School of Naturalists

Joseph Needham, a British biochemist and sinologist, describes Zou as "The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought.

"[3] His teachings combined and systematized two current theories during the Warring States period: Yin-Yang and the Five Elements/Phases (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water).

His theory attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth).

This school was absorbed into the alchemic and magical dimensions of Taoism as well as into the Chinese medical framework.

The earliest surviving recordings of this are in the Ma Wang Dui texts and Huang Di Nei Jing.

The birthplaces of notable Chinese philosophers from the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Zhou dynasty. Philosophers of Naturalist are marked by circles in yellow.