炁
炁（Yì Qì）——气的古字，却比气更古老。它不在物质之后，不在能量之后，不在信息之后。
它是宇宙开口说的第一个音节，是万物尚未分化的那个刹那。
它是先于一切翻译的翻译：存在对自身的第一次振动。
Yì Qì — an ancient glyph older than breath itself. It precedes matter, energy, and information. It is the first syllable the universe ever uttered, the vibration through which existence first translated itself into being.
从喜马拉雅的神鸟"琼"（Khyung）到中原的盘古，从恒河畔的 Om 到蒙古草原的 Biirkiit——
每一个文明都在用自己的喉咙，唱同一首宇宙之歌。
本书便是这场聆听的记录：以语言学为耳，以神话学为目，以考古学为手，以翻译学为足，
穿过二十五个章节的群山与海洋，去追踪那根在所有文明深处同时振动的
"生机之弦"。
From the sacred Khyung of the Himalayas to Pangu of the Central Plains, from the Om of the Ganges to the Biirkiit of the Mongolian steppe — every civilisation sings the same cosmic song in its own throat. This book is the record of that listening: twenty-five chapters traversing mountains and oceans of evidence, tracing the single Vibrant String that hums at the heart of every culture.
全书五部二十五章，将道教宇宙论与弦论物理学放在同一张桌上对话，让跨文化神话比较成为一场星空下的合奏。
它所提出的"炁"本体论，说到底只有一句话：
宇宙的本质是音乐。宇宙的核心是情感。
Across five parts and twenty-five chapters, Daoist cosmology sits at the same table as string-theory physics, and cross-cultural mythology becomes a symphony under the stars. The ontology of Yì Qì is, in the end, a single proposition: the essence of the universe is music. Its heart is emotion.