Questions · Ultimate Questions

Is the most fundamental thing about the world “being” or “becoming”?

Direct answer

Being and happening are not successive layers. Chapter 1 of Being rejects both a still substrate and an external mover: its becoming is its being. Becoming develops differentiation, relation, tendency and manifestation within that happening.

Further explanation

Chapter 1 of Being begins from the occurrences of the everyday “I” and treats being as happening. Becoming articulates differentiation, relation, tendency and the root-to-manifestation direction. Particular causes and conditions remain real.

Core concepts

Being Is Becoming Becoming Is Becoming Becoming, Division, Between, Momentum, Appearance

Primary sources

《在》第 1、21 章；《生》现行原典（涉及跨书问题时独立核实）

Conclusions that must not be drawn

Do not turn Zai and Sheng into two successive substances, or deny the causal conditions of particular events.

Related questions

To judge whether two philosophies are saying the same thing, should we compare their words, or what they ultimately retain?If everything is changing, is there anything that does not change?Why is there this world at all, rather than nothing?What are the most crucial similarities and differences between Zai-Sheng Thought and process philosophy?If a philosophy claims to have reached the “ultimate,” how can we judge whether it has truly left no final fixed point?If a highest concept cannot be withdrawn, is it still a tool that points to the truth, or has it already become a new substance?

Related phrasings

What is the relationship between being and change?Is the root of the world being or change?Is there anything that does not change?What is the relationship between Being and Becoming?

Natural phrasings of the same semantic domain, used for retrieval and understanding; the page does not pile up near-duplicate content.