First, we are not talking about Li-chee Garden, a famous Chinese restaurant in Toronto. We are just talking about Chu Hsi's Li-Ch'i universe and its URAM for the postmodern world. Indeed, the author can only present a summary of the paper here; otherwise, he can no longer take this paper to the URAM Conference or for any publication.

The postmodern world today is overwhelmed by anarchic relativism. It may be described as a world of fast-changing energies without unchanging universals or forms. Many people in this generation no longer believe in the real existence of any definitive set of eternal, everlasting laws, principles, forms or universals. There is nothing acknowledged as absolute or universal in the formation of conscience or the understanding of the ultimate reality and meaning of life. This is reflected in the inconsistencies and changeableness of law making everywhere. The present paper, then, is an attempt to deal with an aspect or two of this postmodern problem.

Li in Chinese means "principle, law, reason, or universal of some kind". To Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the Neo-Confucianist who revived Confucianism and extended its influence over China, Japan and Korea for several centuries, Li is universal, immaterial, timeless, uncreated, and mind-independent. Accordingly, Li necessarily exists eternally even if there were no mind to be aware of it. On the other hand, Ch'i simply means "energy, or material force". Chu Hsi's universe is a universe of material Ch'i or energy permeated through and through by immaterial Li, or T'ai Chi (Li of Lis). Chu Hsi even taught that every thing or particle in the universe is permeated by the whole of T'ai Chi which he portrayed as Jen (Humanity or Love), the guiding principle of all things. Indeed, T'ai Chi had gone through many different versions of interpretation before Chu Hsi, maintained both by classical Confucianists and those Taoists with a superstitious favour. It was Chu Hsi who finally elevated the term T'ai Chi to its most positive and ethical rendition.

At the same time, to many people in the postmodern world today, the universe is just a universe of energy or Ch'i without any permeation by any real, eternal, mind-independent Li. Every particle or thing in the universe is neither permeated by any timeless T'ai Chi, Li of Lis, Jen, or Love. Carl Sagan, world-renowned astrophysicist and postmodern cultural icon, pronounced: "The [material] Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." If so, the universe that we live in is without any absolute, timeless, and mind-independent ethical foundation. Hence, "cultural relativism can lead to ethical relativism, which can itself slide into ethical skepticism, and fall finally into deeply worrying ethical nihilism" (Robinson and Groves 2000, Introducing Plato, p. 40). This is so because the universe is simply a universe of Ch'i without any Li. Subsequently, humans become the measure of all things, as characteristic of the Canadian Charters of Rights and Freedom in which all ethical principles and universals are mind-dependent, i.e., human-dependent. "Universals are in the mind in a private sense, such that if there were no minds, there could be no universals, in the same way as there could be no thoughts or imagery or memories or dreams" (A. D. Woozley, Universals, in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, v.8, 1967, p. 195). As we have seen, from such a human-mind-dependent platform, all kinds of weird laws have evolved and been legalized, in utter defiance of God's uncreated, eternal, and mind-independent principles, laws, or universals. What a human-made tragedy it is!

As never before, what the postmodern world needs, therefore, is the conviction, belief, or spiritual common sense that some uncreated, timeless and mind-independent universals or Lis do exist. Chu Hsi has provided us here with a model of thinking which can serve as a reminder or catalyst. Accordingly, it can help us discover or re-discover the superabundant richness of our Christian tradition, in particular that of Eastern Orthodoxy. As Christians in the West, we have always believed that God's nature and omnipresence have somehow permeated the whole universe through and through. However, such a plausible permeation mentality appears to have been quickly diminished or dissipated by our traditional dualistic "being or block mentality" in which we view our universe as belonging to two storeys, one supernatural or transcendent, and the other natural or immanent. These two dimensions of the universe thus do not mix or interpenetrate one another. And after Kant (1724-1804) and his scientism (i.e., natural science is the measure of all things), we even have learned to explain away the real existence of the supernatural or uncreated dimension of the universe in the name of natural science. Most certainly, it is about time for us to re-discover the mystery of God's omnipresence which seems best explained in terms of the Eastern Orthodox concept of God's Uncreated Energy.

In the final analysis, Uncreated Universals are simply the uncreated principles or Lis according to which Uncreated Energies eternally move, act, or behave. Just as Li and Ch'i are inseparable, God's eternal Uncreated Energies and their eternal Uncreated Universals are impossible to be separated. Uncreated Universals or Laws which permeate the whole creation are the uncreated guiding principles not only of God's Uncreated Energies, but also of all human behaviours. Similar to what Chu Hsi said about the principal character of Lis as Jen or Love, the Uncreated Universals of God's Uncreated Energies are characterized above all by the Love of God, as God is Love.

Further, just as Chu Hsi indicated that these Uncreated Universals can be discovered in the Four Books of China, we Christians believe that they can be discovered even more clearly and abundantly in the divinely revealed Word of God, in particular in the Four Gospels. Indeed, the Lord of Heaven and earth solemnly states: "Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will never pass away" (Mk 13:31). St. Paul, too, seems to be talking to the postmodern world: "To have your mind controlled by human nature results in death; to have your mind controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace. And so a man becomes an enemy of God when his mind is controlled by human nature; for he does not obey God's law, and in fact he cannot obey it. Those who obey their human nature cannot please God. For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if, by the Spirit, you put to death to the deeds of the body, you will live." (Rom 8: 6-8,13)

* True natural revelation (such as one find in Chu Hsi) and true Supernatural Revelation (such as one find in the Bible) should complement each another in a greater harmony, as one is indirectly (naturally) and the other one is directly (supernaturally) given by God, without Whom nothing genuinely revelatory is possible. Having summed up the above, we can now go to Li-chee Garden. Alleluia!