Tong Lik Kuen's Philosophy of Field Being/Existence

On Friday night, I attended at the HKSHP another talk on a most unusual topic. It's a talk by Dr.Lau Kwai Biu on the metaphysical basis of power in the philosophy of what has been called "Field Being/Existence" by Professor Tong Lik Kuen, a noted New Taoist scholar.

According to Dr. Lau, Tong was quite ambitious. He wanted to set up a metaphysical system for the ahcievement of human happiness, one which he hoped would not have the the kind of weaknesses he found in Western, Indian and traditional Chinese philosophy. Tong started on the initial premises that the emphasis of Western philosophy has been too much on reason and the cognition, Indian philosophy too much on the spirit and Chinese philosophy too much on morality. He therefore proposes his own philosophy of field existence (場有哲學) as one which has all their strengths and none of their weaknesses. To do so, he proposes that philosophy should also take into account what we would regard as the basic human instincts and emotions. In this, Tong was much influenced by the philosophical ideas of Freud, Nietzsche and Whitehead and those found in the I-Ching (易經) He had in fact written a book called Between the Chou I and Whitehead: An Introduction to Field Philosophy (周易與懷德海之間: 場有哲學序論)( 1989) ("BCIW"). In this book, he has criticized the views of such New Confucians asTong Chun Yi (唐君毅) and Mou Zongsan (牟宗三).

To Lau, the core of Tong's view of human nature is that of what has been called "Interrogating Mind" (問題心). To Tong, like Whitehead, the human mind never exists in a vacuum. It exists always already engaged with the material world and in fact cannot be understood apart from its manifestation and in its interaction with each other and both the human mind and the world are equally important. In the West, the emphasis has always been on cognition but it was the cognition of an isolated mind, a mind presumed to be in opposition to the non-mind, the others and the world. Hence, in the West, dualism is inevitable: mind vs non-mind, mind vs matter, self vs the world, self vs others, reason vs emotion or irrationality, soul vs body. The history of Western philosophy is thus a history of the struggle between these poles, which always struggle for dominance one over the other in different periods of its history and there is seldom any harmony eg. Plato emphasised the primacy of the Ideal Form which he considered superior to mattter which is always contingent and subject to corruption. Descartes started his whole philosophy from his own personal reflection (I think, therefore I exist ie. he stands out from the rest of the world, in opposition to it) and the whole analytic tradition of Anglo-American philosophy based largely on the primacy of the sensatory data and on observation of the world by the self through its senses. But to Tong, the mind is not just reason or logos, but the mind as conceived by Taoists as re-interpreted by Tong ie. something natural, something with two components, a body with its animal instinct, desires, emotions and also a mind, which can under ideal conditions transcends mere human instincts, desires and emotions. To Tong, all previous Chinese philosophers emphasized how to be the ideal moral person and did not pay sufficient attention to the needs of the human psyche. To Tong, the ideal condition is the satisfaction of man's natural desires which if not distorted by different social and moral philosophies would find it own natural equilibrium and harmony.

The core of the Tong's Field Philosophy is the concept of the Body 道體 and the Heart (read Mind) 道心 of the Tao and its phenomomenological manifestation in human life. From the I-Ching, Tong got the idea of the I(易) and Tao (道). The body of the Tao (道體) is unchanging but in its manifestation it in the universe constantly changes (道心) and is affected by both space and time (易). All human acitivities, including philosophising is a product of the time in which such philosophical thoughts occur. The two ideas in practice can never be separated. He says that the two idea is two in one, one in two, and practically can never be separated (這兩觀念是二而一，一而二，實遠很難分開 )(BCIW 2). Everything in the universe is governed by the operation of the Tao and exists within the Tao. There the I-Tao is the the Tao of heaven, of Earth and of Man. And the I-Ching is written to describe the relationship between the Tao of Heaven, Earth and Man. Everyone of the 64 Gwa's (掛)  in the 8-Gwa is subject to the operation of time and the central concept of the I-Ching is being faithful to time and taking the golden mean (時中), 中 meaning no biased in any way, doing what is appropriate in all the circumstances of the case at the relevant point in time and to find the golden mean at a specific point in time and to help to bring it about (於時中求中或成中). Therefore the Tao of Heaven, Earth and Man are what encourages and promotes harmony at the appropriate point in time (人道與天道、地道在時中所取得的和諧)(BCIW 2).

Tong's philosophy emphasizes the timeliness of everything. To him the concept of time and position is not the equivalent of time and space in physics but is more fundamental and more metaphysical. to him time and position is the general form of the relativity of things (時位乃一事物底「相對性」的普遍形成式) (BCIW 3) and the characteristics of everything is determined by its time and position in its relation to other things and can never exist independently of other things. This is the core idea of his philosophy of field existence (場有哲學). Everything exists by virtue of and is determined by its position and relation to that field (場有就是依場而有的意思。) i.e. all existence is field existence( 一切存有都是場的存有。) .

In I-Ching, the ultimate existence or reality is called Tai Chi (終極存有或實在--『繫辭傳』稱之為太極), a creative entity which continues to grow, develop, something which constantly changes and is transforming and being transformed according to time and position and the rhythm, the beat and the principles of this creative and progressive process by this this "embodiment of life" or "embodiment of the I" is concretely manifested through the time and position, the relativity and mutual influence of everything. (這「生體 」或「易體」底創進歴程的韻律，節奏和條理正是通過事物的時位和相對相關性而具體地表現出來的). The field that Tong is talking about is the location where the relativity and mutual influence take place and also why those very relationship and mutual influence become possible. (場就是事物底相對相關性的所在，同時是此相對相關性之所以為可能的所在)(BCIW 3).

Tong characteristics of the relavant field (場性) change with the nature of such fields eg.nature, culture, history though each bears certain relations to the other. To Tong, all the mtaphysical ideas within the I-Ching are the product of that field that Tong talks about eg. Tai Chi, I, Life, Tao, Yin & Yang, Heaven and Earth, Positive and Negative. Thus Tai is the infinte background or filed against which the relativity and mutal influence of everything takes place and I and Tao are merely the operation of this Embodiment of the Tai Chi (太極就是此場有的本體或「場體」而易和道則是此太極體之「場用」)(BCIW 4) The "operation of the Tai Chi field" can be found in the creation of life and the interactions of the Yin and Yang (太極之「場用」就在創造權能底生生不已與陰陽相交的歴程裏. 一陰一陽之謂道) (BCIW 4-5). Thus Tai Chi can also be described as the embodiment of the I, the embodiment of Life, the embodiment of Tao. The difference between embodiment and operation depends on the creativity of the relevant field (體用之別乃是依陽有之創造性). Operation is the manifestation of the creative power and are merely different aspects of the field and their operation can be seen in the relativity and their mutual influence and interaction.    

To Tong, there is no absolute one nor is there any absolute many; there is no absoute transcendence nor is there absolute immanence; there is no absolute creator nor any absolutely created things, objects or life; there is no absolute subjectivity, nor is there absolute objectivity; there is no absolute mind, nor is there absolute matter. In short, the poles of all purported absolutes can and must in practice only have their being relative to each other and they can seldom exist independently of each other and must rely on one another for their own existence. Therefore, all absolutes are relative: all One are many and all many are part of One; all transcendence are at the same time immanent; all creators are themselves created; all subjectivities rely upon objectivity and all objective bodies are in some sense subjective; there is no mind which is not matter and no matter which does not include some kind of mind. He agrees that his field philosophy is a philosopy of ambiguity. That is so because the reality is that all matters have field characteristics which by their nature must be uncertain and ambiguous because always subject to change according to time and space and positions.

Behind the need for the kind of clarity sought by Descartes is the Western emphasis on substance or matter, something having an independent existence, separate and distinct from others and from the objective world. Tong's field philosophy seeks to overcome and eliminate such over emphasis on clearcut boundariesm their tendencies to absolutize everything and to push everything to their "logical" extremities or conclusions, the division between the subjective and the objective, the self and the other and restore to phenomena a little of that ambiguity which is part and parcel ofwhat he thinks their true metaphysical reality. To Tong, it is not advisable and unreasonable that the philosopher regards himself as standing outside of the world when he makes his observations as if he were not part of that very world which he is trying to observe. The philosopher is already inside that world and there is no way he can separate himself absolutely from that world except in his imagination. Tong agrees with Whitehead that even God once he has created man and the world can only continue to exist in relation to man and that world and hence what happens in that objective universe and in the human world may affect how he wishes to be God. From the point of view of Tong's field philosophy, man can only observe the world from inside of that world. Hence the Tai Chi is not outside of universe and the human world. On the contrary, Tai Chi relies on the universe and on man to manifest itself and to continue to change according to its own principle of operation.

In Tong's philosophy, the Tao is metaphysical. (形而上者謂之道) and the Tao or the embodiment of the Tao is something which transcends our physical body: it is something behind, over and above and is a concept, principle, idea, entity which is ultimate and in that sense is beyond form. In I-Ching, vessel/instrument (器) is a kind of form too but whereas form (形) refers to to me (a subjectivity) vessel (器) refers to other people or objects (an objectivity) . When we exist in so far as we react with other people or the world.. We derive the sense of up and down, above and below in primitive times from the fact that we were able to stand up and survey the world as if we were above and the world is down but when we lift our gaze heavenwards, we found that the heavens cannot be reached and does not have any contact with us and we formed the idea that the heavens have its own subjecitivity which is different from our own subjectivity and hence we call it the Tao of heaven (天道 or 道體). To the ancients, the mind can never be separated from the body and the mind was considered only the spiritual function of our form (所謂「心」者不過是形軀的靈明作用吧了) (BCIW 13).

To Tong, strictly speaking, there is no materialism nor idealism in Chinese philosophy because the mind has never been isolated from the body. In I-Ching, the mind is the spiritualization which harmonizes the Tao, the form and the instrument. It occurs in the space between the form and the instrument and hides towards that space. It does not belong to any person, nor any embodying vessel. It belongs to the field. All actions of the mind are the spiritual actions of the field (心...正是調和於道形器之間的靈明作用...它好像發生於形器之間的虛空處，而又朝這形器之間的虛空處而隱伏...它是不屬於任何人的--任何器的，而是屬於場有的。所有心的作用，都是場有的心靈作用。), (BCIW 14) When we say something is our opinion, all we are doing is to monopolize the field as if it belonged solely to ourselves!

Tong describes our mental activity as abstract spirit and enlightening sensation or awarness or consciousness「虛靈明覺」( BCIW 14). In the I-Ching, the enlightened awareness is usually described by reference to the relative concepts of clear/unclar (明晦) or  obvious/hidden (顯隱) and as part of the concept of Yin and Yang (陰陽) but also through the language of "feeling and touching/reaching/attaining" (感通) and developing/shaping/forming and transforming (裁化). The process of feeling, attaining, shaping and tranforming is a process of honestly/faithfully giving form to the hidden potentialing opportunity (誠儀隱機). 誠 indicating the direction or aim towards which the mind tends or strives to achieve. The儀 is the form or shape or gesture or posture of the human mind and the human body but in thus shaping the world and our own thought, our mind is also inevitably being shaped at the same time by the form of other people, things and events and is inextricably bound by the latter too. In the I-Ching, the word 儀  in 兩儀生四極 ( the two forms produce four poles) , refers to the opposing pairs constituting the Tai Chi ie. strong/weak, yin/yang, movement /stillness (剛柔，陰陽，動靜).

To Tong, all mental activities start from the body and moves upwards and is thus a creavtive metaphysicalizing activity (through the use of its own power inherent in life) towards yin/yang (「形上化」的歴程). In this creative process, the idea (念) is transient and ephemeral and the word 念 had the word mind at its bottom and therefore idea is a temporary manifestation in the here and now of the tendencies of the mind and life is but the the result of the creative activity of the mind and the manifestation of its "gesture/posture" (「生命」者只不過是心或創造權能的誠儀) (BCIW 17). To him, the gesture/posture will never permanently disappear. What disappears is merely the provisional form it took or in the words of Whitehead, its "subejctive immediacy": what the mind felt or its mood at that point in time and when that is accomplished, that is also the time of its "objective immortality" (「不朽待用」 or 「不朽所對」) (BCIW 17). I suppose what he means is that whatever we do will leave a trace behind in other people or other objects or events (hence the purported "objective immortality) in the same manner that in Buddhist philosophy, a result can at the same time be a cause and aneffect in that whilst it may be the effect of cause 1 for Event 1 but that result may itself become the cause of Event 2. That idea may become buried or merged into  the subseqent event and be part of its cause. What he calls "objective gesture:) (客體誠儀) is equivalent to what Whitehead calls "data" (「與料」(BCIW 17).  

What is the characteristics of the view of Field Philosophy on the mind. To traditional Chinese philosophy, the mind is the product of the Tao, the Form and the Vessel and completely without Western philosophy's isolated consciousness which is equivalent only to cognition (the Chinese 明覺心 or 心的虛靈明覺心) but the mind of Chinese philosophy includes also the Unconscious or the Sub-conscious and includes the idea of its dominance 心的主宰性. The Chinese mind acts through 感道裁化 (a process of 誠儀隱機的歴程), which is a process of empowering life. That which makes the heart dominat  is its subjectivity, which creates the relevant power. This subjectivity manifest itself concretely through empathic formation (感通化裁). To Tong, the cognition is a form of positive attachment to something which is thought to exist independently and his cogitive ability comprises three components: perceiving/ sensing/ feeling (which has no attachment)  knowing ( which exists in that space between the non-attached perceiving and  alertness/ mindfulness) and alertness/mindfulness (which also has no attachment because it is transcends the ataching self-consciousess). (「知性」就是意識作用的有執性....人的意識心乃是由「感意識」「知意識」「覺意識」...三童基本心識作用組成的意識體) (BCIW 116). Cogntion may also be considered as having four other faculties of feeling, memory, imagination and understanding (感覺、記憶、想像、理解) just like a man has five organs and 6 function (五臟六腑) but in the west, the mind is not considered as organic but only a mechanism and the cognitve act is considered merely the processing/forming/shaping of sense data(知性活動視為一感覺或經驗與料的「」歴程)(BCIW 118) ie. their concepualizing, categorizing/classifying and even Kant follows this tendency except that in his case, the concepts and categories are internal and belong to the mind itself and does not come from the external world as if there were absolute separation between what is inside and what is outside the mind and as if the mind were a "knowledge processing plant". (知識加工廠) with all the necessary equipment and the necessary implements and the manufacturing formulas but we do not know who the owner of the plant is nor why we have those manufacturing formulas. (BCIW 118) 

Tong advocates there should not be any dominance as between the mind and the body and that there should be equal status between the two and to redress the balance, the current disequilibrium between mind and matter should be reversed from a state of 仁材倒置 to 仁材共建 so that the universe function much more smoothly and harmoniously. To tong, the basic tendencies of Chinese philosophy is the primacy of morality, epitomized by the emphasis on 仁. But to complement this, Chinese philosophy must learn from the Western philosophy, whose main tendencies is on the instrumental value of the craftsman who has a special affection for his material the instrument to help him to perfect his craft, the instrument of reason and logic: the 材 that he was talking about.