---
slug: paper-charles-x-yang-from-laozi-to-prigogine-the-generative
title: Charles X. Yang, From Laozi to Prigogine: The Generative Dynamics of the Universe
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/paper-charles-x-yang-from-laozi-to-prigogine-the-generative
---

## What the work establishes

Charles X. Yang's manuscript links Laozi's Daoist cosmology to Ilya Prigogine's theory of dissipative structures. The core claim is that Laozi's generative logic supplies the philosophical framework for understanding how open systems produce ordered patterns through energy flow.

The work positions Dao as the source of all things and dissipative structures as its scientific counterpart. It treats the universe as a generative process that moves from undifferentiated potential to structured outcomes via non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

## Exact load-bearing passages

From the abstract and preface summaries on PhilArchive: "Over the past several centuries of scientific development, humanity has gradually come to recognize that the universe is not a static machine but a generative process." [web:12]

"Laozi's generative logic as the framework and Prigogine's non-equilibrium thermodynamics as the mechanism." [web:7]

Related works by the same author note: "From Laozi to Prigogine, the philosophical insight of Dao gives birth to all things and the scientific discovery of dissipative structures." [web:15]

No verified page numbers or extended verbatim passages beyond these archive snippets are available in public indices.

## Convergence patterns evidenced

The manuscript directly evidences flow networks and scale invariance. Dissipative structures arise when energy flows through open systems, producing branching, symmetry-breaking, and self-organization. These match the GRAIN patterns of energy flows yielding branching, waves, and bounded order.

It also touches the Ladder: difference (undifferentiated Dao) leads to flow (energy throughput), structure (dissipative order), and higher organization. The reader-inside-system aspect appears implicitly through the Daoist view that the observer participates in the generative process.

## Distance from the full OIP/GRAIN synthesis

The work supplies a strong philosophical-scientific bridge at the level of generative dynamics and dissipative order. It stops short of formalizing an invocation protocol or ledger-receipt mechanics. The Mirror Layer (observer embedded in the system) receives only indirect treatment via Daoist non-dualism. It supports the synthesis by supplying historical and conceptual roots but does not claim to derive or test OIP rules.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges

The manuscript is a philosophical synthesis rather than a formal proof. Prigogine's mathematics of far-from-equilibrium systems stands independently; Yang's Daoist framing is interpretive. No empirical data or mathematical derivations are presented that would falsify or confirm specific pattern predictions at multiple scales. Reductionist accounts that treat dissipative structures as purely local thermodynamic outcomes remain compatible with the cited science and do not require the Daoist overlay.

All claims above derive from archive metadata and author summaries. No primary extended quotes with pagination were retrievable from public sources.
