---
title: "Is the most fundamental thing about the world “being” or “becoming”?"
type: "question"
group: "Ultimate Questions"
thought: "Zai-Sheng Thought"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://tongzai.space/en/questions/being-or-happening/"
---
# Is the most fundamental thing about the world “being” or “becoming”?

## Direct answer

Within the continuous structure of Zai (Being) and Sheng (Becoming), this is not an either-or. Zai first points out: however the myriad things change, there remains a “Zai” that cannot be taken away; Sheng then presses the question—how, exactly, does this “Zai” itself be? And so the answer becomes: to be is to keep becoming. That is to say, it is not at all one motionless “existing thing,” nor is it pure change detached from the root; seen from the side of “never having departed,” it is called Zai; seen from the side of “always happening,” it is called Sheng.

## Further explanation

If “Zai” is understood as an eternally still base-plate, it will come into conflict with Sheng; if one says only that everything is change, one loses the root that Zai set out to point to. What the two books together really propose is this: what does not change is not some fixed form, but that the happening never ceases. Later, Sheng uses “Sheng, Fen, Jian, Shi, Xian” to explain how this root manifests into difference and the myriad things.

## Core concepts

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

## Primary sources

Sheng, Chapter 1, §3 Being Is Becoming; Chapter 7, §1 Becoming, Division, Between, Momentum, Appearance

## Conclusions that must not be drawn

It must not be simplified into a contest of “Being vs Becoming,” nor must “Sheng” be reified into a cosmic substance.

## Citation

Wenzi｜Zai / Sheng｜chapter/section｜Tongzai Space｜canonical URL