The Confucian concept of "cheng" (integrity) emphasizes logical priority of value realization over "zhen shi' (reality or truth). Through value realization and the completion of being, zhenshi can be achieved. Cheng demonstrates the original unity of value and reality. Taking the concept of cheng as the core, Zhou Lianxi's philosophy interpreted yi Dao (the Dao of change), and integrated Yi Jing (The Book of Changes) and Zhong Yong (The Doctrine of the Mean). On the one hand, it ontologicalized the Confucian (...) concept of xin xing (mind nature), and proved and established the significance of Dao ti (the ontological Dao) as the principle and origin of the utmost goodness. On the other hand, it also extended the significance of value realization to the process of qi hua (transformation of qi) and transformation of myriad things. He proved li yi (the One Principle) of Dao ti from its many manifestations and established his own metaphysical system. Zhou Lianxi's philosophy sets up a new theoretical direction for the Song-Ming Confucians to reconstruct Confucian Metaphysics. (shrink)

This essay argues that the West could glimpse its own unthought-of by ‘de-ontologicalizing’ its thought, and that a fruitful way to do this is to draw on Chinese thought. In particular, the author develops herein the notion of between ( l’entre), which is less a locus than a dynamic passage between states or extrema. This contrasts with the (static) Western notion of Being, where a thing either is or is not. Unlike a thing, between has no being, no nature, no (...) properties. For the Greeks life was, similarly, an alternation of emptiness (desire or want) and fullness (satiety). Instead, life is in flux between those extrema. Accordingly, between is not an (ontological) intermediary but processual, like the through of the Tao. The author explores between in the Chinese conception of landscape as mountain(s)-water(s) and applies between to urban renewal, underscoring its value as a tool for the de-ontologizing of Western thought. (shrink)