A brief explanation of the basis of Taiji

Image from here.

When I ask most people how many parts they see in the Taiji (or Yingyang) symbol, most people will answer 2 or 4. The most accurate answer, however, is 1. I think this misconception is common, but it also reveals a general misunderstanding of the Taiji, or a concept that has largely influenced Daoism, Confucianism and other branches of Chinese philosophy.

Lao-Tzu says:

道生一 The Tao begot one.

一生二 One begot two.

二生三 Two begot three.

三生万物 And three begot the ten thousand things.

With an explanation of this, we can understand the meaning behind the Taiji and how it relates to the hexagrams from the I-Ching.

The Tao begot one.

The Taiji is literally the Great Ultimate, or the symbol for how the universe is ordered. The circular shape stands for One, the universe. Lao-Tzu used this concept to describe the Dao, it is the most original and ultimate way to conceive of the universe. With the Tao, the Taiji symbol itself is born for it represents the Great Ultimate.

One begot two.

The Tao is the Universe - there is only one, but the Universe is composed of two elements: yin and yang. Yang is 阳, or the creative aspect; Yin is 阴，or the receptive aspect. The way that the sun and the moon operates explains this concept most precisely - the sun gives off light and the moon's light is created by reflecting the light of the sun; the sun is creative, the moon is receptive. In the hexagrams Yin and Yang are represented by __ __ and ____, respectively. At this point, the elements of the Taiji are explained - Yin and Yang are the two basic forces of the Great Ultimate.

Two begot three.

Each basic trigram has three lines (of Yin and Yang). So why are there three? Each line represents the Heaven, Earth, or Humanity. When two Yang symbols or two Yin symbols are combined, another Yin symbol is created. When one Yang and one Yin symbol is combined, a Yang symbol is created. Hence, the joining of the Heaven and the Earth created Humanity, so Two begot three.

Three begot the ten thousand things.

With the eight trigrams, all other things were able to be created. The 64 hexagrams are created by combining the different trigrams and they are able to represent the rest of the main components of the universe.

The Eight Trigrams (from here.)

Kun (Earth) and Qian (Heaven) are the most basic trigrams and the word 乾坤 (Qiankun) in Chinese literally means Universe.

I think the basis of Chinese philosophy relies on this opposition between Yin and Yang, where Western philosophy begins more with an opposition between Good and Evil (which Nietzsche strongly criticizes).

As Lao-Tzu says:

After Tao was lost, then came the 'power'; After the 'power' was lost, then came human kindness. After human kindess was lost, then came morality; after morality was lost, then came ritual.