Li-ch’i technical term in Chinese Neo-Confucianism primarily used in the context of speculative cosmology, metaphysics, and ontology for accounting for changing phenomena and their ethical significance. Li is often rendered as ‘principle’, ‘order’, ‘pattern’, or ‘reason’; ch’i as ‘material force’, ‘ether’, or ‘energy’. Recent Neo- Confucian scholarship provides no clear guide to the li-ch’i distinction. In ethical contexts, however, the distinction is used to explain the origin of human good and evil. In its pure state, ch’i is inseparable from li, in the sense of compliance with the Confucian ethical norm that can be reasonably justified. In its impure state, ch’i presumably explains the existence of human evils. This perplexing distinction remains a subject of scholarly inquiry. See also CH’I, LI1, NEO-CON- FUCIANIS. A.S.C.