112 THE THEISTIC IMPORT OF THE SUXG PHILOSOPHY 



question still remains : How much was this due to the fact 

 just stated, that Chu Hsi was a philosopher and not a 

 reformer? And, again, how much was due to a difference 

 of emphasis rather than to an essential difference in the 

 implication of his philosophy ? 



Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Sung 

 philosophy is its Dualism. The two elements Li ( 3| ) and 

 Ch'i (M), which enter into all forms of existence, constitute 

 a dualism, and the Ch'i itself resolves into a dualism, 

 assuming two modes of existence, active and passive, the 

 Yin and the Yang. But the question remains : Is the 

 dualism of Li and Ch'i ultimate? What is the content of 

 the two terms, and what is the relation between them? 



Roughly speaking, Li and Ch'i represent the material 

 and immaterial elements of the universe : 31 Jf2 ifr Ji 3§'» 

 M* %£ ffil ~T ; % ■* But this needs qualification. While Ch'i 

 belongs to the realm of existences which have form and is 

 thus the primordial form of Matter, it is also the primordial 

 form of Spirit. The Ch'i, or Ether, when, in the process 

 of its evolution, it reaches the stage of the 3L ?f , or Five 

 Agents, assumes two forms. There are the Five Celestial 

 Agents, and there are the Five Terrestrial Agents.! The 

 former belong to the realm of Spirit, and the latter to the 

 realm of Matter. Ch'i is the universal Plenum, filling all 

 space, the substance of everything that exists, | whether 

 physical§ or psychical. || The fact is: the antithesis which 

 presents itself to the thought of the Sung philosopher is not 

 one between matter and mind at all; nor is it, strictly 

 speaking, between the material and the immaterial. It is 

 rather between an animating principle and the substance or 

 vehicle of its manifestation. With this qualification, how- 

 ever, it may be conceded that Ch'i represents the material 

 element in the constitution of the universe, and, more often 

 than not, is best represented by the English word matter. 

 But, even in that case, the antithesis is not between the 

 physical and the psychical, but between the physical and the 

 ethical, between the material and the moral. 



* * =r £ * , Bk. XLIX, f. 1. 



tifrf.lI^ilfBirr^^t^- vide &£ * £ 

 Bk. I, f. 29. 



* 36 m y jz mz m &# m w w » '# b a bu # ■ % nt & jp 



ikJ-QW , Bk. XLII, f. 22. 

 §Ibid. 



ii o *, m. it m m • iwd. xliv, f. 2. 



