Knowra Chinese cosmology Chinese cosmology Chinese cosmology comprises ideas about how the cosmos is structured, ordered, and connected to human life, developed across philosophical, religious, and technical traditions.
Yin and yang : A complementary pair of forces or qualities used to describe patterns of change and relation. Their interaction explains how apparent opposites cooperate within a changing cosmos.
Hundun : A primordial undifferentiated state or being in Chinese cosmogonic accounts. It represents the condition from which ordered distinctions can emerge.
I Ching : A Chinese classic of divination and cosmological reflection organized around hexagrams and their changes. Its changing patterns became a major framework for interpreting cosmic transformation.
Mandate of Heaven : The doctrine that Heaven grants and can withdraw a ruler’s legitimacy according to his conduct and success. It made political legitimacy answerable to cosmic and moral order.
Greek cosmology : Ideas about the cosmos developed in ancient Greek philosophy, religion, and science. Its influential models often emphasize elements and geometrical structure rather than correspondence cycles.
Five Phases : A cycle of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water used to model transformation and correspondence. The phases connect cosmic processes with seasons, directions, bodies, and political order.
Taiji cosmology : A cosmological account in which the Supreme Ultimate generates yin and yang and further transformations. It traces a route from cosmic unity to the differentiated world.
Hong Fan : A chapter of the Book of Documents presenting the Five Phases and related principles of governance. It is an early textual source for linking cosmic correspondences with rulership.
Chinese state ritual : Official rites through which Chinese states honored Heaven, ancestors, and other powers. Ritual enacted the ruler’s role in maintaining relations between human and cosmic realms.
Indian cosmology : Cosmological ideas developed across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions in South Asia. Its accounts of cosmic cycles and worlds provide a distinct comparison with Chinese frameworks.
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