Wang Shouren

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.