is the fundamental unity of the Chinese literati, the absolute, or, literally, the "great extreme." Beyond this, they allege, no human thought can soar. Itself incomprehensible, it girdles the whole frame of nature, animate and inanimate. From it alone, as from the fountain-head of nature issued everything that is. Creation is the periodic flowing forth of it. Tae-Keih is identical with Le, the immaterial element of the universe.