 This distinction which was most often expressed in later, 17th century epistemology with the binary category of the subject (neng) and the object (suo) of comprehension, also definitely reveals the influence of Buddhist thought upon the entire Neo-Confucian philosophy. In Chinese Buddhist terminology, the term neng has namely also been used to express the ability to perceive phenomena; the compound neng bie 能別, for instance, was placed in opposition to the term suobie 所別, whereas the first one was understood as “that which differentiates” and the latter as “that which is differentiated.” The two terms together (nengsuo) refer to active and passive ideas; neng indicates the ability to transform and suo the object that was transformed (Soothill and Hodous 2014: 337).