An Interpretation of Wang Bi's Tiyong

Title

An Interpretation of Wang Bi's Tiyong

Author

Fang-ming JOU

Page

161-201

DOI

Abstract

Wang Bi is the initiator for the category of tiyong. Wang Bi's original meaning of tiyong is "substance and function" or not, the scholars have different viewpoints gradually.
This article examines the philosophic difficulties of various interpretations of Wang Bi's tiyong in the past. By reviewing the text of Wang Bi's, this paper points out that Wang Bi's thought of tiyong was inspired by Zhouyi, and Wang Bi made use of the category of tiyong to the commentary on Lauzi and Zhouyi selfconsciously and expertly.
In one word, Wang Bi's ti is the internal characteristic, yong is the behavior characteristic which corresponds to the internal characteristic.
For dau and the saint whose internal characteristic is as same as dau, they take non-being as internal characteristic（yi wu wei ti以無為體）and take nonbeing as behavior characteristic（yi wu wei yong以無為用）, so that thay can accomplish all achievements. But for people who deviate from dau, they take being as internal characteristic（yi yo wei ti以有為體）and take being as behavior characteristic（yi yo wei yong以有為用）, so they can accomplish some achievements only, even thay always cause disasters.
Wang Bi used the category of tiyong to explain the different levels and characteristics between the saint and people who deviate from dau, and he presented a progressive direction: take non-being as internal characteristic and take non-being as behavior characteristic.

Keyword

Wang Bi , tiyong , take non-being as internal characteristic, take nonbeing as behavior characteristic

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