Cosmological Foundations of Yin-Yang School

One of the effective schools of thought in the formation and coherence of the Chinese cosmological imagery is the “Yin-Yang School”. “Tsou Yen” and “Tung-Chung Shu”, as the main characters of this school, adapted many beliefs of the ancient Chinese people and applied them in the systematic formulation of their cosmology. The findings of the present study, which is descriptive-analytic, show that, contrary to what may seem at first glance, “Yin-Yang” as a school, is essentially unitary, not dualism-oriented. The cosmology of the “Yin-Yang” school is more consistent with the pattern of issuance of multiplicity from unity; in that, according to it, Tao issues “Taiji” or “Great Ultimate”, and the “Taiji”, issues the contradictory and complementary forces of the universe, “Yin” and “Yang”. The result of the “Yin” and “Yang” integration is the emergence of “Wu-hsing” or “Five Elements”. And at last, the plurality of innumerable phenomena is condidered the various formulas of the “Wu-hsing” compound. The eschatological declarations of this school indicate that, at the end of the world, the multiplicity, as the issuance from the “Tao”, goes back to their original source.