Extracting First Principles from the Classics

After observing the regular motions of the sun and moon, the ancients hoped to establish concise principles that could capture an understanding of what kinds of forces drive the rich variety of changes seen in all things in the world. Therefore, so long as the operating laws of these simplified models remained unchanged over tens of millions of years, the systems of knowledge built upon them would not be overturned. All phenomena are like leaves on a tree. If each can be traced through the branches back to the governing source at the root, then knowledge can also be compressed to the greatest possible extent. The ultimate goal is to use the smallest theoretical space while still being able to guide the widest range of changes in the world. These essential mechanisms that remain unchanged over vast spans of time are, in fact, the orbital motions within the solar system, the rotation of the Earth, and the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. These celestial motions create operating cycles and regularities at different time scales, which in physical terms gives rise to the concept of phase intervals. Two adjacent cycles may differ because they are perturbed by shorter time scales nested within them. Yet within the same major phase interval, one should in theory observe similar scenes in the same world. This is why people in every culture observe the existence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Ancient Chinese medicine, therefore, is a body of knowledge built upon the first-principles regularities of the movements of Heaven and Earth.