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Introduction
As Derk Bodde correctly has stated, "The theory of yin and yang, the five elements, and their correlates, has for more than two thousand years been the basis for Chinese medicine, alchemy, astronomy, and naturalistic speculation generally." ' However the yinyang theory provides not only a conceptual basis for Chinese natural science but also a theoretical foundation, within NeoConfucian moral philosophy, for its teachings on self-cultivation. One of the key points at which the link between Chinese natural philosophy and ethics can be observed is in the work of Zhou Dunyi (Chou Tun-i, 1017-73 CE). Zhou Dunyi, the forerunner of Neo-Confucianism and founder of Daoxue in the Song dynasty, published a diagram of the Supreme Ultimate (taijitu) and wrote a concise 256-word philosophical account of it (taijitu shuo). Zhou's groundbreaking effort sets the parameters in which the yinyang theory was to be assimilated metaphysically and systematically into Confucian thought and practice. By presenting Zhou Dunyi's diagram and the full translation of his taijitu shuo, this essay will call attention to Zhou's thought and seek to understand it on its own merits. The justification for a fresh look at Zhou Dunyi's original endeavor will become apparent in the conclusion to this paper, which will argue that Zhou Dunyi's distinctive approach to the yinyang theory may have a valuable bearing on contemporary discussions on the subject of the historical development of Chinese philosophy, particularly on the progression of the yinyang theory.
Obviously, Zhou Dunyi was not the first Confucian to bring the yinyang cosmology into Confucian philosophy. A millennium earlier, the Han thinker, Dong Zhongshu (Tung Chung-shu, 179-104 BCE), commonly regarded as the founder of Imperial Confucianism, explored the relationship between the yinyang theory and Confucian morality. Compared with Zhou Dunyi, Dong Zhongshu's perspective is static and a departure from the original meanings of yinyang.2 Dong Zhongshu turned the yinyang cosmology into a conceptual validation of imperial Confucianism's commitment to a hierarchical vision of nature and human relationships. It favored a pattern of subordination within human relationships rather than a correlative understanding of social harmony.3 Dong Zhongshu succeeded in canonizing a particular interpretation of Confucian moral philosophy, one that was criticized, beginning with the May 4th Movement, for its authoritarianism, and its tendency to support the...