The South Korean Flag

     Last week The Western Confucian posted a picture of the South Korean flag.  He linked to an article he wrote which explicated the Taoist implications of that flag, and which called upon Koreans to "turn back to Tao."  Now, I am all for turning to Tao, but I want to take some exception to his interpretation of the flag.

     He had a picture of an older Korean flag, though with all of the elements of the contemporary South Korean flag.  Here is the modern standard:

 

 

      

   

     It has a white background with a rendition of the Chinese symbol of the taiji ("supreme ultimate") in red and blue, surrounded by four trigrams.  In terms of ancient Chinese philosophy, there is a lot going on there.    

     First, let's talk about that central blue and red symbol.  The Western Confucian suggests that this is Taoist and can be traced back to "an idea first formulated by the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu (莊子)."   While it is true that the symbol was integrated into religious Taoism as it took shape in the Han dynasty, the original idea almost certainly predates Chuang Tzu (fourth century BCE).  Indeed, to the extent that taiji is associated with the notions of yin and yang, it likely goes back to the yin-yang "school," or line of thought, which was identified as distinct from Taoism by Han dynasty scholars.  I have always associated the symbol more with the I Ching, which predates Chuang Tzu and which is very engaged in the working out of the dynamic interaction of complementary cosmic forces, as suggested by the symbol.

     I would not, then, ascribe this symbol only to Taoism.  Its early history is independent of religious Taoism, and it suggests a sensibility that runs through other variants of ancient Chinese thought, Confucianism included.

     It should also be noted that the symbol on the South Korean flag merely suggests the taiji, it is not a direct representation of the taiji.

     The use of the four trigrams in the flag links it directly to the I Ching.  On the top left is the trigram that symbolizes "Heaven" or summer; on the top right is "Water" or autumn; the bottom right is "Earth" or winter; and in the lower left is "Fire" or spring.  Heaven opposes and complements Earth, and Water opposes and complements Fire.  And the seasons go round and round in continually repeated cyclical time, just as the I Ching tells us.

    It is interesting that a modern state would take as its national flag a set of symbols that run back to ancient ideas and philosophies from another place.  Modern nationalism is usually more narrow-minded than that, searching for indigenous symbols and origins.

UPDATE: Frog in a Well is thinking about this, too.

Comments

[gukseon]

Speaking as somebody of Korean descent, I don't consider the Yijing, Daoism, Confucianism, Son/Chan Buddhism, etc. to be exclusively Chinese, any more than I would consider Christianity to be exclusively Palestinian, or Islam to be exclusively Arab. In the case of Daoism, Confucianism, and the Yijing all made their way to Korea and were extremely influential on Korean culture.

A one Korean Confucian scholar put it, China is to Korea as an Older Brother is to a Younger Brother (in the Confucian sense). Korean culture has always borrowed or inherited from China, the civil service examinations for yangban scholars in Korea focused very much on Chinese classics.

Plus if you look at Korean nationalist movements, (like the Chondogyo movement in the 19th/20th centuries) you'll notice many of them make appeals to both Confucianism and Daoism. And even today you have Korean religious movements that claim affinity to Daoism, like Kouk Sun Do (literally, "National Way of the Immortals") which is a Korean system of qigong (or "kigong" to use the Korean Romanization).

[Sam]

Gukseon,
Thanks for the comment. Perhaps we - I! - should stop referring to Confucianism and Taoism as "Chinese" philosophies since they are, as you point out, more expansive than any particular place called "China."

[Rowan]

fuck that idea, its Chinese

[Korean Pride]

fuck that idea, its Korean.
Korean original " Koryo Flag"
was Yellow, Red, Blue. ( Tricolor Korean flag).
Which is very unique Korean flag. Not Chinese!!!!