Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t6.4

v1.c7.s7.t6.4

mushrooms from generation to generation with such representative masters like Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang, whose ideas combined together came to be known as “Yuan Kang Metaphysics”. According to Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang, the “nature” and “moralisation” actually never contradicted, and man’s doings were always in divine order of the nature. For example, the “*Chapter of Qiu Shui*” in *Zhuang Zi*, annotated by Guo Xiang, pointed out that “Can people never control horse and cattle for use in their lifetime? Can people never halter cattle or horse? Cattle or horse should be haltered which is their manifested destiny. This seems to be “mandate of heaven”, but this is the natural rule followed by man”. In debate over existence (being) and non-existence (non-being) of fundamental and incidental, Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang put forward such opinions as “self-conversion” and “independent conversion in calmness” and believed that “Existence is self-existence rather than stemming from non-existence. In other words, all things are made by themselves”. Pei Wei authored the book *Theory of Existence* in which he argued that “everything is self-engendered and non-existence has no way for existence”, and also believed that “all sentient things of the world are self-engendered and inevitable rather than stemming from non-existence”. Since then, moralisation theory shifted from “stress on non-existence” to “stress on existence”. By the time of eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420 CE), it has already been 300 years that Indian Buddhism had been introduced in China. Lots of important classics on Buddhism had too been translated and other local writings made debut with profound influence of the Buddhist theory on native culture; the development of metaphysics also accordingly presented different trend during this period compared with previous period. The *“Lie Zi”*, annotated by Zhang Zhan, originally stated that “existence serve the purpose of vanity, while all things are proved by extinction”. However, the argument of “no existence and no non-existence” replaced the argument of existence and non-existence of the fundamental and the incidental, which became a new style and fashion of discussing metaphysics. Since then, the rich contents of metaphysics provided the much needed theoretical grounds to comment on sutras of Buddhism. Following this, the unique characteristic features of the ideas of “metaphysics” gradually faded away. The term “metaphysics” (xuan-xue) was first found in *Book of Jin: Biography of Lu Yun* which says: “there is essentially no metaphysics in the beginning”. However, at that time, the understanding of metaphysics was not the same as that of later periods, during which academic analysis with focus on “idle talk”, facial looks and even family status was attributed to “metaphysics”. In Northern and Southern Dynasties, *Book of Change*, *Lao Zi* and *Zhuang Zi* were crowned as “Three Classics of Metaphysics”. With all this a new school of thought with its own classical form was then taking shape.