52 



NOTES ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE 



in which all the multifold and varied phenomena of the 

 Universe take place. I shall therefore call the T'AI CHI 

 * ft the ULTIMATE PRINCIPLE. 



"JSU 



Mrm"ui».ittr te.r ihinoij Tom-It 



'Jtf AMaajjtWjy C****i**pAt h :y ,i i l H m.- (djk^'^KA^'MMlJ'.C. 



1 » •»£. V^ 



The Ultimate Principle has operated from eternity, and 

 now ceaselessly works, by a dynamical process in virtue 

 of which animate and inanimate nature has existed from all 

 eternity. This process is represented as pulsative, as a 

 succession of active-expansive, and passive-intensive states; 

 which succession, as already indicated, never had a begin- 

 ning. The Ultimate Principle, in its active expansive opera- 

 tion, constitutes and produces the Yang p^j or Positive 

 Essence, in its passive-intensive operation constitutes and 

 produces the Yin %& or Negative Essence. 



The Positive Essence is said to transform, the Negative 

 Essence is said to unite. By the action thus indicated they 

 produce, the FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE MATERIAL 

 WORLD 3L *f: WATER, FIRE, WOOD, METAL, 

 EARTH. By which the reader must not understand the 

 visible palpable things so named, but five essences, one 

 possessed by each, and constituting it what it is, as dis- 

 tinguished from the others. 



At the same time that the Five Elements are produced, 

 the Four Seasons P3 ^ , come into existence. By the Four 



