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.

王陽(yáng)明

王陽(yáng)明（1472—1529），明代著名哲學(xué)家、教育家、軍事家。王陽(yáng)明通過對(duì)儒家思想的審視，反對(duì)盲目服從封建倫理道德，而是強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)人能動(dòng)性，提出“心即理”的重要學(xué)說(shuō)、“致良知”的哲學(xué)命題和“知行合一”的方法論，被后世稱為“陽(yáng)明心學(xué)”。

王陽(yáng)明力倡心學(xué)，提出“天下無(wú)心外之理，無(wú)心外之物”，而“良知”是心的本體，是人先天具有的道德善性和認(rèn)知本能，一切德性皆出于此。他強(qiáng)調(diào)，要去除“物欲”的遮蔽，從自己內(nèi)心去尋找“理”，充分彰顯心中固有的“良知”，將良知、天理推及到事事物物中去，即“致良知”。在知與行的關(guān)系上，王陽(yáng)明提倡“知行合一”，反對(duì)將知行分作兩截，認(rèn)為知中有行，行中有知，二者不能分離，也沒有先后。

王陽(yáng)明的思想學(xué)說(shuō)在明代之后流傳甚廣，流派眾多，還傳播到了日本、朝鮮等東亞國(guó)家，對(duì)當(dāng)?shù)厮枷胛幕蜕鐣?huì)發(fā)展產(chǎn)生重要影響。王陽(yáng)明是中國(guó)古代思想家中哲學(xué)思想的集大成者，他重視人的德性修養(yǎng)和主觀能動(dòng)性，提出“心即理”“致良知”“知行合一”等思想理念實(shí)現(xiàn)了理論與實(shí)踐的統(tǒng)一、主觀與客觀的統(tǒng)一、內(nèi)圣與外王的統(tǒng)一，在當(dāng)今時(shí)代亦具有重大的理論價(jià)值和現(xiàn)實(shí)意義。