Change & Invariance

Change and invariance — an ancient question. Heraclitus held that change is the only truth of this world, that so-called eternal stillness is itself merely a state: hence “no one steps into the same river twice.” Parmenides, gazing upon the One of Being, dismissed all change as illusion — it is the invariant that lies at the core.

When philosophers reflect on change and invariance, they are often pointing to the divide between substance and appearance. Aristotle saw change as the actualization of potential — and yet the old tree, through four seasons, remains that same old tree. In the East, the Book of Changes finds within all “change” something “unchanging”: the law by which things run is itself “simplicity” — the Dao. We live in an age of upheaval — new technologies, shifting ideas — often adrift amid endless change; we long to hold fast to certain invariant values, yet risk hardening them into dogma.

This session takes “Change & Invariance” as its theme. In a life-world of constant flux, what constitutes the invariant we ought to hold? And how can such holding stay alive within change, rather than harden into dead obstinacy? True wisdom, perhaps, lies not in clinging to either pole, but in grasping the invariant law within change, and making room for the force of change within the invariant.

Seen from the aspect of change, heaven and earth cannot last a single blink of the eye; seen from the aspect of invariance, all things and I alike are inexhaustible — what, then, is there to envy?

— Su Shi, First Ode on the Red Cliffs (赤壁赋)

— Chen Yu, Deputy Secretary-General · February 2026