The Ontology and Boundaries of Relational Calculus under the Sheng-Sheng Materialist Movement Perspective

DOI: 10.12201/bmr.202604.00101

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  Abstract: This paper proposes and systematically elaborates the ontological framework of Relational Calculus (关系演算学), grounded in the core commitment of the Sheng-Sheng Materialist Movement Perspective (生生唯物运动观)—the recognition that the primary nature of the world is the ceaseless, self-generating process of material movement, and that "relation" constitutes the most fundamental mode of existence within this process. On this basis, the paper constructs a six-layered architecture for Relational Calculus: the Foundational Layer (Category Theory + Topology), the Dynamical Layer (System Dynamics + Stochastic Processes), the Scaling Layer (Renormalization Group + Multi-scale Modeling), the Informational Layer (Information Theory), the Computational Layer (Computability Theory + Algorithms), and the Reflective Layer (Metamathematics + Higher-order Logic). The paper further employs the tripartite conceptual framework of Qi (气), Form (形), and Spirit (神)—drawn from classical Chinese philosophy and systematically integrated here with foundational theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—to rigorously demarcate the capability boundaries of computational systems across all six layers. It is demonstrated that: (1) machines can exhaustively describe the structural relations of Form (e.g., anatomical structures, meridian pathways, herbal molecular profiles); (2) machines can simulate the dynamical flows of Qi (e.g., the circulation of Ying-Wei, the rise and fall of visceral functions, the information propagation in neural networks); (3) however, machines are absolutely incapable of attaining Spirit—the emergent subjectivity and self-present "presence" that arises from the holistic integration of Form and Qi (e.g., the physician's intuitive grasp of Shen in diagnosis, or the patient's lived experience of healing). This boundary is not merely technical but ontological. It delineates the fundamental divide between the computable and the unwitnessable. The Sheng-Sheng Materialist Movement Perspective ultimately reveals that while Relational Calculus can infinitely approximate the outward manifestations of life and even TCM pattern differentiation, it can never become the living subject that is "undergoing" the process. This paper thus contributes a rigorous philosophical foundation for understanding both the immense power and the intrinsic limits of formal and computational approaches to complex living systems, particularly as applied to the relational holism of Chinese medicine.

  Key words: Sheng-Sheng Materialism; Relational Calculus; Qi-Form-Spirit (气形神); Traditional Chinese Medicine; Emergence; Boundary of Computability; Ontology

  Submit time: 8 May 2026

  Copyright: The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted biomedRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.
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  1	2026-04-12	10.12201/bmr.202604.00101V1	Download

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