What kind of existence is oriental metaphysics?

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties in China, there appeared an ideological trend of advocating Laozi and Zhuangzi, which generally referred to metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties. The concept of "Xuan" was first seen in Laozi: "Xuan is mysterious and the door to all miracles." Wang Bi's "A Brief Introduction to Laozi" said: "The deep one is also deep." Metaphysics is a theory to study profound problems. Wei Jin people attached great importance to Laozi, Zhuangzi and Yijing, and called them "San Xuan". The main representatives of metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties are Yanhe, Wang Bi, Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang. The emergence of metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties has its profound social background and ideological and cultural background. In short, it came into being on the basis of the decline of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty to make up for the deficiency of Confucianism. It evolved from Taoism and the theory of Huang Lao in Han Dynasty. It is the product of the direct evolution of Wei Chu dialect in the late Han Dynasty. Looking at metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, its basic characteristics are:

① Taking San Xuan as the main research object, the Book of Changes is interpreted by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.

(2) around the dialectical question of "existence". Metaphysics is represented by Yanhe and Wang Bi, and regards "nothing" as the foundation and unity of the world. Pei Wei, a theorist who worships existence, believes that existence is self-generated, and self-generation is embodied by something.

The basic content of his philosophy is to explore the world ontology. Gui Feizi regards "nothing" as the existence basis of "being" and puts forward the ontological thought of "nothing"; Guo Xiang, on the other hand, advocates the individualization theory, believing that "you" exists alone and does not need "nothing" as his own ontology.

④ Its philosophical purpose is to solve the relationship between religion and nature in Ming Dynasty. Wang Bi interpreted the Book of Changes and The Analects of Confucius by interpreting Confucianism, which reconciled the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism. He believes that Ming Jiao is the "end", nature is the "foundation", Ming Jiao is the inevitable expression of nature, and the two are the relationship between end and body. Guo Xiang put forward the theory that Taoism is natural, and thought that Taoism is natural and consistent with Confucianism. Ruan Ji and Ji Kang put forward the idea of "letting nature take its course", showing the tendency of anti-Confucianism.

⑤ Take "forgetting words with pride" as the method. In view of the complicated interpretation methods of Han and Confucianism, Wang Bi and Guo Xiang emphasized the principle of justice when demonstrating problems, opposed insisting on words and images, and put forward the methods of "forgetting words with pride" and "sending words to express meaning".

⑥ Taking "distinguishing names and analyzing reasons" as its philosophical thinking form. Metaphysics attaches great importance to the distinction between name and reason, and is good at analyzing and reasoning concepts. The distinction between name and reason is one of the basic characteristics of its thinking form.

Metaphysics, in terms of its philosophical category, can be called "learning by doing". "Doing it" is simply an abstract meaning, and metaphysics is to explain and develop some abstract contents in an image way.

Metaphysics can also be called metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Metaphysics originated in Wei and Jin Dynasties and prevailed in Sui and Tang Dynasties, which was closely related to the society at that time. In short, Wei and Jin Dynasties were the period of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. We watched the Three Kingdoms stand up for a while and you hit me, and then I hit you. If we lived in that era, it is conceivable that people and intellectuals at that time always felt precarious, so talking about theory could easily become the main activity in society at that time, so as to temporarily satisfy the spiritual world and escape from such cruel reality. There is a sentence that can sum up the characteristics of metaphysics: the spirit of Sui and Tang Dynasties and the character of Wei and Jin Dynasties.

The combination of these two reasons doomed metaphysics, which is mysterious and profound, but also has the function of satisfying the spiritual world and comforting the soul.

Later, the connotation of metaphysics was continuously expanded and enriched by later alchemists. There are five systems: mountain, medicine, life, divination and phase. The ideas of these metaphysical systems are borrowed from the theory of Yin and Yang in the pre-Qin period, but these ideas are not directly borrowed, mainly because of the rise of Taoism in the Han Dynasty. When they perfected their ideological system, they not only quoted Tao Te Ching as a classic, but also enriched the theory of Yin and Yang and the theory of five elements of morality, so metaphysics has a very deep relationship with Taoism.

The mountain contains the secrets of nourishing heart, nature and fitness, including metaphysical practice, health preservation and secret practice. The metaphysical canon has the deepest philosophical color, which mainly combines the thoughts of military strategists and legalists with the thoughts of Taoism to form the theory of Huang Lao in later generations, so as to understand the mysteries of the universe and the functions of the human body. And health preservation is qigong and Taoist alchemy. Secret methods include magic, pressure, praying for stars, martial arts and so on. Improve the physical and mental realm with the unity of exercise and spirit and concept. There are also metaphysics schools that divide mountains into five methods: fairy learning, Taoism, illusion, soul control and array method. And its scope does not deviate from the above three parts.

Mr. Chen Yingning, the former Secretary-General of the Taoist Immortal Research Association, made a complete interpretation of this. Learning Xiandao is very different from Zen Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism. The key to the difference between Xiandao and other methods is that Xiandao likes to start with "being", while Zen Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and Huayan Sect like to emphasize "emptiness" first. Buddhism likes to criticize Xiandao method, saying that it is "like an image", but all images are illusory and irrelevant. In fact, it is impossible for ordinary Buddhists to know the true meaning of the "wonder" of Xiandao. Of course, some people have misunderstood Tao, even some great virtues of Buddhism (such as Lao Yin and his teacher).