Overture · 序曲

本文讨论：一、干是什么；二、干的内容；三、干的品质；四、干与根的关系；五、干与枝的关系。

本文讨论：一个尚未被广泛辨认的问题；根是什么；简单三句话总结；根思想的“树”意象；它从哪里来。

本文讨论：一、空而不虚；二、虚位：一切显化都近不了的地方；三、谁最想坐上去；四、空性的降伏力；五、空性与慈悲。

The core feature of root thought is an unusual neutrality. This neutrality is not an absence of values but a structural restraint: it proposes no concrete idea of the good, grants no particular tradition priority, and does not turn the root itself into an ideology. This restraint allows root thought to serve as a structural medium through which Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, and other traditions can engage in joint recognition without being swallowed up or replaced. At the same time, this neutrality means that root thought does not directly adjudicate questions of power or ethical struggle. The paper argues that only by consciously undertaking this “structural restraint” can root thought truly become modern: not as a new system of truth, but as a shared substrate among different systems — one that keeps them from scattering and can return to itself in the course of operation.

Introduction; (1) root-layer concepts: the root, coexistence, skew …

The roots are invisible. Roots do not enter any concept, structure or text. But people cannot help but speak and leave a direction in the world. Therefore, all discourse, models, systems and practices about roots can only become the "hand pointing to the roots." The finger is not the moon or the root, but it makes seeing possible. This article redefines the concept of pointing from the perspective of manifestation rather than possession, distinguishing three levels of indications-fingers, paths, and names-and reveals how each indication can both bring people closer to the roots and involve the risk of obscuring the roots. In the end, the "hand of the root" embodies a double paradox: it must exist, because the root cannot be grasped; it must not be mistaken for the root, because then the root is lost. The article finally pointed out that the finger borrows direction from the root, and its highest destination is not to be regarded as the root, but to silently disappear when others look back.

Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are at the extreme and do not speak directly about their roots. Confucianism ends in heaven, Taoism strongly calls it Tao, and Buddhism talks about emptiness and immediately sweeps away emptiness. This kind of silence is often understood by modern people as the limit of thought or a mysterious reservation. This article attempts to demonstrate that the ancients "avoided talking about it" was not because the roots could not be said, but because the roots were already in their living world and there was no need to be said. The existence of etiquette, Tao, and practice itself constitutes the protection of the roots, so not saying is not forgetting, but protecting. However, in a modern situation where roots have disappeared from daily life and technological systems have begun to pretend to be roots,"not saying" is no longer an automatic guard. It can become a deeper forgetting. The reason why the Root System talks about "cannot talk about" is not to offend the silence of the ancients, but to make room for "cannot talk about" in an era when silence is no longer understood. The silence of the ancients was sitting silently at home; the words of today's people are turning back and pointing the way after leaving home.