Jung’s concept of Synchronicity and its practice within Chinese culture

By Kan Chen (CSAP), China

This paper attempts to clarify the Jungian concept of synchronicity by examining the understanding and practice of the principle of synchronicity in Chinese culture.

Synchronicity as a meaningful coincidence grounded in acausal orderedness

Jung experienced many synchronistic events in his early years, which led him to reflect on this phenomenon. Later, he defined these meaningful coincidences between a psychic state and a physical state — two events that have no causal connection to one another — as synchronistic events.

However, in Jung’s thinking, this concept is too narrow and needs to be expanded to a broader definition which focuses on a general acausal orderedness. Jung (2010) described:

“I incline in fact to the view that synchronicity in the narrow sense is only a particular instance of general acausal orderedness……of the equivalence of psychic and physical processes where the observer is in the fortunate position of being able to recognize the tertium comparationis” (Synchronicity, para. 965).

A broader concept of synchronicity: an underlying acausal principle of the unified cosmos

Through exchanges with physicists including Einstein, and especially Wolfgang Pauli, Jung developed a broader understanding of synchronicity that ultimately extended to his cosmological views. As Murray Stein (1998) summarizes, it points to a hidden order and unity among all existence—an acausal principle that eliminates the incommensurability between subject and object, transcends the observer-observed divide, and underpins the unity of psyche and nature. Jung himself wrote:

“If the latest sciences are coming nearer and nearer to a unitary idea of being, characterized by space and time on the one hand and by causality and synchronicity on the other….. It seems to show that there is some possibility of getting rid of the incommensurability between the observed and the observer. The result…would be a unity of being ……”. (Synchronicity, para. 960)

Clinical practice with synchronicity

Jung further linked his broader concept of synchronicity to the theory of archetypes and the Self. He holds that the Self, as a priori knowledge, acts as a guiding force for archetypes. The patterns of these archetypes transcend the boundary between subject and object, and are not constrained by the temporal and spatial limits imposed by the principle of causality.

In clinical practice, Jung understood synchronistic events as a compensatory function of the unconscious, but he emphasized that this should not be explained causally.

“But as soon as he perceives the archetypal background he is tempted to trace the mutual assimilation of independent psychic and physical processes back to a (causal) effect of the archetype, and thus overlook the fact that they are merely contingent. This danger is avoided if one regards synchronicity as a special instance of general acausal orderedness.” (Sychronicity, para. 965)

Therefore, we can understand that we cannot say the unconscious actively compensates the conscious through synchronicity; synchronicity only indicates that at this very moment, the subjective spiritual world and the objective world simultaneously present a consistent archetypal pattern of some kind.

Synchronicity and Chinese philosophy

In his description of synchronicity, Jung endeavored to draw upon Chinese philosophy for clarification. For instance, he turned to the ancient Taoist classic Tao Te Ching—and I find his quoted passage below remarkably close to his own understanding of synchronicity:

“There is something formless yet complete
That existed before heaven and earth.
How still! How empty!
Dependent on nothing, unchanging,
All-pervading, unfailing.
One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven.
I do not know its name,
But I call it “Meaning.”
If I had to give it a name, I should call it ‘The Great’.”

Jung commented: “This is obviously an allusion to the absolute knowledge of the unconscious, and to the presence in the microcosm of macrocosmic events.” (Sychronicity, para. 923)

Additionally, in the foreword he wrote for Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching, he described the application of the principle of synchronicity in divination:

“…..whoever invented the I Ching was convinced that the hexagram worked out in a certain moment coincided with the latter in quality no less than in time. To him the hexagram was the exponent of the moment in which it was cast….. inasmuch as the hexagram was understood to be an indicator of the essential situation prevailing in the moment of its origin. This assumption involves a certain curious principle that I have termed synchronicity, a concept that formulates a point of view diametrically opposed to that of causality…..” (Wilhelm and Baynes, 1989)

The practice of the Synchronicity principle in Chinese culture

The broad interpretation of synchronicity—as a unifying general principle that eliminates the incommensurability between the observer and the observed, and underpins the inherent unity of the psyche and nature—has gained widespread acceptance in China. Not only do Chinese people embrace this cosmological view, but they also tend to put it into practice in their everyday lives.

The most representative example is the concept and practice of health cultivation and healing in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It holds that people can only maintain good health when they follow the Tao, sustain a balanced conversion of the cosmic energies, and align themselves harmoniously with the universe. However, when people pursue the gratification of desires and disregard the natural rhythm and order of the universe, they fall into a state of illness.

This concept was concretized into highly practical guidelines for practice in The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, and these guidelines remain widely accepted in China to this day. For example, it includes health cultivation recommendations on how to maintain harmony with the Qi pattern (energy that transcends the boundaries between body and mind, psyche and nature, as well as self and others, similar to the principle revealed by synchronicity) of the four seasons, among which the description of spring is:

“the spring season brings about the revitalization of all things in nature….. During this season it is advisable to retire early. Arise early also and go walking in order to absorb the fresh, invigorating energy. Since this is the season in which the universal energy begins anew and rejuvenates, one should attempt to correspond to it directly by being open and unsuppressed, both physically and emotionally……” (Ni, 1995)

In TCM, this principle can be further refined into how to keep harmony with the Qi pattern of the 24 solar terms, or the cyclical changes of cosmic Qi pattern over a 60-year period. There are even corresponding phenological algorithms used to predict the patterns of Qi in different periods. But this prediction is not meant to overcome nature and realize one’s own will, but rather to guide people to be in harmony with this unified cosmos.

Rather than seeking out a pathogen to eliminate, TCM focuses less on linear causality and more on restoring harmony. In traditional Chinese medical thought, when one is in a state of unity between psyche and nature, what we call illness loses its meaning as a separate, foreign presence. Illness is merely a falling out of alignment with the natural unity, rather than an alien entity opposed to health. Thus, the essence of treatment—whether through acupuncture or herbs—lies in restoring synchronization with the unified cosmos.

The practice of the I Ching also reveals this principle. A true I Ching scholar would say that I Ching divination should not be used to seek fortune or avoid misfortune, but to help one maintain a way of life in oneness with the Tao. The former approach seeks to overcome natural tendencies through divination, aiming to gain control and fulfill desires—which can be understood as goals of an inflated ego—whereas the latter aligns with the inherent purpose of the Self. This echoes Jung’s view that the principle behind synchronicity matters more than the event itself—and synchronicity should serve to convey messages from the psyche, guiding one toward individuation.

Finally, let me present a brief clinical case of my patient to illustrate this point more precisely. She was a depressed adolescent. Her father turned to Chinese astrology, initially hoping to find methods to change her fate. Instead, in-depth study brought him not explanations or remedies, but acceptance and a transcendent understanding of the situation. He let go of his obsession with controlling the illness and chose to adapt to it instead. He believed that his daughter’s illness stemmed from the fact that her horoscope, when intersecting with the broader cosmic pattern of our era, had placed her in a trough of her life phase. She should therefore follow the principle of “winter storage” — resting and consolidating her vitality, and navigate the waters of this life’s passage in this manner. He accompanied her through this “winter” instead of rushing her to countless doctors. What is remarkable is that once he adopted this attitude of aligning with the greater trend and the philosophy of harmonious acceptance, his daughter’s depression lifted, and she re-engaged with her studies and daily life.

We may conclude, that the Chinese application of synchronicity not only resonates with Jung’s original conception but also extends it into a lived, embodied practice.

Reference:
Jung, C. G. (2010). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle (R. F. C. Hull, Trans. S. Shamdasani, Foreword). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1952)
Stein, M. (1998). Jung’s map of the soul: An introduction. Open Court.
Wilhelm, R., & Baynes, C. F. (Trans.). (1989). The I ching, or, book of changes. Penguin Books.
Ni, M. (1995). The Yellow Emperor’s classic of medicine: A new translation of the Neijing Suwen with commentary. Shambhala Publications.