Li
理 (lǐ)
The "principle" of the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism: the intelligible order, the structure or reason that makes each thing what it is. Prior to any form, *li* is that by which things exist; it stands in contrast to—and yet unites with—the breath or material force, *qi*, through which they take shape. In Zhu Xi, principle and material force never truly separate in reality, but must be distinguished in thought: one is the law of being, the other the instrument. (*Not to be confused with the *li* 禮 of rites; Confucianism has no distinct entry in the nomenclature: this term is classified as cross-cutting.*)
Throughout the universe there are both principle and material force. Principle refers to the Way, which exists before physical form [and is without it] and is the root from which all things are produced. Material force refers to material objects, which exists after physical form [and is with it]; it is the instrument by which things are produced.
« Throughout the universe, both principle and material force exist. » With this statement, Zhu Xi establishes the two poles of his entire metaphysics. Li (理), the principle, “refers to the Way, which exists prior to physical form and is the root from which all things are produced”; qi, by contrast, is the material instrument through which they take shape.
Originally, the term li denoted the veins in jade or the grain in wood: an order one follows rather than imposes. As a central concept of the Cheng-Zhu school, it names the intelligible structure of each thing—its true nature, as Zhu Xi puts it, “real and concrete,” ≠ the Buddhist void. Before things exist, their principle of being already exists; yet principle alone, without qi, would have nowhere to reside: “there is no principle except insofar as there is material force for it to lodge in.”
Hence a distinction that is never a separation. Viewed from the standpoint of things, principle and qi “are fused together”; viewed from the standpoint of principle, one precedes the other. Holding both ends together—neither confusing nor severing them—is, Zhu Xi says, “to be free from error.” Moreover, principle links humanity to the cosmos: the same law that orders the heavens orders human nature, a pledge of the unity of all beings.
Li is not qi, which is manifold, transient, and mixed with good and evil: principle is one, eternal, and always good. Nor is it a law imposed from without by an ordering deity; rather, it is the immanent order each thing bears as its own reason for being.