 Dai Zhen, as we have seen, contended that everything had its principle, which varied in accordance with the thing itself. Universality was broken into particularities, such that principle (li) was the “inner texture of things” (tiaoli), the organizational pattern and textural configuration of the psycho-physical force (qi), manifested as “living, drinking, eating, talking and acting” (Dai MZZYSZ: 110–113). Dai questioned the notion of an essential principle invariant through time through his idea of “expedient weighing of circumstances” (quan), associated with the idea of change (bian): 