<p>Throughout the history of Chinese-European comparative philosophy, pre-Qin 秦 Daoist and classical Christian metaphysics have been near uniformly contrasted, suggesting scarce common ground for substantive dialogue. The following essay challenges this presentation through a literary-critical examination of the core locus where the perceived contradiction between pre-Qin Daoist and classical Christian metaphysics plays out—the nature of time. First, the essay observes that both traditions’ conceptions of time are underpinned by depictions of a posited ultimate origin’s relation to it. Then, the essay demonstrates that, as it pertains to this relation between the ultimate origin and time, the two traditions in fact exhibit significant commonalities that have largely remained unexplored. The essay concludes by using these commonalities to reframe the relationship between pre-Qin Daoist and classical Christian understandings of reality, facilitating a more nuanced assessment of the underlying conceptual divergences that make European and Chinese metaphysics distinctive.</p>