Chapter Seventeen: A Philosophical Chapter on "Why" -- How Do All Things Know Thunder and Rise$5

I. The Ultimate Question: How Does the Dormant Creature "Know" It Is Time to Awaken$6

As this article draws toward its close, let us return to the most profound, most fundamental question raised in the introduction: How does the dormant creature "know" that spring thunder has sounded and it is time to awaken$7

This question appears simple but in fact touches upon the most subtle core of the cosmology of Heaven-humanity unity. A creature buried several feet underground can neither hear the thunder nor see the sunlight, and cannot directly perceive changes in surface temperature. By what means does it "know" that the season has turned and life should begin again$8 Why do tens of thousands of dormant creatures awaken at roughly the same time (around Jingzhe), as though between them and between them and heaven and earth there existed some mysterious "agreement"$9

The ancients, too, pondered this question deeply. And the answer they gave was not couched in terms of mechanical causation (such as "rising soil temperature stimulates the nervous system") but appealed to a grander, more profound vision -- Heaven-humanity resonance, all things as one qi. In the ancients' view, the reason a dormant creature can "know" it is time to awaken is that it shares with the entire cosmos the same "qi." When this qi reaches Jingzhe and yang qi surges, the portion of "qi" within the dormant creature resonates with heaven and earth's qi, and thus the creature "naturally" awakens. It is not "notified" by external thunder but "awakened" by the internal life-qi that shares its source with heaven and earth.

II. "Like Sounds Respond to Each Other; Like Qi Seeks Its Kind": The Cosmos of Resonance

To understand this "resonance," we must invoke a supremely incisive passage from the Wenyan commentary on the Qian hexagram of the Book of Changes: "Like sounds respond to each other; like qi seeks its kind. Water flows toward what is wet; fire approaches what is dry; clouds follow the dragon; winds follow the tiger; when the sage arises, all things are seen clearly. What is rooted in heaven cleaves to what is above; what is rooted in earth cleaves to what is below. Each follows its kind."

"Like sounds respond to each other; like qi seeks its kind" (tong sheng xiang ying, tong qi xiang qiu). Identical sounds resonate with each other; identical qi is mutually attracted. These eight characters are the core formulation of the Chinese cosmology of "resonance." They reveal a fundamental conviction: among all things in the cosmos, whatever is of the same kind, the same qi, will resonate with and respond to each other. "Water flows toward what is wet; fire approaches what is dry" -- water flows to damp places, fire burns toward dry ones. "Clouds follow the dragon; winds follow the tiger" -- clouds rise with the dragon, winds blow with the tiger. All are manifestations of "like qi seeks its kind" and "each follows its kind."

Applying this principle to the awakening of dormant creatures, everything becomes clear: within the dormant creature there is "yang qi" (life-qi), and at Jingzhe heaven and earth's yang qi surges forth. The yang qi of heaven and earth and the yang qi within the dormant creature are "like qi." And so, "like qi seeks its kind" -- when heaven and earth's yang qi stirs, the yang qi within the dormant creature resonates and stirs in turn, and the creature awakens. This is not the physical stimulus of thunder but the resonant communion of "qi." Just as plucking one string of a lute causes another string tuned to the same pitch to vibrate sympathetically (a physical illustration of "like sounds respond to each other"), when heaven and earth's yang qi is "plucked" (surges forth), the identical yang qi within the dormant creature spontaneously "resonates" (awakens).

This is the ancients' fundamental answer to "How do all things know thunder and rise$10": not because of external "knowing" (cognition, perception) but because of internal "responding" (resonance, sympathetic vibration). The dormant creature does not need to "know" anything; it only needs to "respond" -- to respond to the qi of heaven and earth that shares its source. In this sense, the awakening of the dormant creature, the blooming of the peach, the singing of the oriole, and the farmer's going to the fields are essentially the same phenomenon -- all are manifestations of the moment when heaven and earth's yang qi surges and all things (including humans) respond in accordance with "like qi seeks its kind." Jingzhe is the total eruption of this grand "cosmic resonance."

III. All Things Are One: The Foundation of Resonance

But we must press one layer further: Why can all things "seek their kind" and resonate with one another$11 What is the foundation of this resonance$12

The answer lies in a still more fundamental conviction -- all things are one body, all things are one qi. In the ancients' view (especially the Daoists'), all things between heaven and earth are ultimately constituted by the same "qi." Master Zhuang said: "What pervades all under heaven is one qi, nothing more" (Zhuangzi, "Zhi Bei You"). Heaven is this qi; earth is this qi; humans are this qi; and the dormant creature is this qi. All things differ infinitely in form, but in essence they are merely different gatherings and dispersals, different configurations, of the same qi.

Precisely because all things are fundamentally "one qi," they can resonate with and respond to each other. This is like the water of a single vast ocean: though divided into innumerable waves, it is at bottom the same water. The ripple in one place naturally propagates to another. The "ripple" of heaven and earth's qi at Jingzhe (the surging of yang qi) naturally propagates and resonates with the dormant creature, as one part of "the same qi," causing it to awaken. "All things are one qi" is the ontological foundation that makes resonance possible.

This vision of "all things are one body" is not merely a cosmology but a profound life experience and ethical horizon. Master Zhuang said: "Heaven and earth were born together with me, and all things are one with me" (Zhuangzi, "Qi Wu Lun"). If we truly apprehend that we and all things of heaven and earth are fundamentally "one qi" and "one body," then the awakening of dormant creatures at Jingzhe, the blooming of peach blossoms, are no longer natural phenomena "external to me" but part of the manifestation of "my own" vitality. The yang qi rising within your body and the yang qi rising within the dormant creature and the yang qi surging between heaven and earth are one and the same process. In this sense, Jingzhe is not something happening "outside" you but the magnificent moment when "you," as one member of heaven, earth, and all things, awaken and surge forth together with everything else.

IV. Bending and Stretching, Back and Forth; Resonance without End: The Cosmic Rhythm of the Xici Commentary

Finally, let us return to that passage on "bending and stretching" in the Xici commentary (Part II), placing it within the cosmology of "resonance" for a deeper appreciation.

Immediately following "the inchworm bends in order to stretch; the dragon and the snake hibernate in order to preserve their lives," the Xici continues: "The sun departs and the moon comes; the moon departs and the sun comes. Sun and moon push each other onward, and brightness is born. Cold departs and warmth comes; warmth departs and cold comes. Cold and warmth push each other onward, and the year is completed. That which departs is bending; that which comes is stretching. Bending and stretching resonate with each other, and benefit is born."

This passage elevates the wisdom of "bending and stretching" to the plane of cosmic rhythm. The departure of the sun and arrival of the moon, the departure of cold and arrival of warmth -- this is the eternal "bending-and-stretching back-and-forth" of the cosmos. "That which departs is bending; that which comes is stretching." "Bending and stretching resonate with each other, and benefit is born" (qu xin xiang gan er li sheng yan) -- bending and stretching resonate with and propel each other, and thereby the benefit (vitality, utility) of all things is generated.

What a grand cosmic vision! The entire operation of the cosmos is a never-ceasing "resonance of bending and stretching": sun and moon push each other in their bending-and-stretching and generate brightness; cold and warmth push each other in their bending-and-stretching and complete the year. And Jingzhe is a critical node in this grand "resonance of bending and stretching" -- it is the turning point of "cold departing and warmth arriving," of "bending reaching its extreme and turning to stretching." Winter's "bending" (dormancy, cold departing) begins at Jingzhe to turn toward spring's "stretching" (surging, warmth arriving). The dormant creature's "bending" (dormancy) begins at Jingzhe to turn toward the "stretching" of awakening (surging forth). In the resonance and mutual propulsion between this "bending" and this "stretching," the burgeoning vitality of the Jingzhe season is generated ("benefit is born").

With this, we have a complete and profound answer to the ultimate question "How do all things know thunder and rise$13": All things can awaken together at Jingzhe because all things between heaven and earth are fundamentally "one qi" (all things are one body), and therefore can "seek their kind" (resonate with each other). This resonance, in turn, follows the cosmic rhythm of "bending and stretching resonating with each other" -- winter's "bending" (dormancy) resonates with spring's "stretching" (surging), and thus all things at the turning point of bending and stretching (Jingzhe) turn together from bending to stretching, from dormancy to awakening, from stillness to movement. The dormant creature does not need to "know"; it only needs to "resonate." And the reason it can resonate is that it and all things of heaven and earth are fundamentally one body, fundamentally one qi -- the same ceaselessly generating, ceaselessly bending-and-stretching cosmic qi. This is the deepest cosmic truth that the ancients revealed to us about Jingzhe.