Chapter 58 Section 4 The Formation of Heaven and Earth and the Reincarnation of the Universe

In ancient China, there were many conjectures about the reasons for the formation of heaven and earth. The earliest one can be found in "Huainanzi·Tianwen Xun".It said: Before the heaven and the earth were formed, there was a void, so it was called Taishi.In that void the Tao begins to form.With the Dao, the void can generate the universe, and the universe can generate vitality.The light vitality rubs against each other, upwards to become the sky.The turbid vitality gradually solidifies and descends to become the earth.When yang energy accumulates for a long time, it becomes fire, and the essence of fire becomes the sun.Yin Qi accumulates for a long time to form water, and the essence of water becomes the moon.The excess energy of the sun and moon become stars.This kind of conjecture first became popular with Gaitian theory, and later was used by Zhang Heng of the Huntian family, who only changed the saying of Gaitian's family that heaven is above and earth below is "Tiancheng is in the outer place and is in the interior".

Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty developed this conjecture.He believes that when the world first opened, there were only two qi, yin and yang.The two gases run alternately and rub against each other, depositing a lot of dross, which condenses in the center to form the earth.The lighter part of the air rises to form the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars.These celestial bodies orbit outside the earth, while the earth is at rest in the center.Although there are elements close to reality, it is only Zhu Xi who realized it through pure speculation, which is fundamentally different from Kant's celestial evolution theory in the West.

Due to visual observation, the ancients' understanding of the universe was limited to the solar system, but this did not prevent their thinking from going beyond this scope.In the Southern Song Dynasty, Deng Mu said in "Bo Yaqin · Transcendence Viewing Records": "The heaven and the earth are so big, they are only a grain of ear in the void... It is impossible to say that there is no heaven and earth outside of the sky and the earth." Deng Mu has learned from philosophy. From the perspective, it is inferred that there is space beyond the solar system, and there are groups of celestial bodies similar to the solar system.

Once the celestial bodies are formed, will they no longer change?Buddhism, which was introduced to China from India, divides the universe into four stages: creation, stability, destruction, and extinction, and believes that the universe will be recreated after its extinction.This Buddhist idea of ​​cosmic reincarnation has a wide influence in China.Shao Yong of the Northern Song Dynasty even "calculated" that the universe reincarnates every 129,600 years.Zhu Xi also used the clamshell fossils in the mountain rocks as evidence of the destruction and reconstruction of the world.Modern astronomical observations have confirmed that all kinds of celestial bodies will experience the process of explosion, destruction and regeneration.But the clam shell fossils on the mountain are caused by the crustal reconstruction movement.