Taijitu during the Qing period for their possible connection with Zhou Dunyi's "taijitu". Ming period author Lai Zhide (1525–1604) simplified the "taijitu" to a design of two interlocking spirals. In the Ming era, the combination of the two interlocking spirals of the "taijitu" with two black-and-white dots superimposed on them became identified with the "He tu" or "Yellow River diagram" (河圖). This version was reported in Western literature of the late 19th century as the "Great Monad", and has been widely popularised in Western popular culture as the "yin-yang symbol" since the 1960s. The contemporary Chinese term for the modern symbol
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