One characteristic of contemporary Chinese philosophy which might help reveal some of the problems unique to translating is that many of its authors can be, and in fact are, viewed not as academics, but as Masters. In the Western world it would be somewhat analogous to saying that they are not professors but philosophers—i.e., real philosophers. Continuing in the tradition of the Zi 子 or “masters”—those prominent thinkers and charismatic teachers of antiquity who led by example and are important insofar as they are personal role models in addition to offering philosophical reflections—contemporary Chinese thinkers demonstrate a predilection for philosophical discussion that often operates through the suggestiveness, ellipsis, and polysemy implemented in literary language. Before explaining away Chinese scholars’ relative disinterest in extreme precision of expression and abstract logical exposition, we might want to imagine ourselves for a moment on the other side of this philosophical coin. They are not trying to be academic commentators of philosophy—they are trying to philosophize. It would then perhaps be easier to see that Western notions of abstraction, argumentation, and reasoning are not rejected by Chinese thinkers. Rather, these methods are simply taken as “missing the mark.”