Taoist Physics
The Taoist philosophy states that we are all connected in some form or another, and we are all one with the universe. This philosophy is carried through into their idea of physics. As usual their concepts of physics are in some areas exactly the same as the West, and in other areas they're slightly different. For instance, the Yin and Yang emblem, the Taoist representation of equal opposites in the universe. This concept sounds very similar to the third law of Newtonian physics, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”, discovered by Sir Isaac Newton over 400 years ago.
The Taoists discovered this law of physics over 4,000 years ago, when we were still scratching out a nomadic existence in Western Europe. The Taoists believe that before anything existed, there was the void called the “Wu Chi”. From the Wu Chi sprang Yin and Yang, and everything in the universe could be determined through variations of Yin or Yang. Again this is very similar to the Western theory of how the universe came into being; the Big Bang Theory. Before the big bang nothing existed, and from the big bang you had matter and time and the start of the universe which is still expanding.
Returning to Taoist philosophy, Taoists believe we are all connected to the Tao in some form or another. I believe this to be true, whereas in Western physics they would say we are separate, but we are all affected by nearby mass and its gravity. In other words every object by its very nature has a pulling effect on the object next to it. The pull of the object will vary dependent upon its mass and your distance from it. The moon would have crashed into the earth billions of years ago had it not been for the effect its orbit had on itself, constantly pulling it away from the earth. There is balance between the earth's and moon's gravitational pull on each other, and the moon's orbit, which has a pulling away effect. This is true for every planet and star that is in orbit, its all just a large, delicate balancing act.
In the West everything is considered separate. For example, if a chair weighs five kilograms and a person were to pick up that chair and that person weighed 100 kilograms, nothing is considered to have changed. The chair still weighs five kilos and the person stills weighs 100 kilos. The Taoists would disagree. They would say the chair weighs nothing and the person holding the chair now weighs 105 kilos. The chair that you've picked up has joined and become one, energetically and gravitation-ally, with the person (hence the old martial art saying "One must become one with your opponent)" The Taoists do have a point. If you were to weigh yourself, you would weigh yourself as a whole. In other words you wouldn't weigh your arm and then your leg followed by your head. You would weigh yourself as a whole because you are one entity. During the time that person was holding that chair, they were joined as one. If there is one connecting thread that joins everything on this planet it would have to be gravity. This concept will be greatly enlarged upon, and will play a key part later on when we start push hands.