3 20 THE THEISTIC IMPORT OF THE SUNG PHILOSOPHY 



powers to all outward seeming have died down only to be 

 called forth to new outgoings in the Spring. Forces of 

 vitality are stored up for future need, and when the need 

 emerges they will be called forth to the new task, strong 

 and unerring in their efficiency. "Of the Four Attributes of 

 Ch'ien, Origin is the chief, and next to it is Potentiality as 

 revealing the meaning of the end and beginning. Apart 

 from the Principle of Origin there could be no birth; apart 

 from the Principle of Potentiality there could be no end; 

 apart from an ending there would be no means of making 'a 

 beginning; and without a beginning the end could never be 

 consummated ; and so on in endless revolution."* In other 

 words, Spring is the mother of the Seasons, but Winter is 

 the mother of Spring. The hidden reserves of Winter are 

 the guarantee of the permanence of the Cosmos. And what 

 Winter is among the seasons that is Wisdom among the 

 virtues. Love as Love is creative, as Reverence it finds its 

 development and expression in humility and self-repression, 

 as Righteousness it finds its consummation in sacrifice and 

 service, and as Wisdom it is gathering up its energies for 

 new creations of love and humility, of service and sacrifice. 



The lines along which our inquiry has up to this point 

 proceeded have been from the point of view of the ultimate 

 elements of the Universe as interpreted by the Sung School. 

 It will be well at this stage to approach the problem from 

 the point of view of Causation as expressed in the Sung 

 School doctrine of the T'ai Chi, or supreme Ultimate. This 

 conception was the creation of the Sung School. It was 

 elaborated by the founder of the School, Chou Tun I, from 

 an obscure passage in the Yi Ching,\ and expressed in a 

 famous Diagram accompanied by an equally famous mono- 

 graph explaining its meaning. The opening sentences are ; 

 "Infinite ! And also the Supreme Ultimate ! The Supreme 

 Ultimate by its energy produces the positive ether; energy 

 having reached its limit, inertia ensues. By inertia the 

 Supreme Ultimate produces the negative ether. When 

 inertia reaches its limits energy returns. Thus energy 

 and inertia in alternation become each the source of the 

 other."J From this the evolution of the Cosmos is 

 traced through its unending stream of transformations. An 

 exhaustive analysis of this doctrine would carry us beyond 

 the scope as well as beyond the limits of this article. All 



* %cJ"£:m< Bk. XLVIII, f. 14. 



t Sacred Bonis of the East, Vol. XVI, p. 373. 



X ft:®*^, Bk. I, ff. 1-6. 



