Abstract
Interpretation of early Chinese cosmological texts, including the excavated ones, is often distorted through the application of metaphysical models that are not relevant to them. When the texts speak about the One giving birth to a multiplicity of things, the One is usually understood vaguely as the first principle or the first stage of the creation of the cosmos. Yet, this model sees the One as a primary entity that splits up into multiple things and sacrifices its oneness in the process of creation. The model thus contradicts the texts that describe the One as being constantly present throughout the process of differentiation, and encourage the reader to 'embrace the One', 'to become One', in order to align with the greater cosmic process.
Whitehead's process ontology provides an efficient conceptual apparatus to interpret the One-Many relation in terms of continuous becoming. It regards oneness as a necessary condition for multiplicity, and multiplicity as the result of an act of retention, i.e., the capacity to hold multiple facts in one prehension. It allows us to reinterpret the One as a creative, self-perpetuating subject manifested as an actual plurality, while continuously synthesizing the unity of self-experience. Through Whiteheadian lenses, the cosmological dynamics between One and Many in early Chinese texts becomes clearer, including its interconnectedness with the problem of subjectivity and human agency.