A Dialectical Analysis of the Tripartite Qualities of 'Dao' in the Guanzi: Intricacy, Expansion, and Solidity

IV. "All Things Are Prepared" from an Ancient Cosmological Viewpoint

The cosmological view of ancient peoples was "harmony of Heaven and humanity" (天人合一)—man is a microcosm of Heaven and Earth, and Heaven and Earth are a macrocosm of man.

I Ching, "Appended Phrases," Part II, states: "In ancient times, when Bao Xi reigned over the world, he looked up to observe the patterns in Heaven, looked down to observe the laws on Earth, observed the patterns of birds and beasts and the suitability of the Earth's terrain. He took what was near from his own person and what was far from the myriad things. From this, he first created the Eight Trigrams, to connect the De of spirits and divinities and to categorize the natures of the myriad things."

"Took what was near from his own person, and what was far from the myriad things" (近取諸身，遠取諸物)—the method by which Fu Xi created the Eight Trigrams involved establishing correspondences between his own person and the myriad things. The prerequisite for this correspondence was: the human body is a microcosm of Heaven and Earth, and the human person contains all the information necessary to understand the myriad things.

Therefore, "All things are prepared" is not a modern physical proposition but an existential proposition in the sense of pre-Qin cosmology—man, as the essence of Heaven and Earth and the foremost of all things, originally possesses the complete potential to understand and resonate with all things. Grasping Qi as if it were Shen is merely the full development of this potential.