When I happened to read the quatrain about Korea written in 1929 by the great Indian scholar Rabindra Nath Tagore, I could not fathom the full depth.
"In the golden age of Asia Korea was one of its lamp bearers, And that lamp is waiting to be lit once again For the illumination of the East"
Later in my life I got an opportunity to live and explore Korea (2017 - 2020). I met a number of incredible people and travelled extensively during my leisure time. I realized that life is about following the voice of your heart and have a dream into which one can pour all passion. I followed my heart and started learning about this great country and fell in love with each and everything I came across. The series of blogs that I am planning is a an attempt to share my experiences in Korea and what I learnt about Korea - The Lamp of the East.
Firstly, I thought I will start with the South Korean Flag, Taegeukgi. Taeguk is representative of a universe that moves in harmony and equilibrium.The upper red part represents yang, and the lower blue part represents yin: the dual cosmic forces symbolizing universal harmony. The four black trigrams at the corners represent universe's heaven (upper left), earth (lower right), water (upper right)and fire (lower left). The white background symbolizes light and purity; the national trait of Koreans who love peace.
Bak Yeoung-hyo (King Gojong's ambassador to Japan) drew a national flag with a taegeuk circle and included four trigrams while onboard a ship heading for Japan in September 1882. King Gojong formally proclaimed this as the national flag on March 6, 1883 and became the national flag of Korea in 1948.
To understand the Korean flag, I would like to invite you to the "Mysterious Eight Diagrams" believed to be created by Fu Xi an ancient Chinese Emperor (2,000 BCE). There is a temple dedicated to Fu Xi in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, China. The diagrams were used for divination and are composed of symbols " " (Yang) and "__" (Yin). Yin and Yang go together. A group is formed by three couples and there are eight groups. Each group is a symbol and represent a natural phenomena.
Now what is Yin and Yang - I think that deserves an explanation here. It is an ancient Chinese philosophy of dualism. The concept involves how seemingly opposite forces could be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent. As these forces interact in the natural world they may give rise to each other. The universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of Yin and Yang and formed into objects and lives (Source - Wikipedia).
In main land Korea, people believed that the universe consists of Yin and Yang, and the five elements of water, fire, wood, metal and earth. Life is there by an interaction of Yin and Yang, and the five elements. The elements can interact two ways if you observe them closely: mutual bearing way or in a mutual overcoming way. Within the thought of mutual bearing water bears wood, wood bears fire, fire bears earth, earth bears metal, and metal bears water. Mutual overcoming means that water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, metal overcomes wood, wood overcomes soil, and soil overcomes water. The mutual bearing involves a peaceful creation of life. Koreans preferred the mutual bearing thought to mutual overcoming.
There are many different interpretations to the five elements. Five virtues - benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity. Five directions - east, west, south, north, and center. Five colors - blue, white, red, black, and yellow. Five animals - blue dragon, yellow dragon, white tiger, red phoenix, and black tortoise. Five organs - liver, lung, heart, kidney, and spleen. The yin (feminine) water is a lake or pond, deep still water. The yang (masculine) water is ferocious: ocean surface, strong currents. The yin wood is resilient and flexible while the yang wood is strong like an oak tree. Candle light is yin fire where as a forest fire is yang. Plains and valleys are feminine (yin) expressions of earth. Hills and mountains belong to yang category. Pots or pans are metal in yin form. Knives/swords yang form of metal. One has to keep in mind that most yin-yang associations are attributes of objects and phenomena, not objects and phenomena themselves.
Very nice!!! Great information