Water, Cosmos and Body: A Re-examination of the Notion of Liuxing

Abstract

In an ongoing discussion on correlative cosmology in early China, the interrelation between the macro- and microcosms is pervasively deemed a central feature of the Chinese mode of thinking. The human body, in that view, is modeled on and serves as a miniature of the outer universe. Embracing a broad spectrum of instantiations of correlative cosmology, this study focuses on the notion of liuxing, literally “to flow into form,” which is used as both a cosmological term and a gestational term in early Chinese literature. By inspecting unearthed and transmitted texts, the article suggests that liuxing should be understood against the intellectual background of the “water metaphor” system. It argues also that liuxing is not only a reflection of the parallelism of the macro- and microcosms, but also an epitome of the trifold interconnection between water, the cosmos, and body.