Chapter 1 Understanding of "Harmony（'He Xie'in Chinese）" and "Harmonious Society"

Section One: Definition of "harmony"

1. Definition of "concord（'He'in Chinese word 'He Xie'）"

Literally speaking, "concord" initially means "echoing".

"Echoing" refers to commonality of various kinds of factors. They mutually echo and coordinate rather than behave off the mark, constituting an indispensable whole. In ancient China, "concord" was defined in the following ways: firstly, it meant reconciliation of various musical melodies with the aim of composing them into a fetching piece of music. In other words, "concord" meant that various tones and sounds created by instruments were reconciled and composed into a complete piece of music;or harmonization of various sounds.

Secondly, apart from melody reconciliation, "concord" also meant blending of various flavors regarding diet. In the meantime, it also refers to delicious foods which are highly suitable for public taste. For instance, famous ancient books particularly mentioned the so-called "He Wei", meaning delicious foods suitable to people's taste.

In ancient China, "concord" also meant an ideal state of people's temperament and culture, as mentioned in the Doctrine of the Mean, "'He' means control of inner emotions after their presentation". Seven emotions and six sensory pleasures are inevitable to persons. In daily life, people always feel various emotions such as like, anger, sadness, happiness, fear, hate and desire. People care about whether these emotions can be controlled rationally and properly after presentation."Concord" means that people can always control various emotions rationally and properly after their presentation, also called as "control of inner emotions after their presentation".

In Chinese, "concord" can also extend multiple meanings in social life. For instance, yin-yang harmony of a human body can be called as "harmony and comfort"; treatment and adjustment of an unhealthy body can be called as "reconciliation"; good temperament and disposition in behaving can be called as "peace"; harmonious relations among families can be called as "concord"; ending of fighting between both parties with intense conflicts can be called as "compromise"; tie in sports matches such as chess or ball games can be called as "draw"; response in the form of poem, which is made according to similar theme and type, can be called as "response with a poem"; warm climate can also be called as "mild" climate. Similar instances are too numerous to mention one by one. It is obvious that "concord" has extensive meanings in Chinese while most of them generally refer to echoing and proper coordination of different factors.

2. Definition of "tuning（'Xie'in Chinese word 'He Xie'）"

Literally speaking, "tuning" means harmony and coordination. In ancient Chinese, "tuning" also meant harmony in multiple elements. "Tuning" was generally explained as per "concordance" and "harmony" in some important ancient books of China.

In the Shuo Wen J ie Zi, "tuning" was similar to the word "association（'Xie'in Chinese）" in some aspects. As Explained in the Shuo Wen J ie Zi by Duan Yucai, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, "association" was defined as that "it is wrong to deem this character as 'correspondence of many people' in many books. The meaning is hereby corrected. It means association of many people, namely concerted cooperation." It is also believed that "'association' means simultaneous response of many people", which can be extended to the meaning of "oneheart cooperation".

3. Definition of "harmony"

"Concord" and "tuning" appeared correspondingly in some important books in ancient China.

Called as "king of ancient alchemy books" in Chinese history of Taoism, The Kinship of the Three jointly applied "He Xie" as a whole word relatively early. It is said that the book was written by Wei Boyang, a hermit in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Alchemy books are always famous for obscurity as they contain a lot of so-called "argots". Taoists often explain methods and principles of alchemy via some obscure words. The "three-five harmony" mentioned in The Kinship of the Three approximately refers to that during alchemy, proper yin-yang coordination among water, fire and soil is realized;5 elements mutually act like couples and ruler & ministers;8 stones including cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, sulfur, azurite, mica, saltpeter and halite（halitum）mutually match and restrain to form a magic dan.

Hence, "He Xie" mentioned in the sentence emphasizes the importance of "coordinating" yin-yang relations of medicines during alchemy, based on "one yin and one yang is called Dao" and "unpredictable yin and yang are called as divinity" in the Book of Changes. It is shown in the book that, with skills in yin-yang coordination of the Book of Changes, people could obtain a magic dan; based on this principle, government affairs could be governed easily, getting rid of troubles and complexity; as well, during self-cultivation such principle conformed to rules of nature from Yellow Emperor and Laozi. Hence, the book was called as The Kinship of the Three.

In addition, some scholars in the Eastern Han Dynasty also jointly applied "He Xie" in articles. Of course, "harmony" also means symmetry, appropriateness and coordination.

"Harmony" can also be defined as "reconciliation", "friendly relationship", "peace" and "coordination", and so on.