Gǎnyìng or yìng is a Chinese cultural keyword meaning a "correlative resonance" pulsating throughout the purported force field of qi that infuses the cosmos. When the idea of ganying first appeared in Chinese classics from the late Warring States period (475-221 BCE), it referred to a cosmological principle of "stimulus and response" between things of the same kind, analogous with vibratory sympathetic resonance. Early schools of Chinese philosophy adapted ganying into different folk theories of causality, such as universal resonance influencing all interrelated things in Daoism, and ethical resonance between Heaven and humans in Confucianism.
Ganying resonance was later used to mean miraculous "moral retribution" in Chinese folk religion, and the resonance between the power of the Buddha and the individual practitioner in Chinese Buddhism, especially in Pure Land Buddhism. In Japanese Buddhism, the term kannō 感應 was used for the same idea.
In the modern period, Chinese ganying "stimulus and response" was used to translate some Western scientific loanwords (such as diàncí gǎnyìng 電磁感應 "electromagnetic induction").
Terminology The Chinese collocation gǎnyìng combines gǎn 感 "feel, sense; move, touch; (traditional Chinese medicine) be affected (by cold)" and yìng traditional 應 or simplified 应 "respond; consent, comply; adapt to; cope/deal with; apply, applied", which is also pronounced yīng "promise/agree (to do something); answer; respond; (auxiliary) should; ought to".
Several early texts (below) use an interchangeable synonym of ying < Old Chinese *[q](r)əәŋ 應 "respond; resonate" : dòng < *[Cəә-m-]tˤoŋʔ 動 "move; shake; set in motion". Dong can mean ganying, for instance, gǎndòng 感動 "move; touch (somebody)" and dòngrén 動人 "arouse interest/feelings". Sharf says interpreting the Chinese philosophical term gan "stimulus; affect; etc." is rendered problematic by the modern distinction between ontology and epistemology. The ontological range of meanings, insofar as to gan someone is to effect the mind of another person, as evident in the (c. 121 CE) Shuowen jiezi dictionary definition of gan as 動人心也 "to move a person's mind", suggesting English translation equivalents such as "incite," "agitate," "rouse," and "stimulate". The epistemological range of gan meanings, insofar as it implies an inner experience or cognition that may or may not correlate with an event in the external world, is translatable as to "feel," "experience," "sense," or "become aware of."
Both the logographs gǎn 感 and yìng 應 are classified as radical-phonetic characters written with the "heart-mind radical" 心 (typically used to write words for feelings and thoughts) and phonetic indicators of xián 咸 "all; Hexagram 31" and yīng 鷹 "hawk; eagle" minus the "bird radical" 鳥.
Bilingual Chinese-English dictionaries give a variety of translation equivalents for Modern Standard Chinese ganying. moved to response through the feelings and affections; induction ① to feel and respond ② (physics) induction reaction or response to some outer stimuli ① response; reaction; interaction ② [biology] irritability ③ [electricity] induction ① response ② [electricity] induction ① response; reaction; interaction ② [biology] irritability ③ [electricity] induction ① induction; process through which an object or electromagnetic body becomes magnetized when in a magnetic field or in the magnetic flux set up by a magnetmotive force ② response; reaction; feeling or act of response caused by an outside influence ① [philosophy] response; reaction; interaction ② [biology] irritability ③ [electricity] induction ④ [religion] the prayers being listened to (A) respond (B) [electricity] induction The most commonly given (and copied) meanings are "respond; response" and "electromagnetic induction".
History The history of ganying spans over two millennia, going from an ancient cosmological theory to modern scientific terminology.
Ancient texts use string resonance or sympathetic vibration between paired Chinese musical instruments as the most common analogy for (gan)ying "cosmic resonance". The Zhuangzi, Lüshi chunqiu (twice), Huainanzi (twice), and Chuci all mention plucking the classical pentatonic gong 宮 and jue 角 notes on the se 瑟 "a 25-string zither"; but the Chunqiu fanlu mentions the gong and shang 商 notes on either the se or qin 琴 "a 7-string zither". Joseph Needham notes both these instruments are commonly mistranslated as "lutes", but are actually "zithers", describing the qin as "a half-tube zither" and the se (which only survives in the descendent zheng 箏) as "a horizontal psaltery". In modern terms of the solmization stave, gong, shang, and jue correspond to do, re, and mi. Click here to hear the gong "Original Tuning", shang "Sharpened Re Tuning", and jue "Lowered Third-string Tuning" on the Chinese zither.
Warring States period The earliest records of ganying are in Chinese classics from the late Warring States period (475-221 BCE), when the "Hundred Schools of Thought" developed competing philosophical doctrines, including correlative resonance.
Yijing In the (c. 4th-3rd century BCE) Yijing "Classic of Changes", the "Commentary on the Decision" for Hexagram 31 Xian 咸 "Influence (Wooing)" uses ganying 感應 to explain the Old Chinese phonetic connection between *[g]ˤr[əә]m 咸 "all; everywhere" and *kˤ[əә]mʔ 感 "move emotionally". INFLUENCE [咸] means stimulation [感]. The weak is above, the strong below. The forces of the two stimulate and respond [感應] to each other, so that they unite. Keeping Still and joyousness. The masculine subordinates itself to the feminine. Hence it is said: "Success. Perseverance furthers. To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune." Heaven and earth stimulate each other, and all things take shape and come into being. The holy man stimulates the hearts of men, and the world attains peace and rest. If we contemplate the outgoing stimulating influences, we can know the nature of heaven and earth and all beings.Tr. .
Le Blanc says the roots for the "key notion" of resonance can be traced back to the older strata of the Yijing, citing an early saying preserved in Hexagram 1 Qian 乾's line interpretation. Nine in the fifth place means: "Flying dragon in the heavens. It furthers one to see the great man." What does this signify? The Master said: Things that accord in tone vibrate together [同聲相應, repeated in Zhuangzi below]. Things that have affinity in their inmost natures seek one another [同氣相求]. Water flows to what is wet, fire turns to what is dry. Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger. Thus the sage rises, and all creatures follow him with their eyes. What is born of heaven feels related to what is above. What is born of earth feels related to what is below. Each follows it kind.Tr. .
Xiaojing The (c. 400 BCE) Xiaojing "Classic of Filial Piety" has a section named Ganying 感應, translated as "The Influence of Filial Piety and the Response to It" (Legge) or "Feeling and Responding by the Spirits" (Feng). It begins with an explanation of how the gods and spirits respond to human activities, The Master said, "Anciently, the intelligent kings served their fathers with filial piety, and therefore they served Heaven with intelligence. They served their mothers with filial piety, and therefore they served Earth with discrimination. They pursued the right course with reference to their (own) seniors and juniors, and therefore they secured the regulation of the relations between superiors and inferiors (throughout the kingdom). When Heaven and Earth were served with intelligence and discrimination, the spiritual intelligences displayed (their retributive power)." (16)
Xunzi The (3rd century BCE) Confucian classic Xunzi repeats the above Yijing folk-etymology that the xian < *[g]ˤr[əә]m hexagram is the phonetic in the character for gan 感 < *kˤ[əә]mʔ "stimulate' influence". The hexagram Xian, "All", of the Changes shows the relation of husband to wife. The Way of relations between husband and wife cannot be allowed to be incorrect, for it is the root source for the relations between lord and minister, father and son. The hexagram Xian [咸] means "influence" [感]. It uses the high to descend to the low, the male to descend to the female. It is weak and pliant above and strong and hard below." (27.38)
The Xunzi uses ganying "joint resonance" to explain the harmonious connection between a person's xing 性 "inborn nature" and jing 精 "essence; senses". These are the common names that apply to man. That which is as it is from the time of birth is called the nature of man [性]. That which is harmonious from birth, which is capable of perceiving through the senses and of responding to stimulus spontaneously [精合感應] and without effort, is also called nature [性]. The likes and dislikes, delights and angers, griefs and joys of the nature are called emotions [情]. When the emotions are aroused and the mind makes a choice from among them, this is called thought [慮]. (22)
Zhuangzi The (c. 3rd-2nd centuries BCE) Daoist classic Zhuangzi contains an early version of the zither string resonance analogy, which Sharf describes as undoubtedly "the single most persuasive demonstration of the principle of resonance".
Zhuangzi tells the story to his friend Huizi in order to explain that the five predominant schools of philosophy, Confucianism, Mohism, Yangism, School of Names, and "Pingism" [uncertain]), merely debate like the five notes of the pentatonic scale, while Daoism contains and transcends them like an untuned note that resonates all 25 strings of the se 瑟 zither. "Well, then," said Master Chuang, "there are the four schools of the Confucians, the Mohists, the Yangists, and the Pingists. Adding yours, master, it makes five. Which of you is actually right? Or may it be someone like Hasty Ninny [Lu Ju 魯遽]? His disciple said to him, 'I have attained your way, master. In winter I can light a cooking fire under a three-legged vessel and in summer I can make ice'. 'That's merely to attract [召] yang with yang and yin with yin'; said Hasty Ninny. 'It's not what I mean by the Way. I will show you my Way.' Thereupon he tuned two zithers. He placed one of them in the hall and the other in an inner chamber. When he plucked the note do [宮] on one, do resonated [動] on the other, and when he plucked the note mi [角] on one, mi resonated [動] on the other. It's because their harmonies were the same. If he had retuned one of the strings so it didn't match any note in the pentatonic scale, and had then plucked it, all twenty-five strings on the other zither would have resonated [動], not because there was any fundamental difference in the sound, but because it was the note that dominated all the rest. May it be that you thinkers are all like this?" (23)
One Zhuangzi context uses gan with ying: "The sage walks with heaven in life and evolves with things in death. In stillness, he shares the same integrity as yin; in movement, he shares the same current as yang. He is not the founder of fortune, nor is he the initiator of misfortune. He responds [應] when affected [感], moves when pressed, and arises only when he has no other choice. He rids himself of knowledge and precedent, conforming to the principle of heaven." (15)
Two others use ying to describe acoustic resonance: "Similar categories follow each other [同類相從] and similar sounds respond to each other [同聲相應]. Indeed, this is the principle of heaven." (31) "To one who does not dwell in himself, the forms of things will manifest themselves. His movement is like water, his stillness is like a mirror. His response is like an echo [其應若響], indistinct as though it were absent, quiet as though it were pure." (33)
Lüshi chunqiu