Wang Yang-Ming

Wang Yangming (王陽明, Japanese Ō Yōmei, 1472]–1529) was a Ming Chinese idealist Neo-Confucian scholar–official. After Zhu Xi, he is commonly considered the most important Neo-Confucian thinker, with interpretations of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Zhu Xi. He was known as Yangming Xiansheng (Brilliant Master Yang) in literary circles.

Born Wang Shouren (守仁) in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, his courtesy name was Bo'an (伯安). He was the leading figure in the Neo-Confucian School of Mind, which championed an interpretation of Mencius (a Classical Confucian who became the focus of later interpretation) that unified knowledge and action. Their rival school, the School of Li (principle) treated gaining knowledge as a kind of preparation or cultivation that, when completed, could guide action.

Wang Yangming developed the idea of innate knowing, arguing that every person knows from birth the difference between good and evil. 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) also greatly influenced the samurai ethic of that time in Japan.

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. This is similar to the thinking of the Greek philosopher Socrates, who argued that knowledge is virtue.

In order to eliminate selfish desires that cloud the mind’s understanding of goodness, one can practise his type of meditation often called "tranquil repose" or "sitting still" (靜坐 py jìngzùo). This is similar to the practice of Chan (Zen) meditation in Buddhism.

Yangmingshan, a national scenic attraction on Taiwan, is named after him.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Antonio S. Cua (1982). The Unity of Knowledge and Action: A Study in Wang Yang-ming's Moral Psychology. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824807863. 

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