Taijitu 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
Taijitu has its nature. Instead of usual "Taiji" translations "Supreme Ultimate" or "Supreme Pole", Adler uses "Supreme Polarity" (see Robinet 1990) because Zhu Xi describes it as the alternating principle of "yin" and "yang", and ... insists that "taiji" is not a thing (hence "Supreme Pole" will not do). Thus, for both Zhou and Zhu, "taiji" is the "yin-yang" principle of bipolarity, which is the most fundamental ordering principle, the cosmic "first principle." "Wuji" as "non-polar" follows from this. Since the 12th century, there has been a vigorous discussion in Chinese philosophy regarding the ultimate origin of Zhou Dunyi's diagram. Zhu