Return To The Real Existence

In the lifeworld,man's activities,knowing or practice consist of the present things referring to the absent yet real things. Presence and absence are closely linked together,their continuous interaction and constant unity build up the whole world as a total horizon. Each of man's present activity refers to the world as a whole,history and future,nature and culture are all units that constitute the wholeness,they are interacting with the present activities by being absent. This phenomenon is the mediation between presence and absence,and it is the real situation of the lifeworld. The perception of this truth is the origin of metaphysical wisdom in China. The Great Treatise ( or The Appended Remarks) says:"the continuous interaction of Yin and Yang is Tao(being)," according to the original meaning,Yin and Yang is light and darkness,is absence and presence;the successive movement of Yin and Yang is the continuous interaction of absence and presence. The Great Treatise notes that the interaction is the nature of being (Tao),in fact,it is also the nature of time. So,when The Great Treatise says "penetrating to a knowledge of the course of day and night," it turns the question of how can metaphysical wisdom be possible to the question of how presence and absence communicate. Because,here,day and night are Yin and Yang.. Therefore,the saying "penetrating to a knowledge of the course of day and night" and "the continuous interacting of Yin and Yang is Tao(being)" express the same truth. " the continuous interacting of Yin and Yang" and "the unexpected Yin and Yang" are so-called "penetrating to a knowledge of the course of day and night".The mediation between presence and absence,as the way to reality,requires the subject consciously carrying on the relation of the present activity and the absent world,in the light of knowing,experiencing the world as a whole,experiencing the unity of presence and absence;in the light ofpractice,sharing the relation between the present activity and the absent things or affairs in this world. This approach to metaphysical Truth which stems from and returns to this life world have been put forward in Pre-Qin Confucianism and have been expressed as "The Way of Central Harmony," namely,"Tao in daily life".However,this active and energetic direction of wisdom based on the lifeworld was once interrupted. The Buddhism coming from India comes out from the daily life world and jumps into eternity since the day it exists. So,the disruption between presence and absence and the negative attitude toward time became its end. This influenced greatly New- Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties,the negative attitude toward presence and the requirement of coming from this world in order to facing straightly certain origins build up the philosophical pursuit of New- Confucianism. Yet,it means no doubt that the overthrow of the ancient metaphysical Truth that was founded Pre-Qin dynasties.The philosophy of Wang Fu-chih(1619-1692),as the philosophical discourse in Post-Song and Ming dynasties and the conclusion of New-Confucianism,intends to return to the ancient wisdom of Confucianism in Pre-Qin dynasties. He posed to himself a question of return to authentic being-and-existence. For Wang Fu-chih,the question of how can authentic being-and-existence be possible is the question of how possibly presence and absence communicate. To some extent,his philosophical point of departure is to defend the metaphysical Truth. In the reflection of the category of Tao and Qi,Wang Fu-chih found that the so-called Metaphysical and Under-metaphysical of the Pre-Qin thinker are two different ways of communicating presence and absence.