Abstract
‘Essence-function’ (ti-yong 體用), also called ‘substance-function,’ has been a constant topic of debate in monastic and academic communities in China. One group of scholars insists that the concept is derived from the Confucian tradition, while the other maintains that it originates with the Buddhist tradition. These opposing opinions are not merely the arguments of antiquity, but have persisted to our present time. This paper investigates the concept of ‘essence-function,’ focusing on its origin and conceptual development in the Buddhist and the Confucian traditions. This concept has become a basic framework of Chinese religions. Its root appears already in ancient Confucian and Daoist works such as the Xunzi and the Zhouyi cantong qi. It is, however, through the influence of Buddhism that ‘essence’ and ‘function’ became a paradigm used as an exegetical, hermeneutical and syncretic tool for interpreting Chinese philosophical works. This dual concept played a central role not only in the assimilation of Indian Buddhism in China during its earlier phases but also in the formation of Neo-Confucianism in medieval times. This paper shows that the paradigm constituted by ‘essence’ and ‘function’ resulted not from the doctrinal conflicts between Confucianism and Buddhism but from the interactions between them.
Highlights
The‘essence-function’(ti-yong 體用)1 is a core concept in Chinese philosophy
It serves as the basic philosophical framework for all major Chinese religions
The heated debate surrounding its origin has shifted, as the focus is on investigating how this concept was employed in the doctrinal structures of various strands of Buddhism and Confucianism when it was theoretically developed in each religious tradition
Summary
(ti-yong 體用) is a core concept in Chinese philosophy. It serves as the basic philosophical framework for all major Chinese religions. The heated debate surrounding its origin has shifted, as the focus is on investigating how this concept was employed in the doctrinal structures of various strands of Buddhism and Confucianism when it was theoretically developed in each religious tradition This scholarly controversy is closely related to its key role in their thought systems. Gu Yanwu observes that the concepts of ‘essence’and ‘function’originally appeared in the Zhouyi cantong qi by Wei Boyang in the Lianghan 兩漢 period (206 BCE–220) This text contains the following observation: Spring and summer are based on inner ‘essence,’and autumn and winter are based on outer ‘function’.7. Wang Bi’s identification of nonexistence and ‘function’is similar to the Buddhist conception of the relationship between emptiness and‘function.’Unlike Buddhism, which posits a development coextensive with the dual concept of ‘essence’and ‘function,’his perspective does not have a complementary character. For the earliest precursors of the concept of ‘essence-function’in classical Chinese texts, such as the Book of Changes, see (Muller 1999)
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