MUZIChinese Matrix
Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Ming philosopher-official who reached his central insight while banished to Longchang, taught the unity of knowing and acting, and captured the rebel Prince of Ning
Mural of the event “Wang Yangming's Mind-Learning”, which this person took part in.
By mid Ming the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism had increasingly ossified into an examination tool, and the literati grew daily skeptical of the outward-seeking Way of investigating-things. Wang Yangming, exiled to Longchang Station in Guizhou, fell into spiritual anguish and urgently sought a new path for Confucianism.
Also known as Zi Boan · Hao Yangming · Wang Yangming · Yangming Xiansheng
Wang Shouren, courtesy name Bo'an, came from Yuyao in Zhejiang and, after his retreat at the Yangming Cave in Kuaiji was called Master Yangming. He passed the jinshi examination in 1499; in 1506 he pleaded for censors arrested at the eunuch Liu Jin's instigation, was flogged at court and banished as postmaster of Longchang in Guizhou, where he came to hold that the mind itself is principle and that knowing and acting are one. When Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning, rebelled at Nanchang in 1519, Wang, then grand coordinator of southern Jiangxi, raised troops and captured him within weeks; he was made Earl of Xinjian and Minister of War in Nanjing. Sent to Guangxi in 1527 to suppress unrest at Si'en and Tianzhou, he died on the journey home at Nan'an in January 1529. His disciples recorded his teaching on extending innate knowledge in the Instructions for Practical Living (Chuanxi lu); he was posthumously named Wencheng, and in 1584 his tablet was placed in the Confucian temple.
Ming
Took partage 36Wang Yangming taught that mind is principle and knowledge must unite with action, challenging the dominant Cheng-Zhu interpretation of learning.c. 1519age 47After suppressing the Ning rebellion in 35 days, Wang Yangming taught at Jishan Academy in Shaoxing, formulating his philosophy of extending innate moral knowledge.
Literature · Prose10Literature · Sayings5Literature · Poetry1Wang Shouren suddenly saw that investigating things and extending knowledge should be sought in one's own mind and not in external things, and he exclaimed that the Way lay there, holding to it without doubt from then on. His teaching centered on extending innate knowledge (liangzhi); scholars followed him eagerly, and the world came to speak of Yangming learning.
