 Epistemology was the leading field of progress in Song-ming Neo-Confucianism (Wen 2011: 271). Its systematic discussion began after the Buddhist philosophy reached its high point in China. The Buddhist distinction between the subjective perception (neng 能) and the objects of comprehension within external reality (suo 所) influenced already the ear­li­est precursors of this intellectual stream, such as for instance Shao Yong (1011–1077). However, in this context the most influential stream of thought was Chan-Buddhism (Chan 禪). In contrast to other schools of Chinese Buddhism, for example the School of Pure Consciousness (Wei shi zong 唯識宗), the Tiantai (Tian tai zong 天台宗 ) and the Huayan (Huayan zong 華嚴宗) schools, Chan discarded traditional Indian methods of realizing the Buddha-nature and proposed a teaching of enlightenment in accordance with Chinese philosophical sensibility. Its adherents, especially its last patriarch Hui Neng (638–713) exposed the possibility of enlightening humans without the use of words. The central topic of interest within this context shifted from trying to understand what the world was, to understanding the world and Buddha’s wisdom. Since the latter issue falls within the scope of understanding a certain kind of knowledge, this discourse represented an innovative shift from metaphysics to epistemology.