Astronomy and Cosmology

Author(s): L C Jain
Publisher: Rajasthan Prakrit Bharti Sansthan Jaipur

Page 69

7. RATIONALIZATION OF YOJANA
1. CHINESE LI
The word yojana appears in every earlier Jaina text. It has been used either for denoting areual distances as velocities of heavenly bodies, or as distances as straight lines on a plane surface. It has also been used to denote heights. It seems to have been derived from the word Yojanā, meaning something like a pattern or some principle of organization. In China a parallel word, though not exactly Yojana, carrying a similar meaning got evolved in Neo-Confucian 110 thought, “] he induction of a specific principle from many observations ( b', the second part of resolutio) was represented in Neo-Confucian thought by the search for the underlying or intrinsic patterns (lil). Some one said to Hsü Hêng 2 (+1209 to +1281):
If we fully apprehend (lit. exhaust) the patterns of the things of the world, will it not be found that every thing must have a reason why it is as it is ( so i jan chih ku3) ? And also a rule (of co-existence with all other things) C to which it cannot but conform ( so i tang jan chih tsê 4 ) ? Is not this just what is meant by Pattern (lil)?d
Hsü Héng agreed, saying that this brought out very well the meanings of the technical terms employed. All the spatio-temporal relations of all organisms and events in the universe were determined by the ubiquitous manifestations of li. "Wherever there is li', said Chheng 1-Chhuan 5 (+1033 to + 1108 ), 'east is east and west is west.'e”
For calculation of cosmic distances, extended pattern-principle (thui li 4 ) appears to have been applied.111 Patterns had the aspects from within and outside.
110. Cf. Needham and Ling, vol. III, p. 163. 111. Cf. ibid. p. 164, 165. This word 'thui 'goes back to Mohists, cons--
tantly found in scientific contexts. If the pattern was fully apprehended in one matter only, inferences could be drawn about other matters of the same class.
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