The four minimal commitments Thuyết Thái Cực Vạn Vật asks you to accept. Everything else — particles, forces, dark matter, the Bagua, life — is derivation. The 3D visualizations on the /cosmos page show every axiom in action.
A good cosmology should not need many axioms. Thuyết Thái Cực Vạn Vật needs four — small enough to memorise in one breath, strong enough to derive every phenomenon physics has measured plus several it has not yet learned to measure. Each axiom below is summarised, then explained, then linked to the matching visualization mode on the interactive cosmos page.
📘 The canonical definitions of every term used here — node, flip, spin, phase, time-string, membrane, edge of time — live on Definitions — The Canonical Reference. If anything below feels unclear, that page is the authoritative glossary.
A1 — One Tai Chi
Axiom 1. There exists exactly one primordial Tai Chi node. It has finite size, contains two co-existing poles (Yin and Yang), and is wrapped in a thin two-faced membrane. From this single object every other thing in the universe is descended by subdivision.
What it commits us to. The universe is not assembled out of pre-existing particles in pre-existing space. It is grown from one ancestor. "Why is there something rather than nothing?" has a deflationary answer in this framework: there has always been the One, and the question's premise (a possible state of nothing) was never available. The One does not need a creator, a quantum fluctuation, or a void to emerge from — it simply is.
What it rules out. No singularity (zero size, infinite density) — the One has finite extent. No void (true emptiness) — even "empty" space is the membrane in its Yin face. No dualism (mind separate from matter, time separate from space) — there is one substance, one geometry. The Big Bang, in our reading, is not the origin of the universe but the most violent epoch of subdivision in the history of the One. See No Big Bang from Nothing.
⚛︎ The primordial Tai Chi node
The primordial Tai Chi node
The One Tai Chi node — finite, structured, alive with two motions. Open on /cosmos for full controls.
A2 — Two motions: Flip and Spin
Axiom 2. Every Tai Chi node performs exactly two motions, simultaneously and continuously: a flip of the membrane (Yin face ↔ Yang face) and a spin of the two poles around an internal axis. There is no third motion. Every dynamical phenomenon in the universe — from light to mass to consciousness — is a particular ratio of these two.
A2.1 — Flip (Lật) — what it actually does
A flip is not a rotation of the node and not a swap of the poles' positions. It is a phase oscillation of the membrane that wraps the node — at every instant, one face of the membrane is exposed, and the flip is the periodic transition between which face that is. From outside the node, this looks like the membrane brightening (Yang exposed, white face out) and darkening (Yin exposed, dark face out) in a regular cycle.
Where it happens
On the outer membrane (the edge of time), not in the node's interior.
Direction
Propagates along the time-string — flipping at one position triggers flipping at the neighbour. The wave of flip-changes moves along the edge.
Speed
Always at c — the membrane's intrinsic update rate.
Quantum size
One elementary flip carries energy hν. Energy quantization is automatic.
What pure flipping looks like
A photon — propagating wave on the membrane, no rest mass, no internal axis to spin around. In /cosmos this is the "Photon · Ánh sáng" mode under the Tai Chi sub-views.
⚛︎ Flip motion
Flip motion
Pure flipping — the membrane swaps white ↔ dark, propagating along the string. Open /cosmos → Tai Chi → Photon to see this in 3D.
A2.2 — Spin (Xoay) — what it actually does
A spin is the physical rotation of the node's two poles around its internal axis. Unlike the flip, which propagates along the edge of time, a spin stays in place — the node turns where it sits, carrying both poles around with it. Imagine a small sphere with one bright (Cực Dương / white) endpoint and one dark (Cực Âm / gray) endpoint, with a faint connecting line through the centre as the spin axis. The whole assembly rotates; the poles physically exchange positions every half-rotation.
Where it happens
Inside the node, around an internal axis. The poles swap places every 180° of rotation.
Direction
Does not propagate. Spin stays at the node's location. It can wobble (precess) and re-orient, but it does not travel.
Why 720° for fermions
Both poles must each pass through every angle to restore the membrane orientation. Yang takes 360°, Yin takes another 360° — total 720° per full cycle. This is the geometric origin of half-integer spin.
What pure spinning produces
Bound rotational kinetic energy with no propagation — what we measure as rest mass and inertia. A pure-spin node is a closed loop of spin-energy that refuses to leave its location.
What pure spin looks like in 3D
Two poles rotating around the node's axis with no flip propagation. In /cosmos this is the "Hạt vật chất · Matter" mode, where the closed-string trace shows the locked-in spin loop. The "3D Cặp" and "3D Hào quang" modes show the same poles with different membrane glow.
⚛︎ Spin motion
Spin motion
Pure spinning — the two poles rotate in place around the internal axis, producing rest mass. /cosmos → Tai Chi → 3D Pair / 3D Halo / Matter shows the same motion under different shaders.
A2.3 — Why every real particle does both
Pure flip and pure spin are idealisations. Every particle we have ever observed performs both motions at once, in some specific ratio:
Photon
≈ 100% flip, ~0% spin → massless, propagates at c, spin-1 (the small spin reflects polarisation, not internal mass-rotation).
Electron
Strong flip + strong spin, balanced. Charge from the flip, mass from the spin, spin-1/2 from the two-pole geometry.
Quark
Heavier spin than electron + strong-force phase-locking with neighbours. Mass mostly from binding rather than the bare spin.
Neutrino
Almost-pure spin with minimal flip → tiny mass, weak coupling, hardly interacts with anything else.
Hypothetical graviton
Pure flip on a closed-loop pattern that wraps twice through the membrane → spin-2, massless, mediates gravity.
A3 — Subdivision (the binary engine)
Axiom 3. A sufficiently excited Tai Chi node may divide into two child nodes — never three, never four, only two. Each child preserves the full Yin-Yang structure of the parent: its own membrane patch, its own flip, its own spin. Subdivision is recursive: each child can divide again. The progression 1→2→4→8→…→2k is what the universe is doing over time.
Why two and not three? Because a Tai Chi node has exactly two poles. When the node splits, one child takes the Yang heritage, the other takes the Yin heritage. There is no third pole, so there can be no third child. This single fact is what forces every binary structure in nature: spin up/down, charge ±, matter/antimatter, DNA's double helix, base-2 computing, the 8 trigrams, the 64 hexagrams, the 64 codons. All of it is the One Tai Chi binary-dividing.
The arrow of time IS the direction of subdivision. As the One divides, the count of distinct phase-configurations grows; entropy grows; the universe expands. Subdivision is one-way (it is geometrically much easier than its inverse — see The Arrow of Time). Cosmic expansion, dark-energy acceleration, and the felt direction of time are three views of the same fact: the One keeps dividing.
⚛︎ Recursive subdivision
Recursive subdivision
Recursive subdivision — drag the slider to advance generations. After 300 generations, $2^{300} \sim 10^{90}$ nodes, comfortably enough to populate the observable universe.
A4 — Eight stable cross-sections (the Bagua)
Axiom 4. When the time-string is sliced perpendicular to its length, only eight angular cross-sections are phase-coherent and stable — the eight trigrams of the I Ching: Càn ☰, Đoài ☱, Ly ☲, Chấn ☳, Tốn ☴, Khảm ☵, Cấn ☶, Khôn ☷. Each is a complete 3D world from inside. We live in the Càn slice. The other seven are real, present, and influence ours through gravity, entanglement, and felt resonance.
Mathematically there are infinitely many possible angles around the time-string's axis; physically, only the eight survive as stable phase-coherent slices. Three subdivision steps (1→2→4→8) saturate the angular freedom; further subdivision adds nodes within slices, not new slices. In /cosmos, the orbiting Bát Quái ring around the central sphere is the literal visualization of this axiom: eight trigrams, eight angles, one shared central Tai Chi.
⚛︎ Bagua wheel
Bagua wheel
The eight Bagua trigrams orbiting the central Tai Chi. Each is a stable 3D reality.
All four axioms in one sentence
One Tai Chi node, two motions (flip and spin) on one membrane, subdividing in binary along one time-string with eight stable cross-sections. From these four commitments — and only these four — every other claim in this wiki is derived.
Want to see them all in motion? Open the interactive cosmos. The default scene shows the One central Tai Chi node, its two motions (flip + spin) animated on the membrane, the time-string ribbon along the axis, and the eight Bagua slices orbiting around. Switch between the 3D Cặp, 3D Hào quang, 2D, Photon, and Hạt vật chất sub-views to see different ratios of flip-vs-spin in action — every one of them is a special case of these four axioms.
Comments — The Axioms