Dongui Bogam_03_The Beginning of Form and Qi

[形氣之始]
[The Beginning of Form and Qi]

乾鑿度云, 天形出乎乾, 有太易太初太始太素. 夫太易者未見氣也. 太初者氣之始也. 太始者形之始也. 
太素者質之始也. 形氣已具而痾, 痾者瘵, 瘵者病, 病由是萌生焉. 人生從乎太易, 病從乎太素.
In the Book of Changes Heavenly Qian Chisel Measurement (乾鑿度), it is said: 
"The specific image of heaven comes from geon (乾), which can be classified into the great change (太易), great beginning (太初), great opening (太始), and great simplicity (太素). 
The great change is when qi is not manifested yet, 
the great beginning is when the qi starts to form, 
the great opening is when the form just begins to form, 
and the great simplicity is when texture starts to form. 
After form and qi are complete, a (痾) is then formed. A means chae (瘵), and chae means disease: disease comes from this. Humans originate from the great change and disease comes from the great simplicity." 

參同契註曰, 形氣未具曰鴻濛, 具而未離曰混淪.
In the Annotation on the Token of the Agreement of the Three (參同契): 
"That which has not formed yet is called Hong-mong (chaos, 鴻濛) and the state of showing signs of formation but not yet separated is called Hon-ryun (chaos, 混淪). 

易曰, 易有太極, 是生兩儀. 易猶鴻濛也. 太極猶混淪也. 乾坤者太極之變也. 合之爲太極, 分之爲乾坤. 
故合乾坤而言之謂之混淪, 分乾坤而言之謂之天地. 
In the Book of Changes (易經) it is said, 
"The supreme ultimate (太極) is divided into two and forms yin and yang. Changes and the supreme ultimate refers to the chaotic state (混淪, 鴻濛). Geon trigram (乾, meaning heaven in the Book of Changes) and Gon trigram (坤, meaning earth in the Book of Changes) together form the supreme ultimate. Thus, when geon and gon are discussed together, it is called Hon-ryun (chaos, 混淪), and when they are discussed separately they are called heaven and earth. 

列子曰, 太初氣之始也. 太始形之始也. 亦類此.
In the Liezi (列子), it is said that, 
"The great beginning is the beginning of qi and the great opening is the beginning of form, and it means  nearly the same thing."