In Chinese philosophy, wuji (simplified Chinese: 无极; traditional Chinese: 無極; lit. 'without roof/ridgepole', meaning 'without limit') originally referred to infinity. In Neo-Confucian cosmology, it came to mean the "primordial universe" prior to the "Supreme Ultimate" state of being.
Definition In Chinese, the word wuji is a compound of wu (meaning nothingness) and ji. Ji (極) is a word with several meanings. Most often used to mean "pole" or "ridgepole", it can also be used in the same figurative as in English to mean "geographical pole", "magnetic pole", etc. In Traditional Chinese medicine it is the Chong mai (衝脈) or the central Meridian of the eight extra Meridians. Common English translations of the cosmological wuji are "ultimateless" or "limitless", but other versions are "the ultimate of Nothingness", "that which has no Pole", or "Non-Polar".
Usage Wuji references are found in Chinese classic texts associated with diverse schools of Chinese philosophy, including Taoism, Confucianism, and the School of Names. Zhang and Ryden summarize the philosophical transformation of wuji:
The expression 'limitless' and its relatives are found in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi and also in writings of the logicians. It has no special philosophical meaning. In Song-dynasty philosophy, however, the same expression 'limitless' should be translated as 'ultimate of beinglessness,' for the negative element is no longer qualifying the word 'limit' but is rather qualified by the word 'limit,' here to be translated into Song philosophical jargon as 'ultimate'.
Tao Te Ching The term wuji first appears in the Tao Te Ching (c. 4th century BCE) in the context of returning to one's original nature:
This is an instance of how wuji with "integrity" (Chinese: 德) can become dualistic by dividing into yin and yang. Following this interaction the Tao transforms into the One, which becomes the Two, and then the Three. The ten thousand things (the universe) then comes into existence:
道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物。
Zhuangzi The Taoist Zhuangzi (c. 3rd–2nd centuries BCE) uses wuji four times. According to Zhang and Ryden, in Zhuangzi the word wuji "always refers to the infinite and the boundless."
The Zhuangzi also uses the related word wuqiong (無窮; "infinite; endless; inexhaustible") 25 times, for instance,
The Zhuangzi uses wuqiong quoting a relativistic theory from the School of Names philosopher Hui Shi; "The southern direction is limitless yet it has a limit."
Xunzi The (c. 3rd century BCE) Confucian text Xunzi uses wuji (meaning 'boundless') three times. In one context it is used to describe a legendary horse and is paralleled with wuqiong, used to mean "inexhaustible".
Huainanzi The 2nd-century BCE Huainanzi uses Wuji six times. One syntactically playful passage says a sage can qiong wuqiong (窮無窮 "exhaust the inexhaustible"; also used in Xunzi above) and ji wuji (極無極 "[go to the] extreme [of] the extremeless").
Liezi The (c. 4th century CE) Taoist Liezi uses wuji (meaning "limitless") eight times in a cosmological dialogue (with wuqiong, meaning "inexhaustible", once).
"Have there always been things?" –"If once there were no things, how come there are things now? Would you approve if the men who live after us say there are no things now?" "In that case, do things have no before and after?" –"The ending and starting of things have no limit from which they began. The start of one is the end of another, the end of one is the start of another. Who knows which came first? But what is outside things, what was before events, I do not know" "In that case, is everything limited and exhaustible above and below in the eight directions?"
[textual lacuna] ...
Taijitu shuo
The 11th-century Taijitu shuo (太極圖說, "Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate"), written by Zhou Dunyi, was the cornerstone of Neo-Confucianist cosmology. His brief text synthesized Confucianist metaphysics of the I Ching with aspects of Daoism and Chinese Buddhism. In his Taijitu diagram, wuji is represented as a blank circle and taiji as a circle with a center point (world embryo) or with broken and unbroken lines (yin and yang). However, Zhou thought of wuji and taiji as ultimately the same principle and concept that created movement, life, and "the ten thousand transformations" (things). Zhou's key terms wuji and taiji appear in the famous opening phrase wuji er taiji (無極而太極), which Adler notes could also be translated "The Supreme Polarity that is Non-Polar!".
Non-polar (wuji) and yet Supreme Polarity (taiji)! The Supreme Polarity in activity generates yang; yet at the limit of activity it is still. In stillness it generates yin; yet at the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing yin and yang, the Two Modes are thereby established. The alternation and combination of yang and yin generate water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five [phases of] qi harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed through them. The Five Phases are simply yin and yang; yin and yang are simply the Supreme Polarity; the Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. [Yet] in the generation of the Five Phases, each one has its nature. Robinet explains the relationship.
The taiji is the One that contains Yin and Yang, or the Three (as stated in Hanshu 21A). This Three is, in Taoist terms, the One (Yang) plus the Two (Yin), or the Three that gives life to all beings (Daode jing 42), the One that virtually contains the multiplicity. Thus, the wuji is a limitless void, whereas the taiji is a limit in the sense that it is the beginning and the end of the world, a turning point. The wuji is the mechanism of both movement and quiescence; it is situated before the differentiation between movement and quiescence, metaphorically located in the space-time between the kun 坤, or pure Yin, and fu 復, the return of the Yang. In other terms, while the Taoists state that taiji is metaphysically preceded by wuji, which is the Dao, the Neo-Confucians say that the taiji is the Dao.
See also Brahman Ein Sof Emergent Universe Hundun Monad (philosophy) Tohu wa-bohu
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