Li1 Chinese term meaning ‘pattern’, ‘principle’, ‘good order’, ‘inherent order’, or ‘to put in order’. During the Han dynasty, li described not only the pattern of a given thing, event, or process, but the underlying grand pattern of everything, the deep structure of the cosmos. Later, Hua-yen Buddhists, working from the Mahayana doctrine that all things are conditioned and related through past causal relationships, claimed that each thing reflects the li of all things. This influenced Neo-Confucians, who developed a metaphysics of li and ch’i (ether), in which all things possess all li (and hence they are ‘one’ in some deep sense), but because of the differing quality of their ch’i, things manifest different and distinct characteristics. The hsin (heart/mind) contains all li (some insist it is li) but is obscured by ‘impure’ ch’i; hence we understand some things and can learn others. Through self-cultivation, one can purify one’s ch’i and achieve complete and perfect understanding. See also NEO-CONFUCIANISM , TAO- IS. P.J.I.