Ganying 感應
感應 (gǎnyìng)
Resonance: stimulus (*gan*) and response (*ying*) between things of the same category (*lei*), which affect one another at a distance without contact or causal chain. In Dong Zhongshu’s Han cosmology, Heaven and man respond to each other in this way because both possess yin and yang and belong to the same order. *Ganying* is not a mechanical causality that pushes step by step ≠ a fortuitous coincidence: it is an accord through kinship of nature, like two tuned strings vibrating in unison.
All things avoid what is different from them and follow what is similar to them. Therefore similar forces come together and matching tones respond to each other. This is clear from evidence. Suppose the seven-stringed and the twenty-five stringed lutes are tuned and played. When the note F in the one is struck, the note F on the other will respond to it… There is nothing supernatural in this. It is their natural course that they do so.
« Like forces converge, and kindred tones answer one another… When the note F is struck on one, the note F on the other will respond to it. » — Dong Zhongshu (2nd century BCE) illustrates ganying with the image that would become its hallmark: two tuned lutes placed side by side; pluck a string on one, and the string of the same pitch alone vibrates on the other. Nothing supernatural, he specifies—this is their natural course. The English translation is Wing-tsit Chan’s rendering of this foundational passage from the Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals.
The term ganying (感應) weaves together gan, the disturbance received, and ying, the response returned. What passes between the two lutes is not a shock transmitted step by step, but an accord: things « of the same category » (lei) call to one another across distance. Water poured flees the dry and rushes toward the damp; beauty begets beauty, ugliness ugliness; a neighing horse draws answers from other horses. Beneath all these examples lies a single law: like forces unite, borne by yin and yang.
It is on this foundation that Han cosmology builds the unity of Heaven and man. Heaven possesses yin and yang, and so does man; they are thus of the same category and respond to one another. When the sky darkens before rain, the body’s illness stirs first, for yin rises in answer to yin. Man is no mere spectator of an alien cosmos: he is one of its strings, tuned to the same register as the ten thousand things.
Ganying is therefore ≠ mechanical causality, which propels bodies one after another: no string touches the other, yet it vibrates. Nor is it coincidence, which would lack law or reason: resonance follows kinship of nature, the qi shared by things of the same category. Between chance and impact, it names a third bond—harmony.