This paper first provides a brief survey of the expressions of “existence” in various languages (on the assumption that existence is the main object of ontology) in connection with the serious challenges to this notion in modern philosophy, and then discusses the understanding and translations of the subject “ontology” in China. Finally the author proposes a new translation of “ontology” on the basis of a group of Chinese cognates shì/shǐ/shí that can flexibly correspond to the inflections of on, etc. in Greek and other European languages.