Zhou Dunyi’s Taiji philosophy presents a vision of reality in which one ultimate principle differentiates into yin and yang, and through their ceaseless alternation gives rise to the Five Phases and the myriad things. Within this cosmology, the human being is viewed as a microcosm of Taiji, subject to the same patterns of dynamic polarity, cyclical movement, and transformation that govern Heaven and Earth. Health, skill, and moral character are therefore not separate domains, but different expressions of how harmoniously one’s inner Taiji resonates with the larger order. This shared “physics of life” quietly undergirds both Chinese medicine and the internal martial arts, giving them a common language of qi, yin–yang, and the Five Phases.

In Chinese medicine, the body is interpreted as a Taiji system whose unity unfolds into complementary polarities and elemental patterns. Yin–yang distinctions such as interior and exterior, cold and heat, deficiency and excess are not mere labels, but reflections of how the body’s qi circulates and transforms. The five zang organs correspond to the Five Phases—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water—and their mutual generation and restraint echo the cosmological logic derived from Taiji. Diagnosis becomes a reading of imbalance in this unfolding: excess or deficiency of yin or yang, or disharmony among the phases, such as one organ system “overacting” on another. Pulse and tongue examination, as well as symptom patterns, are interpreted through this framework, and treatment seeks to restore rhythmic balance by regulating qi, rebalancing yin and yang, and harmonizing the Five Phases through acupuncture, herbs, dietary therapy, and qigong.

In the martial arts, especially Taijiquan and related internal schools, Taiji philosophy is not merely an abstract doctrine but a living template for movement, strategy, and inner cultivation. Posture and stepping are organized around the interplay of stillness and motion, with the dantian serving as a kind of Taiji center from which movement can arise in any direction. Techniques embody continuous transformations of yin and yang—opening and closing, rising and sinking, advancing and retreating, empty and full—so that the body remains unified yet finely differentiated. In combat strategy, yielding and softness (yin) are used to absorb and neutralize force, which is then redirected and expressed as issuing power (yang), rather than opposing strength with strength. Training methods cultivate internal energy through slow, circular patterns that mirror the Taiji diagram, while also fostering mental stillness within physical fluidity, so that martial skill, health, and ethical self-cultivation converge as different faces of the same Taiji-informed practice.