What is the Supreme Ultimate in Taoism? 道教中太极的含义

A fundamental concept in the Taoist cosmic outlook.

The term originates from Zhuangzi·The Great Master: "The Dao stands before Taiji yet is not lofty; it lies beneath the six extremes yet is not profound." Here, Taiji is a description of the sublimity of The Dao. I Ching·Appended Remarks I states: "The Yijing embodies Taiji, which generates the Two Principles; the Two Principles generate the Four Images, and the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams." From this, Taiji became the primal noumenon at the origin of cosmic creation. Apocryphal texts such as Yi Wei·Qian Zao Du (The Secret of the Dragon's Work in the I Ching Apocrypha) further refined this theory of cosmic generation. Xiaojing·Gou Ming Jue (The Secret of the Filial Piety Classic) points out that before the separation of heaven and earth, there were Taiyi, Taichu, Taishi, Taisu and Taiji—Taiji being a stage in the process where the chaotic primordial Qi formed heaven and earth.

What is the Supreme Ultimate in Taoism?

Taoism absorbed the above theories to form its own doctrine of cosmic creation. The Classic of the Supreme Lord Laozi Opening the Heavens depicts the process of the transformation and generation of all things in the universe: from the Supreme Purity to Hongyuan, to Taichu, to Taishi, to Taisu, to Chaos, to the Nine Palaces, and to the Primordial Emperor, with Taiji as the origin of the transformation and generation of the entire universe. Shangfang Dadao Sandong Zhenyuan Miaojing Tu (The Illustrated Scripture of the True Origin of the Three Caverns of the Supreme Dao) states that the Dao of Taiji is without beginning or end, without past or present, and is the foundation of heaven and earth.

Cheng Xuanying held that Taiji encompasses the five stages of qi transformation before the formation of heaven and earth. In the early Song Dynasty, Chen Tuan created the Diagram of Wuji to expound cultivation theories, while also evolving a model of cosmic generation and transformation—a model that exerted a profound influence on Neo-Confucianism of the Song Dynasty. Neo-Confucian scholars combined the I Ching with the Taoist theory of Taiji to establish a cosmology that takes Taiji as the supreme noumenon. In Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism, Taiji is the Dao, Taiji is the Principle, and Taiji is the mind, all rooted in the dialectics of Yin and Yang that underpin all cosmic changes.