

The wuji (supreme void) diagram dates back to the Song Dynasty(960-1279), and is ascribed to Chen Tuan, a well-known expert on the health-keeping art in that era. Later, Zhou Dunyi, a philosopher, renamed it the taiji diagram, reading it from top to bottom instead of from bottom to top as Chen Tuan did. The taiji diagram became a theoretical guidepost for qigong practitioners of later gen-erations.
The diagram starts with a state of wuji, which in turn generates a state of taiji through the yin-yang division. The dong of taiji produces yang. Excessive dong leads to jing (stillness), and jing (stillness) re-sults in yin. Dong comes from excessive yin. The interaction of yin and yang on the one hand and jing (stillness) and dong on the other is re-flected in wuxing.
Kan (≡), with a yang line between two yin lines, represents the original qi. Li (≡), with a yin line between two yang lines, shows the genuine jing. Jing resides motionless in the body, and mental activity is regulated.
Qian represents the mind and kun the body. Their interaction pro-duces all things on earth.