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作者：梅丹理
關鍵字：負陰而抱陽，生命觀，損益，《老子》第四十二章
本文以《老子》第四十二章的‘負陰而抱陽’觀念為主線，談老子對精神作用與物質特性如何產生互動而形成生命體。其中包含的生命觀，可追朔到《周易》泰卦、複卦中的陰陽關係與象徵內容。這是一個‘身體性’的問題，就是說，精神性要通過特定的軀體以發揮其創造作用。本文也以老子‘損、益’的對比觀念來闡釋精神作用與物質特性（即生命陰陽）的最優互動方式。用這樣的解釋，第四十二章從‘負陰抱陽’到‘損、益’再到‘強梁者不得其死’才得以顯出其連貫性。
老子所談的‘負陰而抱陽’
梅丹理（Denis
Mair）
《周易》是周朝初年的作品（有一部分內容可以追溯到商朝甚至更遠），而老子《道德經》的成書年代要等到春秋末年或戰國初年，相隔至少500年，但兩本書的關係是千絲萬聯的。（*1）《道德經》第42章談到生命的陰陽兩面，可以幫我們對《周易》中那種渾樸的陰陽觀獲得深一層的瞭解。老子在這章裏關於“負陰抱陽”的說法，正是為我們打開《周易》生命觀的一把鑰匙。老子還有很多發揮《周易》的精闢見解，因此我喜歡把《道德經》稱為《易經》的“第十一翼”。
《道德經》第42章是這樣寫的：
“道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物。萬物負陰而抱陽，沖氣以為和。人之所惡，為孤寡不榖，而王侯以為稱。故物或損之而益，或益之而損。人之所教，我亦教之。‘強梁者不得其死’，吾以為教父。”
“道生一，一生二”這句，講的是〈系辭傳〉裏那種‘陰陽摩蕩’的過程，從‘太極’生出兩儀，再生出四相，一層一層地遞進，產生八卦（還有64別卦）所代表的宇宙現象。負陰抱陽是生命體的基本形態：內部要抱穩一股純陽的靈性，同時要承擔物質軀體的包袱，才可活在這個世界上，才可成為（生）物。我們也許會問：陰和陽為什麼是負和抱的關係？這不只是因為陰、陽可作為物質與精神的象徵。陰之所以常常被劃歸為物質，是因為它有凝聚的特色。《易經》很多地方都反映到這點，比方說
 坤初六“履霜，堅冰至”那種結冰過程是一種凝結，而〈像傳〉解釋為“陰始凝也”。還有〈文言傳〉對這一爻的進一步解釋：“積善之家，必有餘慶；積不善之家，必有餘殃。”
陰是凝結的，而陽是擴散的。陰善於處在一個特定的地方，而陽是不定在的。如果把陰與陽孤立起來，陰的凝結只能是沒有生機的自閉狀態，而陽的擴散會成為一股與生命世界無關的空洞能量。最好的狀態是讓陽從陰的內部發生作用，像麵粉裏的酵母發成麵包那樣，若能這樣，陽會把陰帶活，同時陰會作為一種媒介，讓陽的運行有實質的表現。
如果把精神性的陽假設為一道靈光，要怎麼讓它投身於這個軀體呢？它在無形界自來自去，不是很逍遙嗎？如果要它降格投入物質體，對它來說好像是一種‘自損’，但正因為它願意自損，才可能參與到更豐富的生命形態。到最後它會發現，當初人們以為‘有損於己’的事情，其實是有‘益’的，而那些一味地要求‘益處’的傢伙，會被自己的貪婪帶入死胡同。連古代的王者都懂得這個道理，自稱為‘寡人’、‘不榖’，他們希望自己能做到那種看來有損而最後有益的事。
問題是，陽的擴散特性也許還沒有找到特定的方向。如果要它放下身段跟陰進入最優的互動，是要周旋一番。這個周旋過程要通過一種物質與精神之間的橋樑，那就是“氣”。有了氣的仲介，精神與物質可以通消息，可以互相調適，最後可以達到同振共波的效應。但氣不是說來就來的奴僕：需要一個適合它的環境，要引導它，所以要準備“沖”的條件。沖是一種虛極靜篤的狀態，只有處在這樣的狀態下的氣，才能充分發揮它的調適作用。
古代道家對“沖”有特別的瞭解。“沖”是虛的同意詞。列子是一位古代道家，他寫的書叫做《列子》，而這本書作為道教的經典，也叫做《沖虛真經》。‘沖’不是頑強的空，而是讓一些微妙的事情發生的空。‘沖’對任何東西的生成不會形成阻礙，因此按道家的奇怪邏輯，它也扮演生成者的腳色。讓氣在這種‘沖’的狀態中運作，就可以達到陰陽的‘和’。這個‘和’不是單純的和諧，而是道家喜歡談的‘太和’（或者叫太初）。太和是生命的本源，是一種富有原創力的混沌局面。就個體生命來說，‘太和’可以理解為‘性靈’。
《易經》的〈乾卦彖傳〉裏也提到太和：
大哉乾元，萬物資始，乃統天。雲行雨施，品物流形。大明終始，六位時成，時乘六龍以禦天。乾道變化，各正性命，保合大和，乃利貞。。
這裏的‘太和’是指個體生命的太和。（假想中的）宇宙當初也是從太和生成的，而宇宙的生成並沒有一次性完成。原來的生成是大凝聚與大創意（物質與精神）的互動結果，而現在每一種‘品物’的生成，一樣要在新的處境下演出凝聚與擴散的永恆主題。按照這樣的宇宙觀，物質與精神不是二元論的兩種絕對質素，而是兩種作用，在道體的每一個層次都以新的形態、新的規律性出現。這有一點像宋儒朱熹在《太極圖說》的注解裏說的：“蓋合而言之,萬物統體一太極也;分而言之
,一物各具一太極也。”
被認為僅僅屬物質的東西，或許將來有一天，會被導入心力作用的範圍。而我們認為純屬精神的東西，難說它什麼時候會退化成物質作用的累墜。
有的注解說負陰而抱陽的‘負’是背離的意思，等於說陰是小人之道，我們要撇開它。這是廢話！第42章談的明明是陰和陽共存共進的道理。並且，要把‘負’當作承擔來解，才合乎下面談‘損’的內容。第42章裏的‘負’字，很像第70章裏‘被’字的意思：“…聖人被褐懷玉”。
抱陽負陰在《易經》的體系裏可以說是內陽外陰。《易經》有好幾個以內陽外陰來象徵健全活力的卦，比方說
 複，是表示活力的萌發，還有
泰，是表示穩定安詳的局面。
讓精神的作用降格一下，接受物質的負擔並把物質帶活，乍看好像是一種自損，但是要這樣作才能活到最充分的程度。內在的精神力量充沛，足以跟別人交感，但外表不要表現得太剛硬。（切忌讓物欲充塞內心，以免‘抱陰’的局面。）用外部的柔性與人打交道並承受逆境，而不要把自己的陽剛強加於人。這就是抱陽負陰；這樣才能真正讓你的心活起來！“強梁者不得其死”是自我警惕之詞。（希望它不是咒語！）老子認為這是各種銘言中最有分量的銘言，所以他願意把它奉為‘教父’，我也願意以此為教父。
*1.至於〈易傳〉與《道德經》的關係，其思想脈絡的共同處更多。這點，可以參考陳鼓應的《易傳道家考》。
【English】
Abstract
Title:
Laozi’s Idea of ‘Bearing Yin and Embracing Yang’
Author:
Mair, Denis
Affiliation:
Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing
Keywords:
bearing yin and embracing yang; vision of life; decrease and increase;
Laozi, Chapter 42
This
paper takes the concept of ‘bearing yin and embracing yang’ from
Laozi ‘Chapter 42’ as its main thread, and discusses Laozi’s idea of
how spiritual function interacts with materiality to produce a living
thing. The vision of life herein implied can be traced back to the
symbolic content of yin-yang relations in the Peace (#11) and Renewal
(#24) hexagrams of the Zhouyi [Book of Changes]. This is a
question of embodiment: that is, spirituality must operate through a
specific material body in order to express its creative function. This
paper uses Laozi’s contrasting concepts of ‘decrease and increase’ to
elucidate the optimum mode of interaction between spiritual function and
materiality (i.e., the yang and yin of life). By using this explanation,
the leaps of thought from ‘bearing yin and embracing yang’ to ‘decrease
and increase’ and then to ‘the rigid person does not die a proper death’
are shown to be perfectly connected.
On Laozi’s Phrase ‘Bearing Yin and Embracing Yang’
Denis Mair
Yang is
naturally expansive. Yin likes to clump together. Yang is an ambient
force that does not belong any certain place; yin is good at belonging
to a place. If these forces only follow their own tendencies, they can’t
easily produce synergy. When yang somehow gets held within yang, the
result is synergistic: yang’s expansive energy becomes more focused when
contained, so it can accomplish many things. Yin becomes a vehicle or
medium that yang can work through. The question is how can yang be
enticed to tie itself down, to descend and operate within conditions of
yin’s coalescence? Intuition tells us that “within-ness” is only one of
the states into which yang naturally tries to expand.
Laozi
talked about yang being embraced within yin. In Chapter 42 of the
Daode Jing he says:
The Way gave
birth to unity, unity gave birth to duality, duality gave birth to
trinity, trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad
creatures bear yin on their backs and embrace yang in their bosoms. They
make space for [mediating] qi-energy and thereby achieve harmony.
That which all under heaven hate most is to be orphaned, destitute, and
hapless. Yet kings and dukes call themselves thus. Things may be
diminished by being increased, increased by being diminished. Therefore,
that which people teach, after deliberation, I also teach people.
Therefore, "The tyrant does not die a natural death." I take this as my
mentor.
This
verse relates to the question of embodiment. Yang here can be seen as
the spirit-nature of a thing, and yin as the material body. In order for
something to be alive, the xingling must get down within matter.
Instead of streaking through the heavens like a beam of light, it now
undertakes the work of animating matter; it takes on the burden [fu]
of embodiment. That is what it means to “bear yin on their backs and
embrace yang in their bosoms.” For pure yang, in its free state of
eternal heavenward expansion, being limited within yin would seem at
first to be a phase of self-decrease.
The word
fu is sometimes translated as “turn one’s back on” rather than
“take on the burden of.” But fu yin cannot mean “turn away from
yin” here. For one thing, yin-yang harmony is clearly stated to be
necessary for life; for another, “take on the burden” fits better with
the idea of decrease later in this passage. This passage should be
considered in light of decrease as a positive value, which is a theme
throughout the Daode Jing. (One could argue that “decrease” also
has an esoteric meaning as a technique of meditation, i.e., letting go.)
In Chapter 48, Laozi tells us that the way of decrease follows the Dao,
but the way of increase piles up learning and possessions. For Laozi,
increase is almost as bad as rigidity. Men who try to “increase” the
practice of benevolence and righteousness often play into the hands of
arrogant men. Laozi repeatedly states that rigid, arrogant strength
brings an unnatural death. Laozi tells us that rigid, harsh men are the
disciples of death, while yielding men are disciples of life.(Ch.76) Why
does rigidity lead to death? Because it violates the harmony that is
necessary for life. It outwardly forces its own strength upon other
people, instead of trying to move them from within. This is putting yang
on the outside. By contrast, the yielding, self-decreasing man furthers
harmony because he is outwardly pliable and accommodating. Of course
Laozi is not saying that such a person is a weakling. There is an
inbuilt consistency to Laozi’s way of portraying harmony, both in the
individual being and in society. In a harmonious society, we do not push
our strength on others (yang is held within). In the vital harmony of a
living thing, yang [i.e., spirit-nature] is held and cherished within a
body, and qi provides a bridge of equlibrium (again, yang is
within).
But how can
yang be drawn down within yin to create harmony? There needs to be a new
zone of interfusion, and that is what mediating qi provides. The
original source where yin and yang were interfused is what Laozi called
“the one.” At the source of yin and yang, the vibratory interplay is so
complete that there is no yin and yang to speak of, hence a unity. But
eventually yin and yang differentiate and emerge from this source.
“Unity gives rise to duality.” After they differentiate, they begin a
big long drama to rejoin. The point where they rejoin is different from
the original starting place. Where they rejoin is now a living thing,
which provides a new arena for yin and yang to act out their interplay.
By
holding its yang within its yin, the living thing animates itself more
and more fully, while consolidating its pure yang endowment. It makes
space inside itself for harmonizing flows of energy, for interfusing yin
and yang through the medium of qi. (The phrase chong qi yi wei
he does not mean that yin and yang are neutralized to achieve
harmony. It means that space is allowed for qi to exert its
harmonizing properties. In Daoist usage, chong has always
paradoxically referred to emptiness as a positive cause.) When this
happens, the living thing becomes a creative source in its own right. A
living thing must wrestle anew with themes of coalescence and expansion,
in its social relations and in its thinking.
The
worldly creation unfolds because the new source-points strike out toward
new directions/modes of differentiation. All possible situations will
eventually be tried by one living thing or another. This is the
philosophy implied in the structure of the I Ching. Yang at one
level may not be the same as yang on a different level, but the levels
of yang grow out of one another. Yang develops through a continuum of
energy states--- it defines itself by how it resonates with other states
of existence. Thus the condition of a given yang line can be better
understood when we learn about its relations to other lines, and even to
other hexagrams.
Consider
a simple living thing as it is animated by the flows of qi-energy
within it. It is actually not such a simple thing, because of the many
levels of existence included within it. A living thing subsumes many
levels of functioning, from inanimate states of matter to the primitive
life-force of a cell, to whole-body metabolism, to flows of bioenergy,
and even to the higher mental and spiritual functions. Yang acting at
the cellular level belongs to the bodily substrate, even though we
usually think of the substrate as yin compared to higher functions. The
terms yin and yang are relative to the level our experience reaches.
Bodily
essence(jing) is yin compared to qi. Together they make a
body alive, and a living body is yang compared to inanimate matter.
Between jing and qi, jing belongs to the side of
matter, and qi is a bridge between matter and shen[animating
spirit]. The “Great Treatise” of the I Ching makes fascinating
use of these terms:
The [Book
of] Change contains the measure of heaven and earth;
therefore it enables us to comprehend the Way of heaven and earth and
its order….Thus we come to know the circumstances of the dark and the
light. Going back to the beginnings of things and pursuing them to the
end, we come to know the lessons of birth and of death. Essence[jing]
and vital energy[qi] become living things; free-floating souls
work their transformation. Through this we know the conditions of ghosts
and spirits. (Pt.I, Ch.4)
This also
uses yin and yang to talk about embodiment. That is, the yin of jing
joins with the yang of qi to make an organism. Then the
coming or going of the shen (in this passage called the you-hun)
takes these yin-yang changes to another level---to the life and death of
a conscious being.
The
Song-dynasty Confucian philosopher Zhangzai wrote a book called
Zhengmeng, discussing cosmology in terms of the I Ching. He
roundly criticizes Buddhist commentators of the I Ching who used
the above passage to support their ideas of reincarnation. He claims
that it is blasphemous to say that this passage is about transmigration
of soul-like entities. For him, this passage is about the infinite
original nature of human beings, which neither comes nor goes anywhere,
but is only more or less manifest. It is interesting that he ascribes to
Buddhists a belief in soul-like entities, and he points to “original
nature” as a preferable alternative. At any rate, in the original
passage we see traces of an ancient homegrown tradition that pictured
embodiment and mortality in terms of yin-yang changes.
May 2004
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