What is the Great One in Taoism? 什么是大一
Paul PengWhat is the Great One in Taoism?
The Great Unity refers to the unity and universality inherent in Heaven, Earth, and all things.
Zhuangzi · Under Heaven states:
“That which is infinitely great, with nothing outside it, is called the Great Unity.”
Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals · The Great Music says:
What is the Great One in Taoism?
What is the Great One in Taoism?“All things emerge from the Supreme Unity, and are transformed by Yin and Yang.”
It further notes:
“The Dao is the most subtle; it cannot be given form, nor can it be named. Forcing a name upon it, we call it the Supreme Unity.”
The so‑called Supreme Unity is the Great Unity:
the cosmic substance that embraces Heaven and Earth and generates all things, identical with the empty and tranquil The Dao.
Sui‑Tang Taoism philosophy holds that the cosmos and all things possess unity and universality.
Although all things differ in form and name, their inner nature is interconnected as one — this is the Great Unity.
Wang Xuanlan, in Records of the Mystic Pearl, writes:
“Every thing contains the Four Propositions;
within each Proposition lies a mind.
All minds are not different;
they interpenetrate as One, hence named the Great Unity.
They may also merge secretly into One.
Using the Four Propositions to seek the mind,
the mind attained is only the outer shell.
Going further to the point of no shell and no mind —
this is called the Great Unity.”
This teaching borrows the Buddhist doctrine of the Four Propositions to argue that practitioners should quiet the mind, extinguish views, and realize that all things (dharmas) lack self‑nature, are empty and still, and interpenetrate as one with the Dao.
