| Ben-Ti(本体,本体)is an important term in modern Chinese philosophical writings. It forms the most popular translation of the word "ontology", which is Ben-Ti-Lun means Ben-Ti theory. Besides, it is also used directly as a translation of other philosophical terms such as "substance" and "noumenon". These varied roots make the word’s meaning very obscure, and its contemporary extensive use makes matters worse. A helpful way to clarify its proper meaning would be to check its original usage in ancient Chinese literature to see if its current usage can be justified.This paper examines texts from seven sources before Tang Dynasty in which the character combination“本体”appears. By doing this, it clarifies the genesis and mechanism of the association between this character group and some philosophical sense, corrects a mistake of taking Si-ma Biao(司马彪)’s Notes on Chuang Tzu as the start of Xing Ben-Ti(性本体,nature as Ben-Ti, a key term in some later philosophical literature), and pinpoints Xing Ben-TVs real inception, which is also the first philosophical writing in which Ben-Ti is associated to a world view with a dichotomy feature somehow similar to the noumenon-phenomenon distinction. This paper also suggests a new theory of the origin of a relating term set,Ti and Yong (体用).Chapter one presents the methodology of the research. The main idea is, in different context, same character combination cannot guarantee same word, and therefore, when analyzing early sections, it is critical not to take it for granted that the very character group have any connection to today’s philosophical term with the same appearance. The Chapter also explains why we should avoid using any modern philosophical understanding to interpret these old texts, and then what can we rely on.Chapter two examines text excerpts from works of Ruan Ji(阮籍), Si-ma Biao, Dharmarakna(竺法護),Zhu Fo-Nian(竺佛念),KumarajTva(鸠摩罗什),Ji Zang(吉藏),and Hui Yuan (慧远)of Jingying (浮影)Temple, chiefly chronologically. In the first section, excerpts from Ruan Ji and Si-ma Biao, which are formerly said to be early examples of the philosophy term, are reexamined and their former interpretations are rejected. In section two, the working sense of the term Ti in the collocating pattern Fa Ti, or dharma’s Ti, is clarified, and the traits and limits of the philosophical quality of Kumarajiva’s Ben-Ti are explained. Section three puts forward a new hypothesis on the origin of the associating word pair Ti-Yong, but due to the obscurity of Ji Zang’s idiom, no definite conclusion about his Ben-Ti is reached. The last section in this chapter interprets several crucial citations in Hui Yuan’s works, explains the relation between his Ben-Ti and tathagata-garbha, and shows the resemblance his description of tathagata-garbha bears to some recent remarks on Ben-Ti.Chapter three summarizes the result of text analysis, provides a concise account of the mechanism by which the two characters gradually get some philosophical feature, and makes a brief reflection on the difference between the new findings and the conclusion of previous researches. |
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