Wang Yangming advanced ideas such as the unity of knowledge and action, linking moral understanding closely with practice. His teaching influenced the later development of the School of Mind. He also undertook administrative and military work. His thought developed through concrete experience, as well as through abstract discussion in a study.
Historical background
Wang Shouren, courtesy name Bo'an, art name Yangmingzi, usually referred to as Wang Yangming, was a Chinese statesman, general, and Neo-Confucian philosopher during the Ming dynasty. After Zhu Xi, he is commonly regarded as the most important Neo-Confucian thinker, for his interpretations of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Zhu Xi.
Wang was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, to a scholarly family with a tradition of bureaucratic service. His father, Wang Hua, was first (Zhuangyuan) in the Imperial Examination of 1481, and rose to become the vice-minister of the Ministry of Rites, but was later demoted and subsequently expelled from government service for having offended Liu Jin, a eunuch.
Wang earned the juren degree in 1492 and the jinshi degree in 1499. He later served as an executive assistant in various government departments until banishment for offending a eunuch in 1506. However, his professional career resumed when he became the Governor of Jiangxi.
Philosophy
Wang was the leading figure in the Neo-Confucian School of heart, founded by Lu Jiuyuan (or Lu Xiangshan) of the Southern Song. This school championed an interpretation of Mencius, a Classical Confucian who became the focus of later interpretation, that unified knowledge with action. Their rival school, the School of Principle (Li) treated gaining knowledge as a kind of preparation or cultivation that, when completed, could guide action.
Out of Cheng-Zhu's Neo-Confucianism that was mainstream at the time, Wang Yangming developed the idea of innate knowing, arguing that every person knows from birth the difference between good and evil. Wang claimed that such knowledge is intuitive and not rational. These revolutionizing ideas of Wang Yangming would later inspire prominent Japanese thinkers like Motoori Norinaga, who argued that because of the Shinto deities, Japanese people alone had the intuitive ability to distinguish good and evil without complex rationalization. His school of thought (Ōyōmei-gaku in Japanese, Ō stands for the surname "Wang", yōmei stands for "Yangming", gaku stands for "school of learning") also greatly influenced the Japanese samurai ethic.
Integration of Knowledge and Action
Wang's rejection of the pure investigation of knowledge comes from the then traditional view of Chinese belief that once one gained knowledge, one had a duty to put that knowledge into action. This presupposed two possibilities: That one can have knowledge without/prior to corresponding action or that one can know what is the proper action, but still fail to act.
Wang's unity of knowledge and action concerns the relation between moral understanding and conduct. He argued that genuine understanding is expressed in action, rather than remaining a statement that a person can repeat without practising it. This does not mean that every kind of study or observation is useless. His philosophical claim challenges a division in which knowledge is acquired in one stage and moral action is treated as an entirely separate later task.
Mind and the world
He held that objects do not exist entirely apart from the mind because the mind shapes them. He believed that it is not the world that shapes the mind, but the mind that gives reason to the world. Therefore, the mind alone is the source of all reason. He understood this to be an inner light, an innate moral goodness and understanding of what is good.
In order to eliminate selfish desires that cloud the mind's understanding of goodness, one can practice his type of meditation often called "tranquil repose" or "sitting still" ( jingzuo). This is similar to the practice of Chan (Zen) meditation in Buddhism.
Influence
Wang Yangming is regarded one of the greatest masters of Confucianism in history along with Confucius, Mencius and Zhu Xi. He founded "Yaojiang School" or "Yangming School of Mind", which became one of the dominant Confucian schools in the mid-late Ming period and Qing period China. The typical figures came from this school after Wang were Wang Ji, Qian Dehong, Wang Gen, Huang Zongxi, Li Zhuowu and Liu Zongzhou. Wang Gen formed Taizhou School, which went left of Wang Yangming's thought. During the late Ming period, Wang Yangming's thought became notably popular and influential in China. Wang's interpretation of Confucianism has been influential in China into modern times.