Title

The Metaphysical and the Under-metaphysical: An interpretation on Wang Fuzhi’s Differentiation between Tao and Qi

Author

Dr. Chen Yun

Genre

Article  

Pages

37-65

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Language

Chinese

Key words

the Metaphysical and the Under-metaphysical, Tao and Qi, presence and absence, Weizhi and zhiwei, Wang fuzhi

Abstract

   The differentiation between the metaphysical and the under-metaphysical or the difference between Tao and Qi has been the basic on tological distinction in ancient Chinese philosophy since The Great Treatise put forth the saying that the metaphysical would see as Tao and the under-metaphysical as Qi. As the conclusion of ancient Chinese Philosophy, Wang Fuzhi’s teaching advanced a new understanding

of the above problem which based on the two presuppositions as follows: Firstly, The Great Treatise is found not on being and non-being, but on Absence and Presence which means that the above distinction must be understood in the horizon of absence and presence (the visible and the invisible); Secondly, in The Great Treatise, the word ‘Weizhi’ (謂之) and ‘Zhiwei’ (之謂) has some essential distinction and the usage of ‘Weizhi’ shows that the differentiation between the metaphysical and the under-metaphysical cannot be understood without the existence of human being. This thesis will reconstruct the difference between Tao and Qi from these two principles. I believe that for Wang Fuzhi, the metaphysical and the under-metaphysical are two different life-forms in the essential sense, at the same time, they are the objects of the two lifeforms. On other words, the metaphysical is the activity of mind, the meditating and object, the absent while the under-metaphysical is practice and its object, the present.