ABSTRACT
In terms of cosmology, both Daoists and Confucians embrace the theory of qi, though they differ in their understanding of the nature of the initial state of qi. It will then explain how the posit of a primordial nothingness became the standard interpretation of Daoist cosmogony since Neo-Confucianism. According to the Daodejing, everything is generated by Dao, which seems to be ontologically and temporally prior to the formation of heaven and earth as well as the myriad things. There is plenty of textual evidence to suggest that the Zhuangzis conception of Dao is closely related to its theory of qi. The debate on being and nonbeing in Wei-Jin philosophy was primarily a dispute in two dimensions, over the ontological foundation of the phenomenal world and the ethical application of the adopted ontology. The Neo-Confucians attack on the Daoist conception of nothing was primarily a reaction against the ethical teachings of the Wei-Jin School of Venerating Nonbeing.
