Bianhua
| Bianhua | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | |
Hanyu Pinyin | biànhuà |
| Wade–Giles | pien-hua |
| IPA | pianxua |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | pi ho |
| Hakka | |
| Romanization | pien-fa |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | bin3 faa3 |
| Middle Chinese | |
| Middle Chinese | pjenxwae |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter–Sagart (2014) | pron-sqʷʰˤ |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | byeonhwa |
| McCune–Reischauer | pyŏnhwa |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Hepburn | henka |
Bianhua, meaning 'transformation' or 'metamorphosis', was a keyword developed in both
Terminology
In the
For the
In
The modern
Chinese has a rich lexicon of words meaning "change", including bian, hua, fan 反 "turn over; return; counter; oppose", huan 還 "go/come back; give back; return; repay", yi 易 "change" (as in the Yijing), and yi 移 "shift; adapt; modify; adjust"; and Joseph Needham notes, "the exact meaning of which are sometimes difficult to differentiate".[7]
Semantically distinguishing between bian and hua is multifaceted. Compare these explanations.
The exact difference between [bian] and hua is perhaps more uncertain [than fan "reaction" and huan "return"]. In modern Chinese usage, [bian] tends to signify gradual change, transformation or metamorphosis; while hua tends to mean sudden and profound transmutation or alteration (as in a rapid chemical reaction)—but there is no very strict frontier between the words. [Bian] could be used of weather changes, insect metamorphosis, or slow personality transformations; hua may refer to the transition points in dissolving, liquefying, melting, etc., and to profound decay. [Bian] tends to be associated with form (xing) and hua with matter ([zhi]). When a snowman melts, the form changes ([bian]) as the snow melts (hua) to water. In the Sung dynasty, [Cheng Yi] explained bian as implying inward change with full or partial conservation of the external Gestalt or form, and hua as fundamental change in which the outward appearance is also altered.[7]
Hua 化 denotes a fundamental and essential change—a transformation. However, sometimes one also encounters the word [bian], denoting external, momentary, or apparent change. A locus classicus for this distinction is in the [Guanzi] ...: "The exemplary man ([shengren]) changes ([bian]) in accordance with the times without transforming [the essence of his being]" ... This in turn permits us to understand the passage in the [Huangdi neijing suwen] ...: "When the beings take rise (sheng 生 ...), this is called hua (transformation); when the beings have reached their full development [極] ... [and consequently have taken on a different appearance], this is called [bian] (change).[8]
Bian has the sense of alteration among states of being (for example, from a yin to a yang state, or vice versa) or of variation within defined parameters. It differs from hua 化, "transformation", in implying alternation or variation rather than fundamental and lasting change. The change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, for example, which is both substantive and irreversible, is a frequently cited instance of hua in the earlier literature. By contrast, a change that involves the realignment of constituent parts in a dynamic system (and that may be or is regularly reversed), such as that from day to night and back again, would be considered an instance of bian.[9]
Early usages
The (c. 4th century) encyclopedic Guanzi text uses bianhua 5 times (3 in the Xinshu 心術 "Mind Techniques" chapters). Where the Xingshi 形勢 "Conditions and Circumstances" chapter says "The Way brings about the transformation of the self", the corresponding 形勢解 "Explanation" chapter elucidates "The Way is the means by which the self is transformed so a person will adhere to correct principles."[12]
The ancient Yijing or
For hexagram 1 Qian 乾 "The Creative", the Commentary on the Decision (彖傳傳) says:
- The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony; this is what furthers and what perseveres.[13]
Kong Yingda's sub-commentary[14] distinguishes bian and hua: "'Alternation' refers to afterwards changing from a former state, it has gradually changed. This is called 'alteration'. 'Transformation' refers to existence in one moment and absence of existence in the next, it has suddenly changed. This is called 'transformation'."
Bianhua occurs most often (8 times) in the Appended Judgments Commentary (繫辭傳) or Great Commentary (大傳). Three contexts mention the work of divine sages.
- The holy sages were able to survey all the confused diversities under heaven. They observed forms and phenomena and made representations of things and their attributes [which became the basis for the Yijing]... Through observation and discussion they [the holy sages] perfected the changes and seasons.[15]
- The Master [presumably Confucius] said: Whoever knows the tao of the changes and transformations, knows the action of the gods".[16]
- Heaven creates divine things; the holy sage takes them as models. Heaven and earth change and transform; the holy sage imitates them.[17]
In
Daoist usages
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The Daoist idea of bianhua (metamorphosis, or "change and transformation"), "that the certainty that the world is in flux leaves open the possibility that things may transform from one type to another",[18] can be traced from the Zhuangzi through the Shangqing School.
The (c. 3rd century BCE) Zhuangzi was the first Daoist text to explain bianhua "transformation and metamorphosis". The word occurs five times (all in the Outer Chapters), referring to the ability of things to change from one category to another. For instance,
Spring and summer precede, autumn and winter come after—such is the sequence of the four seasons. The myriad things evolve and develop; even twisted little shoots have their own special shapes—such are the gradations of fullness and decline, the flow of transformation and evolution [bianhua]. (13)[19]
The Zhuangzi text begins with a parable about interspecific metamorphosis.
In the darkness of the Northern Ocean, there is a fish named K'un. The K'un is so big that no one knows how many thousands of tricents [three hundred paces] its body extends. After it metamorphoses [hua] into a bird, its name becomes P'eng. The P'eng is so huge that no one knows how many thousands of tricents its back stretches. Rousing itself to flight, its wings are like clouds suspended in the sky. (1)[20]
The Zhuangzi uses the closely related word wuhua 物化 "transformation of things" ten times, most famously in the story of Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly.
Once upon a time Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. He didn't know that he was Chou. Suddenly he awoke and was palpably Chou. He did not know whether he was Chou who had dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chou. Now, there must be a difference between Chou and the butterfly. This is called the transformation of things. (2)[21]
A Zhuangzi passage explains change in the sense of evolutionary continuity.
In seeds there are germs [幾]. When they are found in water they become filaments. When they are found at the border of water and land they become algae. When they germinate in elevated places they become plantain. When the plantain is found in fertile soil it becomes crow's foot. The crow's foot's roots become scarab grubs and its leaves become butterflies. The butterflies soon evolve into insects that are born beneath the stove. They have the appearance of exuviae and are called "house crickets:" After a thousand days the house crickets become birds called "dried surplus bones." The spittle of the dried surplus bones becomes a misty spray and the misty spray becomes mother of vinegar. Midges are born from mother of vinegar; yellow whirligigs are born from fetid wine; blindgnats are born from putrid slimebugs. When goat's-queue couples with bamboo that has not shooted for a long time, they produce greenies. The greenies produce panthers; panthers produce horses; horses produce men; and men return to enter the wellsprings of nature [機]. The myriad things all come out from the wellsprings and all reenter the wellsprings. (18)[22]
Liu An's (c. 139 BCE) Huainanzi uses bianhua 17 times. For instance, this hunchback story about Ziqiu 子求 "Master Seek", adapted from the Zhuangzi (6)[23] description of Ziyu 子輿 "Master Chariot".
Ziqiu had lived for fifty-four years when an injury made him hunchbacked. The arch of his spine was higher than his forehead; his chin pressed down on his chest; his two buttocks were on top; his rectum pointed to the sky. He crawled over to peer at himself in a well: "Amazing! That which fashions and transforms us! How has it turned me into this crumpled thing?" This shows that from his viewpoint, alterations and transformation [bianhua] are the same. (7)[24]
The Huainanzi describes transformations in nature:[25] "Now the frog becomes a quail, [and] the water scorpion becomes the dragonfly. These give rise to what is not their own kind. Only the sage understands their transformations." To know the bianhua of things is the hallmark of spiritual knowledge.[26]
While the
- Gravity is the root of lightness.
- If a prince is not grave, then he is not honoured. If asceticism is not taken seriously, then the spirits are lost. The blossoms and leaves of the herbs and trees are light, therefore they are perishable. The root is heavy, therefore it is lasting.
- Quietness is the master of motion.
- If a prince is not quiet, then he loses his dignity. If the ascetic is not quiet, then he endangers himself. The dragon is quiet, therefore he is able to transform [bianhua]. The tiger is restless, therefore he strives for heavenly faults.[27]
Section 39 (法本) says:
- The spirits acquired unity. Thereby they are magic-endowed.
- This means: The spirits acquired unity. Thereby they are able to change [bianhua] and to become formless.
- The valley-streams acquired unity. Thereby they are filled out.
- This means: The valley-streams acquired unity. Therefore they may be filled without ceasing to exist.[28]
The (c. 2nd century CE) Laozi bianhua jing 老子變化經 "Scripture of the Transformations of Laozi", which is preserved in a fragmentary (612 CE)
Mark Csikszentmihalyi distinguishes between early Daoist discussions that tended to emphasize the way in which bianhua applies to human beings in the same way it does to the natural world,[31] and later Daoism that stressed the potential for the adept to harness bianhua, particularly in the eschatological picture of the Shangqing tradition.
Like Laozi, the diverse spirits of the Shangqing tradition are able to transform themselves, and the adept had to be able to identify their different manifestations. Adepts, in turn, might use bianhua to transform themselves. The Shangqing text Shenzhou qizhuan qibian wutian jing 神州七轉七變舞天經 (Scripture of the Divine Continent on the Dance in Heaven in Seven Revolutions and Seven Transformations; CT 1331) describes methods for transforming into clouds, light, fire; water, and dragons.[18]
Isabelle Robinet notes that "the powers of metamorphosis had always been a key characteristic of the immortals, but these powers came to be even more central in Shangqing where they were synonymous with deliverance and salvation."[32]
Bianhua was employed by both Daoist mystics and
Several centuries after Chinese Buddhists borrowed the Daoist meaning of bianhua or hua "manifest through transformation; incarnate", early Tang dynasty Daoists elaborated the Buddhist doctrine about a Buddha's "three bodies" (see below) into a theory that the True Body of the Dao, the Supreme Truth, assumes different metaphoric "bodies" in order to manifest as specific deities, including those in the Laozi bianhuajing. The (late 8th century) Daoist Sanlun yuanzhi 三論元旨[36] explains that: "The saint responds to all things, but his essence is distinct from them. Therefore, since his transcendent root is immobile, he is called the "true body" [zhenshen 真身] and since he propagates the form of the Law, he is called the "responsive body" [yingshen 應身]. This text further contrasts the True Body with the "transformation body" [huashen 化身 or bianhuashen, used for nirmāṇa-kāya] and the "trace body" [jishen 跡身], in the sense that all teachings are traces of Truth.[37]
Buddhist usages
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Early Buddhist translators chose Chinese bianhua 變化 as the equivalent for Sanskrit nirmāṇa "transformation; supernatural manifestation; reincarnation".
- (Skt. nirmāṇa) The transformation of myriad forms in manifesting appearances, especially the mutation of buddhas and bodhisattvas, e.g. 變化人 becoming men; also 變化土 the land where they dwell, whether the Pure Land or any impure world where they live for its enlightenment.
- To transform, change, change into, become. To manifest through supernormal power.
- The mind that discriminates all objects as having inherent existence (sixth and seventh consciousnesses).
- The third of the four kinds of reality-bodies of the Buddha, according to Yogâcāra.
Monier Monier-Williams's Sanskrit-English Dictionary[39] translates nirmāṇa निर्माण as "measuring, measure, reach, extent", "forming, making, creating", "(Buddhist literature) transformation", "essence, essential/best part of anything" (sāra), and "unconformity, impropriety, unbecomingness" (asamañjasa).
The common Buddhist term bianhuashen 變化身 or huashen 化身 (translating nirmāṇakāya) "transformation-body; manifested-body" refers to one of the sanshen 三身 (
Besides bianhua 變化, Buddhist translators used other Chinese bian compounds for Sanskrit words dealing with supernatural manifestations.[40] This semantic complex includes bianxian 變現 (with "appearance") translating both vikurvaṇa विकुर्वणा "manifestation through transformation" and prātihārya प्रातिहार्य "miraculous", and shenbian 神變 (with "god; divine") translating prātihārya "supernatural/miraculous powers; magical feats" and vikurvana "manifestation; transformation".
Victor Mair traced the historical semantics of Chinese bian before and after the (c. 2nd-3rd century) introduction of Buddhism, when it started being used as to translate Sanskrit nirmāṇa meaning "discontinuity or break with reality (illusion)".[41] The pre-Buddhist concept of Chinese bian referred to "change (from one state to another)", through which one thing becomes another thing. The post-Buddhist concept extended bian to mean "strange" in the sense of "transformation from nothing to something; magically creative power to conjure". The early "strange incident; supernatural transformation" sense of bian became popular during the early Tang dynasty period, for instance, the (c. 668) Fayuan Zhulin "Pearl Grove in the Garden of the Dharma" used bianhua "[miraculous] transformation" to describe strange incidents.
Later usages
The
For instance, Zhu explained an ambiguous Yijing statement within the Xici zhuan 繫辭傳 "Commentary on the Appended Phrases",[42] "That which transforms things and fits them together is called change [化而裁之謂之變]; that which stimulates them and sets them in motion is called continuity", with a lunar analogy:[43] "[The progression] from the first day to the thirtieth day [of a lunar month] is hua (transformation). Having reached this thirtieth day, concluded and made one month, the next day belongs to the next month. This is pien (change)." This "change" distinction also applied to lines in the Yijing hexagrams, which are either unbroken, solid Yang lines or broken, open Yin ones: "Pien is from a yin [line] to a yang [line]. [It] changes suddenly. Therefore, it is called "change" (pien). [The change] from yin to yang naturally grows to become sudden. This is called change. From yang to yin, it gradually goes on vanishing and wearing out."
Zhu Xi used the bian/hua distinction to explain a difficult passage in the Doctrine of the Mean[44] – "When moved, it is change; when changed, it is transformed [動則變，變則化]" – "When changed, its old conventions have already been altered, but there still are traces. When transformed, they have completely vanished and transformed, and there are no longer any traces."
Bianhua continues to be a
See also
- Bianwen (transformation texts) 變文 "transformation texts", an early vernacular literary form in Chinese literature
- 變化 Change, an album by the Singaporean singer Derrick Hoh
- subjectivity, and spiritual transformation
References
- Erkes, Eduard (1945). "Ho-Shang-Kung's Commentary on Lao-tse (part I)". Artibus Asiae. 8 (2/4): 121–196. JSTOR 3248186.
- Kim, Yung Sik (2000). The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi (1130-1200). American Philosophical Society.
- T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China. Translated by Mair, Victor H. Harvard University Asia Center. 1989.
- Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu. Translated by Mair, Victor H. Bantam Books. 1994.
- The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China. Translated by Major, John S.; Queen, Sarah; Meyer, Andrew; Roth, Harold D. ISBN 9780231142045.
- Robinet, Isabelle (August 1979). "Metamorphosis and Deliverance from the Corpse in Taoism". History of Religions. 19 (1). S2CID 162324813.
- Robinet, Isabelle (1993). Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. SUNY Press.
- Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei Pien of Ko Hung. Translated by Ware, James R. ISBN 9780262230223.
- Wilhelm, Richard; Baynes, Cary (1967) [1950]. The I Ching or Book of Changes (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.
Footnotes
- ^ Chao Yuen Ren (1968), A Grammar of Spoken Chinese, University of Califoprnia Press. p. 375.
- ^ Schuessler, Axel (2007), ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, University of Hawaii Press. pp. 166, 222.
- ^ Simon, Walter (1957), "Two Final Consonant Clusters in Archaic Tibetan", Academia Sinica: Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology (Studies Presented to Yuen Ren Chao on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday), 29.1: 87-90.
- ISBN 9780824827663.
- ^ Mair 1989, p. 44.
- ^ Wenlin dictionary, 2012.[full citation needed]
- ^ ISBN 9780521058001.
- ^ Porkert, Manfred (1978), The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence, MIT Press, p. 44; quoted by Mair 1989, p. 44.
- ^ Major et al 2010, p. 871.
- ^ Chan, Wing-Tsit (1952), "Basic Chinese Philosophical Concepts", Philosophy East and West 2.2: 166-170. p. 166.
- ^ Robinet 1993, p. 153.
- ^ Tr. Rickett, W. Allyn, tr. (1998), Guanzi, Princeton University Press. p. 82.
- ^ Tr. Wilhelm & Baynes 1967, p. 371.
- ^ From Nielsen, Brent (2013), A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology, Routledge. p. 115.
- ^ Tr. Wilhelm & Baynes 1967, p. 304.
- ^ Tr. Wilhelm & Baynes 1967, p. 313.
- ^ Tr. Wilhelm & Baynes 1967, p. 320.
- ^ ISBN 9780700712007.
- ^ Tr. Mair 1994, p. 123.
- ^ Tr. Mair 1994, p. 3.
- ^ Tr. Mair 1994, p. 24.
- ^ Tr. Mair 1994, pp. 172–3.
- ^ Tr. Mair 1994, p. 58.
- ^ Tr. Major et al 2010, p. 252.
- ^ Tr. Major et al 2010, p. 399.
- ^ Robinet 1993, p. 155.
- ^ Tr. Erkes 1945, pp. 170–1.
- ^ Tr. Erkes 1945, p. 190.
- ^ Tr. Robinet 1993, p. 157.
- ^ Kohn, Livia (2008), "Laozi bianhua jing 老子變化經 "Scripture of the Transformations of Laozi"", in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. by Fabrizio Pregadio, Routledge, 617-619. p. 617.
- ^ Sivin, Nathan (1991), "Change and Continuity in Early Cosmology: The Great Commentary to the Book of Changes", in Yamada Keiji and Tanaka Tan, eds. Chūgoku kodai kagakushi ron [Studies in the history of ancient Chinese science], 2 vols., Kyōto daigaku Jinbun kagaku kenkyūjo, 1989-1991, 2: 3-43.
- ^ Robinet, Isabelle (2000), "Shangqing: Highest Clarity", in Daoism Handbook, ed. by Livia Kohn, E. J. Brill, 196-224. p. 219.
- ^ Robinet 1979, pp. 43–6.
- ^ Tr. Ware1966, p. 306.
- ^ Tr. Ware1966, pp. 262–3.
- ^ Tr. Robinet 1993, p. 157.
- ^ Robinet 1979, p. 42.
- Muller, Charles (2014), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism.
- ^ Monier-Williams, Monier (1899), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European languages, revised by E. Leumann, C. Cappeller, et al., Clarendon Press.
- ^ Mair 1989, p. 68.
- ^ Mair 1989, pp. 43–5.
- ^ Tr. Wilhelm & Baynes 1967, p. 323.
- ^ Tr. Kim 2000, p. 128.
- ^ Tr. Kim 2000, p. 129.
Further reading
- Graham, Angus C. (1993), Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, Institute of East Asian Philosophies.
- Soothill, William Edward and Lewis Hodous (1937), A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms: with Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali Index, Kegan Paul.
External links
- Bianhua, About.com
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