A methodology for the Integration of Ancient and Modern System Theories: The Portal for the 2000years old Taichi Yin-Yang System Theory

Abstract

System and control theories actually started thousands of years ago in many traditional cultures. In the Chinese culture, these theories appeared in many wellknown classics including the I Ching book of changes, Tao De Ching of Lao-Tsu's Toaism, the Ten Wings of Confucius's annotation on I Ching, Taichi classic of Taichi exercise, the Noble Eightfold Path meditation technique of Buddha, the Yellow Emperor's Medicine Classic of Traditional Chinese Medicine and more. These classics guided the development of culture until the end of the Qing dynasty where many wars were fought and people were confused with the sudden influence of western culture. Even the practitioners of Toaism, Confucius, Taichi exercise, meditation, and Traditional Chinese Medicine question the truthfulness of these ancient theories. And they tried to adopt modern scientific theories to replace the ancient ones. In the last few decades, some of the believers of the classics tried to illustrate these theories in terms of modern system and control theories. However, it is believed that the key essence of the link between the ancient and the modern theories are not clearly defined and illustrated. Without such a link, it is impossible for modern scientist to get the benefit of these ancient practical theories. A gateway or platform for the integration between these ancient theories and the integration with modern theories is urgently required. The integration of all theories in all areas, the search for "The Theory of Everything" is the hope of many leading scientists in different areas of research. It is believed that the essence of these ancient theories would be able to provide insights and new inspirations for the search of Unity of the universe. Our research has been concentrated on the search of this missing link. In these papers, we present the result of our research in developing an integrated presentation of these ancient theories in terms of modern system and control theories. The Good & Evil Yin-Yang chart has been developed for representing the state of the Taichi Yin Yang system. The generalization of these theories has been researched and a methodology has been developed for the integration of these ancient theories with modern scientific theories. This methodology enables the practical application of these ancient system and control theories in modern areas of interest, including areas in physical, social and biological sciences. We hope that modern professional engineers and scientists can be the witness of the scientific and logical foundation of these ancient system and control theories. They are hard science instead of just "interesting" abstract philosophies.