In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no time, and no space. This is called 无极 (wújí).

In naming wújí, nothing becomes something. Infinite possibilities burst through. Thus arose from wújí, 太极 (tàijí).

Tàijí is a state of being of the cosmos that arose from the nothingness called wújí. It is a store of infinite possibilities. Of things that have yet to come and of events that have yet to happen. But still there is no time, for time exists only where events exist. And there are no events, save the emergence of tàijí. Presently, tàijí takes the form of an egg.

A chaotic swirling cacophony of probabilities of events reside within the egg. All things are possible. All things possible are jealously guarded by and dictated by the fields of probability. The fields of probability, though to an outsider appear to be continuous are in fact discrete quantums of probabilities. They lie motionless in the egg called tàijí.

The ultimate existence of tàijí is soon to be shattered. By first an act of observation of the reader, the fields of probabilities start to collapse, one by one. Quanta of probability fields coalesced into computable, representable states. The first elementary particle was born. It’s called 盘古 (pángǔ).

Pángǔ’s birth is the joint probability of existence within the universe. This joint probabilities form a network of interactions. There are an infinite such interactions, rolled into a loop. There are an infinite number of such infinite loops.

Then space popped into existence, made up of a fine mesh of these infinite loops. The emergence of space was an event, therefore, when space popped into existence, so did time. Time began, as did space. Considered individually, time and space are a duality, called 阴 (yīn) and 阳 (yáng). Considered together, time and space form a four-dimensional plane of existence, the surface upon which we live to this day. This quadality is called 四象 (sì xiàng).

And thus, from the nullity called wújí was born the unity, tàijí. And from the unity tàijí was born the duality yīnyáng. From the duality, the quadality sìxiàng was born. This is the world we live upon.

In later times, the story of Pángǔ will be retold as follows:

In the beginnning, there was nothing. Then there was an egg. Within the egg formed a giant called Pángǔ. Upon reaching maturity, Pángǔ hatched out from the egg, splitting the egg into two: the heavens and the Earth. As Pángǔ woke up and stretched, the cardinal directions form, forming a primordial version of the world we know today.