Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy

Perkins, Franklin, "Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/chinese-metaphysics/>.

While there was no word corresponding precisely to the term “metaphysics”, China has a long tradition of philosophical inquiry concerned with the ultimate nature of reality—its being, origins, components, ways of changing, and so on. In this sense, we can speak of “metaphysics” in Chinese Philosophy, even if the particular questions and positions that arose differed from those dominant in Europe.【可见，作者把形而上学理解为这样的学科，它探究实在的终极本性】

两个对中国的形而上学至关重要的关键词：tian 天 (heaven) and ming 命 (the command; fate)。The term tian simultaneously refers to the sky, with senses of the orderly movement of the heavens and of something that encompasses all things equally. The classical Chinese word for the “world” or “realm” is literally what is “under-heaven”, tianxia 天下. 

The primary expression of heaven's will is through human actions—to lose heaven’s mandate is to lose the support of the people.

天，原意是指天空。命，指的是天的意志。

作者认为，在4th century BCE，存在The Cosmogonic Turn。即讨论宇宙起源first cause，讨论ultimate origins。

一元论（Monism）：道、太极、一、有、无。

生成论（generation）：自然、生生

内在论（immanence）：无为、心斋

差异性（differentiation）：阴阳、五行

整体论：一体

关联的宇宙论（Correlative Cosmology）：感应、体用

汉传佛教：缘起性空

宋明新儒家：气、理