Relation to the World, Cosmos

There is an ancient Chinese maxim, T'ien-jen ho-yi/Tianren heyi or 'Heaven and the human are One' which came out of the the shamanic experience.  In the Shaminic sense of the saying, it meant that a person in a trance or possession was one with Heaven. Later in the Daoist and Confucian philosophies this came to represent less a union but  a continuum or communication between the two orders.  Both Confucianism and Daoism appear to be more concerned with harmony between Heaven and Earth than union with Heaven.   (Ching 6-8).

Confucianism has much to say about community and human relationships but it deferred to other traditions when it came to the world outside of relationship.  Certain Chinese ideas were incorporated into Confucianism over time.  During the Han period Confucianism incorporated the idea of Yin and Yang, the two opposing yet complementary forces.  All of the world could be categorized in this way, with rocks as Yang and water as Yin.  It also viewed the five agents of water, fire, wood metal and earth as in a constant contest of change and interaction.  Julia Ching notes that this list of ingredients leaves out air, but that "air or qi had always been regarded as fundamental and indeed, all-pervasive (155).

She goes on, "The Five Agents, however, served another purpose.  Together with yin and yang, they formed a system of correlation which integrated life and the universe" (155).