Supreme Principles of Cosmic Order 皇极经世书

Authored by Shao Yong, a Confucian scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty, this work was cataloged in Bibliography of the History of the Song Dynasty. It has multiple versions, including the one included in the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries). The version in The Daozang consists of twelve volumes and is classified under the Taixuan Section.

The book is divided into two parts: Guanwu Pian (Chapter on Observing Things) and Guanwu Waipian (Outer Chapter on Observing Things). Its core tenet is based on the innate image-number theory of the I Ching. It extensively discusses the way of heaven, nature and destiny, the cycles of world affairs, the principles of self-cultivation and state governance, as well as the laws governing the growth and evolution of all living beings, whether moving, stationary, flying or hidden. The author holds that the Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) is equivalent to the Dao—the fundamental source of heaven, earth and all things, and the origin of nature and destiny. The Taiji remains unchanging in itself yet manifests as the divine spirit; the divine spirit generates numbers, numbers generate images, and images generate concrete objects. The interaction and movement of yin and yang give rise to the Four Symbols and the Eight Trigrams, which further evolve into the sixty-four hexagrams. The changes, growth and decline of all things in heaven and earth can all be deduced from the transformations of the hexagram images and the numbers of the I Ching. Mastering the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division related to the hexagram images and the I Ching numbers allows one to understand the past, comprehend the present and predict the future. This constitutes the essence of Shao Yong’s innate image-number theory. According to legend, Shao Yong’s learning originated from Chen Tuan, a Taoist priest of the Northern Song Dynasty, which diverges from the purport of the traditional Confucian I Ching studies—hence Zhu Xi referred to it as "a separate transmission outside the orthodox I Ching learning". Its doctrines exerted a significant influence on Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Taoism inner alchemy, and the practices of diviners. Therefore, despite being a Confucian work, it is also included in The Daozang, with its theoretical system closely linked to the five elements theory in traditional Chinese philosophy.