“Immanent Transcendence” in the Chinese Tradition: Remarks on a Chinese (and Sinological) Controversy

Abstract

The concepts of God in Eastern teachings are hardly comparable with those of the Abrahamic religions, that is, speaking about God is not an issue in the Chinese tradition. In Confucianism, a metaphysical connection to a transcendent “Heaven” (tian), responsible for the ethical functioning of the universe, does play a role. But Confucius explicitly refrained from discoursing on this topic, hence we find little in Confucian literature that discusses the nature of Heaven. In recent Neo-Confucian discourse, the topic “immanent transcendence” (neizai chaoyue) has become an issue, but this is to be understood quite differently from its treatment in modern Western philosophy, such as Husserl or Bloch. Rather, the idea behind it is: Although there is a supreme good in Confucianism (attributed to a transcendent Heaven as the metaphysical origin of a fundamentally ethically good human nature), this highest good is not considered to be outside the ways of man but immanent. That is, it manifests itself in the fulfilment of interpersonal obligations or in the practice of the virtue of humanity (ren). The paper explores the controversy that arose about the idea of “immanent transcendence” in Chinese (i.e in the writings of Yu Yingshi) and Western Sinological circles.