Wang Yangming

Wang Yangming

Wang Yangming (1472-1529), a famous philosopher, educator and strategist in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Having carefully reviewed Confucianism, Wang Yangming opposed blind obedience to feudal ethics and morality, but emphasized individual initiative, put forward the important theory of "mind is reason", the philosophical proposition of "conscience" and the methodology of "unity of knowledge and action", collectively called "Yangming's Mind Theories" by later generations. Wang Yangming strongly advocates the theories of mind, and proposed that "there is neither reason nor a thing outside a person's mind", while "conscience" is the noumenon of the mind, the innate moral goodness and cognitive instinct of human beings, from which all virtues come. He stressed that we should remove the cover of "material desire", find "reason" from within, fully demonstrate the inherent "conscience" in our hearts, and extend conscience and heavenly principles to everything, that is, "to reach conscience". In terms of the relationship between knowledge and action, Wang Yangming advocates the unity of the two, and opposes separating knowledge from action. He believes that there is action in knowledge, and there is knowledge in action. The two cannot be separated and neither is more superior than the other.

Wang Yangming's ideology and theory spread widely after the Ming Dynasty, offshoot into many schools, and spread to Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries, leaving a deep mark on the local ideology, culture and social developments there. Wang Yangming is the epitome of philosophy among ancient Chinese thinkers. He paid attention to the cultivation of human virtue and subjective initiative, and puts forward "mind is reason", "reaching conscience", "unity of knowledge and action", fermenting the unities of theory and practice, of subjective and objective, of internal saints and external kings, bearing great theoretical value and practical significance even till today.

王阳明

王阳明（1472—1529），明代著名哲学家、教育家、军事家。王阳明通过对儒家思想的审视，反对盲目服从封建伦理道德，而是强调个人能动性，提出“心即理”的重要学说、“致良知”的哲学命题和“知行合一”的方法论，被后世称为“阳明心学”。

王阳明力倡心学，提出“天下无心外之理，无心外之物”，而“良知”是心的本体，是人先天具有的道德善性和认知本能，一切德性皆出于此。他强调，要去除“物欲”的遮蔽，从自己内心去寻找“理”，充分彰显心中固有的“良知”，将良知、天理推及到事事物物中去，即“致良知”。在知与行的关系上，王阳明提倡“知行合一”，反对将知行分作两截，认为知中有行，行中有知，二者不能分离，也没有先后。

王阳明的思想学说在明代之后流传甚广，流派众多，还传播到了日本、朝鲜等东亚国家，对当地思想文化和社会发展产生重要影响。王阳明是中国古代思想家中哲学思想的集大成者，他重视人的德性修养和主观能动性，提出“心即理”“致良知”“知行合一”等思想理念实现了理论与实践的统一、主观与客观的统一、内圣与外王的统一，在当今时代亦具有重大的理论价值和现实意义。