Qi
Discussion
Qi in Chinese Metaphysics
Jan Krikke:
"Leibniz gave his binary code a theological significance. He wrote: “All combinations arise from unity and nothing, which is like saying that God made everything from nothing, and that there were only two first principles, God and nothing.”
The Chinese didn’t develop the concept of a personal god, but their cosmology also assumed that a binary principle was the foundation of all existence. This notion is reflected in the Chinese view of Creation: When the yin and the yang, initially united, separated forever, the mountains poured forth water.” Water pouring from mountains was the main theme of classic Chinese art.
The Chinese had a special term for the tension between yin and yang. They called it qi, a term variously translated as cosmic breath, spirit, and vital force. Joseph Needham, borrowing a concept of quantum physics, translated qi as “matter-energy.” The closest equivalent in the West is ether, the “medium” traditionally believed to fill all space and the “carrier” of electromagnetic waves.”
The Chinese sage next set out to codify natural polarities: Heaven and Earth, positieve and negative, light and dark, growth and decay, and so on. The sages reasoned that if the universe was based on the tension between opposites, they would do well to identify as many opposites as possible to “insert” themselves into the binary universe with the least amount of frictional loss.
The Eight Trigrams are the foundation of the yin-yang system. Heaven is pure yang, Earth is pure yin. Six terrestrial processes (water, wind, lighting, etc., the result of the interaction between Heaven and Earth), are degrees or stages of yin and yang. The 64 hexagrams, the Eight Trigrams in all possible combinations, are further differentiations of yin-yang stages.
The Eight Trigrams and the 64 hexagrams can be seen as the ASCII code for the yin-yang system. Moreover, trigrams and hexagrams are comparable to Boolean classes. They represent entities with different levels of qi.
In the 11th century, the Neo-Confucian scholar Chou Tun-yi integrated the yin-yang system and the Five Elements into a unified view of Chinese cosmology. Chou’s diagram is not scientific; it does not explain the mechanical, biological, organic, and electromagnetic processes at work in nature, but it conceptually accommodates them all."
(https://jankrikke2020.medium.com/the-tao-holons-and-the-theory-of-everything-47b0fcc934d3)
The Death of Qi (Ether) in the West
Jan Krikke:
"Tao and its primary manifestation, qi, is Koestler’s “ghost in the machine,” his belief that there is something beyond the purely physical that permeates and animates the universe.
Ironically, quantum physics did away with the ether, the Western equivalent of qi. Up to the early 20th century, the intangible and invisible ether was considered the substrate of nature, permeating everything. Radio waves were assumed to travel across the ether.
Einstein’s Relativity Theory, a mathematical model for space and time, does not require the existence of the ether. Moreover, scientific attempts to detect the presence of the ether were unsuccessful. Today, any mention of the ether is regarded as unscientific.
But Einstein, who spent years trying to develop a unified quantum theory, was among the few scientists to have an open mind about the ether. He told an audience at Leiden University in 1919 that Relativity Theory does not require the ether but the theory does not preclude its existence. “To deny the ether,” he said, “is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatsoever.”
The maverick scientist Nikola Tesla believed that quantum physics had thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Tesla developed an ether theory in the 1890s, well before the quantum revolution overshadowed his work. In an article written in 1930, “Man’s Greatest Achievement,” Tesla summarized his views for posterity.
“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”
Quantum physics ended the Western debate about the ether. It was the consequence of a scientific worldview: If something cannot be detected, observed, and quantified, it probably doesn’t exist. However, quantum theory did not lead the Chinese to discard the notion of qi, nor did it lead the Indians to reject the Vedic equivalent of the ether, Akasha, the aetheric element that permeates the cosmos."
(https://jankrikke2020.medium.com/the-tao-holons-and-the-theory-of-everything-47b0fcc934d3)