we should see it is as significant not that Baien is difficult to follow, as indeed he often is, but that we, especially we native English speakers, do understand him. The native English reader of will
eventually catch on to
his
terminological method, even without the examples in the It is plausible that this would be so regardless of what our native language should be. . .The prevalence of two character compounds in the Chinese and Japanese languages means that one sometimes has to decide whether to interpret a ccmpound word as ajori pair, or whether Baien is using natural language. For example, he uses "dOtoku", which often means
"ethics", for the pair "way and power" ("dO" and "toku"). Even ifwe were to express the whole jori system in English, not by the form "<A and B>", but as compound words, "AB" - heaven-earth, manifest-concealed, way-power, these compounds would rarely, if ever, coincide with an established English compound. In this respect there is a fundamental difference in the two languages.
It is all the more significant, therefore, that shifts of meaning similar to the jori shift can and do occur in English. From an examination of this we conclude that some features of the jori shift are features of natural language in general
We might take the very word ''Eng1ish'' itself A New Zealander in Berlin may feel or seem very "Eng1ish", as opposed to "Continental"; the same New Zealander in England may be very
"Antipodean" as opposed to "English". She may seem English in Japan, as opposed to American, but in Wellington, confronted with English visitors, may seem or feel very New Zealand. The case of the word "English" might be represented by the following table:
PLACE NEW ZEALANDER CONTRAST
1. Berlin Continental
2. London Antipodean
3. Tokyo American
4. Wellington New Zealand
The lefthand members of the pairs apply to a New Zealander. "English" applies or not to her according to her location.
Such shifts in meaning are perfectly comprehensible. Some may even be found in dictionaries. For instance, the implicit contrast of "fruit" and "vegetable" distinguishes both these words from their other uses. There is "man" as in "man and beast" or "man and woman", a contrast enviably absent from Latin and Japanese. "Soft", in both "soft and hard" and "soft and loud" might also be descnoed as "shifting", rather than changing meaning altogether. These casual . observations are no substitute for a close linguistic study, but the single point of interest here is that by some implicit we can understand their usage without lexical aids. Although for Baien it was a great convenience to be able to select any pair of characters to form a new compound, the fundamental mechanisms of the jori shift are not confined to Chinese.
However, although the suggested shift in meaning of words like "English" shares something
with the shift in meaning ofjori terms like "lei" or "body", none-the-Iess, the pair "English and
Continental" could never be ajori pair. As we shall see presently, there is another element in jori terms that is not claimed for words in natural language; that is, they reflect nature to the extent that they � its features precisely. This element depends on Baien's theory ofword subject naming which will be discussed in Chapter 4.3.3
whole pair shifts from realm to realm
Despite the different relations that members ofjori pairs might bear to one another, thejori shift of members of pairs, such as the shifts of"ki" or "body", is sufficently tight to be practical for us to work with. But there are also shifts in the meaning of whole pairs. <Heaven and earth> is a pair that shifts very frequently as a whole. Baien says in
Consider again that blue sky, like lapis lazuli, and those vast piles of rough stones and soil. This descnoes a very coarse heaven and earth. IT 93]
<Heaven and earth> has many references besides earth and sky, and its most technical use is contrasted
with
the use of <yin and yang> as pure variables in Chapter 7.2. When it Comes to shifts in meaning of whole pairs themselves, the system is more loosely stated. To explain the implicit principles behind this I need not only to introduce Baien's notion of "realms", but to use a similar term myself to descnoe his method. As what I say will apply to his realms also, I propose to keep his term and extend its range a little. Because "realm" is not itself a member of ajori pair its usage is less tightly stipulated.
Ajori
pair, (sometimes expressed as the "one" which "opens" to give the two members of the pair), metaphorically marks out the boundary of a territory. Baien conveys this in severaldifferent ways: "man opens the of the
small
" [Preface 2]; motivepower, body" [NST 378,36]; of holding,
of image" [Preface 8]; "
within
the manifest, Mtbin small objects"; "� hollow andsubstantial, � number" 13]; image, object" NST
397 20]; "in light, in humidity" NST 396 24];
colour, nature"
[Preface
App.VI].
But the dominant term in this connection is "realm" (kai, W ), when he speaks of "Four Realms" in the text or in diagrams .. There are at least four of these quartets, namely: tIki, object, nature and body" [NST 574 Fig. 69]; "heaven, motive power, body and colour" [NST 588 Fig.28; see p.49]; and at least two versions of "heaven, motive power, body and nature"
[NST 580 Fig.88 and IT 95].
I shall use "realm" to refer to any territory marked out by
ajori
pair. Shimada uses "domain",(ry6iki)
in the cases of <material and immaterial>, <hollow and substantial> and "number"[NST 26,3], but in English this might lead to confusion
with
the use of "domain" in predicate logic.I shall illustrate the use of "realm" in this chapter
with
reference to two of these quartets, although the termwill
not always refer to parts of those structures. Diagram A is a translation ofBaien's diagram of the four realms ''heaven, motive power, body and colour", Diagram B is from a segment ofhis account of the four realms ''heaven, motive power, body and nature".A: HEAVEN, MOTIVE POWER, BODY and COLOUR [NST
558]
H EA VEN ole{;"g tv .... i "0, / c.oo H..L'U V3B: HEAVEN, MOTIVE POWER, [BODY and NATURE]
<HEAVEN
�
�
earth> <time space> CONCEALED ____ MOTIVE POWER>�
---- <heaven<turning holding> earth>
Motive power and heaven are concealed, and form heaven and earth, nature and body are manifest and form heaven and earth. Heaven is heaven and earth within the realm of space and time, motive power is heaven and earth within the realm of turning and holding. Heaven and motive power alone are not sufficient to manifest heaven and earth as objects. Body forms heaven as hollow and earth as substantial, nature forms heaven as fire and earth as water. Then heaven and earth are indeed manifest as objects. The object whose body is apparent is the house, and the manifest things dwell within it. to II 95]
�: Diagram B shows the subdivisions of the CONCEALED; a similar sketch might be made for the MANIFEST. But we must remember not only that there are different versions of the Four Realms, but also that the pair <concealed and manifest> shifts constantly from realm to realm. Of "object" in <ki and object> he speaks of the concealment m: manifestation of object.
Some points about my use of "realm" in regard to Baien's texts are the following:
1. A realm is indicated by uppercase letters when I wish to emphasise the point that a member of a pair is a realm.
2. "Realm" is extended beyond the "ka;" ofBaien's quartets to indicate any "territory" governed by the union of a jor; pair, and named acccording to the jor; term that names that union. In this sense a very narrow realm would be that of NUMBER, which governs <odd and even> in the system. In Diagram A, besides the four realms, HEAVEN, MOTIVE POWER, COLOUR AND BODY, STILLNESS is a realm governing <line and circle>. In Diagram B, CONCEALED is a realm, and so are HEAVEN and MOTIVE POWER
3. In his more cosmological passages Baien frequently uses the term "sphere" (ken � ), with its literal meaning. Insofar as these "spheres" are exactly the territory ofajor; pair, such as <light and humidity>, or <sun and shade>, they will also be referred to as "realms". In
Diagram A, LIGHT and HUMIDITY might be called "realms" in this sense, but not <sun and shade> as they are not represented there as governing anything.
4. Ajor; pair "applies m" a realm, but will sometimes be said to "apply 12" another pair. When pairs apply 12 one another the correspondence of their separate members is fixed. For
example, in Diagram B, of the two realms governed by the pair <heaven and motive power>, both <heaven and earth> and <time and space> belong in the realm ofHEA VEN. Here heaven applies 12 time and earth applies 12 space. <Heaven and earth> is also found in the realm of MOTIVE POWER, but this time heaven applies 12 turning and earth 12 holding.
5. A "realm" may be part of another more encompassing realm. In Diagram A, <heaven and motive power> are in the realm of the FINE. <Line and circle> are not only in the realm of
MOTIVE POWER, but also in the "realm" of STILLNESS; <light and humidity> are in the realm of COLOUR, and <sunlighf and shade> in the realm (and incidentally the "sphere") of LIGHT.
[Note, I have intentionally avoided using "world" for "kai" here because of its spatial connotations, and also to avoid any suggestion of its use in possible world semantics. In favour of "realm", Baien's realms are "governed" by jori terms.]
Many jori pairs are found in more than one realm. Insofar as the same pair applies in different realms the meaning will be to that extent different. This meaning shift is what I call "the whole