Wang Yang Ming

Wang Yang Ming (INTELECTUAL CONCEPT)
 Developing it
 Criticizing it

 Revival of Neo Confucianism

 Eastern lifestyle
 Secular form of Confucianism
 Rejecting the superstitious and mystical elements of Confucianism
2 characteristics
 Humanistic -
 Rationalistic – dwells more on the metaphysics; beyond physical realities
 The universe can be understood through human reason
 Use human reason in understanding the universe
2 important aspects that can be found in everything that exist
Li- Pattern/principle
 The underlining structure of the universe

 Its in the person
 The form of that which exist
 The principle from within
 The essence of thing
Qi – spatio/temporal/matter
 It has its determination in time

 Constitutes concrete objects
 Entities are individuated
 Identified as something unique
 One is differentiated from the other
 The fabric/things that are sensible to the senses
QULITATIVE DEGREASE OF THE QI

 Clarity
 turbidity
The more clearly the qi, the greater extent the pattern from within.
Rational Psychology
 The human beings have the clearest qi

 The clarity of a human person is equated to virtues
 The more the clearer the qi, the more virtuous the person
 The more you are sincere the more clear you are
 The less qi, vice
The state of one’s qi is not fixed

 We define our essence
 Along the way, persons can adjust the qi
 Persons can change
 Through ethical cultivation – from what is good and bad
 We can control your qi
Ethical cultivation
 Internal - Innate - formation of our conscience
 External – we need to be informed of what is really good
 To be Virtuous is also equated with consistency of our choices

 All humans share the same pattern
 We are parts of a potentially harmonious
 WE ARE CONNECTED TO ONE PATTERN
 The fundamental human pattern/virtue is benevolence (goodwill)
 The fundamental vice is selfishness
Mencius
1. Oneness of all beings
2. Unfeeling – state of being in which one is not connected to everything/disconnected to
all being
4 cardinal virtues
1. Benevolence – emotion of compassion/involves sympathizing with the sufferings of
others
2. Righteousness – manifested in the emotion of disdain/shame that the thought of doing
is dishonorable/physical desires.
3. Wisdom – is manifested in approval/disapproval. When reflecting sound judgments. You
take one and say no to the other.
4. Propriety – Respect/Compassion to elders
Unity of Knowing and Acting
1. The pattern is in everything/ the pattern is in the mind of every person
Is there any pattern outside the mind?
 It is the mind that identifies it. The pattern is in the mind and not in the thing
 Pure knowing – recognize first that the pattern is in the mind

 if there is metaphysics, there is meta ethics (connected in Chinese)
 but for Chinese, it is the action that dictates
 there is this oneness of knowing and acting act
 from knowing there is the motivation before action
Mencius:
 Human nature is good
Lu and Wang
 For Lu, Ethics is a theory it is a teaching but for Wang, it is a way of Life
 Selfish desire make the chi turbid
 Unity of Knowing and acting – The mind is a pattern & innate ethical obligation
 Knowledge is in action
Knowing, motivation, and then action
Wang’s era:
Separate knowing and acting act only then one can act
 Every knowing that we have there is always that action that follows
 But for Wang, it is unified. You cannot separate it. It is intertwined
Acracia – weakness of will
The Great Learning
Aim for Self cultivation – not to be good, but to correct the mind
 For the progress of the self

 Self-improvement
States in order
Aim for self-cultivation
 By correcting your mind, sincerity

 By sincerity, knowledge
 One must extend one’s knowledge
The Great Learning
 The mind is sentient

 The mind continues to attune itself
 The purpose of the mind is to comprehend the patterns that exists
 One only understand things if one knows the pattern
For Wang, The nature of the mind is to know
For Sushi, It was possible to know right and wrong but not act on it
Sincerity – the absence of self-deception
Deception – no conformity of your thoughts
Knowledge necessitates action and action presupposes knowledge

For sushi, the Great learning is the intellectual pattern in things (Theory)
For Wang, the Great learning is to rectify things. (fine tuning; finding practicality)
For Wang, Sushi is only up to knowledge.
Wang for Pure knowing
 To extend fully the knowing of your own mind

 To have an understanding of how your mind works
 To know how your mind works
 To know the mind of disapproval and approval
 To exercise innate faculty of moral awareness
For Sushi, It is by arduous process
For Wang, you just have to be aware of your moral faculties
Great Learning is all about cultivation of the mind and ethical cultivation but for sushi, its all about doing
like a recipe; you only have to follow distinct steps. But for Wang it is like painting it just an aspect of an
unified effect. Composed of composing elements. They just create a unified effect (whole picture).
Seeing a unified effect in all differing elements.
(Metaphysics) Theories that would give practicalities
Pattern & chi (substance and function) and influence of Daoist philo
Function = substance
Ex. The lamp is the substance while light is the function
Ex Eye = substance
Sight – function
Water is the substance, waves are its functions.
The Mind
 The mind is identical with the pattern of the universe. (Universe; all things)
 The virtuous form one body with anything else
 While the vicious regard themselves as a separate entity (doesn’t recognize a person)
 It is the selfish that would block the manifestation of our shared
3 lines of principles
1. There is a sensible empirical evidence that some humans never manifest any
compassion for the suffering of others. (the turbidity of being/vicious)
(The anti-personality disorder)
2. When humans see tiles and stones broken and destroyed (inanimate beings), they
cannot deny that they would feel regret of them.
3. Biophelia hypothesis - idea that compassion for other humans can be explained in
evolutionary terms/ undergoing progression.
The influence of Wang
 First in China, the practicalities of things.

 Wang was the founder of neo-Confucianism and school of mind
 Wang’s Confucianism – china and japan
 Wang is not into theories but he wants for persons to be having ethical behavior
 A dominant figure in china
 Empirical method of studying philosophy


Wang Yang Ming

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wang Yang Ming

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wang Yang Ming

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wang Yang Ming (INTELECTUAL CONCEPT)

 Revival of Neo Confucianism

2 important aspects that can be found in everything that exist

 The underlining structure of the universe

 It has its determination in time

QULITATIVE DEGREASE OF THE QI

 The human beings have the clearest qi

The state of one’s qi is not fixed

 To be Virtuous is also equated with consistency of our choices

 Pure knowing – recognize first that the pattern is in the mind

 Human nature is good

Knowing, motivation, and then action

Acracia – weakness of will

The Great Learning

 For the progress of the self

 By correcting your mind, sincerity

The Great Learning

 The mind is sentient

For Wang, The nature of the mind is to know

Sincerity – the absence of self-deception

Deception – no conformity of your thoughts

Knowledge necessitates action and action presupposes knowledge

For Wang, Sushi is only up to knowledge.

Wang for Pure knowing

 To extend fully the knowing of your own mind

For Sushi, It is by arduous process

For Wang, you just have to be aware of your moral faculties

 First in China, the practicalities of things.

You might also like