論〈三德〉之陰陽思想

＂Three Virtues＂ talked about the heavenly norms, the heavenly timing, the heavenly propriety, and the heavenly decrees, emphasizing that the heavenly norms had to be obeyed in order to suit the ways of nature. If not, light would become darkness, and darkness life; then catastrophes would be inevitable. Cao Feng considered ＂Three Virtues＂ to be close to Taoism; Fan Chang-xi and Ou-yang Zhen thought it was more Confucian. Wang Zhong-jiang saw that, more than the natural reason of Taoism and the humanistic reason of Confucianism, ＂Three Virtues＂ also possessed religious providentialism. Though all these scholars' arguments were legitimate to a certain degree, we could hardly understand ＂Three Virtues＂ without inquiring its origin, the thought of yin/yang (light and darkness). In this article, we discuss the original meanings, extended meanings and borrowed meanings of ying-yang in order to judge how it is presented throughout the text.