Taiyi Shengshui

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Tàiyī Shēngshǔi (太一生水, literally "Great One Birthing Water") was written about 300 BC during the Warring States period.

It is a Taoist creation mythology. The opening lines are:

太一生水 水反輔大一， 是以成天。[地] 天地...也， 是以成神明。 神明復相輔也， 是以成陰陽。
The Great One Gave Birth to Water. Water returned and assisted The Great One ("Taiyi" [Dao?]), in this way developing heaven [and Earth?]. Heaven and earth [repeatedly assisted each other?], in this way developing the "gods above and below". The "gods above and below" repeatedly assisted each other, in this way developing Yin and Yang.

Commentators describe Taiyi as a representation of Heaven (Legge), an impersonal "Watery Chaos" (Khung Yingta). At least one scholar (Medhurst) interprets this as the "Supreme One", possibly Shangdi.

The Taiyi Shengshui was written on 14 bamboo strips in the Chu script. It was discovered in 1993 in Hubei, Jingmen. It is part of the Guodian Chu Slips (郭店楚簡).

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