Taijitu

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The Taijitu (Chinese: 太極圖; pinyin: Taìjí tú; Wade-Giles: T'ai⁴ chi² t'u²; literally "diagram of the supreme ultimate"), often incorrectly called a yin-yang, is a well known symbol deriving from Chinese culture which represents the principle of yin and yang from Taoist and Neo-Confucian philosophy. The term Taijitu itself refers to any of several schematic diagrams representing these principles.

Wu Jianquan, a famous Chinese martial arts teacher, described the name of the martial art Taijiquan this way at the beginning of the 20th century:

"Various people have offered different explanations for the name Taijiquan. Some have said: 'In terms of self-cultivation, one must train from a state of movement towards a state of stillness. Taiji comes about through the balance of yin and yang. In terms of the art of attack and defense then, in the context of the changes of full and empty, one is constantly internally latent, not outwardly expressive, as if the yin and yang of Taiji have not yet divided apart.' Others say: 'Every movement of Taijiquan is based on circles, just like the shape of a Taijitu. Therefore, it is called Taijiquan.' Both explanations are quite reasonable, especially the second, which is more complete."

[edit] Unicode

Taijitu is defined in code point U+262F. As an alternative, Unicode suggested it can be substituted by U+0FCA (tibetan symbol nor bu nyis -khyil), the double body symbol.

[edit] See also

• Chinese philosophy
• Five elements (Chinese philosophy)
• I Ching
• Tao Te Ching
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Yin and yang
• Zhuangzi