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.
31-699: Wuji can refer to: Wuji (people) ( 勿吉人 ), pronounced in ancient times as Moji or Merjie , an ancient ethnic group in Manchuria Wuji (philosophy) , concept in Chinese philosophy and Taoism, as contrasted with taiji The Promise (2005 film) , directed by Chen Kaige with the native Chinese title 無極 ; Wújí Zhangsun Wuji , Tang Dynasty chancellor Locations in China [ edit ] Wuji County , Shijiazhuang, Hebei Wuji, Hengdong ( 吴集镇 ),
62-572: A concern for relations in the bureaucracy, but with Gongsun Long as example, most were still likely more socially or philosophically oriented than the late, stringent Han Feizi ; it cannot be assumed that many were familiar with Shang Yang , if even Shen Buhai was. The earliest literary occurrence for xingming is in the Zhan Guo Ce , in reference to what would become known as the School of Names, amongst other more modern terms. The philosophy of
93-399: 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
124-445: A total organizational knowledge of the regime. More simply though, it can allow ministers to "name" themselves through accounts of specific cost and time frame, leaving their definition to competing ministers. Claims or utterances "bind the speaker to the realization a job". This was the doctrine favoured by Han Fei, with subtle differences. Favouring exactness, it combats the tendency to promise too much. The correct articulation of ming
155-648: A town of Hengdong County , Hunan . Wuji, Huai'an ( 吴集镇 ), town in Huaiyin District, Huai'an, Jiangsu Wuji, Shuyang County ( 吴集镇 ), town in Jiangsu Wuji, Rushan ( 午极镇 ), town in Shandong See also [ edit ] Wu Ji (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Wuji . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
186-522: Is familiar with both Mohism and Confucianism, and is not always a relativist. He uses Confucianism to defend the White Horse Dialogue , believed in kindness and duty, and has a rectification of names doctrine aimed at actualities and social order rather than relativism. Willing to argue either side of an issue, they were taken as sophist by their critics, but some arguments were not necessarily intended to be paradoxical, even if their logic
217-414: Is heterodox by mainstream Mohist standards. A contemporary of Confucius and the younger Mozi , Deng Xi, associated with litigation, is taken by Liu Xiang as the originator of the principle of xíngmíng , or ensuring that ministers' deeds ( xing ) harmonized with their words ( ming ). A primary concern of the bureaucratically oriented Shen Buhai and Han Fei , some of their administrators would have had
248-524: Is relevant for discussions of names and realities, but was more Confucian and less relativist. Including figures referenced by the Zhuangzi, some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and the relativism of Zhuangzi Daoism. Hui Shi is noted for relativism , but also " embracing the ten thousand things ". But he may not have had much connection with Gongsun Long . They would have had backgrounds ranging from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Gongsun Long
279-500: Is said to reach the highest point of ancient Chinese philosophical writing. One of the few surviving lines from the school, "a one-foot stick, every day take away half of it, in a myriad ages it will not be exhausted", resembles Zeno's paradoxes . However, some of their other aphorisms seem contradictory or unclear when taken out of context, for example, "dogs are not hounds". As with the Legalists , Sinologist Kidder Smith highlights
310-596: Is used to describe a legendary horse and is paralleled with wuqiong , used to mean "inexhaustible". —( Knoblock 1988 , chapter 2, p. 155) 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"). — ( Balfour 1884 , chapter 1, p. 86) The (c. 4th century CE) Taoist Liezi uses wuji (meaning "limitless") eight times in
341-864: The Dao 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。 The Taoist Zhuangzi (c. 3rd–2nd centuries BCE) uses wuji four times. According the Zhang and Ryden, in Zhuangzi the word wuji "always refers to the infinite and the boundless." —( Mair 1994 , chapter 1, p. 6) —( Mair 1994 , chapter 6, p. 59) —( Mair 1994 , chapter 11, p. 97) —( Mair 1994 , chapter 15, p. 145) The Zhunagzi also uses
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#1732765453449372-534: 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'. Wu = Nothingness, Void, Zero; Chi = Energy. Even science now says that
403-628: The Zhuangzi , as a view seemingly dating back to the Warring States period ( c. 479 – 221 BC). Rather than a unified movement like the Mohists, it represents a social category of early linguistic debaters. Some arguments in later Mohist texts would appear directed at their kind of debates. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi , Yin Wen , Hui Shi , and Gongsun Long . A Three Kingdoms era figure, Xu Gan ,
434-811: 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,
465-530: The Logicians is often considered to be akin to those of the sophists or of the dialecticians . Joseph Needham notes that their works have been lost, except for the partially preserved oeuvre of Gongsun Long , and the paradoxes of Chapter 33 of the Zhuangzi . Needham considers the disappearance of the greater part of Gongsun Long's work one of the worst losses in the ancient Chinese books, as what remains
496-507: 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
527-520: 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
558-572: The cosmological wuji are "ultimateless" or "limitless", but other versions are "the ultimate of Nothingness", "that which has no Pole", or "Non-Polar". 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
589-494: The doctrine of Shen Buhai (400 – c. 337 BC ). Shen actually used the older, more philosophically common equivalent, ming-shi, or name and reality, linking the "Legalist doctrine of names" with the debates of the school of names. Such discussions are also prominent in the Han Feizi . Ming ('name') sometimes has the sense of "speech", so as to compare the statements of an aspiring officer with
620-463: 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 ] ... — ( Graham 1990 , chapter 5, pp. 94-5) The (11th century CE) Taijitu shuo ( 太極圖說 , "Explanation of the Diagram of
651-489: The ground state of our universe is made of zero point energy. Wu-chi is the source of Tai-Chi. The term wuji first appears in the Tao Te Ching (c. 4th century BCE) in the context of returning to one's original nature: — ( Mair 1990 , chapter 28, p. 93) This is an instance of how wuji with "integrity" ( Chinese : 德 ) can become dualistic by dividing into yin and yang. Following this interaction
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#1732765453449682-468: 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,
713-463: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wuji&oldid=1183991525 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing Chinese-language text Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Wuji (philosophy) In Chinese ,
744-570: The mixed posthumous reception received by the school of names. Already opposed by the Later Mohists in their own era for their paradoxes, many of them, despite being remembered as sophists, would also have been administrators, with Hui Shi a prime minister, while Gongsun Long was a diplomat and peace activist, as typical of the Mohists . Shen Buhai under the "Legalists" may not have even been familiar with Shang Yang's doctrine, but likely
775-579: The reality of his actions—or of "reputation", again compared with real conduct ( xing 'form' or shi 'reality'). Two anecdotes in the Han Feizi provide examples—member of the School of Names Ni Yue argued that a white horse is not a horse, and defeated all debaters, but was still tolled at the gate. In another, the chief minister of Yan pretended to see a white horse dash out the gate. All of his subordinates denied having seen anything, save one, who ran out after it and returned claiming to have seen it, and
806-421: The related word wuqiong ( 無窮 ; "infinite; endless; inexhaustible") 25 times, for instance, —( Mair 1994 , chapter 1, p. 6) 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." The (c. 3rd century BCE) Confucian text Xunzi uses wuji (meaning "boundless") three times. In one context it
837-413: 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
868-773: 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. School of Names The School of Names , or School of Forms and Names , is a school of thought of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohist logic. Sometimes termed Logicians or Sophists modernly, Han scholars used it in reference to figures earlier termed Disputers in
899-539: 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
930-497: Was familiar with "school of names" type debates on language and the correlation between the names and realities of things, with language useful in administration. In the Han dynasty secretaries of government who had charge of the records of decisions in criminal matters would come to be called called xingming . The Han-era scholars Sima Qian ( c. 145 – c. 86 BC ) and Liu Xiang (77–6 BC) attribute it to
961-439: Was thereby identified as a flatterer. Shen Buhai's personnel control, or rectification of names such as titles thereby worked for "strict performance control" correlating claims, performances and posts. It would become a central tenet of both Legalist statecraft and its Huang–Lao derivatives. Rather than having to look for "good" men, mingshi or xingming can seek the right man for a particular post, though doing so implies