Bianhua

Terminology

The exact difference between [] and is perhaps more uncertain [than "reaction" and "return"]. In modern Chinese usage, [] tends to signify gradual change, transformation or metamorphosis; while tends to mean sudden and profound transmutation or alteration —but there is no very strict frontier between the words. [] could be used of weather changes, insect metamorphosis, or slow personality transformations; may refer to the transition points in dissolving, liquefying, melting, etc., and to profound decay. [] tends to be associated with form and with matter. When a snowman melts, the form changes as the snow melts to water. In the Sung dynasty, [Cheng Yi] explained as implying inward change with full or partial conservation of the external Gestalt or form, and as fundamental change in which the outward appearance is also altered.

化 denotes a fundamental and essential change—a transformation. However, sometimes one also encounters the word [], denoting external, momentary, or apparent change. A locus classicus for this distinction is in the [Guanzi]...: "The exemplary man changes in accordance with the times without transforming "... This in turn permits us to understand the passage in the []...: "When the beings take rise, this is called ; when the beings have reached their full development [極]... [and consequently have taken on a different appearance], this is called [].

has the sense of alteration among states of being or of variation within defined parameters. It differs from 化, "transformation", in implying alternation or variation rather than fundamental and lasting change. The change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, for example, which is both substantive and irreversible, is a frequently cited instance of in the earlier literature. By contrast, a change that involves the realignment of constituent parts in a dynamic system, such as that from day to night and back again, would be considered an instance of.

Early usages

• The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony; this is what furthers and what perseveres.

• The holy sages were able to survey all the confused diversities under heaven. They observed forms and phenomena and made representations of things and their attributes [which became the basis for the Yijing]... Through observation and discussion they [the holy sages] perfected the changes and seasons.
• The Master [presumably Confucius] said: Whoever knows the tao of the changes and transformations, knows the action of the gods".
• Heaven creates divine things; the holy sage takes them as models. Heaven and earth change and transform; the holy sage imitates them.

Daoist usages

Spring and summer precede, autumn and winter come after—such is the sequence of the four seasons. The myriad things evolve and develop; even twisted little shoots have their own special shapes—such are the gradations of fullness and decline, the flow of transformation and evolution [].

In the darkness of the Northern Ocean, there is a fish named K'un. The K'un is so big that no one knows how many thousands of tricents its body extends. After it metamorphoses [] into a bird, its name becomes P'eng. The P'eng is so huge that no one knows how many thousands of tricents its back stretches. Rousing itself to flight, its wings are like clouds suspended in the sky.

Once upon a time Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. He didn't know that he was Chou. Suddenly he awoke and was palpably Chou. He did not know whether he was Chou who had dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chou. Now, there must be a difference between Chou and the butterfly. This is called the transformation of things.

In seeds there are germs []. When they are found in water they become filaments. When they are found at the border of water and land they become algae. When they germinate in elevated places they become plantain. When the plantain is found in fertile soil it becomes crow's foot. The crow's foot's roots become scarab grubs and its leaves become butterflies. The butterflies soon evolve into insects that are born beneath the stove. They have the appearance of exuviae and are called "house crickets:" After a thousand days the house crickets become birds called "dried surplus bones." The spittle of the dried surplus bones becomes a misty spray and the misty spray becomes mother of vinegar. Midges are born from mother of vinegar; yellow whirligigs are born from fetid wine; blindgnats are born from putrid slimebugs. When goat's-queue couples with bamboo that has not shooted for a long time, they produce greenies. The greenies produce panthers; panthers produce horses; horses produce men; and men return to enter the wellsprings of nature []. The myriad things all come out from the wellsprings and all reenter the wellsprings.

Ziqiu had lived for fifty-four years when an injury made him hunchbacked. The arch of his spine was higher than his forehead; his chin pressed down on his chest; his two buttocks were on top; his rectum pointed to the sky. He crawled over to peer at himself in a well: "Amazing! That which fashions and transforms us! How has it turned me into this crumpled thing?" This shows that from his viewpoint, alterations and transformation [] are the same.

Like Laozi, the diverse spirits of the Shangqing tradition are able to transform themselves, and the adept had to be able to identify their different manifestations. Adepts, in turn, might use to transform themselves. The Shangqing text 神州七轉七變舞天經 describes methods for transforming into clouds, light, fire; water, and dragons.