Wang Shouren (, 26 October 1472 – 9 January 1529),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China
China, officially the People's R ...
Bo'an (),
art name Yangmingzi (), usually referred to as Wang Yangming (), was a Chinese
calligrapher, general,
philosopher, politician, and writer during the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
. After
Zhu Xi, he is commonly regarded as the most important
Neo-Confucian thinker, for his interpretations of
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
that denied the rationalist
dualism
Dualism most commonly refers to:
* Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another
** ...
of the orthodox philosophy of Zhu Xi. Wang and
Lu Xiangshan are regarded as the founders as the
Lu–Wang school, or the School of the Mind.
In China, Japan, and Western countries, he is known by his honorific name rather than his private name.
Life and times
Wang was born in
Yuyao,
Zhejiang Province, to a scholarly family with a tradition of bureaucratic service. His father, Wang Hua, was first (''Zhuangyuan'', 狀元) in the
Imperial Examination
The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
of 1481, and rose to become the vice-minister of the
Ministry of Rites
The Ministry or Board of Rites was one of the Six Ministries of government in late imperial China. It was part of the imperial Chinese government from the Tang (7th century) until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. Along with religious rituals and c ...
, but was later demoted and subsequently expelled from government service due to having offended
Liu Jin, a eunuch.
Wang earned the
''juren'' degree in 1492 and the
''jinshi'' degree in 1499. He later served as an executive assistant in various government departments until banishment for offending a eunuch in 1506.
[Chan 1963: 654.] However, his professional career resumed when he became the Governor of
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...
.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 372.]
Military exploits
Wang became a successful general and was known for the strict discipline he imposed on his troops. In 1517 and 1518, he was dispatched in response to petitions to suppress peasant revolts in
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...
,
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its c ...
and
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
. Concerned with the destruction that came with war, he petitioned the court to allow
amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offic ...
, and successfully destroyed rebel military forces.
Suppressing the Prince of Ning
In 1519 AD, while he was governor of Jiangxi province and on his way to suppress the revolts in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its c ...
, Wang was suddenly faced with the
Prince of Ning rebellion, led by
Zhu Chenhao the fourth Prince of Ning. Given that the prince's base in
Nanchang
Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...
allowed him to sail down the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...
and capture the southern capital of
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
, Wang actively prepared for battle to prevent that possibility, while engaging in deception to convince the prince that armies were moving to surround him. The prince, deceived by this, hesitated and gave time for Nanjing to be reinforced. Eventually, forced to engage governmental forces, the Prince of Ning was defeated and captured.
In this campaign, Wang also made one of the earliest references to using the ''fo-lang-ji'' in battle, a
breech loading culverin
A culverin was initially an ancestor of the hand-held arquebus, but later was used to describe a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon. The term is derived from the French "''couleuvrine''" (from ''couleuvre'' "grass snake", following the Lat ...
cannon
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder duri ...
imported from the newly arrived
Portuguese venturers to China.
As governor of Jiangxi he also built schools, rehabilitated the rebels, and reconstructed what was lost by the enemy during the revolt. Though he was made an earl, he was ostracized for opposing
Zhu Xi.
Thirty-eight years after his death, he was given the titles
Marquis
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman ...
and Completion of Culture. In 1584 he was offered sacrifice in the
Confucian Temple, the highest honour for a scholar.
Philosophy
Wang was the leading figure in the Neo-Confucian
School of heart, founded by
Lu Jiuyuan (陸九淵, or Lu Xiangshan) of the
Southern Song. This school championed an interpretation of
Mencius, a Classical Confucian who became the focus of later interpretation, that unified knowledge with action. Their rival school, the
School of Principle (''Li'') treated gaining knowledge as a kind of preparation or cultivation that, when completed, could guide action.
Innate knowing
Out of Cheng-Zhu's
Neo-Confucianism that was mainstream at the time, Wang Yangming developed the idea of ''innate knowing'', arguing that every person knows from birth the difference between good and evil. Wang claimed that such knowledge is intuitive and not rational. These revolutionizing ideas of Wang Yangming would later inspire prominent Japanese thinkers like
Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese scholar of '' Kokugaku'' active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies.
Life
Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka in Ise Province (now part of M ...
, who argued that because of the
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoist ...
deities, Japanese people alone had the intuitive ability to distinguish good and evil without complex rationalization. His school of thought (''Ōyōmei-gaku'' in Japanese, ''Ō'' stands for the surname "Wang", ''yōmei'' stands for "Yangming", ''gaku'' stands for "school of learning") also greatly influenced the Japanese
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...
ethic.
Integration of Knowledge and Action
Wang's rejection of the pure investigation of knowledge comes from the then traditional view of Chinese belief that once one gained knowledge, one had a duty to put that knowledge into action. This presupposed two possibilities:
That one can have knowledge without/prior to corresponding action or that one can know what is the proper action, but still fail to act.
Wang rejected both of these which allowed him to develop his
philosophy of action. Wang believed that
only through simultaneous action could one gain knowledge and denied all other ways of gaining it. To him, there was no way to use knowledge after gaining it because he believed that knowledge and action were unified as one. Any knowledge that had been gained ''then put'' into action was considered delusion or false.
Mind and the world
He held that objects do not exist entirely apart from the
mind
The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for vario ...
because the mind shapes them. He believed that it is not the world that shapes the mind, but the mind that gives
reason
Reason is the capacity of Consciousness, consciously applying logic by Logical consequence, drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activ ...
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.
In order to eliminate selfish desires that cloud the mind's understanding of goodness, one can practice his type of meditation often called "tranquil repose" or "sitting still" (靜坐 ''
jingzuo''). This is similar to the practice of Chan (
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
) meditation in
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
.
Influence
Wang Yangming is regarded one of the greatest masters of
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
in history along with
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
,
Mencius and
Zhu Xi ( zh, t=
孔孟朱王, labels=no).
He founded "
Yaojiang School" ( zh, t=
姚江學派, labels=no) or "Yangming School of Mind" ( zh, t=
陽明心學, labels=no), which became one of the dominant Confucian schools in the mid-late Ming period and
Qing period China. The typical figures came from this school after Wang were Wang Ji ( zh, t=
王龍溪, labels=no), Qian Dehong ( zh, t=
錢德洪, labels=no),
Wang Gen,
Huang Zongxi,
Li Zhuowu and Liu Zongzhou ( zh, t=
劉宗周, labels=no). Wang Gen formed ''Taizhou School'' ( zh, t=
泰州學派, labels=no), which went left of Wang Yangming's thought. During the late Ming period, Wang Yangming's thought became notably popular and influential in China.
Wang's interpretation of Confucianism has been influential in China into modern times. The twentieth-century Chinese warlord
Yan Xishan attempted to revive Confucianism in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
largely on the model of Wang's philosophy.
The teachings of Wang Yangming were credited with inspiring many Japanese reformers and revolutionaries during the nineteenth century. This led to a great increase in interest in his thought in Japan at the end of the
Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
, when many Chinese activists such as
Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超 ; Wade-Giles: ''Liang2 Chʻi3-chʻao1''; Yale: ''Lèuhng Kái-chīu'') (February 23, 1873 – January 19, 1929) was a Chinese politician, social and political activist, journalist, and intellectual. His th ...
and
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
were staying in Japan. Some Chinese and Korean thinkers believed that Wang Yangming's teachings strongly influenced the development of modern
bushido
is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ...
(the "way of the warrior") in Japan, and promoted both ethics in their countries to strengthen the spirit of their respective peoples.
The Japanese Admiral of the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
,
Tōgō Heihachirō
Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...
, was influenced by Wang, and made a stamp which read, "One's whole life followed the example of Yangming" ( ja, 一生低首拜陽明). In Japan, many scholars and politicians (this group of people is known in Japanese as "Yōmeigakusha" ( ja,
陽明学者, link=no) came from Wang Yangming's school (''Ōyōmei-gaku'') in history, including
Kumazawa Banzan
was a Japanese Confucian. He learned Yangmingism from Nakae Tōju and served Ikeda Mitsumasa, the lord of Bizen Province">DF 18 of ..., the lord of Bizen Province. In his later years, he was imprisoned for writing ''Daigaku Wakumon'', which cont ...
,
Saigō Takamori,
Takasugi Shinsaku and
Nakae Tōju
was a writer and Neo-Confucianism, Confucian scholar of early Edo period Japan popularly known as "the Sage of Ōmi Province, Ōmi".
Biography
Nakae was the eldest son of a farmer in Ōmi Province. When he was nine years old, he was adopted by ...
. Toju Nakae is regarded as the founder of Japanese ''Ōyōmei-gaku''.
Memorials
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
named a national attraction in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
,
Yangmingshan, after Wang; and a road in
Nanchang
Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...
is also named ''Yangming Road'' after Wang by Chiang-influenced local officials. Additionally,
National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan is also named after the philosopher.
People in
Guiyang, provincial capital of
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
Province, dedicated a statue to Wang Yangming as well as a museum and theme park; a robot version of Wang Yangming is in the city.
The city government in Wang's hometown,
Yuyao,
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by ...
Province, named a middle school after his honorific name.
Translations
* . Public domain. Considered a poor translation by Chan.
* Ching, Julia (1972). ''The Philosophical Letters of Wang Yang-ming''. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University Press. Sixty-seven letters and annotations.
* Chan, Wing-tsit (1963). ''A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Excerpts only.
* Chan, Wing-tsit (1963).
Instructions For Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-Ming'. Columbia University Press. Full translation of 傳習録 and 大學問, Wang's two major works.
* Excerpts, but including the first translations of some of Wang's letters.
See also
*
Tu Wei-Ming
*
Huo Long Jing
The ''Huolongjing'' (; Wade-Giles: ''Huo Lung Ching''; rendered in English as ''Fire Drake Manual'' or ''Fire Dragon Manual''), also known as ''Huoqitu'' (“Firearm Illustrations”), is a Chinese military treatise compiled and edited by Jiao ...
References
Citations
Sources
* Chang, Carsun (1962)
''Wang Yang-ming: idealist philosopher of sixteenth-century China'' New York, NY: St. John's University Press.
* Gillin, Donald G. (1967), ''Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province 1911-1949''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
* Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2002), ''Ethics in the Confucian Tradition: The Thought of Mengzi and Wang Yangming,'' rev. 2nd edition, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
* Кобзев А.И. Учение Ван Янмина и классическая китайская философия. М., 1983.
* Nivison, David S. (1967). "The Problem of 'Knowledge' and 'Action' in Chinese Thought since Wang Yang–ming," in Arthur F. Wright, ed., ''Studies in Chinese Thought,'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 112–45.
* Nivison, David S. (1996), "The Philosophy of Wang Yangming," in ''The Ways of Confucianism,'' Chicago: Open Court Press, pp. 217–231.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Part 7''. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
Oleg Benesch. "Wang Yangming and Bushidō: Japanese Nativization and its Influences in Modern China." Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36 (3):439-454.
External links
*
*
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry on Wang Yangming*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Yangming
Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming
15th-century Chinese calligraphers
15th-century Chinese philosophers
16th-century Chinese calligraphers
Chinese Confucianists
Generals from Zhejiang
Idealists
Ming dynasty essayists
Ming dynasty generals
Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming
Moral psychology
Neo-Confucian scholars
People from Yuyao
Philosophers from Zhejiang
Politicians from Ningbo
Viceroys of Liangguang
Writers from Ningbo