Ontological Difference between Zai (在) and Shi (是)

A New Basis for Post-Subjective Ontology

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the foundations of ontology by introducing a fundamental distinction between zai (在) and shi (是) – two Chinese concepts roughly meaning “presence” and the predicative “is” – as a new basis for post-subjective metaphysics. We undertake a dual critique of Heidegger’s fundamental ontology and the dialectical legacy of subject-centric philosophy from Kant to Hegel. We show that Western philosophy’s reliance on the unitary concept of “Being” (Sein) conflates the ontological sense of presence (zai) with the logical operation of predication (shi), thereby obscuring the difference between unforced presence and predicative determination. This conflation, we argue, underlies persistent metaphysical dilemmas and fuels the modern technological drive to control and categorize reality. By contrast, zai denotes a primordial, non-predicative mode of being characterized by absolute contingency and unconditioned presence, which precedes and grounds the predicative “is” (shi) of judgment and logic. Shi, in turn, represents the realm of determinate being – a realm marked by lack, mimetic structuring, and metaphysical overreach in its attempt to impose necessity and identity. We demonstrate how shi incessantly mimics zai in a misguided effort to achieve the solidity of presence, resulting in self-undermining paradoxes of subjectivity and an ever-deepening technological crisis of meaning. Only by restoring zai – the humble, ordinary “thereness” of beings – to primacy can we overcome the closures of subject-centric ontology and open new possibilities for human existence in the technological age.