Overview
Carl Jung — founder of analytical psychology — may have been the most deeply engaged Western thinker with Chinese philosophy in the 20th century. In the 1920s, Jung encountered Chinese thought through Richard Wilhelm's German translation of the I Ching and was profoundly shaken. He discovered from it the concept of 'Synchronicity': meaningful coincidences — acausal yet meaningful connections between seemingly unrelated events. This is entirely different from Western linear causal thinking and closer to Taiji-style correlative thinking: all things resonate with each other; yin and yang pull each other.
Jung's psychological model itself is an exquisite Taiji diagram. He divided the psyche into consciousness (yang — rational, illuminated, explicit thinking) and the unconscious (yin — intuitive, shadowy, latent instincts). The key to mental health lies in 'Individuation' — the integration of consciousness and the unconscious, exactly the yin-yang unity of the Taiji diagram. Jung believed that excessively repressing the unconscious (yin) leads to personality fragmentation, while being dominated by it leads to loss of rationality — the ideal is a dynamic balance between consciousness and the unconscious, just as yin and yang coexist harmoniously in the Taiji diagram.
At a deeper level, multiple branches of modern psychology embody Taiji philosophy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) essentially helps patients identify and regulate the balance between 'automatic thoughts' (yin — subconscious distorted beliefs) and 'rational responses' (yang — conscious objective evaluation). Mindfulness meditation teaches people to observe their thoughts without judgment — exactly the attitude of the 'S-curve' in the Taiji diagram: not either-or binary opposition, but finding a harmonious middle state of awareness and acceptance through observation.
Taiji Connection
Consciousness (yang) and unconscious (yin) → Jung's model of psychic structure
Yin-yang unity → Individuation: the integration process of consciousness and unconscious
Synchronicity → acausal yet meaningful connections — Taiji-style universal resonance
The S-curve's middle state → CBT and mindfulness: finding the balance of awareness and acceptance between opposing poles
Key Examples
Jung's Encounter with the I Ching
Jung wrote in his foreword to Wilhelm's English translation of the I Ching: 'The core idea of this work — the principle of synchronicity — was something I only reached after decades of studying unconscious processes.' Jung spent over 30 years studying the I Ching, which he saw as a 'precursor to the psychology of the unconscious.' He even developed a method of using I Ching hexagrams for psychological analysis — not as divination, but as a 'mirror' reflecting the psyche, helping patients see inner tensions and conflicts not yet conscious.
Mindfulness: Finding the 'Third Position' Between Yin and Yang
The core technique of mindfulness is 'observing without judging' — watching thoughts arise and dissipate without grasping them (yang attachment) or pushing them away (yin aversion). This is precisely the 'third possibility' hinted at by the Taiji S-curve: not black-or-white, but finding a dynamic space of awareness between them. Neuroscience research confirms that 8 weeks of mindfulness training significantly changes brain structure — the amygdala (fear center) shrinks, the prefrontal cortex (rational center) thickens, demonstrating 'yin wanes, yang waxes' actually happening at the neural level.
Visual Comparison
Yang — consciousness, reason, light, explicit
Prefrontal cortex — rational decision-making, self-control, executive function
Yin — unconscious, intuition, shadow, latent
Amygdala and limbic system — emotional responses, instinctive fear, implicit memory
Yin-yang balance = mental health
Prefrontal-limbic balance = emotional regulation capacity
More visualizations coming soon...
Knowledge Quiz
3 questionsWhich psychologist discovered 'synchronicity' from the I Ching?
What do consciousness and unconscious correspond to in Jung's model?
What is the Taiji wisdom of mindfulness?