在中西思想發展中，對於宇宙人生普遍原理的整體思辨，以及對於終極真際的理性關懷，不僅指示了哲學之為形上學的追求，也標誌了人類心智與精神活動的重大成就。什麼是構成宇自然的基本原理？什麼是支配宇自祭的普遍法則？原理與法則和人有什麼關係？人在宇宙之中，居於何等地位？什麼是宇人生的究極相？在變遷不已的表面現象背後，是否有永恆不變的原理？對於這些永恆哲學的、形上學的問題，無論中西，古代賢哲都曾作解說。這些解說頗有相似之處；說明人類思想發展到了高度境界之時，確有能超越特殊歷史和社會背景的精神會通。然而另一方面，這些答案也有相異之處，正好說明中西思想與哲學問途殊歸的發展。當代中國哲學家方東美與程石泉二生生曾指出，中國形上學或者道學主要淵源於六經之中的《易經》與《尚書》，這兩部家經典與孔子思想是原始儒家的主要內容。其次見於老子與莊子的搶學，於「稷下道家」、以及「黃老之學」與「神仙之術」，老莊是原始道家的正宗，而原始儒家與原始道家哲學與正是中國上學的主要源流。據此，有旨在參照西方古典形上學之要義，簡論方程二先生對於發展中國形上學所作之貢獻，並期待透過一創造綜合之歷程，開啟形上學未來發展之契機。

The purpose of this paper is to give a short survey of two contemporary Chinese philosophers’ (Thome Fang’s and Shih-chuan Chen’s) view of Chinese metaphysics, in reference to Western classical metaphysics, with the hope that it may shed some light on the development of future metaphysics. In the historical developments of Chinese and Western thoughts there were philosophical speculations of the universal principles concerning nature and man as a whole and rational concerns with the ultimate reality, which indicate not only the pursuit of metaphysics to be the essence of philosophy but also the greatest achievements of civilized mind. What are the fundamental principles by which the universe was composed of ? What are the universal governing principles that underlie that natural courses? How are we related to these principles? What is man’s place in nature? What are the ultimate realities of human life and of the universe? Are there eternal principles behind the changing world, realities behind appearances? To these perennial and metaphysical questions, both ancient Chinese and Western philosophers had opened many paths to the answers, which are in some ways similar to but to other way different from each other. All this explains why Chinese and Western philosophies, beginning with a common point of departure, eventually run their own courses in different directions. The present paper takes contemporary Chinese philosophers, Thome Fang’s and Shih-chuan Chen’s view of Chinese metaphysics as its main theses, since Fang and Chen are the exponents of both original Confucianism and original Taoism. Both Fang and Chen maintained that the Book of Changes (or the Book of Creativity) is of great philosophical significance. It abounds with metaphysical principles, including all the cosmological, ontological, and exobiological principles that reveal the realities of nature, of humanity, and of society. They also considered the Book of Ancient History as an important source of Chinese metaphysics, in which the Chapter of Nine Grand Categories explicates the highest political and moral principles of ancient China and exerts perennial influences on the original Confucianism. Fang and Chen therefore took the book of Changes and the Book of Ancient History as the underpinnings of original Confucianism and also the source books of Chinese metaphysics. In addition to original Confucianism, Fang also the source books of Chinese and Chuangtzu’s philosophy, not the pseudo-philosophical doctrines of the Chi-Hsia Scholars of Ch’I in the Pre-Ch’in Dynasty or the Tao-priests, to be another fountain of Chinese metaphysics.