the active principle and associations, while matter = the passive principle and associations. These are not necessarily in opposition but are complementary, and the multiple forces go to make up all of matter and the behavior of matter under certain conditions. The relativity is implied by the terms yin and yang, as Capra explains: "The original meaning of the words yin and yang was that of the shady and sunny sides of a mountain, a meaning which gives a good idea of the relativity of the two concepts. . . . The interplay of yin and yang, the primordial pair of opposites, appears thus as the principle that guides all the movements of the Tao" (Capra, 96-98).
According to the I Ching, there are eight fundamental particles or elements of the universe that go to make up all of matter, or Nature, as Laotse describes it. These physical forces, the total of active and passive combinations of pairs, comprise the building blocks of phenomenal reality. The forces are represented by trigrams in every possible combination. The trigrams are a species of Chinese ideograms, with
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