Week 10: One Symbol, Two Histories

Zhou Dunyi's Taijitu and the later swirling symbol

26 April 2027

Two historically separate images, the five tiers of the first one, and what changing visual form did to how the idea was communicated.

Outline#

• Zhou Dunyi’s five-tier Taijitu (Taijitu shuo, 1017–1073, as transmitted through Zhu Xi’s commentary): Wuji-er-Taiji (combined), yin-yang polarity, the Five Phases, Qian/Kun male-female, the myriad things
• the later swirling black-and-white symbol and its Ming-era diffusion
• how the redesigned form changed what the sign made easy to see, and what it made disappear