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Conceptual Blending, Chinese Five Element Theory, and Cognitive Coherence

Nathan Davis—M.A. Thesis

Dept. of Cognitive Linguistics

Sussex University 2006

Abstract

Chinese medicine is an ancient form of health care that has relied heavily upon analogical thinking in order to build a complex system of

knowledge networks. Cognitive linguistics is a modern approach to understanding encyclopaedic knowledge networks within the human

mind. In this study conceptual blending theory—from cognitive science and linguistics—is utilized to illustrate possible cognitive constructs

within the Chinese five-element theory of Chinese medical philosophy. Chinese five-element theory uses a system of analogy and metaphor

to understand cosmological patterns of interaction, both within the human body and through interaction with environmental factors.

Conceptual blending theory provides a model through which the cognitive reality of these analogical connections can be illustrated and

understood by the Western scientific mind. In order to achieve this goal, extensive introductions have been provided to both conceptual

blending theory and Chinese five-element theory. This is followed by a series of cognitive models created through the application of

conceptual blending to five-element theory. This theoretical data analysis is intended to provide a basis for further study into the application

of conceptual blending theory to Chinese scientific philosophy.

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Conceptual Blending, Chinese Five Element Theory, and Cognitive Coherence

Nathan Davis M.A. Thesis

University of Sussex—Cognitive Linguistics Dept.

Under supervision of: Vyv Evans

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SUMMARY

This case study represents the first step toward establishing mutually beneficial avenues of communication and research between cognitive

science and Chinese medicine. The relevance of such an endeavour is established by aligning the similarities between both systems—such as

“levels of truth” and metaphoric extension of embodied experience. Upon establishing connections between both systems a more detailed

case study is carried out by applying conceptual blending theory from cognitive science to Yin-Yang and Five Element theories in Chinese

medicine. Conceptual blending provides the means by which the cognitive networks behind these knowledge systems can be modeled and

available to conscious awareness. This case study begins the process of modeling the conceptual integration networks involved in both

theories and their metaphoric extension of embodied experience to abstract objective patterns of interaction in the world

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1. INTRODUCTION—

Mapping Yin/Yang and Five Element Theoretical Frameworks Through Conceptual Blending Theory

1.1. Relevant Research in Conceptual Blending and Cognitive Science………………………………………p. 11

1.2. Toward Mapping Cognitive Network Constructs of Chinese Medicine…………………………………..p. 12

1.3. Cognitive Understanding of Systems………………………………………...…………………………….p. 14

1.4. A Case Study of Conceptual Blending in Chinese Medical Theories of Yin-Yang and The Five

Elements……………………………………….……………………………………………………………p. 16

2. OVERVIEW—A Brief History of Both Sets of Theories: Conceptual Blending and Chinese Medical Theories

2.1. A Brief History of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements Interactions…………………………………………p. 16

2.2. Establishing Chinese Medicine as a System of Knowledge—

A Detailed Orientation to Relevant Medical Theories………………………………………………………p. 17

2.3. Causation—Self-Limiting Western Perspectives……………………………………………………………p. 25

2.4. Toward Mapping the Cognitive Framework of Chinese Medical Philosophies of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements

through Conceptual Blending Networks……………………………………………………………………p. 27

2.5. Introduction to Conceptual Blending Theory………………………………………………………………p. 29

2.6. Accessing Belief Systems Through Language……………………………………………………………..p. 31

2.7. Why Apply Conceptual Blending Theory to Chinese Medical Philosophy……………………………….p. 32

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3. ANALYSIS

3.1. The Integration Network in Chinese Medical Theory—

Yin-Yang and the Five Element Patterns of Interaction………………………………………………………p. 33

3.2. The Foundation: Yin-Yang Cycle—Creation of Cosmological Systems (Figs. 1-2b) ……………………….p. 33

3.3. System Operation: The Five Element Patterns of Interaction (Figs. 3-3i) ……………………………………p. 44

3.4. System Established: Prepared for Extension (Figs. 4-4d) …………………………………………………….p. 62

3.5. Network Extension……………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 71

4. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 72

APPENDICIES:

Appendix 1: Yin-Yang Correspondences…………………………………………………………………………………p. 75

Appendix 2: Five Element Correspondences………………………………………………………………………………p. 76

Appendix 3: Yin-Yang Cycle Correspondences and Icons…………………………………………………………………..p. 77

Appendix 4: Five Element Qualities and Image-Schematic Representations………………………………………………….p. 78

Appendix 5: Icons and Image-Schematic Representations…………………………………………………………………..p. 79

Appendix 6: Image-Schematic Phenomenological Motion-Organ Icon Blend…………………………………………………p. 80

Appendix 7: Complex Cross-Space Mapping—Generating/Controlling Seq. …………………………………………………p. 81

Appendix 8: Conceptual Blend Model... ………………………………………………………………………………….p. 82

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…pp. 83, 84

Grade & Reviews: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….p. 85

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LIST OF FIGURES:

Fig Y.—YIN-YANG

CYCLE……………………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 21

Fig 1—Yin-Yang Cycle Network Blend—Blend 1……………………………………………………………………..p. 36

Fig 1a—Yin-Yang Cycle Blend: Cyclic Day/ Cardinal Directions………………………………………………………..p. 37

Fig 1b—Yin-Yang Cycle Blend: Seasons/ Phenomenological Motion…………………………………………………….p. 38

Fig 1c—Yin-Yang Multi-Scope Blend: Compressed Cycles of Space and Time…………………………………………..p. 39

Fig 2a—Blend 1 (G25): Lexical Information: Yin-Yang Cycle, Phenomenological motion………………………………...p. 41

Fig 2b— Blend 1 (G25): Image-Schematic: Yin-Yang Cycle, Phenomenological motion………………………………….p. 42

—EXTENSION OF YIN-YANG CYCLE TO FIVE ELEMENT PATTERNS:

Fig 3—Yin-Yang Cycle and Five Element Sequences Network Blend—Blend 2………………………………………….p. 43

Fig 3a—Blend 2a: Yin-Yang Cycle, Phenomenological Motion, Material Substance………………………………………p. 48

Fig 3b—Blend 2a: Lexically Elaborated……………………………………………………………………………….p. 49

Fig 3c—Blend 2a: Image-Schematic Cross-Space Mappings……………………………………………………………..p. 50

Fig 3d—Blend 2b: Five Element Generating and Controlling Sequences Blend……………………………………………p. 53

Fig 3e— Blend 2b: Image-Schematic Content Five Element Sequences Blend……………………………………………..p. 54

Fig 3f— Blend 2b: Lexically Elaborated Five Element Sequences Blend………………………………………………….p. 55

Fig 3g— Blend 2: Complete Five Element Patterns of Interaction Blend…………………………………………………..p. 59

Fig 3h— Blend 2: Image-Schematic Content of Five Element Patterns of Interaction Blend………………………………...p. 60

Fig 3i— Blend 2: Content of Five Element Patterns of Interaction Blend…………………………………………………..p. 61

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LIST OF FIGURES CONT.

EXTENSION OF FIVE ELEMENT PATTERNS TO CORRESPONDENCES

Fig 4—Blend 3: Extension of Five Element Sequences to Additional Correspondences……………………………………………p. 66

Fig 4a—Blend 3: Highlighted Aspects of Mental Spaces in Blend 3……………………………………………………………..p. 67

Fig 4b—Blend 3a: Representative Element-Organ Blend: Generating Sequence………………………………………………….p. 68

Fig 4c— Blend 3b: Representative Element-Organ Blend: Controlling Sequence…………………………………………………p. 69

Fig 4d— Blend 3c: Representative Element-Organ Blend: All Five Element Sequences……………………………………………p. 70

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PREFACE

The idea for this dissertation came to me long before I ever heard of cognitive linguistics or conceptual blending theory. Well, maybe not the

exact idea but the inspiration for this study started a long time ago. It started with my desire to study Chinese medicine a number of years

ago. After years of continually changing my area of study and searching for what it was that I really wanted to focus on, I realized that I’m

really after “knowledge” itself—the search for “truth” maybe. My primary area of focus has always been the healthy function of the human

body and interaction within the cosmos. This has lead me to switch my studies from psychology, to religion, to nutrition and medical

sciences, to English language teaching, to more recently cognitive linguistics. So, how does this relate to Chinese medicine?—and even more

importantly to cognitive linguistics! Well, I was drawn to study Chinese medicine—while studying nutrition— because I realized that

Chinese medicine has maintained an intricate system for understanding such interactions of the human body—mind, body, and spirit—with

the objective world for thousands of years. This lead me to become an English teacher so that I could live in Asia and study Chinese

medicine at its roots. After only a very short period of time in Asia I realized that studying Chinese medicine at its roots cannot be

approached in the same way as Western studies. Chinese medicine maintains a pluralistic system with respect for systems of knowledge and

practice at different levels that ultimately holds the individual practitioner responsible for achieving global understanding of objective patterns

interaction. This understanding is situated upon complex layers of conceptual integration of systems of form and meaning. It became evident

that simply trying to “translate” the ideas is not very feasible. Lexical information is only the very surface level of the infinitely complex

conceptual systems that lie below “the tip of the iceberg.” I then realized that information transmission ran far deeper than just its linguistic

manifestation. This led me to search linguistics programs for a way to study about the human conceptual system through language. Much to

my amazing there is a field called “cognitive linguistics.” So, here I am studying cognitive linguistics. I came to cognitive linguistics

expecting to obtain a set of established tools that I could apply to function in the world. What I found was a study that is still diligently

working to define, refine, and redefine tools for setting out to achieve the tasks that they have come to realize as critical during this present

day and time. I found that if I want to be able to apply these theories to anything I’m going to either have to be patient enough for others to

establish these tools or I’m going to have to contribute to the process. I was relatively discouraged until I found conceptual blending theory.

Upon expressing my gratitude recently to Gilles Fauconnier, he informed me that Mark Turner—I hope I’m representing this correctly—told

him that he couldn’t introduce diagrams of the sort that he intended in conceptual blending theory—as seen in The Way We Think. I’ve come

to understand that I don’t “think” the same way as most linguists and for the most part my program has been an extreme rollercoaster of first

understand what my instructors are trying to explain to me and then—the most arduous task of all—communicate my understanding back in a

coherent way. This work is a move out of this curve, though maybe not by leaps and bounds. It has been repeatedly pointed out that the task

that I’ve undertaken in this study is “ambitious”—or immensely large to say the least. I do realized this, but it is the only effort to which I am

drawn. I don’t expect this work to warrant amazing marks or outstanding comments, my only hopes are that it is evident that I do understand

the theories put forth in this paper and that the models created for this study coherently represent such an understanding to all those who read

it—regardless of their theoretical background. As this endeavour did prove to be much larger than was initially realized, and the space

allotted proved to be relatively small, the data analysis is not as intricately outlined as perhaps it could be in a much larger study. The data

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and sources for the study came almost entirely from Sussex University holdings. Almost every single text—on both cognitive linguistics and

Chinese medicine—came from Sussex library. It is surprising that the Sussex library has such holdings. Most journal articles also came

through the Sussex library online journal database. A few additional sources came from internet sites and personal pages from various

researchers. The only other source of information and inspiration was from conversations with Gilles Fauconnier at the recent First UK

Postgraduate Conference in Cognitive Linguistics. I should also express my gratitude to those who have made this program available to me,

and for such an amazing opportunity to consider another perspective and have my ass kicked forcing myself to think about things in a

completely different way than I’m used to academically. I should therefore thank all those in the linguistics department at Sussex University

involved in creating and maintaining the cognitive linguistics program, all those who were involved directly in teaching the program—

Vyvyan Evans, Melanie Green, and Stephanie Pourcel; all of those who were involved in initiating and organizing the recent conferences in

cognitive linguistics at Sussex—especially Chris Sinha, Anu Koskela, and those previously mentioned; and John Sung for his foresight and

help in dealing with the frustration of learning to communicate in an entirely new way—transitioning from a science background to the field

of linguistics. It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t represented my capacity to achieve the task at hand very well for numerous assignments.

This dissertation and case study represents the final step in a very compressed, very intense, very beneficial program of study. It is not

developed as it could be—given more space and time. Though, I should hope that it has been developed enough to meet the goal of

representing a sufficient understanding of the two sets of theories at hand—conceptual blending theory and Chinese Yin-Yang and Five

Element theories. It is with this in mind that I present to you: Conceptual Blending Theory, Chinese Five Element Theory, and Cognitive

Coherence.

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Chinese medicine heals in a world of unceasing transformation. This condition of constant change, this fluidity

of material forms, stands in sharp contrast to a (modern Western) commonsense world of discrete entities

characterized by fixed essences, which seem to be exhaustively describable in structural terms. Theories of

relativity and indeterminacy notwithstanding, in our everyday life we still assume a Newtonian world of inertial

masses, a world in which motion and change result from causes external to entities. Events must be accounted

for in a logic of cause and effect, an ultimately mechanical relationship that requires the radical reduction of the

plenum of phenomena to its most effective or significant elements. In this process a single reality, both

universal and originary, is never (never quite completely) constructed as it is “described.” Basic changes in

object status and life and death per se remain final mysteries that seem to escape the reductionist and causal

logics of “science.” In other words, phenomena that are not easily reduced to quantifiable relations between

discrete objects or analyzed as a system of “structures” and “functions” are a problem for explanatory methods

grounded in Western materialist metaphysics.”

Farquhar 1994:25

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1. INTRODUCTION— Mapping Yin/Yang and Five Element

Theoretical Through Conceptual Blending Theory

Frameworks

1.1. Relevant Research in Conceptual Blending and

Cognitive Science

Why should Conceptual Blending Theory be applied to Chinese

medical theories of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements? Such a

question is complexly detailed below the surface, but the answer

on the very “tip of the iceberg” is quite simple. The simple

answer: Because these theories obviously create complex systems

of conceptual integration. While the employed metaphoric

extensions of Chinese medical theories are blatantly obvious, it is

their cognitive structure—the complexities involved in their global

coherence—that remains a mystery to the Western mind. While

the intricacies below the surface have remained largely

inaccessible to the Western analytic mind, recent advances in the

field of cognitive science and linguistics provide the potential for

modeling this seemingly distant structure. Studying such

theoretical frameworks from a cognitive perspective allows for

structured mapping of the theories themselves, creating avenues of

grounded communication between both theoretical perspectives

and allowing for “levels of truth.” Varela, Thompson, and Rosch

have been successful in developing such a “dialogue” between

cognitive science and the Buddhist tradition in order to further

understanding the embodied mind (1993). Lakoff and Johnson, in

their seminal work Metaphors We Live By, illustrate the critical

role of metaphor as a fundamental mechanism utilized by the mind

to align all aspects of our embodied experience as human beings

(1980). While many have followed suit and utilized this key

insight to understand varying levels of knowledge and information

systems, of high relevance is work done on Chinese language and

philosophical ideas. Yu Ning has done much research into the

nature of metaphor usage in Mandarin—also providing supporting

evidence for the existence of metaphorical universals like

“ANGER IS HEAT” and “TIME AS SPACE” (1998). In

researching the role of language in shaping thought Boroditsky

utilized cognitive theories to reveal key differences in

conceptualization across languages. While these studies have all

utilized key insights from cognitive science and linguistics to look

at the nature of the embodied mind, conceptual structure, and

metaphoric extension, of higher relevance is work done utilizing

the specific theory considered in this study: conceptual blending.

Conceptual blending theory has been applied to everything from

cartoons and humour (Coulson 2005), to math (Lakoff and Nunez

2000), to magic, ritual, and religion (Sorensen; Sweetser 2000) to

molecular genetics (John Sung In prep.) and even Chinese

philosophy (Slingerland 2005). But no attempts are known of that

apply conceptual blending theory to theories of Yin-Yang and Five

Elements in Chinese medical science. The only work possibly

alluding to such an endeavour is a study that came into light during

the very last steps of this work. Yu Ning wrote a little known

article in 1995 analyzing the role of metaphoric extension in the

conceptualization of emotions in English and Chinese. In this

article Yu looks at conceptualizations of emotion in both languages

as culturally situated embodied experience. He considers the

tendency of Chinese—over English to express emotion in terms of

metaphoric extensions of human body parts. Of high relevance to

this study is the fact that he gives special attention to the role of

Yin-Yang and Five Elements theories in conceptualizing emotions

as metaphorical extensions of human body parts, especially

internal organs. Yu states that “these theories form a cognitive or

cultural model underlying the metaphorical conceptualization in

Chinese” (Yu 1995:59). It is upon such a realization that we set

forth to model these theories—Yin-Yang and Five Elements—as

metaphorically extended systems of embodied understanding.

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1.2. Toward Mapping Cognitive Network Constructs of

Chinese Medicine

1.2.1. Embodied Conceptual Structure and

Categorization

Now that we have introduced relevant work in cognitive

linguistics—in metaphor theory and conceptual blending—we

should establish some key insights in the field of cognitive science

and linguistics that lay the groundwork for application of these

theories to Chinese medicine. Following in the footsteps of

Varela—as he began to lay the foundation for lines of

communication between the Buddhist tradition and cognitive

science—our first consideration is cognitive understanding of the

embodied mind. Lakoff and Johnson have also provided key

insights into this area in their extensive work Philosophy in the

Flesh (1999). This work provided key insights for this study and

serves as a basis for much of the following information provided in

this work on the key insights of cognitive science. In explaining

the human mind, they assert that as neural beings we are subject to

our embodied minds. The nature of our neurological structure

leads to categorization—all living things categorize. This

categorization is organized according to the types of bodies we

have, not conscious reasoning. These categories are linked to

concepts and embodied experience according to our neurological

structures. “We divide the world up into entities at human scale so

that we can manipulate them in human lives, and this division of

the world is an imaginative achievement” (Fauconnier and Turner

2002:8). In fact all living creatures divide the world up into

categories based on the types of biological and neurological

structures that we possess. They also point out the role of

categories in language: “In other words, according to the cognitive

framework, the same principles that hold for categorization in

general also hold for linguistic categorization” (2006:43). So, as

neural beings we are subject to categorization and this

categorization is present in every single bit of our neurological

structure—our embodied mind if you will. Along with

categorization, concepts are also neurological structures and “any

mental construct is realized neurally (Lakoff and Johnson

1999:19,20). Our neurologically based conceptual structures serve

as a rich framework by which everyday embodied experience is

structured and connected to our sensorimotor system. This

correlation of our sensorimotor system to embodied

conceptualization works to serve our functioning within our

physical environment (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:43,44). Abstract

subjective experience is then conceptualized through metaphoric

extension of sensorimotor experience. Domains of subjective

experience are therefore understood using conventional mental

imagery from sensorimotor domains. Common subjective

experience is also conceptualized through metaphor and is

extremely evident in thought and language. All of this information

is structured according to our neurological structures and is linked

to encyclopaedic networks of knowledge.

1.2.2. Structured Encyclopaedic Knowledge—

Building Metaphors and Establishing Networks

Evans and Green provide a two-part thesis of encyclopaedic

knowledge: 1) semantic structure “provides access to a large

inventory of structured knowledge (the conceptual system)” and

“word meaning cannot be understood independently of the vast

repository of encyclopaedic knowledge to which it is linked.” 2)

“this encyclopaedic knowledge is grounded in human interaction

with others and the world around us (physical experience)”

(2006:206). They go on to consider language as accessing

encyclopaedic knowledge to provide simulations of perceptual

experience. This structured knowledge system is external to

linguistic knowledge, “falling within the domain of ‘world

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knowledge’” (2006:208). The concepts contained in this vast

network of encyclopaedic information shape our views of reality

and every aspect of our embodied experience. “The concepts we

have access to and the nature of the ‘reality’ we think and talk

about are a function of our embodiment: we can only talk about

what we can perceive and conceive, and the things that we can

perceive and conceive derive from embodied experience (Evans

and Green 2006:46). We must therefore conclude that the human

mind is shaped by embodied experience. This embodied

experience give rise to image schemas around which details can be

filled in. “If image schemas arise from bodily experience, then we

may be able to explain conceptual metaphor on the basis that it

maps rich and detailed structure from concrete domains of

experience onto more abstract and conceptual domains” (Evans

and Green 2006:164). Mapping across the domains of

sensorimotor and subjective experience are therefore experientially

grounded. Subjective judgment is conceptualized in terms of

sensorimotor experience—i.e. More is Up/Less is Down (Lakoff

and Johnson 1999:47,48). These experientially correlated

conceptualizations are conflated early in life and the coactive

domains are not experienced as separate, but the associations

remain after being later differentiated via cross-space mapping.

Such conflated associations serve as the basis for learning primary

conceptual metaphors. These primary metaphors are not only

linguistic in nature, but can also be found in grammar, gesture, art,

ritual, etc. Complex metaphors are then built upon long-term

coactive primary metaphors with the simple primary metaphors

understood as being atomic components of “the molecular

structure of complex metaphors” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:49).

In summary we will consider the key points of second generation

cognitive science as provided by Lakoff and Johnson: Conceptual

structure arises from sensorimoror experience,” mental structures

have meaning because of embodied experience, basic level

concepts arise from motor schemas, “our brains are structured so

as to project activations patterns (primary metaphors) from

sensorimotor areas to higher cortical areas,” reason is embodied by

virtue of having arisen from sensorimotor experience, “reason is

imaginative in that bodily inference forms are mapped onto

abstract modes of inference by metaphor,” and “conceptual

systems are pluralistic in nature” with abstract concepts being

defined by multiple conceptual metaphors (1999:77, 78).

1.2.3. How do Chinese Medical Theories of Yin-

Yang and Five Elements fit into the Overall

Network?

Now that cognitive principles of experientially motivated metaphor

extension and neural network organization have been established,

it is now necessary to illustrate how Chinese medical theories are

organized into this network. As one of the very first students of

Western medicine to be allowed into China, David Eisenberg

reports that Chinese medicine is “based on three thousand years of

observation and philosophy, not on the scientific method of my

Harvard medical instructors. My Western training relied heavily

on causal relations, structure, and quantitative changes. The

Chinese, by contrast, recognized patterns defined by a circular

system of logic” (1995:34). Chinese medicine works to understand

patterns of interaction based upon “the link among apparently

unrelated phenomena as a kind of “resonance” among them”

(Maciocia 1989:20). Based upon this understanding they work to

understand the resonance of the human body with all patterns in

nature. This relationship is established through an elaborate

system of correspondences that are established by rote learning and

then verified in practice. Maciocia also states that while this may

seem far-fetched “some of these correspondences are commonly

verified and experienced all the time in clinical practice”

(1989:20). Yu illustrates how “resonance” can be conceptualized

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through metaphor—i.e. GALLBLADDER IS CONTAINER OF

COURAGE and COURAGE IS QI (GASEOUS VITAL ENERGY)

IN GALLBLADDER (2003b). Maciocia goes on to explain that

this theoretical framework is a model, so it is subject to

inconsistencies and one must be careful not to loose sight of other

aspects of human body function when used in practice. One must

be careful not to overextend the symbols in ways that supersede

what they are representing. But “when properly used, however,

the symbols can provide a quick and effective model to refer to in

clinical practice and a guideline for diagnosis and treatment”

(Maciocia 1989:22). Yin-Yang and Five Element theories

represent two foundational theories of this symbolic representation.

The symbolic systems utilized by these theories hold true on

varying levels. Not every metaphorical extension is equally

meaningful—some relationships have very deep implications,

while others are not as useful. The system of metaphoric

extensions—or correspondences as they are referred to within the

theories—have “wide applications in human physiology” and other

areas of practice. It is important to note that, while these

extensions are cognitively metaphoric they are conceptualized

within Chinese medicine as resonating, even outside of human

conceptualization. “It could be said that these phenomena

‘resonate’ at a particular frequency and have particular qualities

which respond to a certain Element,” and various different

phenomena are “unified by an indefinable common quality, much

as two strings would vibrate in unison” (1989:20,24). These

theories are most obviously applied in clinical treatment to

physiology and human organs where “each organ is seen as a

sphere of influence which encompasses many functions and

phenomena beyond the organ itself” (Maciocia 1989:24). As

mentioned previously, Yu illustrates emotional expression in

Chinese by metaphoric extension of body-parts. He notices two

major types of idiomatic expressions of body terms. The first is

external body parts, which are almost always metonymic.

Emotions are described in terms of their observably correlated

bodily movements and processes—though they become extended

metaphorically—independent of “emotional symptoms or

gestures”—once they are conventionalized. The second is internal

body parts, which are metaphorically extended to provide a frame

of imaginary bodily images. While based in metaphor, it can be

seen that these “metaphoric” extensions of bodily organs, “though

imaginary in nature, are not really all arbitrary. They seem to have

a bodily or psychological basis” (Yu 2002). Yin-Yang and Five

Element theories create an intricate system of cognitively extended

metaphors that “provide a comprehensive and clinically useful

model of relationships” the human body and our environment

(Maciocia 1989:25).

1.3. Cognitive Understanding of Systems

1.3.1. Systems of Knowledge in “The Age of Form”

Having given an overview of how cognitive networks are

established, and having also provided evidence that Chinese

medical theories can be represented by such networks, our next

step is look at how individual knowledge systems are created

within this vast network. In order to do this we must first look into

nature of knowledge structures and conceptual systems and how

they are situated in the cognitive unconscious. Fauconnier and

Turner have pointed out—contrary to the views of analytic

philosophers—that systems of form and meaning are so deeply

intertwined that it is not possible to separate the two (2002:11).

Analytical philosophers have distanced themselves from analogy

and become blind to the complex imaginative operations of

meaning to the extent that figurative thought has been excluded

from “core meaning.” Given such a blinded view, systematic

exploration of the cognitive unconscious has been avoided. So

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profound is this realization of the interconnectedness of form and

meaning that they state: “In the evolutionary descent of our

species, in the history of science, and in the developmental history

of an individual person, systems of form and systems of meaning

construction intertwine, so that it is not possible to view them as

separable” (11). While systems of form and meaning are not the

same, they are so deeply connected and mutually grounded that it

is impossible to have one without the other. Formal approaches

over-emphasize the identity and form by assuming that behind

every form is yet another form. This leaves a lack of interest in

analogy, which is seen as lacking precision and accuracy. This

ignores the profound role of analogy as “a powerful engine of

discovery” (14). Analogy became regarded as a vague form of

thinking and only mere intuition. What was lacking for

understanding of the role of analogical thinking was formal

mechanisms for representation of analogy as a cognitive operation.

It was not until after the discovery of the cognitive basis of

metaphors that analogical thinking began to gain respect again

from Western philosophical perspectives. Now, “work in a

number of fields is converging toward the rehabilitation of

imagination as a fundamental scientific topic, since it is the central

engine of meaning behind the most ordinary mental events” (15).

Having recognized the cognitive reality of analogical thinking, a

framework can be created for modeling its structure. What we

consciously have access to is only “the tip of the iceberg,” below

which lies the immense cognitive unconscious structure where

these analogical systems exist. Fauconnier and Turner recognize

that it seems “strange that the systematicity and intricacy of some

of our most basic and common mental abilities could go

unrecognized for so long” (2002:18). Modern science has been

very skeptical of such systems and has avoided systematically

investigating them altogether. Framing, analogy, metaphor,

grammar and commonsense reasoning are all involved in creating

cognitive structure and must necessarily be considered in modeling

its complexity. They therefore present conceptual blending as

“another basic mental operation, highly imaginative but crucial to

even the simplest kinds of thought (2002:18).

1.3.2. Application of Conceptual Blending to

Systems of Knowledge

As mentioned earlier, cognitive theories of metaphoric extension

and conceptual blending have been applied to many things—from

math, to magic, ritual, and religion, to cartoons, etc. Of particular

interest is Yu’s work on conceptual metaphors in Mandarin. In

one particular study on the metaphor THE MIND IS A BODY he

reports that “It is found that, while the Chinese expressions under

analysis largely conform to the conceptual mappings originally

derived from linguistic evidence in English (Lakoff and Johnson

1999), there exists a difference between these two languages that

reflects a significant difference between the related cultures. That

is Western culture’s binary contrast between the heart, the seat of

emotions, and the mind, the locus of thoughts, does not exist in

traditional Chinese culture, where the heart is conceptualized as

housing both emotions and thoughts. It is a case in which different

cultural models interpret the functioning of the mind and the body

differently.” (Yu 2003a:1) In another study he considers the use of

metaphor in Chinese medicine where he reports “The study

presents a case in which an abstract concept (courage) is

understood in part via a conceptual metaphor grounded in the

body, but shaped by a culture-specific metaphorical understanding

of an internal organ (gallbladder) inside the body” (Yu 2003b:13).

It is upon this evidence that it is reaffirmed that Chinese medicine

and theories of Yin-Yang and Five Elements represent cognitive

systems that can be conceptually modeled.

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1.3.3. Chinese Medical Theories of Yin-Yang and

The Five Elements as Knowledge Systems

Systematic conceptual networks are present in Chinese cultural

understanding as reported by Yu: “A description and analysis of

the data from the Chinese language show that numerous

conventional expressions are systematically tied to each other and

contributive to the underlying conceptual metaphors” (2003b:13).

Volker Sheid also recognizes that Chinese medicine “can be

modeled as a dynamic process of simultaneous emergence and

disappearance” (2002:13). It is upon such ideas of non-reducible

pluralities and the possibility of modeling the Chinese medical

theories of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements as systems of

simultaneous emergence and disappearance that we continue on

toward our analysis of conceptual blending.

1.4. A Case Study of Conceptual Blending in Chinese

Medical Theories of Yin-Yang and The Five Elements

We should note here briefly that our primary goal is to conduct a

case study of Chinese medical theories of Yin-Yang and Five

Elements as an illustrated complex knowledge system within the

larger human cognitive framework. We will be utilizing key

insights and models provided by conceptual blending theory to

look at specific mechanisms involved in the creation of these

elaborate knowledge systems.

2. OVERVIEW— A Brief History of Both Sets of Theories:

Conceptual Blending and Chinese Medical Theories

2.1. A Brief History of Yin-Yang and the Five Element

Interactions

Chinese Yin-Yang and Five Element theories have been applied to

various aspects of life and philosophy and have fluctuated in

popularity and usage over the years. Its immense popularity

during times like the Warring States period can be seen by its use

from everything from medicine, to astrology, to the calendar, to

music, to science, and even politics (Maciocia 1989:16). As

pointed out by Sivin: “As in Europe before modern science, much

Chinese medical language was borrowed from common speech”

(1987:43). Yin-Yang arose earlier, with references dating back to

the Zhou dynasty (circ. 100-770 BC), with the Five Element

coming later—still dating back as far as the Warring States Period

(476-221 BC). The emergence of these theories marks a transition

in medical philosophy as he “beginning of what one might call

“scientific” medicine and a departure from Shamanism” (Maciocia

1989:16). Healing was no longer conceptualized as purely

supernatural but reasoned. Healers no longer looked for a

supernatural cause of disease as “they now observe Nature and,

with a combination of inductive and deductive method, they set out

to find patterns within it and, by extension, apply these in the

interpretation of disease” (1989:16). The significance of the

theories is embedded in their representation of different qualities of

natural phenomena. Maciocia cautions that the theories do have

their limitations. “The basic limitation lies in the fact that the 5-

Element model of correspondences became a rigid model of

relationships between individual parts, and, in the process of fitting

everything into a 5-fold classification, many assumptions and far-

fetched correlations had to be made” (1989:26). The Five

Elements create a one-to-one system of correlations between

phenomena—i.e. Liver-eyes, Kidney-ears, and Spleen-muscles.

While useful, it must be utilized with recognition of its limitations.

While such correlations are useful in clinical practice, the essence

of CM “is to see the whole disharmony and weave a pattern of

various signs and symptoms” (1989:26). Maciocia again notes that

there are contrasts in the patterns of various theories within

Chinese medicine in that “one part could be related to a certain

organ in the presence of a certain pattern, but to another organ in

17

the presence of a different pattern” (1989:26). Some

characterization therefore lies outside of these models.

2.2. Establishing Chinese Medicine as a System of

Knowledge—A Detailed Orientation to Relevant

Medical Theories

With Yin-Yang and Five Element theories established as

knowledge systems and functional models of human body

interaction—limitations an all—we now set forth to give a detailed

overview of each theory. Liu beautifully summarizes the

complexity of the Chinese medical understanding of human health:

“Traditional Chinese medicine has a

way of thinking called ‘one dividing

into two.’ The human body can be

divided into two without end—into

pairs of opposing forces, functions,

or parts… These pairs, in opposition

to each other, each explain the

functioning of the whole organism.

If one pair were separated from the

whole, it would no longer possess its

original functional properties (Liu

1995:9)

While complete formal assessment of every intricate detail of such

an infinitely complex system of interactions is equally as

impossible, achieving global understanding of the unified whole by

metaphoric extension is not only possible it’s very evident in

Chinese medicine. Eisenberg strengthens this assertion with his

statement about Chinese eight parameters theory: “A patient’s

symptoms and physical examination (tongue, pulse, etc.) enable

the traditional doctor to recognize a pattern of illness in terms of

‘the eight parameters.’ This then becomes a diagnosis.

Pneumonia might be called ‘an excess of heat in the ‘lung’ with a

deficiency of Qi.’ Subsequent treatment with herbs or needles or

diet would aim to correct this imbalance” (1995:56). Sivin refers

to an ancient Chinese medical entitled Mental Dharmas of Eruptive

Disorders to illustrate the understanding of Chinese Medicine as a

system of pattern representation: Medicine” [yi] means “meaning”

[yi]. [The inner meanings of medicine, the patterns of vital

processes] may be apprehended by the mind, but cannot be

transmitted in words. Because these inherent patterns attain such

arcane subtlety [weiao], even though the mind may achieve great

constancy [in contemplating them], in [therapeutic] doctrine there

can be no fixed rules. The interaction of hot and moist as governed

by yin and yang, the relations of mutual production and

overcoming among the Five Phases [Five Elements], change from

one moment to the next…” (1995:181). While it is noted that

these patterns may not be capable of being solely “transmitted”

through language, it is their linguistic—and ultimately cognitive—

modelling that makes them accessible to representation and global

understanding by the embodied mind. It is through linguistically

manifest conceptual structure that these patterns are understood

and transmitted between individuals. It is upon the recognition of

these linguistic manifestations of cognitive models that we set

forth to analyze the complex conceptual networks created in

Chinese medicine to represent universal patterns of interaction.

2.2.1. A Brief Note on Translations

In speaking of Chinese medicine, it is necessary to note that all

information comes originally from the Chinese. This poses big

challenges and dilemmas when choosing the most appropriate

representation for different Chinese characters. Special

consideration must be given to both how each lexical item is

18

spelled and also to how each item provides access to the

knowledge network.

2.2.2. Qi

Qi—also sometimes ch’i— is a vast subject in and of itself. This is

a foundational concept in the understanding the complex

interactions involved in the Yin-Yang and Five Element patterns of

interaction. It is roughly comparable to Western understanding of

energy or other “forces,” and is often translated as “vital energy.”

It is something that has no direct counterpart in everyday Western

understanding. An entire book was written on the dilemma of

translating this word into English—where it has no solid

counterpart (Yu, Zhang, Rose 2001). Fortunately, Yu briefly

illustrates metaphoric extension of the concept qi in Chinese. He

Shows that the abstract concept of courage is structured in part by

the conceptual metaphor “COURAGE IS QI (GASEOUS VITAL

ENERGY) IN GALLBLADDER,” where the metaphor is motivated

by a culturally situated concept of human body organs that posits

“GALLBLADDER IS CONTAINER OF COURAGE” (2003b:14).

He further asserts the deep-seated, experientially motivated

concepts of human body function—“Linguistic evidence suggests

that both of these conceptual metaphors exist in the core of the

Chinese cultural model for the concept of courage. Both of them

can be traced down to their deeper roots in the theory of internal

organs of traditional Chinese medicine that offers a unique

perspective of the functions of the gallbladder.” (Yu 2003b:14).

Sivin points out that until recently there was no separation

conceptions of energy and matter: “This is not a sign of deficient

curiosity, but of a tendency (like that of the Stoics of the West) to

think of stuff and its transformations in a unitary way” and qi may

be defined as “‘what makes things happen’ or ‘stuff’ in which

things happen” (Sivin 1987:47). It is both substance and activity:

“Qi has many faces in traditional Chinese medicine. The

predominant one is a rarefied substance that is constantly in

motion. The movement of qi is literally the activity of life. At the

same time, because it is a substance, qi is also viewed as one of the

fundamental materials for the construction of the body.” (Liu

1995:69). It is this “vital substance” or “activity of life” that is

understood to represent all material substance and patterns of

interaction—including the Yin-Yang Cycle and the Five Element

sequences.

2.2.3. Yin-Yang

Yin-Yang can most basically understood as the two extremes

involved in a dialectic system of complementary opposites, in

which opposite forces are both unified and the underlying cause of

change (Liu 1995:32). Obvious examples of Yang and Yin are:

light/dark; hot/cold; sun/moon; up/down; activity/rest; left/right;

time/space; South/North. Yin and Yang also represent aspects of

natural movement between opposing complements—of both

objects and phenomena. They can be two separate opposing

objects or phenomena, or they can be poles of opposition within a

single unitary object or phenomena. They are also mutually

dependent in that you can’t have one without the other, and

together they create unity. This interaction is characterized by a

constant state of motion as Yin and Yang are not static, but

dynamic aspects of every object and natural phenomena. “The

consumption of yang leads to a supporting (or gaining) of yin,

while the consumption of yin results in a supporting (or gaining) of

yang.” (Liu 1995:35). Sivin compares this system of

correspondences to Western views of physics as follows:

Any number of paired qualities or opposed

functions could be applied to almost any continuum

in Nature to demarcate significant aspects and

explore their interaction. We might think of all

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these pairs as instances of a completely general pair,

an opposed but complementary x and y for which

any pair could be substituted in its appropriate

concrete situation. Yang and yin as scientific and

medical concepts were precisely that x and y. They

were the abstract foundation upon which a

metaphysics could be distilled out of the

multiplicity of physical situations, a metaphysics

that remained applicable to all of them… Any

statement that involves complementary opposites

can be translated into the language of yin and yang.

(Sivin

1987:61)

Sivin also suggests that Yin and Yang are best understood as

latent and active phases of any process in space and time. It is

interesting to point out here the blended conceptualization of “real”

and “imaginary” numbers utilized by modern mathematical

theory—as described by Fauconnier.

An extended cross-space mapping links real and

imaginary numbers to points in two-dimensional

space. The seed for this mapping is the pre-existing

projection of numbers onto one-dimensional space

(the “line” going from - ∞ to + ∞ [negative infinity

to positive infinity]. A generic space contains the

more abstract structure common to the domains of

space and numbers. In the language of twentieth-

century mathematics, this generic space is a

communicative ring. Selective projection operates

from the inputs into the blend, which inherits both

spatial and arithmetic structure.

(Fauconnier 1997:167)

While such a mathematical model may not be exactly similar to

Chinese medicine, it is suggested that such a model of “formal”

analysis—based on conceptual blending of infinite extremes—is

not so different from the vastly complex system of metaphoric

extensions which Chinese Yin-Yang theory accepts as a valid

“level of truth.” Such a correlation might also provide further

insight into modelling the Yin-Yang cycle as a fundamental system

of patterned interaction. This metaphorically extended model of

cosmological patterns has ancient roots. Yin and Yang were first

mentioned in the I Ching, which dates back to around 700BC. A

recent conversation with Gilles Fauconnier reaffirmed my belief in

the relevance of applying conceptual blending theory to these

Chinese theories. He told me that someone at the cognitive

linguistics conference in Nanjing, China just a few months ago—

where the Chinese Cognitive Linguistics association was

established—suggested that he look into the Book of Changes.

The relevance—and irony—is that the Book of Changes is the

English translation of the I Ching. In this ancient document, Yin

and Yang are represented by broken and unbroken lines

respectively (see Fig. Y). The pattern of their continual

intertransformation is represented most basically by a circle with

four pairs of broken and unbroken lines arranged at four points. It

is according to this simple arrangement in a cyclic pattern that they

are most typically conceptualized. Characteristic examples are the

cyclic day and the seasonal year. As can be seen from figure Y,

both the cyclic day and the seasonal year correspond conceptually

in each phase of their transition between extremes. Sunrise and

spring are representative of increasing Yang on the midpoint

between Yin and Yang. Each of these phases is characterized by

increasing activity and movement, rising temperatures, and

increasing sunlight. Then, during the extreme Yang phase of the

cycle, summer and mid-day (noon) represent maximum light, peak

20

temperatures and high levels of activity and movement. Each

phase of the cycle also represents a vast category of additional

correspondences. While these prototypical cycles are the most

manifestly observable patterns of the Yin-Yang cycle, their system

of interactions goes far beyond such surface level representations.

The Yin-Yang cycle represents all patterns of interaction involved

in the intertransformation of complementary extremes. This cycle

has normal conditions of balance and restraint. The Yin-Yang

pattern of interaction and change continues harmoniously when in

balance, but once out of balance it can cause excess or

insufficiency of either force. Balance within this system is

represented more intricately by the Five Element patterns of

interaction. While all systems are seen as arising from the

interaction between Yin-Yang, the Five Element sequences are

used as a means of modelling the intricate details of patterned

interaction within these created systems.

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22

2.2.4. The Five Elements

The “Five Elements” are wu xing—or hsing—in Chinese. These

“wu xing” are a subdivision of the same patterns of interaction that

Yin-Yang characterize. Sivin points out that “yin-yang and the

Five Phases [Elements] are not two kinds of activity, but two ways

of thinking about the same process and the vitality or force that

drives it.” (Sivin 1987:78). “The ch’i of sky and earth unite to

become one. Divided they become yin and yang; subdivided, the

four seasons; set out in order (lieh), the Five Phases [Elements].”

The Five Elements are therefore utilized as a way to set up the

correspondences within the systematic patterns of interaction—as

set up by Yin-Yang intertransformation—“set out in order.” The

Five Elements are: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. Their

qualities and the states of natural phenomena of which they are

representative are listed as follows:

Qualities Inherent Qualities and States of

Natural Phenomena

Water moistens downward Wood represents expansive,

outward movement in all

directions

Fire flares upward Metal represents contractive,

inward movement

Wood can be bent and

straightened

Water represents downward

movement

Metal can be moulded and can

harden

Fire represents upward

movement

Earth permits sowing, growing,

and reaping

Earth represents neutrality or

stability

(direct quotes Maciocia

1998:17)

However, while the Five Element interactions represent observable

characteristics of natural phenomena they are not as obviously

manifest in the natural environment as the Yin-Yang cycle. “In

contrast to the dualism underlying the yin-yang doctrine, the pentic

numerology of the five-agents doctrine lacks an obvious

antecedent in man’s natural environment” (Unschuld 2003:99).

The most common correspondences are morphological entities of

man (the organs and orifices), characteristics of living or dead

substances (colors, flavors, tones, and odors), and man’s

geographic and temporal environment (cardinal directions and

seasons) (Unschuld 2003:106). What the Five Elements provide is

a more detailed model of analyzing the intricate patterns of

interaction, processes, and functioning within the more obvious

system. “In analyzing processes or configurations into five

aspects—particularly when reflecting on sequences of change—the

names of the Five Phases [Elements] are more common than

mature yang, “central house,” and the other yin-yang terms” (Sivin

1987:78). In the few preceding quotes by Sivin, it can be seen that

the “Five Elements”—or wu xing—are not always termed such by

Chinese scholars and doctors. An in-depth discussion of the

translational issues behind the Chinese “wu xing” should provide a

detailed overview of the concepts underlying the systems theory to

which this lexical item provides access in Chinese medicine.

While “wu” very obviously means five, “xing” cannot be directly

translated as “element.” Xing in Chinese implies action and

movement, and may be better translated as a “phase” of a cycle.

Because of this difficulty various scholars and doctors feel it is

more appropriate to translate the Chinese wu xing either as “Five

Phases” (Sivin) or “Five Agents” (Unschuld). Though, the term

“Five Elements” remains perhaps the most commonly used—and

most widely entrenched—translation of the Chinese “wu xing.”

Though, even when utilizing the term “element,” the xing are never

thought of as actual material substance or “elements” on a periodic

23

table. Even when referred to as elements, they still refer to parts of

organized patterns of interaction. Confusion arose in the 1600’s

when Jesuit missionaries realized the vague similarity between the

Chinese xing and the Greek elements and sought to prove the

scientific superiority of the later. The xing were mistakenly

thought to represent “an element, perfectly pure” (Sivin

1989:73,74). This crude translation was hugely mistaken as

Chinese philosophers had never claimed “that hsing are pure

substances,” or that they were responsible for the production of all

material things and phenomena (Siving 1989:73,74). “Thus Matteo

Ricci, in the first Jesuit treatise on cosmology (1608), argued that

“since a hsing is what produces all things and phenomena, it must

be an element, perfectly pure. It must be that nothing is mixed

with it, nothing contained in it except itself.” He proceeded to

demonstrate that by this definition the Chinese Five Elements are

inconsistent, illogical, and inferior to the European four elements

(Sivin 1989:73,74). This conception of the wu xing was completely

mistaken, as the Chinese xing “do not extend past the surface of

the ideas” in relation to the Greek elements (Sivin 1987:73). As

noted by Sivin, Joseph Needham also recognized this translational

issue almost half a century ago. Needham explains that the xing

was not as five variations of fundamental matter, but as five parts

of fundamental processes (Needham et al. 1954:II 243-44). The

key idea is relations, not substance. Though, after about 400 years

of usage, the term “Five Elements” has become so widely used and

entrenched that it is hard to change. Xing actually means “to do, to

act, to move on, to set in motion; action, activity, motion,” etc.

(Sivin 1987:74). Sivin looks to an important document—dating

back to around 80 A.D.—where xing is understood as representing

the ordered natural activity of qi, and another source—the Shin

ming (Explanation of Names)—that provides a clear definition on

the matter: “Wu hsing means what is carried out by the five ch’i,

each in its own domain.” (Sivin 1987:74-75). So, according to such

an understanding the five xing are labels for five types of activity.

Sivin refers to the philologist Ch’en Meng-chia’s recognition of

the role of Wu Xing— almost one hundred years ago now—not as

five static material substances, but as representative of the cyclic

flow within a system. Sivin also notes that “The wu hsing name

five types of ch’i that interact in an ordered way to make up spatial

or temporal configurations (that is, complex phenomena extended

in space or time). The process to which they are most usually

applied is, as Ch’en’s emphasis indicates, the temporal cycle,

whether of body functions, celestial motions, or political changes”

(Sivin 1987:75). Sivin refers once more to one of the leading

contemporary authors on traditional medical theories—Jen Ying-

ch’iu—as stating: “Wu hsing simply means the cyclical activity

(yun-hsing…) of five ch’i.” (as cited in Sivin 1987:75). These five

“qi” are then not chemical or physical substances, but five

activities or processes that drive a process or substances that

change in character. Most basically, they characterize the cyclic

activity within a system. Again Sivin says it best: “To sum up, wu

hsing theory provides a language for analysis of configurations

into five functionally distinct parts or aspects. The names of the

phases refer both to these spatial and cyclic relations and to the

energies, the ch’i, that make them possible, maintain them and

guide their change. In other words, the Five Phases do what yin-

yang does, but with finer divisions, analyzing into five aspects

instead of two. Both are sets of labels for ch’i” (Sivin 1987:75).

2.2.5. The Importance of Motion Conceptualization

in Chinese Medicine

Levinson—in his extensive work on human cognitive functions

and conceptualization of spatial orientation and movement—notes

the importance of frames in conceptualizing motion. “Although

direction of motion can thus be described without recourse to

frames of reference, in fact frames of reference are frequently

24

employed in motion description.” (2003:97). An example of this

would be route descriptions utilizing descriptions like take your

first left, then turn right at the light—where the frame of reference

is based on the intrinsic reference of the one following the

directions. The theories of Yin-Yang and Five Elements within

Chinese medicine act in a similar manner to frame patterns of

motion—while also employing the elaborate tool of metaphorical

extension.

2.2.6. Reaffirming Yin-Yang and Five-Element

patterns of interaction as Systems Theories

So, what these models represent are systems theories of universal

structural qualities inherent in all patterns of interaction. All

systems within all objects and phenomena throughout the universe

are understood as possessing structural qualities and patterns of

interaction. These interactions produce continual states of internal

motion, with predictable patterns of interaction. “Hence, it is

possible to use analogy to understand any system; that is, it is

possible to use the obvious qualities of one system to describe the

less obvious or hidden qualities of another” (Liu 1995:48). In

using such systems of analogical—and metaphorical—extension,

“…the ancient Chinese used the five basic materials familiar in

everyday life to symbolize the behavior of all objects and

phenomena in nature” (Liu 1995:48). Each of the elements

represents a particular pattern of motion within the system. “By

analogy to one of these elements, the characteristic movement of

any object of phenomena can be identified” (Liu 1995:48). They

also describe patterns of interaction within the system—both

balanced and imbalanced. “The theory of the five elements is thus,

above all, a study of motion” (Liu 1995:49).

2.2.7. Recognition of Metaphoric Extension

These ways of characterizing patterned systems of motion and

interaction are obviously complex systems of metaphorical

extension. Whether or not such systems really exist exactly as is

claimed or not is of little concern in this study. Arguments on the

verifiable “reality” of such knowledge systems is not extremely

relevant, except to say that modelling such systems should show

that they represent a consistent “level of reality” consistent with

cognitive theories. As pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson,

cognitive science is physicalist—ascribing to an ultimate material

basis in the body and brain for the scientifically real conceptual

entities themselves—, but it is not eliminitavist—assuming that the

only things that are “real” are physically existing entities. As

alluded to with Fauconnier’s example of numeric representation of

“real” and “imaginary” numbers, computational numbers don’t

have to be individually “real” in order to represent a relative value

in physical reality—i.e. -2 may not actually “exist” in physical

reality, but it represents a very “real,” and necessary,

conceptualization of certain values that can be consistently

represented in equations. Other conceptual entities—like the

element correspondences—are just as neurally “real” from a

physicalist perspective. So what counts as real…? According to

Lakoff and Johnson, “[t]he only kinds of nonphysical entities and

structures taken as ‘real are those that are hypothesized on the

basis of convergent evidence and that are required for scientific

explanation” (1999:114-115). Conceptual entities utilized for

systematic representation of natural patterns are therefore just as

“real.” Conceptual integration networks and metaphors are also

just as “real.” Cognitive science understands everyday subjective

embodied experience as automatically and unconsciously linked to

our abstract conceptual system through primary metaphor—as

mentioned earlier. This abstract conceptual system has an

inherent literal skeleton that gets “fleshed out” through

25

metaphorical extensions of embodied experience. The primary

function of metaphor then is to project patterns of inference from

the source domain of embodied experience to the target domain of

the abstract conceptual system. Cognitive science also recognizes

that it is through such metaphorical thought that scientific

theorizing is even possible, as both our reason and our conceptual

structure are shaped by embodied experience of the world.

According to Lakoff and Johnson: “Reason and concepts are

therefore not transcendent, that is, not utterly independent of the

body” (1999:128). This singles out the fact that all scientific

reasoning is shaped by our embodied experience and relies upon

such experience to frame abstract concepts. Chinese medical

theories are part of a complex system of such scientific reasoning.

One major difference is that Chinese philosophy openly embraces,

and relies upon, this realization. What metaphoric extensions of

Chinese scientific philosophy represent are systems of events,

motion, and forces.

2.3. Causation—Self-Limiting Western Perspectives

Before moving on toward mapping the cognitive framework of the

Chinese medical theories at hand it is highly relevant to point out a

key difference in how the patterns of interaction which Chinese

philosophy observe are different from those of Western medical

philosophy. While Western medicine seeks to pinpoint precise

causal chains, Chinese medicine is more concerned with the

balance of infinite systems of causal relations. “In the early

Chinese sciences, by contrast, where generation and transformation

are intrinsic to existence, fixity and stasis occur only as a result of

concerted action and therefore demand explanation; motion and

change are a given and seldom need be explained with reference to

their causes” (Farquhar 1994:25). Appropriately, the views of

cognitive science seem more in line with Chinese philosophy in

many ways than with Western objectivist views. Lakoff and

Johnson point out that the traditional objectivist view is that

causation is usually assumed to be something in the objective

world that exists independent of our conceptualization. In the view

of traditional objectivism, causes are causes—no matter how we

conceptualize them—and “conceptualizing something as a cause

doesn’t make it one” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:170). Events,

causes, changes, states, actions, and purposes are seen as existing

objectively independent from subjective judgment—taken to be

literally real, not metaphorical. The embodied view, on the other

hand, is that causal conceptualization arises from human biology.

Event structures are conceptualized through metaphoric extension

of embodied experience—e.g. self-propelled motion and force.

Abstract patterns of interaction are understood through extension

of body-based patterns of interaction. There is therefore no single

literal concept of causation that is representative of all causal

inferences. Lakoff and Johnson recognize that causal reasoning

absolutely depends upon extended causal metaphors (1999:171-

73). They also note that Narayanan found that all events—both

concrete and abstract; bodily and external world events—are

structured in terms of embodied motion and interaction

(1999:176). A cause is therefore understood as being “a

determining factor for a situation” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:177).

Each situation is representative of a state, a change, a process, or

an action. If we can’t point to a “cause” or any other necessary

information we have no way of actually concluding that a given

situation even happened or existed. Lakoff and Johnson also point

out that causation, then, cannot be captured through a single logic

or taken as an objectively independent feature of the world

(1999:226). However, causation is understood to exist—it’s just

situated, with determining factors only asserted as “real” within

certain situational contexts. Determining factors of causation can

be conceptualized either literally or through metaphorical

extension. Metaphorical conceptualizations are usually chosen

26

with situationally appropriate logic—with the metaphor being

utilized to make claims about such determining factors. Each

causal “truth” is also relative. Claims of causation are only “true”

relative to our understanding of the situation—whether literal or

metaphorical. Forces are equally as metaphorically

conceptualized. According to scientific realism force—“which is

equal to mass times acceleration”—is taken to be mere

mathematical fiction, not a physical entity that literally “exists”

(Lakoff and Johnson 1999:227). According to Einstein’s theory of

relativity—which challenged Newtonian calculations of gravity—

conceptualizes gravitational “force” as actually being a space-time

curvature upon which objects move along a geodesic and there is

no actual “pull” of gravity (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:228). The

literalist view poses that holding to literal existence of gravity is

like denying that the earth turns around the sun, but rather that the

sun “literally” rises and sets around the earth (Lakoff and Johnson

1999:229). So, the big question: Is gravity a “force” that actually

“exists” or is it really just a matter of space-time curvature? Such

seemingly opposing views are not mutually exclusive alternative

views. These theories are all metaphorically extended. Taken

literally, each theory poses the non-existence of force and

causation. Though, taken metaphorically they allow for causation

and force to “exist” from an everyday perspective. The “truth” is

therefore situational, and an embodied approach allows for various

perspectives to hold as “true.” These forces are conceptualized in

terms of direct human agency (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:230,231).

Our conceptual system is organized around this human agency and

function within our environment. Elements of direct human

agency serve to ground our conceptualization of causal concepts

and interactions. Characteristic examples of such human agency

are: “pushing, pulling, hitting, throwing, lifting, giving, taking, and

so on—” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:231). So, does causation

exist? Lakoff and Johnson also point out that there is no single

unified objective phenomenon of “causation” existing in the mind-

independent world (1999:232-233). Our world is not “mind-

independent,” as both language and thought are intertwined with

embodied experience of the “objective” world. Even Western

physics utilizes embodied human concepts and human language in

order to conceptualize the “mind-independent world” which it

holds to exist. So again, does causation exist? Well—e.g.—“He

punched me in the arm. He caused me pain.” On a direct physical

level, “Yes, causation exists” (1999:232,233). Beyond the directly

observable world of physical interactions, further correspondence

and causal relations becomes infinitely more complex. This

difficulty extends toward both extremes of the spectrum—both the

microuniverse (e.g. elementary particles) and the macrouniverse

(e.g. black holes). Basic-level concepts of middle-level physical

experience fail us in attempting to conceptualize opposite infinites.

The extension of conceptual metaphor is absolutely necessary in

conceptualizing both extremes of the infinite spectrum. Literal

notions of causation fail in conceptualization at the micro and

macro levels and rely upon extension of conceptual metaphor. “In

short, the question ‘Does causation exist?’ is not a simpleminded

yes-or-no question. It drastically oversimplifies something that we

have seen is massively complex” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:234).

Chinese realizes the infinitely complex nature of “causation” and

seeks not to isolate individual causes, but to achieve global

understanding the whole system.

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2.4. Toward Mapping the Cognitive Framework of Chinese

Medical Philosophies of Yin-Yang and the Five

Elements through Conceptual Blending Networks

2.4.1. System Applications within Chinese

Medicine

As mentioned earlier, the Five Elements are applied to a vast range

of correspondences in Chinese Medicine. Five major areas to

which they are applied are: physiology, pathology, diagnosis,

treatment, and dietary and herbal therapy. We only mention these

here briefly due to the relatively small size of the case study at

hand—which allows only for modelling the core of the theories

themselves and situating them for future extension to the

correspondences. There are numerous patterns of interaction

between the Five Elements—Generating Sequence, Controlling

Sequence, Cosmological Sequence, Overacting Sequence, and

Insulting Sequence—but we are going to be primarily concerned

with the first two, as they outline the primary pattern of

interactions within the system. The Cosmological sequence is also

of some significance in that it provides key insights into the

extension of Yin-Yang to the Five Elements, and also numerical

ordering. The last two—Overacting and Insulting—are patterns of

imbalance that contradict the normally balanced patterns

established by the Generating and Controlling sequences and will

not modeled in this study, except that they follow the same patterns

respectively. Each of these correspondences are compressed into

these patterns of interaction according to their associated element,

and therefore interacts with the other correspondences accordingly.

Due to the relatively small scope of this case study we will only be

extending these patterns to one prototypical category—the Zhang

Organs—and one open variable space—X—by which other

correspondence categories can be aligned with the Five Element

patterns of interaction and compressed into a functional blend.

2.4.2. “Levels of Truth” and Chinese Medicine

Lakoff and Johnson explain that embodied understanding is central

in all aspects of meaning and the structure of thought (1999:78).

They go on to assert that evidence shows that systematic

correlations are made across conceptual domains and that

conventional mappings are alive—not dead! These systematically

established mappings “are psychologically real… and we think

using them” (1999:86-87). It is upon such evidence that they build

a case for the “reality” of conceptual structures and the nature of

our embodied shaping of the “objective world.” They also “reject

the simpleminded ideas that all science is purely objective” and

also “the myths that science provides the ultimate means of

understanding everything and that humanistic knowledge has no

standing relative to anything that calls itself science” (1999:89).

All knowledge structures are inevitably influenced and shaped by

interactions with our surroundings. They do, however, point out

that the view of embodied scientific realism is that a world does

exist independently of our understanding of it, and we can have a

stable knowledge of it, but this it is inevitably shaped by the types

of bodies and biological constructs that we possess. (1999:89).

They also point out that Descartes posed a gap between the mind

and the brain—with the mind not in touch with the world

(1999:94,95,99). This perspective situated ideas as internal

representations of external reality and maximized the mind-world

gap through “maximally arbitrary” symbol-system realism—

correlation between things in the world and the symbols that

represent them. Embodied realism provides the means by which

the gap between the mind and reality can be closed. This approach

is closer to the realism of ancient Greek philosophy and is

distinctly different from “the disembodied representational realism

of Cartesian and analytic philosophy, which is fundamentally

separated from the world” (1999:95). Based upon such a system of

28

understanding, we evolve bodily to integrate and function within

our environment—denying the philosophy of only one “true”

description of the world. This establishes a philosophy of

embodied realism through which directly embodied concepts are

extended to abstract theoretical domains to provide “an account of

how real, stable knowledge, both in science and the everyday

world, is possible” (1999:96). A key insight of embodied

relativism is that concepts change over time, and it provides the

mechanisms for characterizing such change, variation, and

multiplicity. A key mechanism for modelling such change and

patterns of interaction and activity are conceptual blends. “Truth,”

therefore, is absolutely dependent upon embodiment. Our bodies

shape our understanding of the world on multiple levels. The first

is the neural level, in which conceptual structure is directly

dependent upon the types of biological structures we have

biologically. The phenomenological level is the level of

appearance and “feel” of experience and “consists of everything

we can be aware of,” whether or not it is accessible to our

conscious (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:102-103). Such an

understanding poses a dilemma regarding “levels of truth.” The

classical correspondence theory of truth claims that truth at

different levels may contradict each other. The obvious examples

are color and the pattern of sunrise/sunset. On the

phenomenological level color is perceived as being “in” objects,

whereas on a neurophysiological level scientists would explain that

color is actually a reflection perceived by color cones and neural

circuitry and not actually “in” the cup. Sunrise/ sunset is different

in that we perceive the sun as actually “rising” and “setting”

around the earth, whereas we scientifically know that it is actually

the earth actually rotates around the sun. These seemingly

contradictory explanations represent “levels of truth” according to

embodied scientific realism and show that what is “true” on one

level may contradict a fundamental “truth” on another level

(Lakoff and Johnson 1999:104-105). Truth is ultimately

dependent upon framing and is therefore of special interest to

cognitive science. “The question of what we take truth to be is

therefore a matter for cognitive science because it depends on the

nature of human understanding” (Lakoff and Johnson 1999:108).

“One single truth” is understood to be an illusion from the

perspective of embodied realism and “truths” are accepted as being

valid on multiple levels—allowing for many correct descriptions

based on level of embodiment. Understanding of is situated and

“real” constructs are taken to be “an ontological commitment to a

scientific theory and therefore can be used to make predictions and

can function in explanations” (1999:109). Of high relevance here

is the stance on the conceptualization of “energy” and “charge”

from the perspective of Western physics where “[n]either can be

directly observed, but both play a crucial role in explanation and

prediction” (1999:109). Neural computation and conceptual

structures are just as real. Conceptualization of interaction patterns

in Chinese medicine seems to be just as “real” as any of the

aforementioned. Medical systems are also compressed models of

understanding universal objective patterns of interaction and have

access to varying “levels of truth”. David Eisenberg points out

different medical systems vary in structure, they all work to

understand the same objectively independent patterns of

universally consistent interaction. “The Chinese and Western

medical models are like two frames of reference in which identical

phenomena are studied. Neither frame of reference provides an

unobstructed view of health and illness. Each is incomplete and in

need of refinement” (Eisenberg 1995:237). Sivin goes on to assert

“[t]he pattern one discerns may or may not be objectively there,

but that is no more than to say that one may be empirically right or

wrong” (Sivin 1995:185).

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2.5. Introduction to Conceptual Blending Theory

2.5.1. Basic Principles

In his work Mental Spaces, Fauconnier highlights the function of

mental spaces in reference to one level of scientific inquiry. “At

one level of scientific inquiry, ‘mental spaces’ and related notions

examined in our work are clearly theoretical constructs devised to

model high-level cognitive organization” (1994:xxxii). It is these

mental spaces that make conceptual blending between dissonant

ideas possible. These mental spaces are “small conceptual packets

[of information] constructed as we think and talk, for purposes of

local understanding and action” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002:40).

Each of these spaces is connected to frames from long-term

schematic knowledge. An example of this would be the outline of

what deems an action “walking on a path.” These spaces are also

connected to specific long-term knowledge—i.e. a memory of a

specific time that you climbed Camelback Mountain five years

ago. The elements of specific interest in this mental space are you,

Camelback Mountain, and the time frame of five years ago. This

is just an example of one mental space. A conceptual blend

incorporates several mental spaces and results in a new emergent

structure that is not present in any of the spaces individually. An

example provided by Fauconnier and Turner is the riddle of the

Buddhist monk from Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation. This

riddle poses a scenario of a Buddhist monk who walks to the top of

a mountain, meditates for several days, then walks back down.

The riddle: “Is there a place on the path that the monk occupies at

the same hour of the day on the two separate journeys?” (as cited

in Fauconnier and Turner 2002:39). In an analysis of the complex

blending involved in solving this riddle, we can see two separate

input spaces. The first space contains the first day with the monk

going up the mountain, while the second space contains the

descent of the monk on the second day. All the spaces are framed

as the action of walking up and down a mountain. The blend

contains the monk meeting himself in the same space on the same

mountain in a hypothetical time frame. Such a blend is not

possible in the material world, but our imaginative processes allow

us to create a conceptual blend that allows for such a scenario in

our minds. Mental spaces involved in such a blend are represented

by circle and is framed according to relevant structural qualities—

like the scene of a man on a mountain. Inside these mental spaces

are individual highlighted elements of information that are

necessary to connect the spaces—i.e. the monk, the mountain, the

space(s) occupied each day, etc. These elements are represented

by dots, icons, or lexical items in the blend. Connections between

elements are represented by lines. There are three primary types of

spaces involved in conceptual blends: input, generic, and blend.

The input spaces represent framed spaces for each counterfactual

by which information is brought into the blend—i.e. day 1, day 2.

Individual elements—counterparts—in these input spaces are

connected via cross-space mappings. The generic space maps

what the inputs have in common. In the Buddhist monk blend the

generic space contains “a moving individual,” “his position, a path

linking foot and summit of the mountain, a day of travel, and

motion in an unspecified direction” (Fauconnier and Turner

2002:40). Relevant information from the input spaces gets

projected into the blend, creating an emergent structure that is not

in either of the inputs—i.e. the monk meeting himself. Several

factors govern this emergent structure. The first is composition.

“[C]omposition of elements from the inputs makes relations

available in the blend that do not exist in the separate inputs”

(Fauconnier and Turner 2002:40). Completion then brings in

additional familiar structure into the blend and the blend itself can

then become “a salient part of the background frame”—i.e. “two

people starting a journey at the same time from opposite ends of a

path” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002:40). This blend is now

30

integrated in that it has become “an instance of a particular

frame”—i.e. “the frame of two people walking on a path in

opposite directions.” These complete, integrated blends are then

available for imaginative elaboration. While the operations of the

blend are principled and limited, they allow for an infinite range of

creative simulations. These infinitely possible imaginative blends

operate throughout all aspects of our lives—both mental operations

and physical interaction. They are subject to continual

modification and often become entrenched, “giving rise to

conceptual and formal structures shared throughout the

community” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002:49,50). Other

characteristic examples are the “desktop computer” and “computer

virus.” Each example blends concepts from the domain of

computers with experiential knowledge of our environment.

Desktop computers are a blend of computer operations with

functional knowledge about desktops—i.e. putting files in the

trash. The computer virus is a blend of issues with computer

dysfunction and biological viruses—i.e. they are relatively small in

comparison with the overall system, and cause disruption of

normal function.

2.5.2. Ultimate Goal of Conceptual Blending:

Achieve Human Scale

The ultimate goal of conceptual blending is to achieve human

scale—as humans are evolved to deal with reality at human scale.

“The human scale is the level at which it is natural for us to have

the impression that we have direct, reliable, and comprehensive

understanding” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002:322-324).

Conceptual blends serve to compress diffuse information from

many spaces into one by strengthening key relations and creating

one complete story and direction for all spaces involved. This

creates a comfortable level of understanding and makes it easier to

deal with. Blending conceptual information at human scale is what

makes the feeling of global insight possible.

2.5.3. Visibility of Blending and Global

Understanding

One very powerful benefit of the creation of conceptual blends is

global understanding. Fauconnier and Turner explain that “[t]he

moment of tangible, global understanding comes when a network

has been elaborated in such a way that it contains a solution that is

delivered to consciousness” (2002:57). This moment of tangible

global understanding is known as the “Eureka!” or “aha!” effect—

the moment when global understanding of a complete

unconsciously active system comes to conscious awareness. This is

completely different from formal systems of analysis carried out

step-by-step. In step-by-step analysis each step is done

consciously, with no feeling of deep understanding of truth and

most of the structure being lost at the moment of solution. Such a

system concludes that the solution must be true because each step

was carried out correctly, “even if we do not actually grasp why”

(Fauconnier and Turner 2002:57). Fauconnier and Turner suggest,

“in the case of blending, at the moment of solution, the entire

integration network is still active in the brain, even if

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unconsciously” (2002:57). It is such a global system of

understanding that Chinese medicine is based. While Chinese

medicine may seem to be contradictory because of the elaborate

system of metaphorical extensions, the most important thing to the

Chinese medical doctor is the “Eureka!” effect—global

understanding of the complete system. Chinese doctors “pride

themselves” on their individuality of style and their ability to

achieve global coherence (Scheid 2002:13). Farquhar faced a

dilemma when first experiencing this system firsthand while

conducting her research in China. She noticed that the Chinese

doctors placed more importance on global understanding of the

complete system rather than lining up every single detail through

step-by-step analysis. When observing contradictions between

textbook examples and clinical scenarios she would ask how

doctors know which statement or explanation is correct. The

response that she repeatedly received: “We take experience to be

our guide”—therefore being rebuked for her “literal-mindedness”

(Farquhar 1994). This is because the ultimate goal of Chinese

medicine is global understanding of the system as a whole—not

getting caught up on the seemingly contradictory details of a step-

by-step analysis. Scheid explains that “Chinese medicine and the

heterogeneous elements that constitute it are best described as

emergent global states, or synthesis, that are produced by local

interactions of human and nonhuman elements, or infrastructures”

(2002:13).

2.6. Accessing Belief Systems Through Language

2.6.1. Accessing Conceptual Structure Through

Language

While the patterns of interaction conceptualized by systems of

knowledge are not purely “linguistic” in nature, it is the

manifestation of such systems through language that they can be

accessed, modeled, and analyzed. Chinese medicine is such a

knowledge system that can be accessed linguistically. Hsu points

out how Chinese medicine as a system is shaped through its social

interaction and transmission as well. In doing so, she refers to the

socialization of concepts in which such concepts are understood in

different ways with varying levels of significance depending on the

social contexts in which they are learned “Concepts become

‘socialised,’” being understood in different ways, with “different

meanings, uses, and ‘performative significances’,” depending on

the social contexts in which they are learned (1999:225). While the

transmission of knowledge in Chinese Medicine—as in all

academic and scientific contexts—relies on lexical information, the

main objective is “non-verbal knowing” and rote learning. But

again, specific concepts depend upon the way in which they are

learned, and this learning relies heavily on linguistic transference

of information. Chinese medicine also very openly asserts the

authority of written texts. Scheid mentions: “My teachers in China

never failed to impress on me that reading, writing, and

memorizing are intrinsic aspects of medical practice” (2002:14).

Systems of conceptualization can be accessed through language

because language both encodes and reflects their structure.

“According to cognitive linguists, language not only reflects

conceptual structure, but can also give rise to conceptualization,”

and “… the linguistic system both reflects the conceptualizing

capacity, and in turn influences the nature of knowledge by virtue

of the language-specific categories it derives” (Fauconnier and

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Turner 2002:101,102). It is the linguistic manifestation of such

systems of knowledge and conceptualization that allows them to be

modeled and available to conscious awareness.

2.6.2. The Cognitive Reality of Conceptual

Blending and Chinese Medicine

Conceptual blending in Chinese medicine—as in any complex

system—is organized by different aspects of experience and spatial

and temporal cognition. The blends have to be set up to draw upon

analogues from the mental spaces to yield an integrated blend that

contains more than the sum of its parts. Such blends make it

possible to create matches that would not typically be made

between items in the everyday world and give rise to new meaning

and creative realizations. These blends can’t be run “in just any

way, but must somehow run it in the way that is relevant to the

purpose at hand” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002:20). This purpose

must allow for utilizing information available in the blend to

access inferences outside of the blend. This alignment of

seemingly contradictory analogues within, and beyond, the blend

may seem far-fetched when analyzed consciously, but this does not

prevent their use as a means of conceptualizing complex ideas and

scenarios unconsciously. Fauconnier and Turner point out that it

doesn’t matter whether or not the blend is actually a possible

scenario in the “real world,” as this very impossibility is what

seems to give blends their vast potential for imaginative creativity.

“Many blends are not only possible but also so compelling that

they come to represent, mentally, a new reality, in culture, action,

and science” (2002:21). These blends—whether real in the

objective world or not—are neurologically real. Connection and

activation of neurons in the brain allows concepts to be joined on a

neurologically real level. These neurological connections create

the potential for vast networks of imaginative integration. The

information passed through these networks is what manifests

consciously and is accessible as functional knowledge for

interaction with the physical world and linguistic expression of

conceptualization. “Words themselves are part of activation

patterns” and serve as points of access to this vast network of

embodied conceptual structure.

2.7. Why Apply Conceptual Blending Theory to Chinese

Medical Philosophy

So, why apply conceptual blending theory to Chinese medical

philosophy? As mentioned before, conceptual blending theory has

been applied to everything from cartoons and humour (Coulson

2005), to math (Lakoff and Nunez 2000), to magic, ritual, and

religion (Sorensen; Sweetser 2000) to molecular genetics (John

Sung In prep.) and even Chinese philosophy (Slingerland 2005).

But no attempts are known of that apply conceptual blending

theory to theories of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in Chinese

medical science. The only work that has even briefly touched on

the subject is Yu Ning’s utilization of conceptual metaphor theory

to look as ideas of emotion and qi conceptualization in Chinese—

with special attention to Yin-Yang and Five Elements. Again we

point out that Yu asserts that “these theories form a cognitive or

cultural model underlying the metaphorical conceptualization in

Chinese” (1995:59). Such a recognition of the theories of Yin-

Yang and Five Elements in Chinese medicine as metaphorically

extended systems of embodied understanding establishes the

relevance of case study that models the complex blending involved

in their operation and application.

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3. ANALYSIS

3.1. The Integration Network in Chinese Medical Theory—

Yin-Yang and the Five Element Patterns of Interaction

In keeping with the principles of cognitive science and embodied

realism, this case study is not an assertion of the absolute nature of

one individual way to represent the cognitive framework

underlying the vast networks of encyclopaedic information

established by Chinese medical philosophy, but rather to begin

work toward laying a foundation for a solid representative model

of such systems of information from the perspective of conceptual

blending theory and cognitive science. As outlined previously, this

system is characterized not by reductionist step-by-step process

analysis, but rather by global access to the entire system. It is upon

this realization that we set forth to gain key insights into how this

system of “global insight” is achieved at human scale, by

compression of infinitely complex systems of interactions into

human scale.

3.2. The Foundation: Yin-Yang Cycle—Creation of

Cosmological Systems (Figs. 1-2b)

As explained previously, the Yin-Yang Cycle is understood in

Chinese philosophy as a continuous universal pattern of the

intertransformation between complementary dualities. This cycle

is present everywhere throughout the universe, from the most

observably understood to the most abstractly complex. While this

process is present in everything, it is most directly understood in

reference to embodied experience. It is the metaphoric extension

of embodied concepts that make the Yin-Yang accessible to global

coherence at human scale. There are a few characteristic cycles

understood through embodied experience that provide the means

by which the Yin-Yang cycle can be globally understood on

human scale. The two most readily understood cycles that we will

look at are the cyclic day and seasonal year. Each of these cycles

provides a characteristic example with key insights into the Yin-

Yang cycle of intertransformation. The two other cycles of change

that will provide further insight are the cardinal directions and

phenomenological motion. The cardinal directions provide a way

to project the Yin-Yang cycle onto spatial orientation. The

phenomenological motion cycle of transition is a very crucial

pattern of interaction for extension of the Yin-Yang cycle to the

Five Element patterns and beyond. The following figures provide

a blending analysis of how these four patterns of interaction are

compressed into the Yin-Yang cycle. Figure 1 provides a network

blend of the various spaces, while figures 1a and 1b provide more

specific information on content between the closely connected

spaces, and figure 1c elaborates the network blend by connecting

lexical information from each space.

3.2.1. Figure 1—Blend 1: Yin-Yang Network

Figure 1 establishes the link between embodied experience and the

Yin-Yang cycle by modelling the network between the Yin-Yang

cycle, cyclic day, seasonal year, cardinal directions, and

phenomenological motion. Each of these cycles are compressed to

fit the representative Yin-Yang cycle as illustrated by the diagram

of broken and unbroken lines—the Yin-Yang cycle outlined

previously. Elements of both time and space are compressed in

order to represent all potential cosmological cycles. The cyclic

day and cardinal directions are aligned with the Yin-Yang cycle in

generic space 124 and the seasons and cardinal directions are

aligned with the Yin-Yang cycle in generic space 235, with both

being compressed into Blend 1—generic spaces are elaborated in

Figures 1a and 1b respectively. All spaces are compressed into the

Yin-Yang cycle and the diagram of broken and unbroken lines,

which is understood as being representative of all relevant

cosmological cycles. This Yin-Yang cycle—Input space 2—

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shares a special relationship with the compressed blend in that it

provides key structural content and a frame of reference—the

diagram of broken and unbroken lines. Input 5 also has a special

role in the blend in that it provides critical image-schematic

content that is necessarily accessible at all times in order to operate

the blend. Each of these special relationships is represented by the

triple lines of cross-space connections.

3.2.2. Figure 1a—Blend 1-G124: Yin-Yang, Cyclic

Day, Cardinal Directions

The cyclic day and cardinal directions provide a means by which a

cycle of time is aligned with spatial orientation and compressed

into the Yin-Yang cycle. As with all conceptual blends, links are

made in order to highlight key elements and hide irrelevant and

distracting information. Key features brought out in the generic

space are domain, frame, extremes, interval, length of interval, and

key elements. The cardinal directions are in the domain of space,

while the cyclic day is in the domain of time. Both of these

domains are aligned and compressed into the Yin-Yang cycle.

Each space is framed as a cycle: cyclic day, cycle around a

compass, Yin-Yang cycle. Extremes are aligned around key points

on the cycle: Yang/ Yin and Immature Yang/ Immature Yin from

the Yin-Yang cycle; Noon/ Midnight, Sunrise/ Sunset, Light/ Dark,

and Sun/ Moon from the cyclic day; and South/ North, East/ West

from the cardinal directions. Intervals and lengths are syncopated

and compressed to fit the blend, with each quarter section aligned

with—representative of—the infinite range of cosmological cycles:

Sunrise—East, Noon—South, Sunset—West, Midnight—North.

Elements from each space are highlighted as relevant to the cycle

of intertransformation of opposing complements: light and

temperature from the cyclic day; transition and patterned motion

from the Yin-Yang cycle; and spatial orientation and position of

the sun from the cardinal directions. All the key features are

aligned in generic space 124, then aligned with generic space 325

and compressed into the blend. Cross-space mappings of lexical

information for the phases of each cycle illustrated in the

multiscope blend in Figure 1c.

3.2.3. Figure 1b—Blend 1-G325: Yin-Yang,

Seasonal Year, Phenomenological Motion

Phenomenological motion has a fundamental role both in

understanding the internal patterns of interaction within the Yin-

Yang cycle and also in the extension of the Yin-Yang cycle to the

Five Element patterns and beyond. This cycle of

phenomenological motion is most easily accessible to compression

through being aligned with the seasonal year—and also the cyclic

day. The spaces in this blend—Yin-Yang cycle, Seasonal Year,

and Phenomenological Motion—are aligned in generic space 325,

where key elements are highlighted and irrelevant elements are

hidden. The Yin-Yang cycle and Phenomenological Motion—as

aligned in G25—share a further notable relationship that is

illustrated further in figures 2a and 2b. These figures illustrate the

connection of lexical information—2a—with crucial image-

schematic content—2b. In figure 2b, image-schematic content is

connected to the corresponding phases of the Yin-Yang cycle as

represented by the broken-unbroken line diagram. The key

features are the same as the previous generic space—124.

Domains of space and time are both compressed—space:

phenomenological motion; time: seasons. Each space is framed

again as a cycle: seasonal year, cycle of transition between phases

of phenomenological motion, Yin-Yang cycle. Extremes are

aligned: Yang/ Yin, Immature Yang/ Immature Yin from Yin-

Yang cycle; Summer/ Winter, Spring/ Autumn from seasonal

cycle; Upward/ Downward, Expansive/ Contractive from

phenomenological motion. Intervals and lengths are again

syncopated and compressed to fit the blend. Each quarter section

35

is aligned with any other analogous phase of cosmological cycles.

Elements from each space are highlighted as relevant to the cycle

of intertransformation between the extremes: weather, temperature,

and activity from the seasonal year; transition and patterned

motion from the Yin-Yang cycle, and motion and directionality

from phenomenological motion. All features are aligned in generic

space 325, then compressed into Blend 1 along with generic space

124. Cross-space mappings of lexical information for the phases

of each cycle are illustrated below in the Yin-Yang cycle

megablend—Figure 1c.

3.2.4. Figure 1c—Blend 1-Multiscope: Yin-Yang

Mega-blend (Elaborated Lexical Content)

Slingerland creates a complex multiscope blend to illustrate both

the intricate role of conceptual blending in ancient Chinese

philosophical texts and “the importance of somatic states and

emotional reactions in human value-creation and decision-

making”—as pointed out by Damasio (Slingerland 2005:557, 573).

The following blend is similar in structure and complexity, but

seeks only to serve as a tool for elaborating critical lexical

information compressed into the Yin-Yang blend from the

previously outlined spaces. Conceptually representative lexical

content for each phase in the individual cycles is mapped and

compressed to fit the representative Yin-Yang cycle, with each

cycle being representative of characteristic patterns of interaction

of the infinite range of possible cosmological complementary

opposites. Cycles of time (cyclic day, seasonal year), cycles of

space (cardinal directions, phenomenological motion), and the

Yin-Yang cycle (space-time) are all aligned and compressed. Each

phase is aligned, with lexical information being joined through

cross-space mappings. Any phase may be considered in order to

outline the pattern of cross-space mappings. We start by

considering the example of immature Yang, the growth of Yang, is

one example. This phase aligns with sunrise, east, spring, and

expansive movement. Each analogous phase brings with it certain

highlighted key elements and information. Sunrise is the time

when the sun is coming up, light is increasing, and it is warming

up. This corresponds to the cardinal direction East, which is from

where the sun rises. Spring from the seasonal year is characterized

by germination, growth, activity, rising temperature, and maximum

sun. These phases are extended further to the phenomenological

direction of expansive movement in all directions. Each of the

other phases is aligned in the same way, with all lexical

information compressed into Blend 1. This blend retains access to

the vast range of encyclopaedic information in the network and can

access individual elements or frames of reference from any mental

space connected to the blend. These mental spaces and their

corresponding lexical information are foundational in Chinese

medical philosophy and are utilized for further extension of the

Yin-Yang cycle to other cosmological cycles and patterns of

interaction—namely the Five Elements.

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3.2.5. Isolated Mapping Relationships—Blend

1(G25—Isolated): Yin-Yang/Phenom. Motion

As previously mentioned, it is necessary to illustrate the cross-

space mapping that takes place between the Yin-Yang cycle

mental space and the phenomenological motion mental space.

This is primarily because of the critical role of image-schematic

information provided by the phenomenological motions. The

following figures illustrate the highlighted role of input spaces 2

and 5 in the blend—Yin-Yang cycle and phenomenological motion

respectively. The Yin-Yang cycle—as illustrated in the network

blend (figure 1) and the multiscope blend (figure 1c)—is used as a

frame into which all other cosmological sequences are compressed.

Here in this blending analysis, phenomenological motion is

compressed into the frame of the Yin-Yang cycle. The elements of

phenomenological motion are compressed as image-schematic

content into the blend—accessed by each corresponding phase of

the cycle as needed.

3.2.5.1. Figure 2a—Blend 1(G25—Isolated):

Yin-Yang/Phenomenological Motion

(Elaborated Lexical Content)

The cross-space mappings between individual elements of lexical

information for each cycle of the phase are aligned in generic

space 25, and are then further compressed along with other mental

spaces into Blend 1—figures 1, 1c. Other mental spaces from

blend 1 access lexical information, and image-schematic content,

from spaces 2 and 5 through Blend 1. One example of the cross-

space mapping established between these two spaces is the phase

of Yang within Yin, where immature Yang is aligned with

expansive outward movement in all directions. The next phase of

Yang within Yang aligns mature yang with upward movement.

The lexical information aligned between these two spaces

corresponds to image-schematic content as illustrated below in

figure 2b.

3.2.5.2. Figure 2b—Blend 1(G25—Isolated):

Yin-Yang/Phenomenological Motion (Image-

Schematic Content)

Image-schematic content provided by the phenomenological

phases of motion are utilized to frame conceptual aspects of all

mental spaces compressed into Yin-Yang Cycle. This information

is accessed in the model through corresponding lexical

information—as just outlined in figure 2a. Each phase of the Yin-

Yang cycle is connected to the individual phases of all the other

cycles. Each phase also maintains access to their corresponding

phases of phenomenological motion for critical characteristic

information. While this information can be expressed lexically it

must also be represented image-schematically to be fully

understood. This figure illustrates alignment of image-schematic

content from the phenomenological motions with the Yin-Yang

diagram through the same cross-space mapping established

between individual elements outlined lexically in the previous

figure. This alignment takes place initially in generic space 25 and

is compressed along with the other mental spaces in Blend 1.

Other mental spaces access the structure of the Yin-Yang cycle

(Input 2) for a frame of reference and individual elements of

phenomenological motion (Input 5) as necessary for image-

schematic representation of individual phases. Cycles contained

within individual mental spaces utilize cross-space mappings to

access elements from analogous spaces containing correlating

cycles. These cross-space mappings are all framed in reference to

the compressed Yin-Yang blend. This compressed blend retains

access to the phenomenological motion mental space (Input 5) for

projection of image-schematic content to each of the mental

spaces. This image-schematic content remains available to all

other mental spaces that are connected to the Yin-Yang cycle—as

already established and for future interactions.

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3.3. System Operation: The Five Element Patterns of

Interaction (Figs. 3-3i)

3.3.1. From the Yin-Yang Cycle to the Five

Elements Sequences

The next step is to draw upon the network established between

Yin-Yang cycles of interaction compressed in Blend 1 to

understand the correlations with the Five Element patterns of

interaction. Blend 1 is utilized as the first input space for a

network between spaces involved in extension of the Yin-Yang

cycle to the Five Element sequences. While the continual

intertransformation of Yin-Yang creates observable systems of

change and interaction, it is necessary to consider another set of

interaction patterns in order to understand the complexity involved

in operation and interaction between individual elements within

each system—the Five Element sequences. The purpose of the

next set of figures is to begin mapping the extension of the

established Yin-Yang cycle—Blend 1—to the Five Element

sequences of interaction within the established system.

3.3.2. Figure 3—Blend 2 (Complete): The Five

Element Network Blend

3.3.2.1. Blend 2—Complete

Blend 2 represents a complete network of interaction and extension

of the Yin-Yang cycle to the Five Element patterns of interaction,

which are in turn used to further understand the Yin-Yang cycle.

Each individual system serves as a sub-blend and input into the

larger blend: Input B-2a Yin-Yang Cycle; Input B-2b Five Element

Sequences. Each of these sub-blends represents a complete blend

for the individual systems, though in order to fully understand the

complexity of interactions between the systems and maintain

access to all relevant information they must be joined in the

complete Blend 2. The complexity of all the cross-space mappings

is illustrated in figures 3a-3i below. The specific interactions

between the two sub-blends 2a and 2b—the Yin-Yang cycle and

the Five Element sequences—are outlined in figures 3g-3i. Figure

3g provides an overview of highlighted elements in the blend,

while figure 3h illustrates the link to image-schematic content, and

figure 3i elaborates the blend with lexical information.

3.3.2.2. Blend 2a—Yin-Yang Cycle

Blend 2a is a complete representation of the relevant mental spaces

necessary for direct extension of the Yin-Yang cycle to the Five

Element sequences—completed in Blend 2. Cross-space mappings

allow for the extension of information from the spaces of

phenomenological motion and material substance established by

the Yin-Yang network to the Five Elements. These interactions

between the mental spaces of the Yin-Yang cycle,

phenomenological motion, and material substance are elaborated

below in figures 3a-3c. Figure 3a provides a simple blend

overview of highlighted key elements, while figure 3b elaborates

the blend with lexical information, and figure 3c illustrates the link

to image-schematic content. Input 1 represents the complete

network established by the Yin-Yang cycle—as outlined in Blend

1. This space necessarily maintains connections to all other mental

spaces to which it is connected in blend one so that other spaces in

this new network of interactions—Blend 2—may access

information when needed. One example of this is that concepts of

heat and activity in the summer and peak of the day are accessed

by Fire via correlation with the period of Maximum Yang. Input 2

represents phenomenological motion—the same mental space as

Input 5 in Blend 1. This space is brought out again in Blend 2

because of its essential role in establishing the link between the

Yin-Yang cycle, representative phenomenological motion, and

material substance—which is then extended to yield the Five

element sequences. Input 3 contains the five representative

material substances that serve as a frame of reference for creating

45

the Five Elements. These material substances are chosen because

of highlighted conceptual similarity with the representative

phenomenological motion involved in each phase of the Yin-Yang

cycle. Each material substance is extended as a representative

element or “xing”—phase within each sequence of Blend 2.

3.3.2.3. Blend 2b—Five Element Sequences

Blend 2b is a complete representation of the relevant mental spaces

necessary for understanding interactions between the two major

sequences. These sequences are incomplete in that they are only

representative at this point—in Blend 2b—of patterns of

interaction within a system. These sequences—and Blend 2b—

rely upon direct extension of lexical information and image-

schematic content from the Yin-Yang cycle—Blend 2a—through

cross-space mappings with phenomenological motion and material

substance. Input 4 represents the sequence of Generation within a

patterned system. Each phase is understood as “generating” or

“giving birth” to the next phase in the cycle. Input 5 represents the

sequence of Control within a patterned system. Each phase is

understood as having control over another as represented by the

pattern. The interactions between the mental spaces and cross-

space mappings are modeled in figures 3d-3f. The conceptual

blend between the two sequences is illustrated in figure 3d, with

image-schematic content provided in figure 3e, and lexical

information provided by figure 3f.

3.3.2.4. Access to Frames, Lexical

Information, and Image-Schematic Content

It is important to point out the significance of the frame projections

from the two sub-blends to the blend. We will see later in more

detail—figures 3g-3i—that while all lexical information and

image-schematic content contained within each of the individual

phases—Earth, Water, Fire, etc.—is compressed completely in the

blend (Blend 2), each pattern must retain access to its respective

structural frame to be completely understood. In other words, the

phases within the Yin-Yang cycle must have access to the Yin-

Yang structural frame and the phases of the two primary Five

Element sequences considered must also retain such access to their

structural frames. The only difference is that the structural frame

of the Generating and Controlling Five Element sequences is

compressed. This results in two primary structural frames in the

blend—represented by the dotted line projections—from Blend 2a

and Blend 2b.

3.3.3. Figure 3 Step 1: Grounding Relevant Yin-

Yang Cycle Mappings for Extension to the Five

Element Sequences (Figs. 3a-3c)

The first step in drawing upon the vast network of interactions in

Blend 2—figure 3—is to firmly establish the relevant mappings

between the Yin-Yang Cycle and experiential information in

relation to material substance and phenomenological motion. The

next three figures begin this process by re-establishing the

connection between the Yin-Yang cycle and phenomenological

motion in relation to the material substances. It is the connection

between these three input spaces—in Blend 2a—that allows for

extension of the network connected to the Yin-Yang cycle to the

Five Element patterns of interaction.

3.3.3.1. Figure 3a—Blend 2a: Yin-Yang,

Phenomenological Motion, Material

Substance (Blend)

This sub-blend—2a—establishes the link between the Yin-Yang

cycle, material substance, and phenomenological motion as

relevant links for extension to the Five Element sequences—Blend

2b. The Yin-Yang cycle in Input 1 represents the network of

spaces and information established in Blend 1. Full access to this

46

network is necessary in order to understand the full implications of

the Five Element interactions to which the Yin-Yang cycle gives

rise. Phenomenological motion in Input 2 represents the

characteristic motion involved in each phase of the Yin-Yang

cycle, which is extended to analogous phases of the Five Element

sequences. They also provide critical image-schematic

representations and lexical information for all correlating phases.

Input 3 provides concrete lexical information and concepts about

material substance—from embodied experience—for extension to

more abstract patterns of interaction. The domains of space, time,

and matter (or material substance) are compressed. Each mental

space is framed as a system (or process) of continual change—

material substance, cosmos, and nature all compressed.

Highlighted key elements are weather, activity, direction,

transition, patterned motion and interaction in nature, and physical

properties of material substance. These highlighted connections

between spaces 1, 2, and 3 in Blend 2a are elaborated lexically in

figure 3b and image-schematically in figure 3c.

3.3.3.2. Figure 3b—Blend 2a: Yin-Yang,

Phenomenological Motion, Material

Substance (Elaborated Lexical Content)

Elaboration of the key elements in Blend 2a begins with lexical

information. The phases of each mental space are highlighted to

bring out cross-space mappings between relevant lexical

information, and prepare for further elaboration of image-

schematic content. The inputs are the same in this figure as figures

3a and 3c—both Blend 2a. It is important to note here that the

framed structure of the Yin-Yang cycle is similar to what Maciocia

terms the “Cosmological Sequence” of the Five Elements. The

phases in this Cosmological Sequence of the Five Elements arises

through numerically ordering the elements as they are

mentioned—1) water, 2) fire, 3) wood, 4) metal, 5) earth—and

while it situates each phase in the same position as that of the Yin-

Yang cycle, the patterns of interaction are different. The patterns

of interaction in the Yin-Yang cycle maintain a clockwise circular

pattern, while the Five Elements Cosmological Sequence poses the

interaction of the phases along axes—horizontal and vertical

through the center. He notes that this sequence is highly

significant in the characterization of Five Element theory and

clinical practice, though it has been left out of most Western

acupuncture (Chinese Medicine) books (1989:18, 23). So, it seems

highly relevant to point to the significance of this sequence and

illustrate the possible cognitive foundations of incorporating such a

sequence into this study. However, as Maciocia pointed out, this

sequence is not referenced as abundantly as the other sequences in

Western sources on Chinese Medicine. Therefore, we shall look at

possible overlays of the frame while avoiding deeper elaboration

of its role and further interactions in the network. While the

processes of interaction are important in understanding the overall

system of interaction, they are not as necessary for the immediate

goal here of establishing cross-space mappings between the

individual phases of each cycle. In fact, it is the isolation and

characterization of each phase as an individual unit or “element”

within the patterns of interaction that allows their connection

between mental spaces with different frames—different patterns of

interactions within the cycles. Each phase is numbered according

to their order of reference in early texts—as mentioned before and

outlined in the figure. Each phase—or element—is also

represented by a letter that will be used throughout the following

figures to maximize space in establishing diagrams for patterns of

interaction—(A) Water, (F) Fire, (W) Wood, (M) Metal, (E) Earth.

Each phase is aligned through cross-space mapping across the

inputs and compressed to fit the frame of the Yin-Yang cycle and

Cosmological Sequence—while avoiding Cosmological patterns of

interaction. One example of such alignment is Fire (phase F), in

47

which Yang within Yang from Input 1 (the Yin-Yang cycle),

upward movement from Input 2 (phenomenological motion), and

flares upward from Input 3 (material substance) are aligned and

compressed into the blend into the space that corresponds with

North on a compass—12 o’clock on a clock. Each of the other

phases is compressed in the same way and will be further extended

to other patterns of interaction through representation by the

compressed Yin-Yang cycle blend—alphabetic representation of

phases (W, F, E, M, A) labeled as Yin-Yang cycle in the figure.

3.3.3.3. Figure 3c—Blend 2a: Yin-Yang,

Phenomenological Motion, Material

Substance (Image-Schematic Content)

Now that connections have been made between input spaces 1,2,

and 3 and relevant cross-space mappings have been established

lexically, we can now move forward to elaborate further by

aligning analogous phases with image-schematic content. This

image-schematic content within each space involved in Blend 2a is

the same as represented in figures 3, 3a, and 3b—each space

follows the same cycle and pattern of interaction. Input 1

represents the Yin-Yang cycle through the series of broken and

unbroken lines—as representative of complementary dualities.

Input 2 illustrates image-schematic representations of characteristic

phases of phenomenological motion. This image-schematic

content is the same as the lexical information used to understand

the Yin-Yang cycle and Five Element patterns of interaction.

Icons are used in input 3 represent material substance. These icons

represent image-schematic information in relation to experientially

observed aspects of material substance. These experientially

understood substances are labeled lexically so that they may be

further utilized for access to encyclopaedic knowledge and used

for discussion about the “Five Elements.” Each phase compressed

into the blend maintains access to the lexical information

established in figure 3b. For example: Fire—as represented by (F)

in the compressed blend—correlates with double unbroken (or

solid) lines in the Yin-Yang cycle, completely upward pointing

arrows in the phenomenological motion space, and by a fire icon in

the material substance space. Each of the other phases in the

respective cycles is aligned in the same manner.

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3.3.4. Figure 3 Step 2: Establishing the Five

Element Sequences—In Preparation for Access of

Relevant Mappings from Yin-Yang Cycle (Figs.

3d-3f)

The second step toward establishing the connection—or extension

of—the Yin-Yang cycle and the Five Elements (Blend 2) is to

firmly establish the interactional patterns of the two primary

patterns of Five Element interaction—the Generating and

Controlling Sequences. After firmly grounding the combined

patterns of interaction between the two primary Five Element

sequences (Blend 2b), further lexical information and image-

schematic content can be drawn from the Yin-Yang cycle (Blend

2a) for further understanding. Connections between key aspects of

the phases must be established first (figure 3d), then filled in with

image-schematic representations of the patterns of interaction

(figure 3e), and finally being elaborated with lexical information

(figure 3f). This final elaboration with lexical information draws

directly upon the mental space for material substance as introduced

by the Yin-Yang cycle in Blend 2a.

3.3.4.1. Figure 3d—Blend 2b: The Five

Element Sequences—Generating and

Controlling (Blend)

Blend 2b—as isolated in this figure—establishes the link between

the two primary Five Element sequences for understanding

patterns of interaction within natural systems—which arise through

the continual intertransformation within the Yin-Yang cycle. After

firmly establishing the patterns of interaction between the patterns

of interaction between each sequence (in Blend 2b), lexical

information and image-schematic content can then be imported

from the Yin-Yang cycle, material substance, and

phenomenological motion (from Blend 2a). The final mapping

between both blends—2a and 2b—takes place in the complete

Blend 2. In this blend—2b—Input 4 represents the Generating

sequence. The Generating sequence of Five Element interactions

characterizes the process of transition and movement from each

phase into the next. Each phase is seen as yielding or giving rise to

the next. Each representative element is understood to “generate”

or “give birth to” the next in this sequence. Input 5 represents the

Controlling sequence of interaction between the Five Element

phases outlines—as obviously indicated by the name—the patterns

of control within the system. Each phase is understood as having

control over it’s corresponding phase. The patterns of motion

within both systems are illustrated by arrows on the image-

schematic representation in figure 3e and the compressed patterns

in Blend 2b in figure 3.

3.3.4.2. Figure 3e—Blend 2b: The Five

Element Sequences—Generating and

Controlling (Image-Schematic Content)

The first step in establishing the Five Element sequences is to

represent the patterns of interaction independent of lexical

information and image-schematic content within the individual

phases. This is not implying that these patterns of interaction

conceptually arise independently of lexical information or image-

schematic content, just that it is relevant to first consider the

patterns of interaction without focusing on such elaborated

information. These patterns provide image-schematic content for

the framing of each space—same as in figures 3, 3d, and 3f—that

is necessary for further extension of the sequences to other spaces.

Each space also has access to lexical information that will be

elaborated in figure 3f. As introduced in the previous figure—

3d—Input 4 illustrates a clockwise circular pattern of growth and

promotion within natural systems according to the Generating

Sequence, and Input 5 outlines a clockwise five-point star pattern

of control and restraint within natural systems according to the

52

Controlling sequence. These patterns are compressed to illustrate

the combined patterns of interaction and complete system

operation and interaction between individual phases. Continuing

with the previous examples of Fire, we look at phase (F) in the

blend. Phase (F) is understood to generate—or yield—phase (E)

and to control phase (M). The next phase of generation from phase

(F)—phase (E)—is understood to generate phase (M) and control

phase (A). The next step of control from phase (F)—phase (M)—

is understood as exerting control over the next phase of the

controlling sequence—phase (W). Further patterns in the

sequences follow accordingly. Again, these patterns are

established image-schematically as frames of reference for

analogous mental spaces. For a detailed—though more complex—

diagram of cross-space mappings between the individual phases—

or elements—represented by icons see Appendix 7. With the

patterns established image-schematically we can now proceed to

fill them in with lexical information. This information is extended

from the spaces in Blend 2a—Yin-Yang cycle, phenomenological

motion, and material substance.

3.3.4.3. Figure 3f—Blend 2b: The Five

Element Sequences—Generating and

Controlling (Elaborated Lexical Content)

Figure 3f continues the process of connecting the Yin-Yang cycle

to the Five Elements by elaborating blend 2b with lexical

information from 2a. Highlighted lexical information for each

phase of patterned interaction within the system is filled in as

necessary to understand the Five Element patterns of interaction.

The patterns in both spaces 4 and 5 in this figure are compressed

into Blend 2b in the same way as outlined in the two previous

figures—3d and 3e. One major benefit of lexically elaborating the

cross-space mappings between the two spaces is that we can begin

to more fully understand the metaphoric extensions established

within the system by accessing encyclopaedic knowledge as

established through embodied experience. Starting with the

example of Wood, we can see that Wood (W) is understood to

generate Fire (F) and control Earth (E). We can easily understand

the metaphorically extended conceptualization of the interactions

between Wood and Fire due to common embodied experience. It

is through common embodied experience that we understand that

the material substance wood very easily yields fire in the natural

world. Likewise, this understood process of natural interaction is

highlighted as a means of understanding the processes of

interaction within the Five Element sequences—so Wood promotes

Fire. The phase that Wood (W) is understood to control is Earth

(E). This is understood through the metaphoric extension of the

highlighted aspect of wood loosening earth as understood from our

embodied experience these two material substances in nature.

Continuing on beyond Fire (F) from Wood (W) in the process of

generation, we see that Earth (E) comes next. This may be

understood metaphorically in that burning the material substance

wood with fire breaks it down and returns it to the earth. The next

phase beyond Earth (E)—continuing on from Wood (W)—is

Water (A). Again, this interaction is very easily understood in

light of embodied experience. Earth is easily understood as

“obstructing” water. Embodied experience tells us that earth

serves as the typical natural boundary for water, as all water is

naturally “obstructed” by earth—dirt, rocks, etc. Each of the other

phases is outlined according to the same pattern of interactions and

compressed into Blend 2b accordingly. Again, this blend is

obviously based upon metaphoric extension of concretely

understood embodied experience to these more abstract patterns of

interaction within natural systems. It is such metaphoric extension

of our embodied understanding of natural interactions that allows

for the understanding of these sequences—and other similar

spaces—at human scale.

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3.3.5. Figure 3 Step 3: Yin-Yang Cycle and Five

ElementsEstablished Separately—Next Step:

Illustrate Patterns of Interaction (Figs. 3g-3i)

Now that the Five Element sequences have been firmly established

as complete patterns of interaction and the individual phases have

been filled in with image-schematic content and lexical

information—phenomenological motion and material substance

from Blend 2a, we can continue on to look at the interaction

between the cycles themselves—Yin-Yang cycle and the

compressed Five Element sequences.

3.3.5.1. Figure 3g—Blend 2: The Five Element

Sequences: Generating, Controlling, and Yin-

Yang—Cosmological (Blend)

Now that each pattern of interactions has been firmly established

and each phase understood both independently and as a part of

each system, we can now move on to model the interaction

between the various sequences as part of a complete network—

Blend 2. The three sequences of most concern here are the Yin-

Yang Cycle (Blend 2a), the Generating Sequence (Blend 2b-4),

and the Controlling Sequence (Blend 2b-5). Again, we should we

should take note of the similarity in framed structure of the Yin-

Yang cycle and the Five Element Cosmological sequence

(Maciocia 1989), though this sequence will not be considered in

great detail because of the lack of readily available information.

While it won’t be considered in great detail, it is situated here for

future reference and availability. This figure illustrates the link

between the patterns of interaction between all three cycles

considered—the Yin-Yang cycle and both Five Element sequences

of primary interest: Generating and Controlling. After connecting

key features between the systems in this figure (3g), lexical

information and image-schematic content can then be filled in

accordingly (Figs. 3h, 3i). All three of these patterns are

compressed into the blend. That makes this blend unique in that it

retains access to distinct frames and patterns represented in each

input. While inputs 4 and 5 (Generating and Controlling

sequences) are compressed into the same frame, Input 1 (Yin-Yang

cycle) remains distinct—a separate frame. While the Generating

and Controlling sequences in Blend 2b are structured differently

than the Yin-Yang cycle in Blend 2a, they always maintain links to

key elements and information through cross-space mappings. The

two primary inputs into Blend 2 are sub-blends 2a and 2b—as

represented by figure 3. In this figure Input 2a is considered as a

complete mental space, while Inputs 4 and 5 from Blend 2b are

both imported individually because of the distinct roles of each in

the blend. Input B-2a as a mental space represents the compressed

network to which the Yin-Yang cycle maintains functional access.

This input is critical in that it establishes the system(s) for which

the Five Elements are utilized as a means of understanding patterns

of internal function. Input B-2b 4 represents the Five Element

pattern of change (Generating sequence), and Input B-2b 5

represents the Five Element patterns of control (Controlling

sequence). The generic space brings out the key aspect of the

patterns: function, pattern, motion, and focus. The blend

compresses these aspects of all the patterns. The combined

function of all three patterns is to establish the foundation of all

cosmological systems and characterize the processes of change and

regulation—or restraint—within these systems. The blend retains

functional access to all the patterns of interaction, with the

Generating and Controlling sequences compressed into the same

frame. All patterns of motion are also retained. The overall

combined focus is to model and understand patterns of creation,

function, and regulation of cosmological systems.

57

3.3.5.2. Figure 3h—Blend 2: The Five

Element Sequences: Generating, Controlling,

and Yin-Yang—Cosmological (Image-

Schematic Content)

As with figure 3e previously, we continue to elaborate this blend

(Blend 2) image-schematically before we consider the lexical

content. This is done to establish the patterns themselves before

considering the elaborate connections between encyclopaedic

knowledge—which is filled in next. Again, this is not implying

that these patterns of interaction arise independently of lexical

information or image-schematic content within the individual

phases, just that it is relevant to consider the patterns of interaction

independently of such elaborate encyclopaedic knowledge first.

These patterns in each of the mental spaces serve as image-

schematic frames for Blend 2. These are the same patterns that

were described previously in figure 3g and will be elaborated

lexically in figure 3i following. As noted in figure 3g, all the

patterns are compressed into the blend—yielding two distinct

frames of reference. Inputs B-2b 4 and 5—Generating and

Controlling sequences—are compressed into the same frame, while

Input B-2a—the Yin-Yang cycle—retains an independent

structural frame of reference. Though, all the information that

each individual phase has access to—lexical information and

individual image-schematic content—gets compressed completely

in the blend. Each mental space—all inputs and the blend—

maintains access to the lexical information through cross-space

mapping as represented in figure 3i. Each input represents the

individual patterns previously established. The Generating

sequence of Input B-2b 4 illustrates the pattern of growth and

promotion within natural systems. The Controlling sequence of

Input B-2b 5 represents the pattern of control and restraint within

natural systems. Input B-2a represents the patterns of creation and

foundation of all natural systems as understood through the Yin-

Yang cycle—as modeled in compressed network Blend 1. These

three patterns—Yin-Yang cycle, Generating sequence, and

Controlling sequence—are established image-schematically as a

frame of reference for each input space. The access that complete

Blend 2 retains to both frames of reference is illustrated in figure 3

by the dotted line projections.

3.3.5.3. Figure 3i—Blend 2: The Five Element

Sequences: Generating, Controlling, and Yin-

Yang—Cosmological (Elaborated Lexical

Content)

Now that highlighted key elements and the structural frames of

these patterns have been established, we can move to the final step

of lexical elaboration. In this final diagram, highlighted lexical

information for each phase of the complete network system of

combined patterns of interaction—from each individual input—is

compressed into Blend 2. The inputs are the same as outlined in

the two preceding figures—3g, 3h—and follow the same pattern as

other the previous lexically elaborated blends—figures 1c, 2a, 3b,

3f. Input B-2a represents both the Yin-Yang cycle and the Five

Element Cosmological Sequence. The reference to numeric

ordering and position on axes come from the Cosmological

sequence, while the reference to Yin and Yang obviously comes

from the Yin-Yang cycle. Both patterns in this space establish the

foundation of systems, while the other sequences represent internal

patterns of change and restraint. Input B-2b 4 contains the

Generating sequence and represents change and transition within

the system. This is also the cycle of growth and promotion. Input

B-2b 5 contains the Controlling sequence and represents the

pattern of internal control within a system—illustrated system of

checks and balances. Information about each individual phase

within each pattern of interaction is compressed into the blend.

While the arrangement of the individual phases in the blend is

58

similar to that of the compressed Generating and Controlling

sequences, it does not necessarily have to be arranged in this

manner. The most important aspect of the compressed

information in this diagram is that each individual phase represents

a complete compression of lexical information as joined through

cross-space mapping. It is not necessary to describe every phase

individually, but we should consider at least the position of at least

one phase within all the cycles. As we do this, it should be

necessary to follow along on both figure 3h—frame structure—and

figure 3i—lexical information. Water is a good place to start, as it

is the understood to be the “foundation” of the Five Elements—in

the Cosmological Sequence. Water is usually the first one

mentioned in ancient lists of the Five Elements. It is therefore

number one—the foundation. It is the opposite of Fire on a

vertical axis—through the center Earth. The orientation of Water

in the Yin-Yang cycle is the same as in the Cosmological

sequence—at the bottom point of the vertical axis. Water

represents Mature Yin—or ultimate Yin—within the Yin-Yang

cycle. In the Generating sequence Water is understood to

promote—or give rise to—Wood, and in the Controlling sequence

it is understood to “extinguish” Fire. Continuing on to the next

phase from Water in the Cosmological sequence we come to

Fire—number two. This sequence goes forward according to

axes—bottom-top (Water-Fire), left-right (Wood-Metal) through

the center. While the structural frame of the Cosmological

sequence is similar to that of the Yin-Yang cycle, they proceed

according to completely different patterns. The Yin-Yang cycle

follows a clockwise through the elements Water, Wood, Fire, and

Metal around—as opposed to through—the central pivot Earth. So

the next phase from Water—Mature Yin—in the Yin-Yang cycle

is Wood—Immature Yang—and the cycle proceeds accordingly.

The frame compression of the Generating and Controlling

sequences is similar to that of the Yin-Yang cycle and controlling

sequence. While they are both organized in the same manner, the

patterns of interaction are completely different. The Generating

sequence continues around the five-point pentagonal orientation in

a circular clockwise motion, so the next phase from Water is

Wood, then Fire, then Earth, then Metal, then back around to

Water—Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, etc. The

Controlling sequence also follows a clockwise motion around the

five-points, but it does so in a pentagonal star pattern—as seen in

figure 3h Input B-2b 5. Water is understood to control Fire, and

the pattern continues according to frame established in figure 3h—

Water=>Fire=>Metal=>Wood=>Earth. Each relationship

established by the pattern is more readily understood through

metaphoric extension of embodied understanding of the

representative material substance. To illustrate such metaphoric

extension, we can easily understand that “Water extinguishes

Fire,” “Fire melts Metal,” “Metal knocks down Wood,” “Wood

loosens Earth,” and “Earth obstructs Water.” Likewise, all

metaphoric extensions for each phase within each pattern of

interaction are compressed into the blend. Again, one major

benefit of filling in the blend of interaction patterns with lexically

rich metaphoric extensions is that it allows for more elaborate

understanding of the complexity of compressed interactions

between all of the phases in all of the systems—each phase

represents a point of access to its respective position of interaction

within each pattern or cycle.

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3.4. System Established: Prepared for Extension

The complete system of interactions between the Yin-Yang Cycle

and the Five Elements has now been established. The foundation

has been laid by the Yin-Yang cycle. Internal patterns of

interaction have been characterized by the Five Element

sequences. Image-schematic content and lexical information for

both the individual phases and the patterns as a whole has been

sufficiently mapped. The next step, then, is to extend the network

system to its correspondences—as utilized in practice.

3.4.1. System Application and Five Element

Correspondences—Extension of the System (Figs.

4-4d)

The system of correspondences in Chinese medicine is extremely

vast and complex. In light of the lengthy work done so far in this

case study just to model the patterns themselves, we can see that

any attempt to map all of the intricacies involved would be no

small effort. We will therefore only look at a relatively simple

extension of these patterns of interaction in Chinese medicine—

body organ function. The body organs—Zhang organs—provide a

prototypical example of the usage of the patterns of interaction in

clinical practice. There are many different categories of body parts

and more than one category of body organs. Though, it is not

necessary to establish the difference here in the different categories

of body parts. Suffice it to say that this category—the Zhang

organs—is one of the categories of many possible correspondences

with the Five Element patterns of interaction. The next set of

blends will establish spaces for: 1) the Five Element patterns of

interaction, 2) the Zhang organs, and 3) an open space that can be

utilized for importing additional Five Element correspondences to

the blend as necessary. Such a blend should lay a stable

foundation for the importation of any additional correspondences

into the vast network of interactions. In order to lay a stable

foundation for such incorporation of other correspondences into

the Five Element network of interactions we must first set up a

simple representation of the blend network—figure 4. Figure 4

represents an overview of connections made between each

representative mental space of the Five Element correspondences

as they are incorporated into the network of patterned interaction.

The next step is to highlight different key features that are

incorporated into a coherent blend between the Five Element

patterns of interaction and relevant correspondences. The bodily

organs mental space serves as the prototypical example of Five

Element correspondences. An additional open mental space in the

blend represents a variable by which other Five Element

correspondences can be added into the network as needed. The

final step in laying this foundation for extension of the Five

Element patterns is to establish cross-space mappings between the

model mental space—body organs—and each of the sequences

individually. In order to do this it is necessary to draw out

highlighted features of interaction within the individual patterns of

the overall network system—Generating sequence: figure 4b;

Controlling sequence: figure 4c; and combined patterns: figure 4d.

This network as represented in each of the following figures is all

compressed into Blend 3.

3.4.1.1. Figure 4— Blend 3: Extension of the

Five Element Patterns of Interaction

(Network Blend) This first model illustrates the network blend of patterned

interaction of the correspondences according to the Five Element

patterns of interaction. Each space represents a category of

correspondences that can be mapped according to the Five Element

patterns of interaction to characterize their function within the

overall system. Input E represents the Elements—the Five

Element patterns of interaction. This space imports the

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compressed network of Five Element—and Yin-Yang—patterns of

interaction from the previous blends—1, 2—and extends access to

the other spaces in this network—Blend 3—through cross-space

mapping. All highlighted key elements, lexical information, and

image-schematic content of the patterns and the individual phases

can therefore be accessed by other spaces through Input E. This is

also the primary input of the blend, providing most of the structural

frame—patterned interaction within the system and individual

phases. All aspects of other correspondences are aligned with the

Five Element patterns through cross-space mapping and

compressed to fit the blend as framed by Input E. Input O

represents the prototypical example of the Zhang body organs.

The extension of the Five Elements to the Organs will be mapped

in great detail to represent the way in which correspondences are

brought into the system through cross-space mapping between

inputs and compressed into a complete coherent blend. The third

mental space—Input X—represents a variable of the indefinite

amount of correspondences that can be incorporated into the blend

as necessary to understand how they interact within the system as a

whole—according to their role in respective phases and role in the

overall patterns of interaction. Characteristic examples of these

correspondences are: Colors, Tastes, Stages of Development,

Numbers, Planets, Sense Organs, Tissues, Emotions, and Sounds.

Detailed information on how these correspondences—and several

more—are aligned with the Five Elements can be found in

Appendix 2. Each additional input (X) follows the same pattern of

cross-space mapping and compression into the blend as illustrated

by the following examples of Element-Organ compression—as

represented by figures 4b-4d. Blend 3 is unique, like Blend 2, in

that it retains access to all patterns of interaction within the system

as frames of reference. Again, these frames are represented by the

dotted line projections of both compressed pattern frames

established previously.

3.4.1.2. Figure 4a— Blend 3: Extension of the

Five Element Patterns of Interaction (Blend) This blend highlights the key features necessary to compress each

of the correspondences into the network of Five Element patterns

of interaction. The generic space highlights three key features

from the mental spaces—Domain, Frame, and Key function. The

domains are all compressed to fit the frame of the Five Element

patterns of interaction in the blend—natural systems, human body,

additional variables. They are framed as natural systems, or

cycles, following the Five Element patterns of interaction. Now

that key features have been highlighted, the next step is to

elaborate the interactions between the spaces with lexical

information. Each sequence—pattern of interaction—must be

isolated and elaborated individually in order to establish coherent

cross-space mapping between the spaces. Each isolated sequence

represents one part of the overall frame for each mental space, as

each correspondence must necessarily have access to all frame

structures to be completely understood in reference to the complete

system. Each individual correspondence from the individual

categories is represented by an analogous “element” and fits into

the system accordingly. For example, green is in the category of

colour and is analogous to Wood. Green therefore fits into the

network according to the role of Wood in each of the phases.

Wood generates Fire, and Fire is correlated with red, so green

generates red. Wood is also understood to control Earth, and Earth

is correlated with yellow, so something characterized as “yellow”

is understood to be controlled by that which is characterized as

“green.” And again, the system proceeds according to this pattern.

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3.4.1.3. Figure 4b— Blend 3-a: Generating:

Organ Extension The first step in elaborating the complex cross-space mapping and

framing involved in the network—as set up in figure 4—is to

illustrate the blending of a single Five Element sequence—

Generating—and a single prototypical mental space—Organs.

This elaboration is represented by Blend 3-a and there are only two

mental spaces compressed—Inputs E and O. Input E represents

the Five Element Generating sequence and Input O represents the

prototypical Five Element correspondence—the Zhang organs.

The pattern of this sub-blend (3a) follows the previously

established Five Element Generating sequence—figures 3, 3d-3i.

This pattern is extended to frame the Organ Generating sequence.

Each phase — element or organ—is seen as “promoting” the next,

and each of the spaces is framed according to this pattern. Each

element corresponds to an analogous body organ based on

highlighted similarities through cross-space mapping of lexical

information. The phases are isolated as individual elements and

organs. As established extensively, Wood is understood to

promote Fire, Fire then promotes Earth, etc. Wood is analogous to

Liver, Fire is analogous to Heart, and Earth is analogous to Spleen;

so Liver is understood to promote Heart, Heart then promotes

Spleen, and Spleen promotes Lungs, etc. This compressed Blend

3-a establishes the cross-space mapping of key elements and

lexical information between the Organs and Five Element

Generating sequence. The next step is then to model the isolated

pattern of another sequence, the Controlling sequence—as

elaborated by Blend 3-b in figure 4c. Establishing both of these

sequences then sets the stage for compression of all patterns of

interaction into one complete network blend—as represented

previously by Blend 3 in figure 4 and elaborated below by Blend

3-c in figure 4d.

3.4.1.4. Figure 4c— Blend 3-b: Controlling :

Organ Extension The next step in elaborating the intricate links between input

spaces E and O is to highlight cross-space mapping according to

the Controlling sequence. This follows the same pattern of

mapping as the Generating sequence in Blend 3-a—figure 4b—

except that the sequence of interactions is different. The

correspondence category Zhang Organs still aligns analogous

phases in the same way with representative Elements—Wood still

represents Liver, Fire still represents Heart, Earth still represents

Spleen, etc. The difference is the same as established by the

patterns of interaction individually. In this sequence Wood is

understood to control Earth, Earth to control Water, Water to

control Fire, etc. Since the analogous correspondences are still the

same Liver (Wood) controls Spleen (Earth), Spleen (Wood)

controls Kidneys (Water), and Kidneys (Water) control Heart

(Fire), and so on. This blend (3-b) firmly establishes the cross-

space mapping of key elements between the Organs and Five

Element interactions according to the Controlling sequence.

Having now established the intricate cross-space mappings

between two primary mental spaces—Elements and Organs—

according to two major sequences of patterned interaction, the next

step is to set up a compressed blend of all patterns of interaction

for these two spaces. This includes the Yin-Yang cycle (and

Cosmological sequence) and the Generating and Controlling

sequences of the Five Elements. This compression modeled below

in Blend 3-c—figure 4d—sets the stage for combination of all

patterns of interaction into one complete blend, as represented

previously by the network Blend 3 in figure 4.

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3.4.1.5. Figure 4d— Blend 3-c: Five Element

Sequence Organ Extension—All Sequences

(Elaborated Blend) Each mental space has proceeds according to the framed pattern of

interaction and maintains access to image-schematic patterns as

illustrated by in figure 3h. The blend is therefore framed according

to the combined patterns of interaction as applied to the Zhang

Organs. Cross-space mapping of lexical information in the blend

aligns analogous phases—or correspondences—from both mental

spaces. All patterns of interaction between the Elements and

Organs are then compressed into Blend 3-c. This blend represents

a compressed network that can incorporate any mental space

containing a category of Five Element correspondences, as

represented by network Blend 3 in figure 4—additional

correspondence categories in Appendix 2. Each correspondence of

incorporated Five Element categories is aligned with an analogous

phase and compressed into the blend accordingly. Reference

should be made between Blend 3-c in this figure (4d) and Blend 2

in figure 3i in order to be completely understood. For example,

Kidneys are aligned with aligned with Water. Kidneys, therefore

follow the same patterns of interaction as Water. Again, one

should refer between figure 4d here and figure 3i (and any other

relevant figures) to see how these analogous correspondences

align. Water and Kidneys are both number one in the

Cosmological sequence and serves as the foundational phase.

Water is the Cosmological opposite of Fire, and Fire corresponds

with Heart, so Kidneys are the Cosmological opposite of Heart.

Water occupies the space of Mature Yin in the Yin-Yang cycle,

therefore Kidneys occupy the space of Mature Yin in the Yin-Yang

cycle as well. Water is understood as generating Wood, and Wood

is correlated with Liver, therefore Kidneys are understood as

generating Liver. Likewise, Water is understood to control Fire,

and again Fire is correlated with Heart, so Kidneys are said to

control Heart. The complete complex system continues according

to this same pattern. The Organs and all other correspondence

categories maintain access to all information about the Five

Element phases, including image-schematic representations of

phenomenological motion. Refer to Appendix 6 for highlighted

cross-space mappings between the organ mental space and image-

schematic representations of compressed patterns of interaction

and phenomenological motion within each individual phase. This

mapping of the prototypical category of Zhang Organs, along with

lexical information about the Five Elements from figure 3i and

image-schematic representations of interaction patterns in figure

3h, illustrates the means by which information is aligned between

mental spaces for the Five Element and additional correspondences

and compressed into a coherent functional blend.

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3.5. Network Extension

While space in this particular study is very limited and does not

allow for a great deal of further extension, it is worth mentioning

one example of how the correspondences are described in terms of

the Five Element interactions. We will look to the categorical

extension of Wood for such an example. All of the following

examples come directly from Maciocia (1989), and all information

and quotes can be found on page 25. The season aligned with

Wood is Spring. Liver also corresponds to Wood, so Liver

imbalance is understood to be easily provoked in Springtime. The

explanation given relates to the Liver’s characteristic upward flow:

“in Springtime, Yang rises and the growing energy is bursting

forward and can thus aggravate a Liver imbalance and cause Liver-

Qi to rise excessively.” Wood and Liver also correspond to the

cardinal direction East. The Liver is therefore understood as being

affected easily by winds from the East and some chronic

headache—or neck ache—sufferers will sometimes “remark that

they get a headache whenever an East wind blows.” Wood is also

correlated with the color green, so “the face colour in Liver

imbalances will often be greenish.” Such observable

characteristics are utilized for clinical diagnosis. Taste, climate,

sense organs, tissues, and emotion are all aligned in a similar

fashion. These categories and all additional correspondences can

be incorporated into the blend following the same pattern

illustrated by aligning the Organs and Elements. And, while these

are noteworthy examples, they only provide a very small amount

of insight into the complexity of how the Five Element

correspondences are utilized in clinical practice. Ultimately, all of

the correspondences are aligned within the network and

compressed into a coherent blend to which the individual

practitioner must maintain access in order to have global

understanding of the complete system and manipulate it at human

scale. This network blend of the Five Elements—and Yin-Yang

cycle—still only represents one small piece of the larger network

of Chinese medical philosophy. This Five Element network can

then, in turn, serve as a compressed blend that can be incorporated

into other networks within Chinese medicine—and ultimately the

complete network of Chinese medicine. This network—as part of

the overall human conceptual system and cognitive network—

necessarily maintains access to encyclopaedic knowledge and

utilizes metaphoric extension of embodied experience to be

understood globally and manipulated at human scale.

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4. CONCLUSION

4.1. Infinite Extension and Global Understanding at

Human Scale

The previous blends and modeled conceptual information are

infinitely tied to all embodied experience and encyclopaedic

knowledge. Mapping this infinite network step-by-step would be

near impossible, but what we can do—and have done here—is

model very crucial aspects involved in obtaining global

understanding of the complete system. As Liu points out,

everything from man to the infinite reaches of the cosmos are both

unified and infinitely intricate and divisible (Liu 1995:9). While it

will always lie beyond our reach to formally assess every infinite

detail and tie them all in together step-by-step, what is possible is

to find representative patterns of characterization consistent

enough to obtain global insight of the complete system—unified

whole. It is such a global understanding that truly gives the

individual the power to aid the system in maintaining proper

balance. In the words of Fauconnier and Turner: “We divide the

world up into entities at human scale so that we can manipulate

them in human lives, and this division of the world is an

imaginative achievement” (2002:8). Systems of knowledge that

rely solely upon reductionist step-by-step processes of analysis will

never—NEVER!—provide the means for the individual to

understand the system as a complete whole and “manipulate” them

“at human scale.” The only way that this is possible is to

acknowledge the power of systems of meaning and allow for the

intricate interaction between systems of form and systems of

meaning.

4.2. Conceptual Modelling Made Possible by Linguistic

Evidence

The type of linguistic analysis that has been conducted in this

study provides a means by which such interaction between systems

of form and meaning can be modeled. These models further the

views of cognitive linguistics and science that human cognition

develops through subjective embodied interaction with the

objective world. Such embodied interaction necessarily leads to

categorization and metaphoric extension of concretely established

patterns of interaction to more abstract domains. Such

categorization and metaphoric extension is not only useful for

interaction with objective reality, it is absolutely necessary.

Western reductionism has over-emphasized the power that can be

gained purely through systems of form, while completely

disregarding critical systems of meaning. Ignoring the connection

that exists between such intricately intertwined systems is

necessarily self-limiting and will never allow for the individual to

achieve global understanding of the complete system. Chinese

medical philosophy poses no such gap in systems of form and

meaning, but rather prepares the individual to be a competent

practitioner with the skills of operating within the system as a

complete unified whole. The goal of Chinese medicine, therefore,

is to entrench universal patterns of interaction in such a way that

allows for coherent, and consistent, metaphoric extension between

concepts of concretely understood embodied experience and

abstract patterns of interaction within the objective world. This is

achieved through the establishment of knowledge systems through

both linguistic transmission of information and rote learning.

Linguistic analysis of such of knowledge systems provide the

means by which cognitive structure can be accessed and

representative conceptual systems can be modeled. What we have

done in this case study is precisely that—model knowledge

systems within Chinese medicine through linguistic evidence. In

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the words of Boroditsky: “It is concluded that (1) language is a

powerful tool in shaping thought about abstract domains and (2)

one’s native language plays an important role in shaping habitual

thought (2001:1).

4.3. The Need For Such Work

The need for models of such knowledge systems has been

thoroughly brought to light by researchers and practicioners in

both the fields of cognitive science and Chinese medicine. Similar

research in cognitive science, metaphor theory, and conceptual

blending theory—as illustrated earlier—has been well

documented. Again, Varela, Thompson, and Rosch have aligned

cognitive science and Buddhist philosophy, conceptual blending

theory has been applied to everything from cartoons and humour

(Coulson 2005), to math (Lakoff and Nunez 2000), to magic,

ritual, and religion (Sorensen; Sweetser 2000) to molecular

genetics (John Sung In prep.) and Chinese philosophy (Slingerland

2005), and Yu has even briefly utilized metaphor theory to

consider the Yin-Yang and Five Element theories in Chinese

philosophy. Such studies establish cognitive science—and

conceptual blending—as a very powerful tool for understanding

the complexity of human knowledge systems. Similar

advancements have been made in the field of Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine has proven itself to be a very powerful model of

treatment in that it is one of the most widely practiced medical

systems in the world. Numerous Western researchers have also

made great strides toward establishing a dialogue between the

Chinese medicine and the Western world. Joseph Needham is

probably one of the most noteworthy researchers of Chinese

science and philosophy, establishing voluminous works in these

areas (1954-). Medical anthropologists have also contributed a

great deal to this dialogue more recently (Sivin 1987, 2005; Scheid

2002; Farquhar 1994; Hsu 1999). Many lengthy works have also

been created in attempts to properly transmit the meaning of

difficult lexical concepts—for example A Brief History of Qi.

Paradigm Publishers (Yu, Huan and Rose 2001). Various

researchers have also stated the need for the application of

cognitive approaches to Chinese medicine. Scheid asserts that

“Chinese medicine may need inspiration from other disciplines

such as cognitive studies, systems theory, or cultural psychology

(Scheid 2002:24, emphasis added). Rose—co-author of the book

about the concept of qi—stated that “Lakoff wrote in Where

Mathematics Comes From that he is working towards developing

‘a cognitive science of mathematics.’ Following this lead, I believe

we should move towards a cognitive science of qi” (2005). Scheid

also points the potential in establishing solid avenues of mutual

insight between researchers in Chinese medicine and other fields

of science: “Chinese medicine may find powerful allies in

anthropologists, sociologists of science, and others committed to

an understanding of medicine that does not grant implicit rights to

some practices while denying them to others. It’s not about

defining a single ego-centrical model, but about an understanding

of the power of all involved” (Scheid 2002:24). This study is the

first step toward establishing such an avenue of communication

between Chinese medical philosophy and conceptual blending

theory. It continues the work that Varela, Thompson, Rosch,

Fauconnier, Turner, Lakoff, Johnson, Sorensen, Sweetser,

Slingerland, Yu, Rose, Scheid, Hsu, Farquhar, Sivin, and Needham

thoroughly established through years of research. It establishes

Chinese medicine and cognitive science as worthy candidates for

extremely beneficial studies of mutual insight. It also begins work

toward modeling conceptual integration networks of intricately

interwoven systems of form and meaning within Yin-Yang and

Five Element theories in Chinese medicine. Theories that are

founded upon the metaphoric extension of embodied concepts to

abstract patterns of interaction that exist in the mind-independent

74

objective world. Theories that not only accept such extensions as

“real,” but necessarily respect and depend upon them as “levels of

truth.” Such systems of knowledge are just as infinitely complex

as the phenomena which they represent. This case study is only

one very minute attempt to model such vast systems, though what

we should hope has been established here is the relevance of such

an undertaking and a competent step in that direction. Again, such

an endeavour—to model Yin-Yang and Five Element theories of

Chinese medicine through conceptual blending—should prove to

be a very powerful tool of mutually beneficial for Chinese

medicine and cognitive science. We conclude here with one last

statement from Fauconnier on the power of conceptual blends:

“The are genuine domains of mental exploration—running blends

can lead to deep discoveries that were not anticipated in setting up

the blend” (1997:166).

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