Scientific progress is often impeded by theoretical models that, while mathematically coherent, inadvertently conflict with fundamental physical constraints. This paper proposes the Principle of Compensatory Redistribution (PCR) as a regulative heuristic for validity checking in early-stage research. Rooted in an axiom from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu, 1964, ch. 77)—that the “Way of Heaven” diminishes surplus and supplements deficiency—the PCR operationalizes this philosophical insight into a rigorous methodological protocol formulated in the idiom of thermodynamic driving fields and flux accounting. As a screening heuristic, we treat claims of sustained maintenance or amplification of gradients—absent explicit work or boundary fluxes—as requiring explanatory structures often missing in speculative models. Consequently, proposals that posit sustained gradient maintenance must either (i) exhibit explicit work/flux terms, or (ii) make the relevant internal constraints/instabilities explicit together with an accounting ensuring consistency with energy conservation and the second law under the declared idealization. By establishing strict boundary disciplines, the PCR serves as a preliminary screening step to flag high-risk hypotheses that lack necessary dissipative accounting. This is a preprint. Please cite the Zenodo DOI.
Wanchi Dai (Sun,) studied this question.