对人类生活而言，物不只是物质利用的对象。从“特修斯之船”这个哲学公案的讨论，可以导向我们对物的形象多面性的理解。其中，作为纪念品的物的形象，所涉及的历史意识与人类对自身人格独特性及生命时间性的理解相关。作者构想的物的功能谱系，对观察中国哲学中的“格物”之争，可提供一个有启发性的参考框架。此外，从我们这个时代开始，人类还要面对关于精神之“物”的前所未有的新现象。这是一场思想的拼图游戏。

For human life, things are not just objects of material use. The philosophical discussion of “the Ship of Theseus” can lead to the various dimensions of the image of things. Among them, the image of a thing as a monument involves historical consciousness, which is related to our understanding of the unique personality of human beings on the one hand and life time on the other. The functional genealogy of things proposed by the author can provide an enlightening frame of reference for observing the debate on “the investigation of things” in Chinese philosophy. In addition, human beings have to face the unprecedented new phenomenon of the spiritual “things” since our times, which constitutes an intellectual jigsaw puzzle.