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In Chinese philosophy, a ''taijitu'' () is a symbol or diagram () representing Taiji () in both its monist ('' wuji'') and its dualist ( yin and yang) aspects. Such a diagram was first introduced by Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhou Dunyi (; 1017–1073) of the Song Dynasty in his ''Taijitu shuo'' ().

The modern Taoist canon, compiled during the Ming era, has at least half a dozen variants of such ''taijitu''. The two most similar are the "Taiji Primal Heaven" () and the "''wuji''" () diagrams, both of which have been extensively studied during the Qing period for their possible connection with Zhou Dunyi's ''taijitu''.

Ming period author Lai Zhide (1525–1604) simplified the ''taijitu'' to a design of two interlocking spirals. In the Ming era, the combination of the two interlocking spirals of the ''taijitu'' with two black-and-white dots superimposed on them became identified with the ''He tu'' or "Yellow River diagram" (). This version was reported in Western literature of the late 19th century as the "Great Monad", and has been widely popularised in Western popular culture as the "yin-yang symbol" since the 1960s. The contemporary Chinese term for the modern symbol is "two-part Taiji diagram".

Ornamental patterns with visual similarity to the "yin-yang symbol" are found in archaeological artefacts of European prehistory; such designs are sometimes descriptively dubbed "yin yang symbols" in archaeological literature by modern scholars.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Structure

The ''taijitu'' consists of five parts. Strictly speaking, the "yin and yang symbol", itself popularly called ''taijitu'', represents the second of these five parts of the diagram.

*At the top, an empty circle depicts the absolute ('' Wuji'')
*A second circle represents the Taiji as harboring Dualism, yin and yang, represented by filling the circle in a black-and-white pattern. In some diagrams, there is a smaller empty circle at the center of this, representing Emptiness as the foundation of duality.
*Below this second circle is a five-part diagram representing the Five Agents ('' Wuxing''), representing a further stage in the differentiation of Unity into Multiplicity. The Five Agents are connected by lines indicating their proper sequence, Wood (木) → Fire (火) → Earth (土) → Metal (金) → Water (水).
*The circle below the Five Agents represents the conjunction of Heaven and Earth, which in turn gives rise to the "ten thousand things". This stage is also represented by the Eight Trigrams ('' Bagua'').
*The final circle represents the state of multiplicity, glossed "The ten thousand things are born by transformation" (萬物化生; modern 化生万物)

History

The term ''taijitu'' in modern Chinese is commonly used to mean the simple "divided circle" form (), but it may refer to any of several schematic diagrams that contain at least one circle with an inner pattern of symmetry representing yin and yang.

Song and Yuan eras

While the concept of yin and yang dates to Chinese antiquity, the interest in "diagrams" (圖 ''tú'') is an intellectual fashion of Neo-Confucianism during the Song period (11th century), and it declined again in the Ming period, by the 16th century. During the Mongol Empire and Yuan dynasty, Taoist traditions and diagrams were compiled and published in the encyclopedia Shilin Guangji by Chen Yuanjing.Joseph A. Adler, ''Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi's Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi'', SUNY Press, 2014
p. 152
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The original description of a ''taijitu'' is due to Song era philosopher Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073), author of the ''Taijitu shuo'' "Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate", which became the cornerstone of Neo-Confucianist cosmology. His brief text synthesized aspects of Chinese Buddhism and Taoism with metaphysical discussions in the ''Yijing''.

Zhou's key terms Wuji and Taiji appear in the opening line , which Adler notes could also be translated "The Supreme Polarity that is Non-Polar".

Non-polar (''wuji'') and yet Supreme Polarity (''taiji'')! The Supreme Polarity in activity generates ''yang''; yet at the limit of activity it is still. In stillness it generates ''yin''; yet at the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing ''yin'' and ''yang'', the Two Modes are thereby established. The alternation and combination of ''yang'' and ''yin'' generate water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five hases of''qi'' harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed through them. The Five Phases are simply ''yin'' and ''yang''; ''yin'' and ''yang'' are simply the Supreme Polarity; the Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. etin the generation of the Five Phases, each one has its nature.

Instead of usual ''Taiji'' translations "Supreme Ultimate" or "Supreme Pole", Adler uses "Supreme Polarity" (see Robinet 1990) because Zhu Xi describes it as the alternating principle of ''yin'' and ''yang'', and ...

insists that ''taiji'' is not a thing (hence "Supreme Pole" will not do). Thus, for both Zhou and Zhu, ''taiji'' is the ''yin-yang'' principle of bipolarity, which is the most fundamental ordering principle, the cosmic "first principle." ''Wuji'' as "non-polar" follows from this.

Since the 12th century, there has been a vigorous discussion in Chinese philosophy regarding the ultimate origin of Zhou Dunyi's diagram.
Zhu Xi (12th century) insists that Zhou Dunyi had composed the diagram himself, against the prevailing view that he had received it from Daoist sources. Zhu Xi could not accept a Daoist origin of the design, because it would have undermined the claim of uniqueness attached to the Neo-Confucian concept of ''dao''.

Ming and Qing eras

While Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) popularized the circular diagram, the introduction of "swirling" patterns first appears in the Ming period.

Zhao Huiqian (趙撝謙, 1351–1395) was the first to introduce the "swirling" variant of the ''taijitu'' in his ''Liushu benyi'' (六書本義, 1370s). The diagram is combined with the eight trigrams ('' bagua'') and called the "River Chart spontaneously generated by Heaven and Earth".
By the end of the Ming period, this diagram had become a widespread representation of Chinese cosmology.

The dots were introduced in the later Ming period (replacing the droplet-shapes used earlier, in the 16th century) and are encountered more frequently in the Qing period. The dots represent the seed of yin within yang and the seed of yang within yin; the idea that neither can exist without the other.

Lai Zhide's design is similar to the '' gakyil'' (''dga' 'khyil'' or "wheel of joy") symbols of Tibetan Buddhism; but while the Tibetan designs have three or four swirls (representing the Three Jewels or the Four Noble Truths, i.e. as a triskele and a tetraskelion">triskele">Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...