With these words, Lao-Tzu (about 571–471 B.C.), the greatest Taoist philosopher and author of the Daodejing (道德經), echoes in principle a comprehensive statement about what is the ideal self state derived from the I-Ching (Anagarika, 1981; Cleary, 1986; Chia and Huang, 2005; Shiah, 2021). Taoism is grounded on the premise that one’s self and Heaven come from the same source, Tao, which refers to the universal law of everything in the world (Cleary, 1986, 1993; Xu et al., 2019) and manifests as the continuous alternation between the operations of Yin and Yang (一陰一陽之謂道) (I-Ching, The Great Appendix I, Chapter 24). The I-Ching (Book of Changes) describes Heaven’s rule of change, the most fundamental wisdom in Taoism (Xu et al., 2019).

The I-Ching was written by three important authors in different periods of Chinese history. It is said that in ancient times a horse covered with graphics and a turtle carved with characters on its shell were found in the Yellow River. The first edition of the book, which describes the first, primordial eight trigrams (先天八卦, xian-tian ba-gua), was allegedly written by Fu-Xi (伏羲) ca. 2800 to 2737 B.C. It is claimed that the last eight trigrams (後天八卦) were created by King Wen of the Zhou dynasty (周文王), who ruled China from 1112 to 1050 B.C. and extended the eight trigrams to 64 pairwise permutations of trigrams. It is said that Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 B.C., added 10 annotated supplements (十翼) and a series of commentaries on the I-Ching. These works transformed the I-Ching from a divinatory system into a classic of Confucian and Taoist culture, cosmology, ethics, and morality. Each of the 64 pairwise permutations of trigrams represents a situation or state of affairs that an individual may encounter in his/her lifetime. The “famous teaching words,” which one consults to interpret the divinatory trigrams written by Confucius and his disciples, always advise that the best way to attain good fortune and to avoid misfortune (趨吉避凶) is to try one’s best to become a jun-zi (君子) and not a xiao-ren (小人). The teachings were habitually practiced by Confucianists and Taoists for self-cultivation. The cosmology described in this most important ancient Chinese book provides not only the metaphysical foundation of traditional Chinese culture, but also the basis for later Chinese medicine, I-Ching divination, Feng Shui, and Chinese astrology.

In order to initiate a scientific revolution against Western mainstream psychological theories constructed on the basis of Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) values (Joseph et al., 2010), Hwang (2019, 2023) proposed an epistemological strategy for constructing culture-inclusive theories with the aim to transform a cultural system into a set of psychological theories. Following the principle of cultural psychology “one mind, many mentalities” (Shweder et al., 1998, p. 871), Hwang’s (2015) cultural system approach argues that the deep structures and functions of human beings are the same across all cultures, but the mentalities developed in different ways in accordance with their respective cultures for the sake of adjustment to one’s lifeworld. His epistemological strategy includes two successive steps (Hwang, 2019). The first step is to develop formal theoretical models on self and social interaction. The second step is to use these formal models to analyze a given cultural system.

Because the I-Ching is the metaphysical foundation of the two major cultural heritages in China, Confucianism and Taoism, our main purpose in this article is to use Hwang’s epistemological strategy to construct the Jun-zi Self-Cultivation Model (JSM), based on the core wisdom of the I-Ching. Because the I-Ching and Daodejing are the earliest and most important classics in China. They have been interpreted and re-interpreted by numerous later philosophers, whose works can be conceptualized as examples of morphogenesis derived from the Daodejing and I-Ching.

There are currently four Tai-Chi-related models. The Wang team developed two of these models, which are similar to each other. The first of these is the Tai-Chi Model of the Confucian Self (Wang et al., 2019); the second is the Tai-Chi Model of the Taoist self and Buddhist self (Wang and Wang, 2020). In the first model, Yin represents the “small self,” the small, narrow, and dark self that serves the interests of the minority (in group). Yang represents the “large self,” the big, broad, and bright self that serves the interests of the majority (out group) (Wang et al., 2019).

The second Wang model has two sub-models. The first sub-model is the Tai-Chi Model of Taoist Self. Yin represents the “soft self,” which Wang et al. (2019) define as having the traits of self-reflection on “softness,” weakness, emptiness, simplicity, non-doing, and nature. Yang represents the “hard self,” which they define as having the traits of self-reflection on “hardness,” fullness, complexity, action, and artificiality. In the second sub-model, the Tai-Chi Model of Buddhist Self, Yin represents the “dusty self,” which they characterize as self-clinging to the five root annoyances or poisons (kleshas): self-ignorance (avidya), self-attachment (raga), self-aversion (dvesha), self-pride (mâna), and doubting Buddhist wisdom. Yang also introduces the “pure self,” the non-self (anatman or nir-atman) or the non-polluted and untroubled nature of reality (Wang and Wang, 2020).

The third Tai-Chi model is the Virtue Existential Career Model (VECM), developed by Liu et al. (2016). Based on the Yin-Yang concept, their secular counseling goal is to help people have a life based on the wisdom of the I-Ching. Yin represents receptivity and Yang represents creativity. Though Yin and Yang are considered as the opposite ends of a continuum, they fluctuate in terms of mutual completion and enhancement, generation by opposition, and joint production.

Fourthly, the initial I-Ching framework was developed and written in Chinese and is known as the Inward Multilayer-Stereo Mandala Model of the Unity of the Self and Heaven (IMMUSH) (Xu et al., 2019). This four-level model was fully based on I-Ching in a systematical manner adopting the Hwang’s epistemological strategy. But this model fails to explain how Yin and Yang, the well-known Tai-Chi symbols, are transformed into the unity of the self and Heaven, that is equivalent to Tai-Chi self (Xu et al., 2019).

These four previous Tai-Chi models draw heavily on the core concepts of Yang and Yin. Yin and Yang are opposite forces in the universe, but paradoxically they also are complementary, inter-connected, and interdependent. Each gives rise to the other as it interacts with it (Liu et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2019). According to the I-Ching, the distinction between Yin and Yang, as is true for other such dichotomies, is not real. The duality of Yin and Yang, as well as the opposite selves they represent, are an indivisible whole (Jung, 1973; Anagarika, 1981). According to the I-Ching, the core wisdom of Heaven’s rule is that the one generates two forms, then the two forms generate four images, and the four images generate the eight trigrams. The eight trigrams are symbolic representations of eight phenomena in nature (Xu et al., 2019). The 64 types of situations encountered by the self are represented by the 64 pairwise permutations of the eight trigrams, called the hexagram. This core wisdom is a kind of holistic knowledge of the formation and operation of all things in the universe (Anagarika, 1981). However, the four models all share a common weakness. These Yang and Ying concepts together form what has been calledcalled a “root metaphor” (Anagarika, 1981; Liu, 2013), which can be used to represent many dichotomies such as heaven/earth, male/female, day/night, and bright/dark. Such an ambiguous construct as root metaphor can hardly be used to develop a scientific theory (Hwang, 2013). Moreover, the four models fail to explain how the concept of Tai-Chi evolved over time or to provide a systematic explanation of how a comprehensive I-Ching model works.

Accordingly, there is a gap between the I-Ching cultural system and psychology. To fill in this gap, our epistemological strategy was to use a formal model of the self to analyze Confucian commentaries on the I-Ching with a view to constructing a culture-inclusive theory of psychology. This strategy required us to pay more attention to the internal mechanism of the I-Ching while heavily drawing on accounts of the self-cultivation process for becoming a jun-zi.

The rest of article consists of four sections. The first section introduces the evolution of the I-Ching in Chinese history. In the second section, we describe the formal Mandela Model of Self (MMS), which we used to analyze the concept of jun-zi. In the third section, we present the JSM and compare various aspects of the psychological functioning of egoism with that of the jun-zi self and describe their respective underlying processes. Finally, potential theoretical directions, clinical applications, and suggestions for further research are provided in the conclusion section.

To fill the gap left by the four previous Tai-Chi models, we present in this article the jun-zi Model of Self (JMS) based on teachings from the I-Ching and Daodejing. In recent decades, an increasing number of psychotherapists, counselors, and mental health workers began to pay attention to the value of traditional oriental classic texts about psychological healing (Cleary, 1993; Hwang, 2009; Wong and Liu, 2018). For instance, Chinese Taoist Cognitive Psychotherapy (CTCP) (Zhang et al., 2002) and Taoist Psychotherapy (Hwang, 2009; Shiah, 2021) adopt Taoist wisdom for instruction in psychotherapy. Although the JSM framework proposed in the present paper is still in its infancy, it was constructed on the very robust foundation of Taoist teachings and practices that have been applied for more than 4,800 years. Thus, Taoist practices may help people to reach their full human potential by accommodating their suffering and psychological illnesses to daily life. The JSM is a comprehensive model for self-cultivation that suggests many avenues for further investigation. Firstly, it offers a new perspective on humanity that differs from the Western conceptualization of personality, which emphasizes the satisfaction of the individual’s desires. Secondly, future research is needed to develop a psychometrically sound scale to measure the JSM and to explore the role of the JSM in the promotion of mental health. Lastly, the JSM was developed in a stepwise fashion.

More studies are needed to support this approach so as to elucidate the related social behavior. We hope that ordinary people will employ the JSM to improve their long-term mental health and wellbeing.

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

JX and Y-JS wrote the first draft. N-SC and Y-FH contributed to writing the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.