Chinese metaphysics is known to be one of the oldest and the most reputed of all the various spiritual and social theories that existed in the world. Decision making is an important part of the various theories that are developed in order to explain the reason behind the true spirit of any given discussion and therefore it is important to have logical understanding of theories in order to have a sound decision making technique. Ti and Yung are also one of the most well known terms in the Chinese metaphysics and where lot of concepts are hypothesized, they are extremely helpful in providing a sound base of the overall proof behind a particular activity, whether it should sustain or not. This paper will have a detailed discussion about the Ti and Yung theory and will also highlight its basic origin and linkages with Confucianism.
Chinese mythology and the I ching divination recognizes ‘Ti and Yung’, as a very important factor in Plum Blossom (Meri Hua). The origin of Ti and Yung can be discussed to have happened in both Japanese and Chinese macrobiotic classifications, the Ti is considered to be the object and Yung to be the subject and although there is simplicity associated with the subjects, there is a lot deeper meaning of the terms in case of general anthropological applications. There have been a few great thinkers of the concepts of ‘Ti and Yung’, and one of them has been George Ohsawa who has brought several additions to the Ti/Yung classifications on the basis of the Chinese macrobiotics.
The application of Ti and Yung can be understood, by comparing them with everything which is great and small. Whether is to talk about the motion of a Galaxy or there is a discussion about the motion of a pack of Ants, Ti and Yung is applicable everywhere. It is often also discussed in terms of the intangibility of the world and the unpredictability associated with the same. Ti and Yung theories can be well applied to the various ideas including in relation to the numbers and statistics. If we talk about the world, there are several examples when it is important to talk about the zenith and the minima associated with a certain object and then Ti and Yung, come into play as they help to provide a definition in order to understand whether Ti or Yung of a certain commodity is good for our existence.
Hence, the origin of the theory of Ti and Yung is a great contribution of the Chinese modern macrobiotics and it offers a traditional method of presenting the ideas of mathematical maxima and minima to understand the variation of size and intensity on our existence. It is the divine power which has produced and prepared various things in the world and our existence is also supposed to be a part of this divine power, however there is always an attempt of human being to understand the mystery of our nature and God’s creations and therefore having reasonable and logical answers to our questions is very important. Therefore, the presence of Ti and Yung, is very helpful in find a few answers related to a lot of things big and small and why they are so and what will be the impact of their existence.
The discussion based on ethics . . . Ti and Yung
If we think from the matter of big and small an ethical and moral character is very important while handling information which can be critical to life and health of any other individual. If we consider our roles related to the job of a person who’s duty is to ensure the maintenance of data, it is our moral duty to ensure anonymity whenever there are chances of information leakage and specially in the domains like health care where data privacy is very important. In this case, from a utilitarian perspective it is important to understand that the moral ethics will be extremely important and nothing comes ahead of that due to which it should be ensured that access should be provided on the basis of Ti and Yung concept and higher is the criticality of data, more should be the restriction on the access.
Another example can be helpful in explaining the application of Ti and Yung from the ethics point of view. Ethics and organizational failure are rightly explained by organizational analysis on the basis of vocational decision-making. The failure of leadership leads to the failure of an organization and therefore the explanation of an organizational failure is usually given with an explanation of leader’s behavior however this may not be the right way to understand the actual failure reasons. An organizational failure may not be explained with the analysis of the moral decision-making by a leader however it should be interlinked to the ethical failures which are volitional.
Leadership, is ethically fallen would display behavior which will show that their spite knowing that a particular action is morally wrong they were enough motivated to proceed with the same. The problem over here is that moral character, leadership and ethics cannot be interlinked with an organizational failure without the involvement of volitional aspects related to the leadership behavior. Hence, to the concept of leadership, ethics and organizational failure, Price introduces the concept of volitional ethics. Therefore, the failure of an organization can be explained by the fact that the leadership may understand the importance of ethics however would still make exceptions considering the fact that leadership is an exception to moral values. Now if we apply the theory of Ti and Yung over here, it will be clearly visible that the behavior if it is too lenient and is on the ‘Ti’ side may lead to a failure due to a drop down in performance however at the same time if it is too harsh and it is ‘Yung’, it may demotivate the employees thus leading to an organization failure.
Again from an ethics point of view it may be very confusing and it can be a very long discussion, if we discuss about the differences between men and women, we can easily apply the Ti and Yung theory to understand their position in the society in a better manner. However, with men being a part of the discussion focused, the masculinity has to be the first thing which has to be discussed. Masculinity is just about a feeling and the kind of roles that males play in the society. The masculinity and the interrelated roles may have a lot to do with the cultural dependence as well however at their core; it always represents power and responsibility towards the other sex. Masculinity is also about the physical structure of men, where the word actually means donation and the words feminine means receptivity, which clearly shows the actual proceedings of a sexual activity. If we look from a different perspective, it is also about donation of your life for the protection and responsibility of the female. Hence, on one hand where masculinity, which is a trait of men represents power and authority and the decision-making characteristics, at the same time it is also about having a capacity to subjugate one's own will and take the ownership and responsibility in one's hand and give away the pride and power for the sake of love.
Women on the other hand represent Femininity, which is exactly the other side of the coin and represents receptivity which again depends upon the cultural differences, and that’s how the actual meaning persists in the society. Tenderness, love and affection are hidden in the feminine nature represented by women and it would not be wrong to say that these three things also result in the attractiveness associated with women. Femininity is not only about passive receptivity but also about one of the greatest differences, to have the ability to bear the gods gift into her womb and be a creator. Motherhood is also associated with femininity which means that, there is a strong association between the existence of human beings and their birth with the femininity of women. Although, the power and protection is provided to women by men, however if we find out the true source of this power, it will be women and therefore it is not wrong to say that women are stronger and far well established then men. Hence, women have a very special place in the world and are the creator of the race, which means that she has femininity as an important part of our nature and very different from men.
Men have a basic difference and nature of showing maturity with a little more progress in age than women and this can be easily proved by the fact that while a 17-year-old boy is usually seen to be indulged in playing and spending time with friends, there are lot of situations where a 17-year-old girl takes care of the entire household. From a mental strength point of view also, Men are said to be very strong and physically also they can prove to be having a lot of strength however internally they are emotionally very weak and most of the times it is seen that the external strength is easily overpowered by the internal emotional instability. Moreover, there is a lot of social freedom that men enjoy in most of the cultures due to the fact that they are considered to be free from the restrictions of sexual sanctity and are not liable to be questioned by the society. There is also a sense of harshness which is associated with the male nature, is usually present in everyone and is also sometimes looked at as the male ego, which may be baseless at times.
Similarly, Carson, a well known scientist and an aquatic biologist and zoologist, was a strong supporter of environment preservation and was strictly against the impact of technology and industrialization on nature. Carson’s main motive was to create a revolution through spreading awareness related to the use of chemicals and addition of manmade toxic chemicals for various uses, which ultimately leads to an adverse impact on the environment. This is a part of the ethics however from the Ti and Yung theory, we see that initially there was an abundance of technology and there was production at a very large scale however with the adverse impact on the environment criticism related to technology and declining biological balance in the initial works of men is identified and Ti and Yung can easily be noticed to be on the two sides. Once it is appreciated for its technological innovations however on the other hand it is equally responsible for the various environmental adversities however gradually we can see that the technology has impacted through the rise of various issues in the modern times. If, we look at the basic difference between Ti and Yung, it would only be the fact that technology an environment has shown more concern towards the harms that were a result of abundance of artificial chemicals and on the other hand it also showed the consequences of rising technology.
The above discussion clearly specifies that Ti and Yung can be applicable theories, which can be helpful in providing an ethical perspective to any discussion which is being based on a particular topic. Ti can definitely be accessed and sensed on the basis of emotions that the humans develop however Yung is on the practical side of it and it is important to understand that Ti and Yung should not be confused with Yin and Yang as they are two separate ideas altogether. From the ideas point of view, it is important to understand that the rise and fall of various activities around us are a result of the ethical environment in which we operate and therefore it is important to keep track of the proceedings interrelated to our presence. Ti and Yung are therefore extremely helpful in providing guidance related to the divination of various meanings related to life and humanity.
References
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