 In contrast to analytical Western concepts used in studying the natural world, including matter, material quality, motion, and change, Zhu Xi adopted a holistic approach to understanding the physical world and phenomena. He drew upon received notions of li (pattern) and qi (cosmic vapor) to describe and account for the material, dynamic, and formal features of perceived phenomena. Li (pattern) refer to the inner patterns of both interaction and identifying form. As noted, li are not general overarching principles, but inner patternings implicated in things and events, from the discernible textures—grains in wood, veins in leaves—to the postulated identifying forms, xing, of things. In terms of dynamic interaction, li structure the primal yin-yang intercourse as taiji, and the intercourse among the five phases as their constitutive identifying forms. Zhu thus conceived of the cosmos as emerging from incipient yin-yang interaction in the initially formless primal qi (yuanqi). Yin-yang interaction and further permutations give rise to the five phases, which bear the full range of material and perceptual qualities and whose interaction gives rise to heaven, earth, and the myriad things, i.e., the cosmos.