一些海外學者最先提出,中國古代形而上學的基本特征是"內在超越"。這一說法也被很多大陸學者接受,以為是不刊之論。然而,本文在詳細梳理"超越"這個源自西方思想的概念,在其語境中的基本用法和意義的基礎上,指出"內在超越"論不但根本誤用了"超越"這個西方哲學的基本概念,而且本身也根本講不通。"內在超越"論暴露出以西釋中做法的根本缺陷與問題。

Since some scholars characterized Chinese philosophy as "immanent transcendence " or "inward transcendence"in the middle of the last century,this explication has become irrefutable in academic circles.Transcendence is a concept from the West whose meaning is intimately linked with the Western intellectual and religious tradition. For Westerners, transcendence in general means transcending man and his world.However,those who claim immanent or inward transcendence as the essential attribute of Chinese philosophy actually regard human subjectivity as transcendent. This explication thus not only misunderstands the concept of transcendence itself but also misrepresents the Chinese tradition.