Distinguishing emptiness from nothingness : a comparative analysis using Zhang Dongsun’s panstructural epistemology

Rošker, Jana S. (author)

The philosophical definition of the relationship between nothingness and emptiness continues to spark academic debates and controversies. In this article, we aim to clarify this relationship by examining some Chinese discourses relevant to the topic. The concept of absolute nothingness, as it was established in the Neo-Daoist philosophy of the Wei-Jin period in China—and reaching perhaps its most sophisticated form in the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō within the Kyoto School—must be distinguished from emptiness in the sense of the absence of substance, which forms the basis of various philosophical discussions in Sinicized Buddhism and continues to resonate in certain epistemological theories of contemporary Chinese scholars. In this paper, I will first provide a brief introduction to these theories of knowledge, with a particular focus on the contributions of the modern Chinese philosopher Zhang Dongsun, whose work was shaped by the classical Chinese paradigm of structural interrelations on the one hand, and the principles of Sinicized Buddhism on the other. In conclusion, I will juxtapose the theoretical foundations of these epistemologies with the aforementioned con­ceptualizations of nothingness, thereby attempting to elucidate the relationship between these two seemingly related concepts.

• Language: English
• Keywords: nothingness, emptiness, Zhang Dongsun, relational structure, coherence
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication date: 01.09.2025
• Number of pages: Str. 163-184
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178289
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• eISSN: 2350-4226
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.3.163-184
• COBISS.SI-ID: 266260995
• Publication date in RUL: 22.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Razlikovanje med praznino in ničem : primerjalna analiza na podlagi pan-strukturalne epistemologije Zhang Dongsuna

Abstract

Filozofska opredelitev razmerja med ničem in praznino še vedno sproža akademske raz-prave in polemike. V tem članku bom poskušala razjasniti to razmerje na primeru iz-branih kitajskih diskurzov, ki so relevantni za to temo. Pojem absolutnega niča, kakršen se je vzpostavil v neodaoistični filozofiji obdobja Wei-Jin na Kitajskem (in morda dosegel najbolj sofisticirano obliko v filozofiji Nishida Kitarōja v kjotski šoli), je treba razlikovati od praznine v smislu odsotnosti substance, ki tvori temelj različnih filozof-skih razprav v siniziranem budizmu in še vedno predstavlja metafizično osnovo neka-terih epistemoloških teorij sodobnih kitajskih teoretikov. V prispevku bom najprej na kratko predstavila dva tradicionalna temelja epistemološke teorije modernega kitajskega filozofa Zhang Dongsuna, in sicer klasični kitajski diskurz relacijske strukture na eni in budistični koncept izpraznjene strukture na drugi strani. V zaključku bom teoretske os-nove teh epistemologij postavila ob bok prej omenjenim konceptualizacijam niča in s tem poskušala razjasniti odnos med tema na videz sorodnima pojmoma.

• Keywords: nič, praznina, Zhang Dongsun, relacijska struktura, koherenca

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0243
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-50208
• Name: Novi teoretski pristopi k primerjalni transkulturni filozofiji in metoda sublacije