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The actual world, which surpasses the original state of being, consists in "affairs" (shi). Affairs can be understood as human activity and its outcomes. From the perspective of an abstract metaphysics, "things" (wu) appear to be independent of affairs and to possess ontological priority. However, through properly understanding the actual world we see that in fact affairs manifest the more fundamental import. Humans interact with things through affairs, and in this sense, the relations of humans with things are mediated by the relations of humans with affairs. Things manifest their diverse meaning only through incorporation into affairs. Additionally, the actual world formed through human activity gives rise to both the realm of fact and the realm of value, and affairs thus provide fundamental grounds that unify fact and value. In understanding the actual world, we must avoid reducing affairs, first, to merely matters of the mind and second, to merely matters of language. Affirming that it is based in affairs means that the actual world surpasses the original state of being while also committing us to its reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As human activity in the broad sense, affairs unfold through the entirety of the processes of human being. They are also intrinsic to each aspect of human being. Through affairs, humans create heaven and earth anew and thereby reconstruct being. Affairs are interconnected with action and manifest the essential human powers in which emotional attachments participate. The mark of action and the weight of emotional attachments, in sublating the original state of things and bestowing on them actuality, also give affairs diverse qualities. Affairs not only change objects; they also affect humans themselves. In the processes of "being capable in one's affairs," people also further "achieve their virtue." The processes of enacting affairs both employ things and interact with other people, and behind human interactions with things lie the relations among persons. The unfolding of affairs thus occurs in the context of communicative interactions among humans and also constitutes the actual source of the formation of relations among them. Human being cannot be separated from concern for values and pursuit of meaning. As human activity, affairs also possess value content and are interrelated with the pursuit of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the philosophy of morality and human existence. The author explores the book "The Metaphysics of Morals," by Immanuel Kant which distinguished two parts of metaphysics, the doctrine of right and the doctrine of virtue. The author states that morality is not the entire content of one's being, however, he says that full being is the concept that morality strives for.

The article offers the author's insights on metaphysics. The author explores the concept of metaphysics which is linked to philosopher Aristotle, saying that the philosopher described the philosophy as a study of beings as beings. The author states that philosopher Immanuel Kant once discussed several forms of metaphysics using the theory of the evolution of philosophy.

The article offers the author's insights on the maturation of human beings and the refinement of things. The author explores the theory of Confucianism which implies that the world is not yet complete and that human participation is indispensable for the world to be complete. The author states that the reformation of things unfolds as a process of successfully completing affairs which is realized through the practical activity of human.

The article focuses on the metaphysics of morals and the realms of philosophy. It mentions the relativity of Metaphysics to the nature of philosophy in search of wisdom and concreteness of being. Moreover, it discusses the philosophical approach of German philosopher Immanuel Kant on the different realms of philosophy including epistemology, axiology, and logic.

Feng Qi (1915-1995) explored many areas of Chinese and Western, ancient and modern philosophy, but he was always most concerned with the idea of wisdom. The selections translated here are examples of his earliest (1944) and last (1994) work on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]