HARMONY AND BEYOND

non-reversing to itself; a non-moving movement which transcends the logic of identity and difference. Chaos is indeed the father of harmony.

The genuine transformation, therefore, can be defined as anaphoric transfiguration, a movement within the same. It is an implosion, an act of self-concealment (self-dispersing), continuity within the fold of Being. It confirms the fullness of one’s existence and is marked by the growing intensity of experience. The idea is expressed in the concept of “abstruse” or just “deep connectivity” (xuan tong, 玄通) and it became the fundamental motif of Chinese philosophical and artistic tradition.  In one of the earliest treatises on calligraphy in China ascribed to Cai Yong (2nd century A.D.), creativity is identified with the act of dispersal (san) which makes us perceive (i.e. spiritually “touch”), experience internally the stubborn fact of “being self-so”, the flow of pulverized materiality which is a real source of writing, a condition of centeredness. Cai Yong’s apology of creative “dispersal” (which can be interpreted also as “letting-go” and thus preserving centeredness) may seem at first glance paradoxical because it is related to the inner integrity of spirit. Cai Yong writes:

“Writing is dispersal… The one who wishes to write should first disperse his feelings… sit in silence, calm down thoughts and soar freely following his will. He should neither speak nor interrupt his breath but seal his spirit deep inside as if in the presence of the most revered person. Then his writing will surely be skillful”[1].  

 And in another essay:

“Writing comes out from being self-so. When being self-so is established Yin and Yang are generated. When Yin and Yang are generated forms spring out”[i][2].

The Chinese concept of form used by Cai Yung here, is the combination of words “external form” (xing) and “power of circumstance” (shi).  This term reminds that the true meaning of transformation as an essence of self-cultivation is the appropriation of life’s magnitude. The 13th century scholar Hao Jing described it as an “inward wandering” (nei you, 内游) bringing the mind to the absolute rest beyond the stillness of still water. This movement leaves no traces and does not match any ideas. It is to be distinguished, as Ch’eng Chung-ying observed, from the visible changes (bian) because it refers to imperceptible minute transformations[3]. This is the symbolic matrix of being, the plenitude of virtual changes which disappear even before they acquire visible form.

So the genuine harmony makes possible the unique voice of all things; it bestows on each existence its individual quality, its “subtle principle” (miao li) which should not be confused with substance, form, idea or any other mental or material reality. As 16th century art critic Li Kaixian pointed out,

“All things in the world, great or small, possess their subtle principle coming out of the hidden transformation which is so of itself”[4].  This quality of absolute existential Singularity (du ,独) is the mark of complete self-sufficiency and uniqueness in being Self-so. It exists at the edge of everything and is more


[1]  Cai Yong. Shu lun (On Writing). Lidai shufa lunwen ji. Huazheng shuju, Taipei, 1984. P.5-6.

[2]  Ibid., P. 6.

[3]  Chung-ying, Cheng. On Harmony as Transformation: Paradigms from the I Ching, in: Harmony and Strife. Contemporary Perspectives, East & West. Ed. by Shu-hsien Liu, R.E. Allinson. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. 1988. P. 247.

[4] Zhungguo hualun leishu (Collection of essays on Chinese Painting). Taipei: Huazheng shuju, 1977. P.420.

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