Daniel Sarafinas’s contribution adds a layer of specificity on Small’s. Both Sarafinas and Small note that Yang Guorong’s concrete metaphysics—a notion central to all of his recent works—seeks to unite metaphysics with the concrete. In other words, as Yang himself puts it, metaphysics tends to “leave the human to discuss dao.” Reintroducing the human element allows Yang to engage with Western theorists by way of a uniquely Chinese contribution. However, “concrete metaphysics” is just as much “beyond” comparisons, as it is built upon them. It is itself both concrete and metaphysical. Sarafinas discusses the role of history in Yang’s work, and how it resolves, at least in part, the problem of “grounding values in a world in which metaphysical absolutes no longer have currency.” Sarafinas summarizes his own take on this project: “The syncretic nature of his intellectual background, the fact that Western, Marxist, and Chinese philosophy are all natural to him as his own philosophic traditions rather than as foreign or external traditions he is using instrumentally, allows Yang to respond to issues that exist beyond the boundaries of any single tradition, while simultaneously recognizing the historically contingent and contextual nature of the thinkers and ideas he uses.”