First occurrence of Taiji

[KuroShiro]

I'm reading Reconstructing the Confucian Dao:

 

"The Xici 繫辭 (Appended remarks) appendix of the Yijing contains the following lines:

In change there is taiji, which generates the Two Modes. The Two Modes generate the Four Images, and the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams.*"

 

*"Yijing, Xici A.11.5 (Zhu, Zhouyi benyi 3:14b). This is the first occurrence of taiji in extant Chinese literature."

 

I had no idea and thought it was interesting to share.

 

 

Also found this after a quick google search:

 

The Writing of the Xici Zhuan an the Making of the Yijing by Ed Shaughnessy:

 

"The discovery and publication of the Mawangdui manuscript of the Yijing including, a text of its most famous canonical commentary, the Xici zhuan or Tradition of the Appended Statements, has reopened in China an old debate over the authorship and philosophical orientation of the Xici: whether it is Confucian (whether written by Confucius himself or not), or whether – and to what extent – it preserves elements more properly called Daoist."

[voidisyinyang]

6 hours ago, KuroShiro said:

I'm reading Reconstructing the Confucian Dao:

 

"The Xici 繫辭 (Appended remarks) appendix of the Yijing contains the following lines:

In change there is taiji, which generates the Two Modes. The Two Modes generate the Four Images, and the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams.*"

 

*"Yijing, Xici A.11.5 (Zhu, Zhouyi benyi 3:14b). This is the first occurrence of taiji in extant Chinese literature."

 

I had no idea and thought it was interesting to share.

 

 

Also found this after a quick google search:

 

The Writing of the Xici Zhuan an the Making of the Yijing by Ed Shaughnessy:

 

"The discovery and publication of the Mawangdui manuscript of the Yijing including, a text of its most famous canonical commentary, the Xici zhuan or Tradition of the Appended Statements, has reopened in China an old debate over the authorship and philosophical orientation of the Xici: whether it is Confucian (whether written by Confucius himself or not), or whether – and to what extent – it preserves elements more properly called Daoist."

yes my training manual goes into this.

The basic circle of the Wu Chi

was introduced later during the Song Dynasty in the 12th Century A.D. by Zhou Dunyi (pdf link).

This older symbol is attributed to the Buddhist scholar, Zong Mi, of the Tang dynasty, who used the symbol to denote a balanced consciousness in which “the true and the false” are blended (Louis, p. 177)…. Furthermore, since this diagram was a product of the Tang dynasty, the Daoist ideas of nèi dān (内丹) or inner alchemy, were already established (Robinet & Wissing, 1990).

Tang Dynasty - oldest image of Tai Chi was originally red and black: means “fire under water” to create qi

As Professor Hudson points out, this alchemical aperture or bellows, is then this fire below water, as the Valley of the Spirit that alchemically creates the yuan qi.

The Genesis of an Icon: The “Taiji” Diagram’s Early History

by François Louis, 2003

just click on the signature links for the pdf links