Abstract: The lack of abstract words in Japanese has been mitigated by the introduction of Chinese, and then Western vocabulary. The author examines the Buddhist « middle way » in poetry that introduced a certain ambiguity into language corresponding to a slack use of « emptiness » and doubled negation, thereby highlighting a perpetually changing phenomenon or « discontinuous continuum » in modern philosophy. An analysis of the Chinese words mu, Mui, Wuwei, sekai and seken is conducted.
