 In the context of Neo-Confucian philosophy, things can generally be recognized or understood through their basic structural principles. Just as dao in classical Daoist cosmogony represents the all-embracing fundamental law which manifests itself simultaneously within every single entity of being, the Neo-Confucian li expresses itself on both, the level of cosmic unity, as well as on the level of its concrete manifestations. The nature of li is thus both holistic and binary, transcendent and immanent. According to this new aspect of being, knowledge can only be achieved by following these principles of the external world.