Editing Cosmos (section)

===Chinese view===

The Chinese{{who|date=January 2023}} had multiple theories of the processes and components of the cosmos. The most popular of these beliefs was the Xuan Ye theory, the astronomical view of the cosmos as an infinite space with floating pieces of condensed vapor.<ref name=":0" /> The Chinese believed that the Earth consisted of condensed [[Yin and yang|''yin'']] and the heavens of [[Yin and yang|''yang'']]; and that these properties coexisted in constant relation to each other, with ''yin'' and ''yang'' being used together to explain processes on Earth as well of those relating the Earth in conjunction with the heavens.<ref name=":0" /> This idea was described by [[Joseph Needham]] as a cosmos that functioned similarly to a complex organism, with discernible patterns in an ever-changing structure. There was both a pattern and a randomness to the cosmos.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Needham|first=Joseph|date=1957|title=Science and Civilisation in China. Volume II, History of Scientific Thought. Joseph Needham|journal=Isis|volume=48|issue=3|pages=365–367|doi=10.1086/348588|issn=0021-1753}}</ref> Because of this, the Chinese believed that earthly phenomena could affect heavenly bodies.<ref name=":0" />

The Chinese believed that ''qi'' was the substance of all things in the cosmos and Earth, including inanimate matter, humans, ideas, emotions, celestial bodies and everything that exists or has existed;<ref name=":1" /> and that it was ''qi'' condensing that created all the matter within the cosmos.<ref name=":0" /> This is relatively consistent with the modern understanding of the congregation of matter through gravitational fields.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/bgov/cosmos.htm|title=Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China|website=afe.easia.columbia.edu|access-date=2019-07-26|archive-date=2014-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140510022244/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/bgov/cosmos.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Chinese held a belief associated with the Xuan Ye theory, which held space as both empty and infinite.<ref>{{Citation|last=Iannaccone|first=Isaia|date=2006|pages=3–28|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-9812700759|doi=10.1142/9789812772633_0002|chapter=Cosmological Special Relativity|title=Cosmological Relativity}}</ref> This was inconsistent with the Aristotelian concepts that nature would not contain a vacuum, and that infinity could only be a divine attribute.<ref name=":0" /> The idea of the nothingness of space was later recognized as one of the most important discoveries of modern science.<ref name=":0" />