Tài jí tú shuō 太極圖說
Diagram-and-Discourse of the Supreme Pole
base diagram and discourse: 周敦頤 (Zhōu Dūnyí, 1017–1073, hào Liánxī xiānshēng); annotation: 朱熹 (Zhū Xī, 1130–1200)
The foundational diagrammatic-cum-textual exposition of the Sòng-school cosmology, by Zhōu Dūnyí — a single page of diagram (the famous Tàijí tú 太極圖, with concentric layers showing the wújí, tàijí, yīnyáng, wǔxíng, and the differentiation into the myriad things) and a one-page discourse (shuō) of about 250 characters explaining it. Here the text is presented with Zhū Xī’s commentary (= the Tàijí tú shuō jiě 太極圖說解, c. 1175). The opening is Zhū Xī’s account of the textual history: the Hétú issued and the eight trigrams were drawn; the Luòshū appeared and the nine standards were arrayed; the Tàijí tú is the same kind of foundational cosmological diagram, transmitted into the Sòng through the Daoist lineage Chén Tuán → Mù Xiū → Zhōu Dūnyí.
Prefaces
Annotation-preface (Zhū Xī). “The Hétú issued and the eight trigrams were drawn; the Luòshū appeared and the nine standards were arrayed; and Confucius, on the rising-and-falling of this writing-and-learning, also unfailingly traced it back to Heaven. From the decline of Zhōu and the death of Mèngzǐ, the transmission of this Way did not connect; passing through Qín, then Hàn, through Jìn, Suí, and Táng, until our Sòng’s five-stars-clustered-in-the-Kuí, the cultural-bright Way truly began. And the master [Zhōu Dūnyí] emerged. Not relying on master-transmission, he silently matched the Way-substance, set up the diagram, attached the writing, rooted the principle and distilled the essential. — At the time, those who saw and recognised — there were the Chéng brothers — who then expanded and brightened it; so that the subtlety of the Heaven-principle, the manifestness of human-relations, the multiplicity of things-and-events, the depth of ghosts-and-spirits — there was none not penetrated and threaded through one — and the transmission of Zhōu Gōng, Confucius, Mèngzǐ was again clarified to the present age, so that the determined gentleman could investigate-and-act-on it without losing its uprightness, as if from before the Three Dynasties. Ah, splendid! Without Heaven’s bestowal, who could have shared in this? — Further: the master’s learning, its wonder is contained in the Tài jí tú; the words of the Tōng shū are all the store-of-this-diagram. The Chéng brothers in their conversations on xìngmìng never failed to follow its sayings. Examining the Tōng shū’s Chéng / Dòngjìng / Lǐxìngmìng sections, and the Chéng brothers’ books — the Lǐ Zhòngtōng míng, Chéng Shàogōng zhì, Yánzǐ hǎo xué lùn — all may be seen…”
Abstract
The foundational text of the Sòng-school cosmological metaphysics, integrated by Zhū Xī into the Lǐxué tradition through his commentary. The work is here included in the Dào zàng jí yào on the strength of the traditional Daoist provenance-claim: that Zhōu Dūnyí had received the Tàijí tú through a Daoist transmission from Chén Tuán via Mù Xiū. The DZJY recension thus places the Tàijí tú shuō squarely within the Daoist-Confucian Three-Teachings synthesis register, where it functions as the high cosmological scripture of the unified tradition. Terminus a quo: c. 1050 (Zhōu Dūnyí’s mature period); terminus ad quem: c. 1175 (Zhū Xī’s jiě).
For the broader Sòng-school metaphysics see 周敦頤, 朱熹, and the secondary literature on Sòng Lǐxué.
Translations and research
- Adler, Joseph A. Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi’s Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi. SUNY 2014.
- Zhu Xi. Reflections on Things at Hand, trans. Wing-tsit Chan. Columbia 1967. — includes the Tài-jí tú shuō with commentary.
- Robinet, Isabelle. “The Place and Meaning of the Notion of Taiji in Taoist Sources Prior to the Ming Dynasty.” History of Religions 29:4 (1990): 373–411. — on the Daoist provenance.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0079
- Author: 周敦頤; commentator: 朱熹.