Chou Tun-i, appropriately apotheosized as 'Prince in the Empire of
Reason,' completed and systematized the philosophical world-conception
which had hitherto obtained in the Chinese mind. He did not ask his
fellow-countrymen to discard any part of what they had long held in
high esteem: he raised the old theories from the sphere of science to
that of philosophy by unifying them and bringing them to a focus. And
he made this unification intelligible to the Chinese mind by his famous
_T'ai chi t'u_, or Diagram of the Great Origin (or Grand Terminus),
showing that the Grand Original Cause, itself uncaused, produces the
_yang_ and the _yin_, these the Five Elements, and so on, through
the male and female norms (_tao_), to the production of all things.


Chu Hsi's Monistic Philosophy

The writings of Chu Hsi, especially his treatise on _The Immaterial
Principle [li] and Primary Matter [ch'i]_, leave no doubt as to the
monism of his philosophy. In this work occurs the passage: "In the
universe there exists no primary matter devoid of the immaterial
principle; and no immaterial principle apart from primary matter";
and although the two are never separated "the immaterial principle
[as Chou Tzu explains] is what is previous to form, while primary
matter is what is subsequent to form," the idea being that the two
are different manifestations of the same mysterious force from which
all things proceed.

It is unnecessary to follow this philosophy along all the different
branches which grew out of it, for we are here concerned only with
the seed. We have observed how Chinese dualism became a monism, and