This summary and the following diagram have been arranged by Cary F. Baynes ^1)↓

The Tao, the undivided, great One, gives rise to two opposite reality principles, the dark and the light, yin and yang. These are at first thought of only as forces of nature apart from man. Later, the sexual polarities and others as well are derived from them. From yin comes K’un, the receptive feminine principle; from yang comes Ch’ien, the creative masculine principle; from yin comes ming, life; from yang, hsing or human nature.
 Each individual contains a central monad, which, at the moment of conception, splits into life and human nature, ming and hsing. These two are supra-individual principles, and so can be related to eros and logos.
 In the personal bodily existence of the individual they are represented by two other polarities, a p’o soul (or anima) and a hun soul (animus) ^2)↓. All during the life of the individual these two are in conflict, each striving for mastery. At death they separate and go different ways. The anima sinks to earth as kuei, a ghost-being. The animus rises and becomes shen ^3)↓ a spirit or god. Shen may in time return to the Tao.
 If the life-energy flows downward, that is, without let or hindrance into the outer world, the anima is victorious over the animus; no spirit-body or Golden Flower is developed, and at death the ego is lost. If the life-energy is led through the ‘backward-flowing’ process, that is, conserved, and made to ‘rise’ instead of allowed to dissipate, the animus has been victorious, and the ego persists after death. It then becomes shen, a spirit or god. A man who holds to the way of conservation all through life may reach the stage of the Golden Flower, which then frees the ego from the conflict of the opposites, and it again becomes part of the Tao, the undivided, great One.

Diagram of the Chinese concepts concerned with the development of the Golden Flower, or immortal spirit-body