Zhang Zai · Philosophy

Qi and the Supreme Void: A Universe That Never Dies

Zhang Zai’s cosmology: everything that exists is qi, condensing into things and dispersing back again. The Supreme Void (taixu) is not nothingness but qi at its most tenuous; nothing is created from nothing and nothing is annihilated, so death is not extinction but return.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that for Zhang Zai all that exists is qi, that the Supreme Void (taixu) is qi in its most rarefied, dispersed state rather than sheer nothingness, and that condensation and dispersion (like ice and water) mean nothing is ever created from nothing or annihilated - so death is return, not extinction. Explain…

Leads to Lucretius.

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