Why Taiji?

Why Taiji?

Taiji began with a wish to help my children explore their Chinese heritage. Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas became a translation project, a collection of extraordinary beings, and eventually a trading card game.

Its name reflects the idea that drew these threads together: how something full of possibility can take form.

A game for my son

When my wife was pregnant with our first son, I had already lived in China for thirteen years. Yet the thought of becoming a father made me realise how much I still had to learn. One day, my son would have questions about his heritage, and I wanted to be able to explore those questions with him.

So I began reading.

That was how I discovered the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the 山海经. I fell in love with its strange creatures, its landscapes, and the glimpses it offered into how people long ago imagined and understood their world.

Seeing how games such as Pokémon captured children’s imaginations, I had a simple thought: perhaps I could make a game for my son using the extraordinary beings I was discovering in these pages.

I thought it would take a few months. It became a project that would shape the next ten years of my life.

From an ancient text to a card game

I worked through the entire text, translating it into English and cataloguing its creatures. English translations already existed, but I wanted to understand the wording for myself and find a way to convey what fascinated me about it. My translation is still under review, and I continue to refine its wording and interpretation.

The closer I looked, the larger the project became. If I included the creatures, why leave out the humans? And if the humans belonged, surely the plants, the places, and the mountain deities belonged too.

Each addition gave me another reason to return to the text. Gradually, that research grew into a collection of 875 distinct cards and a two-player trading card game.

What began as a game for my family became a way of sharing something I had come to care about deeply. The cards could give players a first encounter with these beings; the text could take them further into the world behind them.

Why the name Taiji?

Alongside the Classic of Mountains and Seas, I was reading the I Ching and exploring other Chinese philosophical and mythological traditions. Many stories and ideas stayed with me, but I kept returning to questions of beginnings: how things take form, how differences emerge, and how a world of extraordinary complexity can unfold.

易有太极，是生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦。

In the I Ching’s Great Commentary, we find this passage. It describes Taiji giving rise to the two modes, then the four images, and then the eight trigrams. What moves me is that unfolding: each stage opening the possibility of another.

Source: I Ching · Xici I, section 11

Centuries later, the Song dynasty thinker Zhōu Dūnyí opened his Explanation of the Taiji Diagram with 无极而太极—often translated as “Non-polar and yet Supreme Polarity.” His wording brings Wújí and Taiji together in a relationship more subtle than a simple sequence in which one exists first and then creates the other.

Source: Zhōu Dūnyí · Tàijítú shuō, translated by Joseph Adler

Wújí can suggest what is unlimited or without boundary. What it came to mean to me, personally, was unlimited potential: the possibility of everything that might take shape. That is my own response to the idea, rather than a literal translation, but it continues to fascinate me.

Further reading: Joseph Adler · Wújí and Taiji

I chose the name Taiji because that sense of unfolding resonated with the project itself. A wish to make something for my child became years of study. That study became a translation, a catalogue, and a game.

Now, I hope the game can become the beginning of someone else’s curiosity.

A beginning for others

Taiji: Mountains & Seas is where that ambition begins. Its first print, Genesis Edition (创世版), introduces decks built around Zhù Róng, the deity of fire, and Gòng Gōng, the deity of water.

In time, I hope to explore more Chinese stories and traditions, from Chang’e and Caishen to Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West. Each deserves its own care and attention. There is enough here for a lifetime of discovery.

At the heart of it all are my children. I want them to feel proud of both sides of their heritage and to have the curiosity and confidence to explore them.

My research into games and cultural learning has also helped me see a wider possibility. A game can give someone a reason to ask about a creature, a story, or a belief they have never encountered before. I hope Taiji can offer that first encounter to many more people.

Understanding another culture takes time. My own experience has taught me that. But curiosity gives us somewhere to begin, and learning can deepen into empathy and respect.

I began Taiji because I wanted to help my son explore part of his heritage. In doing so, I discovered how much I still had to learn.

I hope the game gives others that same reason to be curious—to encounter an unfamiliar creature, ask about its story, and discover something beyond the cards.

Explore the Classic of Mountains and Seas · Discover the cards