Jian Yan-Min
Taihe Hospital, Shiyan, 442000, China.
Zhonghua Yi Shi Za Zhi. 2012 Jan;42(1):38-40.
The term 'Taiji' first appear in Zhouyi·Xici, saying that 'yi has Taiji which includes yin and yang'. Chinese ancestors formed the 'year' conception by observing sunrise, sundown and seasonal successions for a long period. 'yi has Taiji which includes yin and yang' was the resultant recording of their sun-movement observations. People compared the heaven and earth to a circle and they divided the circle into four areas to record meteorological changes of the four seasons. A line was drawn from the spring equinox to the autumn equinox and the heaven and earth positioning diagram was created with the upper half as the heaven and the bottom half as the earth. The line was called the Taiji line. Considering that 'yang starts to grow at the winter solstice and yin starts to grow at the summer solstice', therefore people gradually changed the line to a S -curve.
“太极”一词最早见于《周易·系辞》,称“易有太极,是生两仪”。中国古人长期观察日出、日落以及季节更替,形成了“年”的概念。“易有太极,是生两仪”是他们对太阳运动观察结果的记录。人们将天地比作一个圆,并将其分为四个区域来记录四季的气象变化。从春分点到秋分点画一条线,便形成了天地定位图,上半部分为天,下半部分为地。这条线被称为太极线。考虑到“冬至一阳生,夏至一阴生”,因此人们逐渐将这条线改为S形曲线。