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I found this first chart over at "The Rum Soaked Fist", posted by Doc Stier.
Here is my somewhat limited description of how it works:
The top of the diagram displays heaven, Yang energy. When energy rises up the body it becomes more Yang. At the bottom we see earth. Likewise, energy descending in the body becomes Yin, as earth is Yin energy.
In the beginning, there was "Wu Ji", the great void, nothingness.
Within the Wu Ji, something began to stir, represented by the dot in the center of Wu Ji. This is labeled as "The first differentiation".
The stirring splits into the dialectical opposites, which strive to interchange, hence the blending into the Yin-Yang symbol, each side containing a portion of the opposite.
Yin-Yang gives birth to The Five Elements, which are also the basis for the philosophy in Xingyi Boxing. The elements have a creative cycle, and a destructive cycle.
And the Five Elements produce "The Ten Thousand Things".
One thing that really interests me is that the "Wu Ji" phase makes me think about "The Big Bang Theory" of the origins of the known universe. In fact, if there is a physics professor out there I would love to see the parallels they could draw between this ancient symbol chart and revelations in modern science.
