Wang Yangming’s Philosophy and its Fate in China / Lu Qi

Ci-joint, complété par les sinogrammes des principaux concepts, le texte des quatre leçons données en juin à l'EHESS par M. LU Qi sur Wang Yangming.

Brief introduction to myself 

My name is Lu Qi, I come from China, from Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS. My educations: 1978 to 1982, Xian Foreign Language Institute for BA Degree (English ); 1982 to 1985, Hang Zhou University for MS Degree ( Historical Geography ); 1986 to 1989, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for PhD ( History of Chinese Economic Thoughts ).

I am a geographical researcher, but I have a great interest in Chinese cultural and philosophical studies. And, particularly I have the interest in understanding the relationship between how people think in ideology and what they do in practice.

According to the arrangement by Professor Berque, during my one-month stay in EHESS, Paris, I will deliver four lectures focusing on one of the important philosophers of Ming Dynasty ( 1368-1644 ), Wang Yangming. These four lectures are around the center title “Wang Yangming’s Philosophy and its Fate in China ”, under this center title, I plan to introduce the following sub-topics:

1. A brief introduction to the main schools and their changes in traditional Chinese philosophy

2. An introduction to the formation and some key concepts of Wang Yangming’s philosophy  

3. The differences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy from that of other Neo-Confucians

4. The comments on the fates and the consequences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy

Why have I chosen Wang Yangming for my lectures? Because, as far as my understanding, though his doctrine is almost forgotten by the common people in modern China, some of his philosophical ideas are still important for the healthy development of China.

Lecture  one

A brief introduction to the main schools and their changes in traditional Chinese philosophy

Lu  Qi

Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS

(No A 11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100101, Luq@igsnrr.ac.cn)

June 3, 2011, at EHESS, Paris

In this lecture, I will discuss the following questions：1) Major philosophical schools and their main ideas; 2) The formation of the dominant position of Confucianism in Chinese traditional philosophy schools; 3) The ideal and the principle of Confucianism; 4) The challenges of  Confucianism in history.

The title of my lectures seems to tell you that I will specifically or strictly talks about philosophical topics in my lectures here, but, I prefer to the discussion about ideas than specific philosophical topics. Because in my opinion there are no basic differences between thinking  history and philosophical history in China. So, when I discuss so called philosophical questions, I may also talk about thought questions, or even cultural questions at the same time. I have two reasons for my standpoint.

One reason is according to some important scholars in modern China they think there was no philosophy in ancient China, for example, Chen Qiyun looked the important works “ A History of Philosophy in China ” by Feng Youlan only as “ a history of thoughts by a philosophical scholar, though it was named as a history of philosophy ”. Fu Sinian, another important scholar, definitely denied the existence of philosophy in China. [1]

Another reason is the explanation of historical philosophy by the famous scholar in France, Pierre Hadot, he once pointed out that the so called “philosophy” in ancient Greece and Roman was mainly served for life in reality, but not only for theoretic discussion or thinking, its “practical rationality has priority to theoretic rationality”. [2] Some famous philosophers like Socrates and Plato; they held that the so called “philosophy” was the life practice. This characteristic is close to that of Chinese philosophy in ancient time.

1) Major philosophical schools and their main ideas

For the better understanding of Wang Yangming, and based on the considerations above, I think it necessary for me to have a brief introduction to the philosophical or thought schools appeared in Pre-Qin Dynasty ( 前秦时期 ) ( from remote ancient period to 221 B.C.) first. This is the important period for the foundation of the traditional thought framework in China for the later times.

It is generally accepted by Chinese scholars that there were a hundred of academic schools of thoughts in the period of Pre-Qin Dynasty, though their opinions were not perfect [3], and gradually emerged into “ Six Important Schools ” （六家学派）, namely School of Yin-Yang（阴阳家）, School of Confucianism（儒家）, School of Mohsim（墨家）, School of Logical（名家） School of Penalty（法家）and School of Daoism（道家） [4]. Each of the school has its own characteristics.

According to the explanations from Si Maqian’s （司马迁）works, we can see the main characteristics of each school. School of Yin-Yang（阴阳家）: to discipline the world ( the society ) and behave people’s activities, this school had various regulations according to the four seasons and the twenty-four solar terms, and requested people to follow the regulations and made the people afraid of heaven’s penalties if did not comply with them. [5]

As for the School of Confucianism（儒家）, Si Maqian’s works explained that it took Six Skills ( poetry, books, rituals, music, shoot and drive 诗、书、礼、乐、射、御 ) as the basic principle arts. But, because of the countless documents, it was impossible for man to fully master them, so the comment said it was too broad, but no brief points. However, the rituals for social ranks (between monarch and subject and between husband and wife ) were very clear and important. [6]

Based on Si Maqian’s works, the School of Mohsim（墨家） also upheld the principle of the ancient emperors Yao and Shun. Its strong points were it held there was not social disparities between the high and the low in the society, and held to strengthen fundamental things but live the thrifty and simple life ( jie yong 节用) and the general human love（ jian ai 兼爱）as well. [7]

The characteristics of the School of Penalty （法家）said by Si Maqian’s works that when it judged things, the only thing it depended on was law, it did not differentiate the high and the low, close and distant relatives and social connections, so there was no any affection for relatives and high ranking connections. It was good for the strict law application, but could not be last longer, Si Maqian commented. [8]

The School of Logical （名家）was accurately strict with every affairs, so, people normally could not win the debates with them, it also judged things only by logics and did not follow personal affections, so, people said: ‘ it makes people more simple, but it is easy for the School of Logical to miss the real reality ’. But it is very good for its identification between names and realities. [9]

The very important characteristics for the School of Daoism （道家）were inaction and relativity. It believed that doing nothing was doing everything, and it had a strong relative attitude to social affairs and natural laws. It was easy to practice its theory, but difficult to understand its words due to the delicate organization of its words. [10]

The interesting thing is these schools of Chinese classic thoughts seemed interested in playing rules in the social life and the political affairs, according to some scholars, among these six schools, at least four schools as School of Confucianism, School of Mohsim, School of Penalty and School of Daoism were the very important schools of political thoughts at that time. [11] I think it is one of the properties for Chinese academic schools.

2) The formation of the dominant position of Confucianism in Chinese traditional philosophy schools

Though Confucius is generally recognized the representative of Confucianism, it can be definitely to say that before Confucius there existed Confucians, particularly in Yin Dynasty. They were specialized in some humble work like ritual arrangement for funerals. Hu Shi had this standpoint.[12] They were not the important official school at that time.

It was interesting that the School of Confucianism gradually established or gained its unique and important position among all of the academic schools of thinking, especially in Han Dynasty ( 汉朝，206 B.C. to 220 A.D ). I think there are two main reasons for this. One is the development of autocratic system in politics, another is the identification of thoughts.

“ I gained the extreme honor and the greatest virtue, I want the honor and the virtue last for ever, so, I want something could be the extremely important principle for the unification of my dynasty.”[13] This is what Wu Di ( 汉武帝，one famous emperor in Han Dynasty ) said which might be the typical example for the need of the development of autocratic system in politics, and the need of the talents for the purpose.

Dong Zhongshu ( 董仲舒，born in 179 B.C. and died in 104 B.C.) was a famous Confucian in Han Dynasty. It was said he kept three years at home for his hard study without having a glance outside. [14] He believed that it was an important thing for a dynasty to unify the different thoughts, because it benefited the ruling for the dynasty. [15] It was he who proposed the policy to the Emperor that “ ban of other schools, honor Confucianism only （罢黜百家，独尊儒术）” [16]

Though the School of Confucianism had met various intellectual challenges in history, for instance, the challenges from Buddhism, the challenges from western thinking, after Dong Zhongshu, it has been more or less the ruling or official ideology and has kept its unique dominant position in the traditional ideological fields in the history of China.

3) The ideal and the principle of Confucianism

To realize ‘the Great Harmony ’（大同） [17] society or to realize a reasonable social order is the ideal of Confucians. For this purpose and under the properly political situation in the society, the Confucianism gradually formed the principle which has been called ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement ’（内圣外王）. Yu Yingshi considered the principle as “ the Confucian project ” （儒家规划）[18].

This ideal principle is also could be the so called Confucian ‘ Dao ’ （道）, we also can say just because of this principle, Chinese intellectuals ( or Confucians ) have formed a traditional interest in closely involving in the political affairs and people’s daily life since pre-Qin Dynasty. For example, Zhang Zai（张载）, a very famous scholar in Song Dynasty once clearly held that ‘ political affairs ’ and ‘ academic affair ’ （“道学”与“政事”）should be integrated. [19]

We can briefly summarize the three characteristics behind this principle: that is, 1) the stress of morality of inner mind; 2) the identification of metaphysics and the reality and 3) the equality between upper-class elements and the lower- class elements. I think these three characteristics have more or less connection with Wang Yangming’s philosophy.

The so called ‘ inner sacredness ’ （内圣）means Confucianism more stressed the spiritual train in the mind of a person, particularly a VIP in the society. So, being a person should have a sacredness mind, because, according the logic of Confucianism, only with the pure spirit or noble morality, one people can do best thing in practice or realize the ideals of Confucianism.[20]

The second characteristic of this principle is the stress on the identification of metaphysics and the reality. It simply means to combine something in ideology and something in actions together. In my opinion, this is a very high and very difficult requirement not only for Chinese people, but also for human beings in the world.

The third characteristic of this principle is the stress on the equality between upper-class elements and the lower-class elements. From the very early Confucianism document, we can read this characteristic, “spiritual training or personal morality nurse is a fundamental thing, not only for ordinary people, but also for heaven son ”. [21]

4) The challenges of Confucianism in history

The unique and dominant position of Confucianism in the traditional society does not mean there are no any challenges coming from the other aspects. In fact, there were at least two serious challenges faced by the ideal of Confucianism. That is, the challenge came from the other thought schools or doctrines as the doctrine of Buddhism, or the doctrine of Daoism; another challenge came from the ruling classes in political reality.

The Confucian thoughts were challenged by some local ideology, for instance, Xuan Xue (玄学， mysteries ) and foreign ideology, particularly Buddhism during the 1000 years around after Qin Dynasty. It was just because of these challenges, there had risen a Classic Literary Movement （文学复古）at the end period of Tang Dynasty, aiming to return to the ancient and Confucian tradition and regain the dominant position of Confucianism. The leader of the movement is the famous scholar Han Yu（韩愈）, [22] who is the pioneer of Neo- Confucianism and proposed particularly the return to Mencius, and a strong anti-Buddhist.

The Confucian thoughts were also challenged by the political practices of the monarchies in almost every dynasties. It was true to these rulers they played the important role in helping the establishment of the dominant position of Confucianism, but, to a great extent, they inclined to make use of Confucianism only. A Chinese historian Xia Zengyou （夏增佑）pointed it out: “ the respects to Confucianism by these rulers was not due to their real belief in Confucianism, it was just because they considered Confucian doctrine as the most convenient tool for their ruling. ” [23]

In my opinion, these challenges coming both from ideological lashes and political needs in reality really threatened the place of Confucianism in the society on one hand,, but, on the other hand, they also provided some social and spiritual conditions for the development of the idealist philosophy in the dynasties of Song and Ming, especially the development of Wang Yangming’s philosophy in Ming Dynasty., which I am going to introduce in next lecture.

Lecture   two

An introduction to the formation and some key concepts of Wang Yangming’s philosophy

Lu  Qi

Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS

(No A 11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100101, Luq@igsnrr.ac.cn)

June 6, 2011, at EHESS, Paris

In this lecture, I will briefly introduce：1) Wang Yangming’s life stories; 2) The economic and social situations during his time; 3) The thought sources for Wang Yangming’s philosophy; 4) some key concepts of his philosophy; 5)The inherent contradiction of Wang Yangming’s philosophy.

1) Wang Yangming’s life stories

Wang Yangming（王阳明）, born in 1472, it was the eighth year for the Emperor of Xian Zong（宪宗）, the name of year was Chenghua（成化）. His birth place was Yu Yao County（余姚）, Zhejiang Province. His given name was Shou Ren (守仁，means your talent can help you to reach a lofty realm of thought, if you have not have benevolence to keep it, you will lose it [24] ), according to Chinese custom, his style was Bo An. Since he once lived in a cave named ‘ Yang Ming (阳明)’, the scholars at that time called him ‘ Mr. Yang Ming ’[25].

It was said when he was 5 years old, he could not speak, after a monk’s reminding, his grand father changed his original name of Yun to Shou Ren, then he became extremely clever, he could remember the books his grand father once read.[26] When he was 11 years old, he lived in Beijing together with his father and grand father, because his father passed the official exams and became the governmental official and lived in Beijing. [27]

He was a strong-minded man and was with great ambition, even when he was very young. According to his chronicle, when he was about 11 to 12 years old, his teacher once asked him one question ‘ what is the most important thing for man ’, his said ‘ to be a sacred man by reading is the most important thing ’, and when he was 18, he strongly believed reading could help one to be a sacred man, [28] his answer and understanding were against the prevailed knowledge at that time when people only knew that reading was to gain the official position in the society.

Since he had different ambition from the other young people, he did not only study the officially ratified materials of Confucianism ( as Si Shu 四书，or the Great Four Books ). For gaining various and more knowledge, his study fields were very wide, including Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, except reading, he also practiced himself the skills of Daoism ( temple visit ). In addition to the above studies, he studied military knowledge as well. [29]

He was also a honest person in personality. Wang Yangming passed the highest imperial exams at his age of 28, and gained his position in the government as the lower class official. But, it was only after 6 years, his grave criticism to the high ranking eunuch Liu Jin（刘瑾）, he became the first official who nakedly suffered from the serious stick beating at the court of the imperial [30] and was sent into exile to Long Changyi ( 龙场，small post office and official inn ), Guizhou province. [31]

‘ Stick beating at the court of the imperial ’ is one kind of punishment to government officials, it means if an official did or spoke something against the will of emperor, he would be suffer from stick beating before the other officials’ eyes. It appeared in Tang Dynasty, but became the formal penalty to the officials at the beginning of Ming Dynasty, to some extent, it was created by the first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang（朱元璋, particularly, the nakedly stick beating.

He stayed in Long Chang for two years. But it was important two years for the development of Wang Yangming’s philosophy. It was these two-years exile greatly changed his thoughts, and it was in this very difficult place ( spiritually and physically ), after long time pondering, he suddenly realized something and first formed his doctrine of ‘ unity of knowing and doing（知行合一）’.[32]

Wang Yangming was not only a Confucian, but also an excellent military commander. During the three years from his 45 years old to 48 years old, he completed many military victories in putting down the peasant uprisings and the rebellion by the locally royal family in the provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian（江西、福建）. At the same time, he continued elaborating his doctrine by explaining his concepts of ‘ intuitive knowledge （良知）’ and ‘ reaching the intuitive knowledge’ （致良知）in many lectures.

At the end of the year of 1529, Wang Yangming died on the way back from Guangxi to Zhejiang（广西、浙江） when he finished his suppressing battles against minority bandits in mountainous areas of Guangxi. He only lived 57 years in this world, but he realized his own ideal for his life. Before his death, some one asked for his last words, he said “ my mind is bright ”（我心光明）, [33] which showed his personality.  

2) The economic and social situations during his time

There are many statements about the capitalism development in China, some think China is a stagnant society “for thousands of years. If they can improve some day, it is certainly because of foreigners.” [34] Some think, since the middle period of Ming Dynasty, the seeds of capitalism appeared automatically in China. It was in this period a great of changes in economy and society happened to China.[35] That was the situation Wang Yangming faced.

The changes of the society in Ming Dynasty led to some ideological changes in the society. Based on some local chronicles, the attitude of the ordinary people to production mode was changed. The basic tradition ideal model was to stress more on agriculture than commerce, but now it was changed into the model which was to stress more on commerce than agriculture. [36]

In politics, the autocratic system was strengthened by the establishment of spy politics and organization. The strengthened autocratic system was not only to the ordinary people, but also to the officials of the government. There was a story saying every morning when an official went to his office, he had to say good bye to his family, if he safely returned in the evening, the family would celebrate each other. [37]

In economy, the royal family, the eunuchs and the high ranking officials occupied a lot of land by using their privileges, for example, in the prefecture of Fuzhou, most of the land concentrated in the hands of literati and officials, the ordinary people had almost no any land. [38] The land rent and taxes for the peasants became more heavy, in some areas of southern China, they reached as high as 85%. [39]

Official corruption, forcible occupation of land, heavier economic burden, ossified thinking, moral sham, academic scantiness and decadent life-style reflected the general moods of the society. In the eyes of Wang Yangming, ‘ such decadent moods of society has been for a long time, they look like a sick man facing death. ’ [40]

And the empty talk was also seriously existed among the intellectuals or Confucians at that time, they were good at talking and writing about the moralities in feudal society, but they did not do anything correspondent with what they are saying and writing.

Wang Yangming thought that all of these social problems mainly resulted from the following two reasons. One was the social abuse that the general disjunction of knowing and doing in the society, people only say something good, but, they may do things differently. It was just because ‘ learning is in the confusion （学之不明）’. [41]

Another one was he thought that the disjunction of knowing and doing was caused by the theory of Zhu Xi（朱熹）, because, by the theory of Zhu Xi  [42], people knew only to look for the things outside of the mind, but forgot to train his own soul world first. To reverse this social trend, he put forward his doctrines of unity of knowing and doing. [43]

The very interesting thing is we can see something in modern China similar to the phenomena in Song Dynasty. Xiong Shili（熊十力）, one of the liberal writers in the period of Guomindang wrote: “ since the Republic of China ( 1912-1949 ), there are no principles in the upper, and no faith in the lower ”（民国以来，上无道揆，下五法守）, what he critically described could provide us with some reference. [44]

3) The thought sources for Wang Yangming’s philosophy

Wang Yangming’s philosophy is not a religion, but since Wang Yangming was a learned scholar, many different doctrines as the ancient Confucianism, idealism ( or Neo-Confucianism，新儒家 ) of Song and Ming Dynasties, Daoism and Buddhism contributed a lot to his philosophy. He mixed these main stream doctrines together. [45]

Ancient Confucianism source: to some extent, we might say that the information of idealism ( or Neo-Confucianism ) of Song and Ming Dynasties is somewhat Chinese Renaissance，[46] most of the scholars thought it was necessary to return to the ancient real learning and Dao, for example one student of Zhang Zai ( 1020-1077 ) said “ after the death of Confucius and Mencius, the ancient real learning and Dao had lost for thousand years ”.[47]  

Wang Yangming was not satisfied with the decline of the ancient real learning and Dao at that time as well. To be a sacred man had been his ideal from his childhood, and to recover the ancient sacred learning had been his ideal, so, he learned a lot of classics of Confucianism, which influenced him a lot. For instance, his ‘ intuitive knowledge ’ had a close connection with Mencius.

Idealism ( or Neo-Confucianism ) of Song and Ming Dynasties: Wang Yangming did not agree with the theory of Zhu Xi completely, but, as his thinking system is concerned, many concepts as ‘ mind is truth ( Li，理 ) ’, ‘ equality between the sacred man and ordinary people’ are the same concepts held by Lu Jiuyuan (陆九渊，1139-1193 ), there is a clear heritage relation between them. [48] The interesting thing is what he said at 12 years old ‘ to be a sacred man by reading is the most important thing ’ is almost the same as what Zhou Dunyi ( 周敦颐，1017-1073 ) said ‘ the sacred can be reached by learning（圣可学而至）. ’ [49]

Daoism and Buddhism: most of the traditional Confucians were against Daoism and Buddhism during the idealism movement period, it was just because of this objection that caused the rising of Neo-Confucianism. Being one of its members, Wang Yangming was the scholar who severed from Daoism and Buddhism, but, he was not the scholar who was absolutely against them. He once said: ‘Daoism and Buddhism are different from the Dao of the sacred, but, you really can learn something from them ’ .[50] It shows Daoism and Buddhism benefited his thoughts.

4) Some key concepts of his philosophy

There are a lot of demonstrations about his doctrine during his whole life time in his works, but some key concepts are very important for his philosophy. For example, the concepts like ‘ the unity of knowing and doing ’, ‘ intuitive knowledge, or conscience ’, ‘ reaching the intuitive knowledge ’ are the important ones. I think it is necessary for me to briefly introduce these concerned concepts for better understanding his philosophy.

‘ Intuitive knowledge, or conscience, ’ what is ‘intuitive knowledge or conscience ’ ? There are different explanations by Wang Yangming, the different explanations might be depended on the different situations.

First of all, Wang Yangming once frankly said that “ ‘intuitive knowledge, or conscience ’ is my teacher, but thousands of sages are as transient as a fleeting cloud ”（千圣皆过影，良知乃吾师）， [51] from his expression, we can say this concept is extremely important in his mind.

For example, sometimes, ‘ intuitive knowledge ’ means the mind nature which not only has universality, but also has individuality, from this point of view, it is the noumenon as well, so, being the noumenon, it is the basis for the existence of all the things on the earth. We can say it is the explanation from philosophical point of view. “ If there is no human intuitive knowledge within the heaven and earth, it is not the heaven and earth..” （天地无人的良知亦不可为天地矣）[52]  

Sometimes, ‘ intuitive knowledge ’ only means ‘ conscience ’, which everybody has. “ The so called ‘intuitive knowledge ’ actually comes from Mencius he explained. It is just the  ‘ conscience ’ by Mencius, that is the ‘ right and wrong awareness, everybody has, everybody has it without learning.’” [53] The “ intuitive knowledge exists in everybody, there is no difference between the holy man and ordinary people. ” （良知良能，愚夫愚妇与圣人同）[54] It is the explanation from morality point of view or from daily life point of view.

He explained that “ I got the doctrine of ‘intuitive knowledge ’ by experiencing countless difficulties, but has summarized these two words to say to other people. So, I am afraid that people may easily understand the words literally, but normally may have difficulty to fully understand the nature of the words ” [55]. It means that without actions the ‘intuitive knowledge ’ is meaningless. So he had the other concept of ‘ reaching the intuitive knowledge ’ literally with three Chinese characters. 

‘Reaching the intuitive knowledge’: it is also the most important concept of Wang Yangming’s philosophy. He once distinctly said: “ all of my statements in my lectures is only these three words, ‘reaching the intuitive knowledge ’. ” [56] But what is ‘reaching the intuitive knowledge ’? In another place, he explained that the so called ‘reaching the intuitive knowledge ’ is to ‘ make the intuitive knowledge reach everything ’ [57].

But, what is the way to ‘ make the intuitive knowledge reach everything ’? Wang Yangming thought if people closely and faithfully connected his intuitive knowledge with everything he met, so it was to say people really ‘ make the intuitive knowledge reach everything ’. So comes his third concept of ‘ the unity of knowing and doing ’. Through this way, people connect theory and practice.

‘The unity of knowing and doing ’: this is also one of the most important concepts of Wang Yangming’s philosophy. Wang Yangming simply explained it as “ knowing and doing can not be separated at all. True knowing is true doing, and visa verse.” [58] “There is no any complete knowing if without any doing. If only satisfied with knowing, but without doing, it does mean knowing nothing. ” [59]

A very interesting thing is here we find that Wang Yangming absolutely connected knowledge and practice. He considered that dong and knowing is one thing, he even thought knowing itself was dong.

5) The inherent contradiction of Wang Yangming’s philosophy

Chinese philosophy is different from that in the western world. Especially, the statement methodology is inferior to that of the philosophy in the western world. [60] Wang Yangming’s philosophy rooted in Chinese cultural soil, it mainly took intuitive statement methodology as well. In my opinion, it is just because of this methodology that makes some inherent contradictions of Wang Yangming’s philosophy.

Subjectivism is not new, it is the tradition of original Chinese thoughts, for instance, “ the Book of Changes （ Yi Jing， 易经）” says: “ the greatest virtue of heaven and earth is to grow everything ”（天地之大德曰生）, But, I think, death is also the virtue of heaven and earth. So, growing is only one side of the virtue. Saying “ the greatest virtue of heaven and earth is to grow everything ” is only human subjective understanding about the nature, and we only paste this human understanding virtue to nature.  There is no necessary demonstration for its statement. So is for the concept of ‘ mind is the heaven truth （心即天理）’, there is no necessary demonstration for the why.

The contradictory and impossible equality: it is an important and excellent concept in the doctrine of Wang Yangming. It is important to promote personal equality under the social conditions of his time, however, in his doctrine, there existed contradiction. For instance, sometimes, he explained there was the same conscience in everybody’s mind, no difference between sacred man and ordinary people,[61] but, sometimes, he said the mind world of holy man is different from that of the ordinary people. [62]

But, as some people stated that such kind of event, that the mandate of heaven was transmitted to the ordinary people from the rulers ( normally, they were holy people who had the mandate of heaven with them when they were born ) in the traditional politics, never happened to China. It means that it is not everybody to be the holy man. [63]

Relativism and undifferentiated identification: as I said before, Wang Yangming had been influenced by Buddhism, so, there was relativism and undifferentiated identification in his doctrine. For example, the concept of ‘ mind is heaven （心即天）’ [64] undifferentiated the difference between man and nature, and the concept that kindness and evil is one thing [65] also undifferentiated the difference between kindness and evil. And, there were no any analysis to define these concepts.

If we look at it today, to some extent, it is simple to find that if the mind of our human is heaven, if the heaven ( or nature ) is good for ever according to the Neo-Confucianism, there is no any necessities for us to promote our nature.

Wang Yangming’s philosophy is also called the Doctrine of Wang. It produced a great deal of influences on the intellectuals and in the society, but the descendants of the Doctrine of Wang were denounced due to their separation from social reality, [66] even Wang Yangming himself was also denounced as incomplete unity of knowing and doing. [67] For all this, let me introduce further in the coming lectures.

Lecture   three

The differences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy from that of other Neo-Confucians

Lu  Qi

Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS

(No A 11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100101, Luq@igsnrr.ac.cn)

June 9, 2011, at EHESS, Paris

In this lecture, I will briefly introduce：1) The differences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy from other Neo-Confucians in Song Dynasty; 2) The causes for these differences; 3) The influences of Wang Yangming on the Confucians in his time; 4) The enlightenments on the society

1) The differences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy from other Neo-Confucians in Song Dynasty

Many scholars think, after several centuries of different thinking conflicts, Song Dynasty ( A. D. 960-1279 ) is an important period for the development of Chinese thinking world. [68] Chen Lai described the thinking system in this period as “ with pronounced philosophized and dialectic properties. Thinkers in this period had keen interests in considering and analyzing the concepts as universe, human mind and practice.” [69]

When we talk about Wang Yangming, we have to talk about the other thinkers, particularly, we have to briefly discuss the ideas of Zhu Xi, Cheng Yi（程颐）, Lu Jiuyuan who lived about 400 years before Yangming, and do some brief and necessary comparisons. Because, they shared more or less the same thinking system, which we call ‘ Idealism of Song and Ming ’

Zhu Xi ( 1130-1200 ), he was born in Fujian and lived 70 years in Southern Song Dynasty. He is the most important philosopher in the Confucian Renaissance movement. His doctrine had greatly influenced many aspects of life in the society ( including political, ethic, values and even popular customs ). He contributed a lot to the improvement of Chinese philosophy. Because of his outstanding achievements, he was highly praised by the governments. [70]

His interests in philosophical researches were various, but, one of them to which he paid most attention was the objective law, he thought the greatest thing was ‘ heaven truth ’（天理）, ‘ heaven truth ’ was universal law, his key view was how to understand the universal law by achieving objective knowledge day by day. That is why, he was considered by the ideological philosophers after 1950s as ‘ objective idealist ’. [71] His doctrine was more abstractive, and his philosophy was more metaphysical. [72]

Lu Jiuyuan ( 1139-1193 ), he was born in Jiangxi and only lived 54 years. He is also one of the most important philosophers at that time. He had great differences from Zhu Xi in academic views. He was the representative of one of the most important schools of philosophy. His influence on Wang Yangming was great, so, we call Lu-Wang School（陆王学派）.

The doctrine of Lu Jiuyuan is an obvious heritage of Confucius and Mencius, particularly Mencius, which stressed more on subjective world, so he stressed more mind training or ‘ valuing virtue ’, [73] The important concepts kept by Lu Jiuyuan are ‘ universe is my mind, and my mind is universe ’（宇宙即吾心） ‘ my mind is truth ’（吾心即宇宙）and so on.[74] That is why, he was considered by the ideological philosophers after 1950s as ‘ subjective idealist ’.[75]

Though Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan are all Confucian philosophers at that time, there are many differences between the doctrine of Zhu Xi and the doctrine of Lu Jiuyuan in philosophical thinking, the most important difference is Zhu Xi more stressed on looking for knowledge from the objective world, but Lu Jiuyuan more stressed on looking for knowledge from the subjective world. [76]

If considered from the political or ideological point of view, if considered from the basic Confucianism principle point of view, that is, ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’, we can roughly say that Zhu Xi stressed more the services for the government, but Lu Jiuyuan stressed more achievements in the thinking world.

Wang Yangming lived after Lu Jiuyuan’s death 300 years though, there are some similarities between his doctrine and the doctrine of Lu Jiuyuan. For example, Lu Jiyuan stressed on researching inner world ( human morality ) and considering this key range more important than the objective world, so, he proposed the concept of ‘ mind is truth ’. So did Wang Yangming, he also paid more attention to human inner world, so, we can say Wang Yangmig is the student of Lu Jiuyuan.  

Generally, the differences between Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming are more or less the same as the differences between Zhu and Lu. Zhu Xi more stressed on the objective world, but Wang Yangming more stressed on subjective world. But, more specifically speaking, we can say the differences between them focused on two aspects. One is where to gain our knowledge, another is the relation between knowing and doing.

I think where is to gain our knowledge is some what a philosophical question. Zhu Xi held the ‘ truth ’ was the nature of the universe, it was the ultimate thing we want to know, comparatively, our human being was more specific thing. So, we get to know the truth only depended on learning objective thing step by step. But, Wang Yangming criticized Zhu Xi separated mind and truth and he thought we could get everything by our mind. Mind and truth is one thing. [77]

When I wrote here, I think that such opinion of Zhu Xi is more popular and greatly influences people, particularly on the leaders in China, especially in recent decades, most of people think knowledge only comes practice, Mao Zedong is the typical one, his view was practice is the source of our knowledge, without practice, without knowledge.[78]

Another difference between Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming is the relation between knowing and doing. Zhu Xi knew knowing and doing were all important. But, according to the early and later relation of, Zhu Xi held knowing is first and then doing follows. [79] But, in the eyes of Wang Yangming, knowing and doing happened at the same time, we could not separate them at all. [80]

Though we merge Lu Jiuyaun and Wang Yangming into one category, there are some differences between them. For example, as far as the understanding of the early and later relation between knowing and doing is concerned, Lu Jiuyuan did the same as Zhu Xi, he also put knowing first, [81] which is different from Wang Yangming’s view.

Another slight difference between Lu Jiuyaun and Wang Yangming is about the understanding of equality between sacred man and ordinary people. In fact, it was Lu Jiuyuan who had said ‘ don’t demean yourself and too highly value the sacred man ’（ [82], but he still thought the sacred man was different from ordinary people. However, Wang Yangming further reduced the degree of the difference between sacred man and ordinary people, which promoted the status of ordinary people and saw sacred man was everywhere in the street. [83]

More interesting is it reminds me of almost the same opinion from the poem by Mao Zedong. In 1958, When Mao Zedong knew that snail fever was perished in Jiangxi Province where he visited in 1955, he was so glad and wrote “ people of 600 millions are Yao and Shun in China”（六亿神州尽舜尧）, this sentence expressed his ideal.[84]

2) The causes for these differences

The causes for the differences between the Confucians like Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan in Song Dynasty and Wang Yangming are complicated. Social factors, cultural factors and political factors contributed to the differences. But the most important causes are political factors, because, the Chinese intellectuals traditionally have very strong willing to realize their principle by taking part in political affairs.

Yu Yingshi, the American Chinese scholar has provided us with a very interesting study. Based on his research, the political situations in the Dynasties of Song and Ming are quite different, which determined the different ways for the Confucians to take part in the political affairs.  

According to the study of Yu Yingshi, at the beginning period of Song Dynasty, under the inclination of gentle control, the Dynasty gave the favored treatment to the literati and officials of the government. It is said the first emperor Zhao Kuangyin （赵匡胤）had set a rule stipulating his later generations not to kill any ministers and administration officials. [85] It is really a good political condition for these Confucians to realize their principle.

Their principle is what we mentioned the traditional principle of ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement ’or ‘ the Confucian project ’, it means that with purified inner world to achieve the objective successes. Theoretically, it can be used to the whole society ( pure spirit, abundant materials ), the highest rulers ( the emperors ), the intellectuals and the ordinary people.

There was an inclination of Song Dynasty that it practiced more or less the gentle control and the favored treatment to the literati and officials of the government. This inclination made the Confucians and the emperors together to determine ‘ right national affairs ’（国是） in the dynasty. This practice way of together determination of ‘ right national affairs ’ even became the ‘ unwritten law ’ in the dynasty. [86]

It was just because of this practice provided the Confucian officials who had strong Confucian inclination with many opportunities to take part in the policy decision and to realize their ideals for the national affairs. The Political Reform of Wang Anshi ( 1021-1086 ) is a typical example for this cooperation. [87] And, the social management of this model lasted more than 150 years. [88]

But, the political policy to the intellectuals or Confucian officials was different from that in Song Dynasty. The first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had very sharp political sensitivity. [89] He knew if he wanted to control the whole country longer, he had to be respectful and polite to the Confucians, but he did it differently. It seemed he had very deep hostility to the literati and officials. It was he who created the way of penalty of ‘ stick beating at court ’ （廷杖）to the literati and officials in history if they were against his willing. [90]

So, it was more difficult for the Confucians to practice their principle and realize their ideals under such political ecology in Ming Dynasty. Even the very famous, important and successful reformer Zhang Juzheng (张居正，1525-1582 ) [91] had lost the Confucian principle. [92] Though he came from Confucianism and was a typical Confucian, he himself was strongly against the popular activities of lecture by the Confucians. He was a typical technician official. [93]

Since it was difficult for the Confucians to have the supports from the highest rulers to fully realize their ideals in Ming Dynasty, they had to change the direction to carry out the Dao of Confucianism. So, to some extent, if the Confucians in Song Dynasty could realize their Dao from the upper levels, the Confucians in Ming Dynasty had to realize their Dao from the lower levels. That was to enlighten the holy consciousness of the Dao from the lower levels of society. [94]

It was also an important ideal of Confucianism to enlighten the holy consciousness of the Dao from the lower levels of society, this Dao was to prettify or purify the popular customs in the society. It was the famous Confucian pre-Qin Dynasty Xun Zi （荀子）that proposed “ being a Confucian, have to prettify or purify the politics if you are in high ranking place in the government, if you are in the lower position in the society, you have to prettify or purify the social customs.（儒者在本朝则美政，在下位则美俗） ” [95]

3) The influences of Wang Yangming on the Confucians in his time

Wang Yangming was really a great thinker or philosopher in his time. He did make important influences on the development of the thinking world in his time by lecturing his doctrines and educating many scholars. Even, some important modern scholars as Liang Shuming（梁漱溟） Xiong Shili（熊十力）and He Lin（贺麟） etc in 20 century had his influences. For example, Liang Shuming once frankly said: “ I am the scholar belonging to Lu-Wang School. ” [96]

Wang Gen ( 王艮，1483-1541 ) was the representative of ‘ Tai Zhou School ’ ( 泰州学派，one of the branch school of Yangming’s Doctrine ), he came from a very poor family and was the student of Wang Yangming. His major idea was “ anything in the ordinary people’s daily life is Dao ( 百姓生活即道，that is Wang Yangming’s conscience ) ”. He had strong confidence in himself and believed himself the savior of the world. The more interesting thing is he did not want to save the world by action, but by Dao, meanwhile, he was against to serve monarchy by Dao, if so, it was the concubine Dao. [97]

Wang Ji (王畿，1498-1583 ) , he learned from Wang Yangming. He considered his doctrine as ‘ sudden realization doctrine ’. And he also thought there was no good and no evil in the spiritual world of mind, willing, knowing. According to his concepts, if you understand there is no good and no evil, you know material is also no good and no evil. His thinking world had strong inclination of Zen. [98]

Li Zhi (李贽，1527-1602 ) was considered as one of the representatives of individualist in the late of Ming Dynasty. [99] Li Zhi once was the student of Wang Gen’s son Wang Bi（王擘）, however, Wang Gen dad been the student of Wang Yangming. So, it is clear Li Zhi was greatly influenced by Wang Yangming’s doctrine. Briefly, the characteristics of his spiritual world are full of spirits of childlike innocence, freedom, independence and such. His ideas were considered by the official ideology as heterodoxy, he was tragically commit suicide in the government jail. He left his works as “ Hidden Book ”（藏书）.

Liu Zongzhou (刘宗周，1578-1645 ), he learned from Xu Fuyuan （许浮远）and was publicly recognized the great Confucian at the end of Ming Dynasty. He did not like Yangming’s doctrine at first, but he believed it after his middle age, but he revised Wang Yangming’s doctrine and put forward different concepts. Anyhow, he belonged to the Spiritual Doctrine. When the Ming Dynasty died out, he fasted to die. [100]

Huang Zongxi （黄宗羲）was another famous scholar of Lu-Wang School. ( 1610-1695 ). He was the student of Liu Zongzhou. He accepted Wang Yangming’s thought when he learned from Liu Zongzhou, but, he also basically revised Wang Yangming’s doctrine. Some people think he ended Wang Yangming’s doctrine. [101] He not only stressed the importance of individuals, but also denied the traditional concept that monarch could represent the whole society. He pointed out that monarch was the most harmful thing in the society. So, he was considered with some democracy idea. [102]  

The Doctrine of Wang Yangming declined soon after Ming Dynasty, but, it was soon appeared recovery trend to some extent in modern China, particularly after 1840s, when the modernization started in China. He was highly valued by a lot of important scholars as Wei Yuan（魏源）, Kang Youwei（康有为）, Tan Sitong（谭嗣同）, Liang Qichao（梁启超）, Zhang Taiyan（章太炎）, Liang Shuming and Xiong Shili. [103] It did contribute to the thinking enlightenment movement in modern China.

Some Chinese philosophers pointed out the Doctrine of Wang Yangming is an important link in the historical development of philosophy and has a far reaching influence. But, it had especially unfair treatment by ‘ right ’ thought in some certain periods. [104] In my opinion, not only its academic significance was demeaned, its importance in the improvement of national thinking world ( both the elite society and the populace society ) and its significance in social management were completely ignored.

4) The enlightenments on the society

Wang Yangming did bring some fresh air in the thinking world to the society in his time, so that some scholars said that his ‘reaching the intuitive knowledge ’ ( ‘ make the intuitive knowledge reach everything ’ ) “ is the important link of the breakthrough for the Chinese thinking world in 16 century ”[105]

His enlightenments on the society could be viewed from the following two aspects, that is, 1) some new ideas for general social questions; 2) some new ideas for political reforms, as generalized by some scholars.[106]

Some new ideas for general social questions, he discussed the questions as spiritual liberty, academic freedom and respect of individuality. Some new ideas for political reforms, he discussed the questions like to practice harmonious politics, to implement justice politics and to construct healthy social fashion.   

Spiritual liberty: Being one of the Confucianism members, Wang Yangming put forward the concept that it was good for people to give up blind faith in some authority, even Confucius. He said: “ as for the learning, the most important thing for us is you gain enlightenment from your own mind, if your mind tells you that some popularized concepts are wrong, though the concepts come from Confucius, believe yourself ”. [107]

Academic freedom: He once declared: “ the Dao ( the Confucian principle ) is the public Dao in the society, the learning is the public learning in the society, they are not the private things only gained by Zhu Xi and Confucius. ” He also was against academic monopoly and criticized some academic monopolist ( or the so called academic authority ) as “academic thief ”(学贼) [108]

Respect of individuality: He knew that for the nature of man there was common character, but there were various characteristics for the quality of different people, we could not ignore these differences when educated them. [109] He did not agree with the absolute social identification which was welcomed by the rulers at that time.

The harmonious politics:  For social management, Wang Yangming thought being the governor should have reform will, practize harmonious politics and provide people with opportunities for better life.[110] He thought that the harmonious society could only be realized by people loving politics and policies. [111]

Implementation of justice politics: For the social management politics, he advocated to implement social fair and justice, so, only the right people in power, social fair and justice could be realized,[112] kind people could be protected [113] and some upright officials might have no wrong treatment. [114]

Construction of healthy social fashion: He once said: “ the greatest danger for a society is the society is unaware when its social fashions become decadent ” [115] From these words, I think the very important phenomenon of Wang’s Doctrine, which is worth of our notice, is he stressed the cultural background construction for the society.

Lecture   four

The comments on the fates and the consequences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy

Lu  Qi

Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS

(No A 11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100101, Luq@igsnrr.ac.cn)

June 10, 2011, at EHESS, Paris

This is my last lecture, in this lecture, my comments are on the following topics：1) Understanding the principle ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’ and Wang Yangming’s ‘ the unity of knowing and dping ’; 2) The contradictions between rulers’ principles and the principles of intellectuals; 3) The significances and influences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy; 4) We still need such philosophy today.

With the extinction of Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming’s doctrine declined as well. Rulers of Qing Dynasty continued to take the policy to give the intellectual world heavy pressure, under this situation, scholars were in their subjection position and lost their interests in abstract thinking and turned their face to the objective study ( textual researches, 考证 ), they rejected theory, but promoted practice. [116] It almost became another tradition which looked theory study or philosophical thinking as the empty talk.

As far as my understanding is concerned, Wang Yangming’s doctrine or philosophy is abstract but also practical as well. So, this long term neglect of his thinking easily has resulted in lacking abstract thinking ability for Chinese people, and at the same time, if we lack of interest in abstract  or philosophical thinking ability, we also can not practice well in general.

1) Understanding the principle ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’ and Wang Yangming’s ‘ the unity of knowing and doing ’

As we mentioned before the principle of ‘ inner sacredness and outer achievement ’ is the basic and traditional [117] anticipation. I don’t know if it still lives in the minds of most of the intellectuals today in China, but I do know it was greatly criticized and damaged during the ‘ New Cultural Movement ’ and the ‘ the Cultural Revolution ’. Because the total value of Confucianism was completely denied and materialism was worshiped in these two great political and cultural movements. [118]

As far as my understanding, logically, the traditional Confucian principle of ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’ is simply means that if people want to achieve desirable results objectively, people have to be with holy mind or strong mind ( mind full of wisdom, rationality, knowledge, kindness, mercy etc, such status of mind is more or less like the noble characteristic ) first.

More specifically speaking, though it might only mean that without such mind first, the monarchs or officials of the dynasties could not achieve desirable results, however, at the same time, it might provide the theoretical possibility that this principle latently might be used for every people, whether she or he comes from upper classes.

If we use this principle to serve the macro aim, that is, the political management purpose of the society, the rulers should have self training and the justice to manage the society, so that they can attain desirable results, the society may be well managed. If the principle is used to the improvement purpose of individuals, it also means without such personal inner training, without desirable personal achievements for individuals.

Being a traditional intellectual and being an official of the government, this principle is the only principle for Wang Yangming if there was any possibility, he would not hesitate to carry out this principle. But, as I mentioned before, when he met the difficult political situation and could not realize his dream, he turned the direction to practice this principle by his own way, that is, to carry out his doctrine in more popular way-lecturing.

As we said before there was an important concepts in his doctrine, that is, ‘ to understand everything by reaching your intuitive knowledge to everything ’. To practice his concept of ‘ to understand everything by reaching your intuitive knowledge to everything ’ depends on carrying out his another principle of ‘unity of knowing and doing ’.

So, we can say that there is a close identification between the principle of ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’ and the principle of ‘unity of knowing and doing ’ by Wang Yangming. For him, the principle of ‘unity of knowing and doing ’is the principle of ‘inner sacredness and outer achievement’.

But, the difference is that the traditional principle mainly serves the making of holy monarch, Wang Yangming’s principle serves not only monarch ( if possible ), but also serves to make everybody holy. But, when his doctrine is used for ordinary people, something different will take place. The result may be positive, or negative.

From positive point of view, the possibility is it can greatly improve the realm of the spiritual world of any people whatever the social position he or she belongs to. So, we can infer that the society is composed of all such kind of people, or at least most of the civilian are with high realm of spiritual level. The society becomes a peaceful, mercy, moral world.

But, from negative point of view, another possibility is because of the great improvement of the spiritual world of individuals, the ego becomes expanded. Everyone may think himself the best in the world, everyone may think himself always right in the world, or everyone may think his own interest is the most important in the world. So, we can infer that the society is composed of all such kind of people, or at least most of the civilian are the most selfish, in this case, the world will be full of irrational competitions and evils. Wang gen provided us an example to some extent.

2) The contradictions between rulers’ principles and the principles of intellectuals

As everybody knows, China has a long term tradition of autocratic politics for ruling the country. A lot of scholars think this phenomenon is one of the factors that makes China behind other developed countries in modern history. [119] Almost all of the rulers and their officials have had the dream of mastering all rights to control his people. Because, right can bring them with “ hundred times profits ” [120]

So, for the interests of royal families and the official groups, how to maintain the ruling rights firmly in their hands as longer as better is the key purpose for them. Based on their ruling experiences they know if they can keep the right longer, they have to have something justified for the public, they know Confucianism principle can provide them with this possibility. So, to use it for their purpose is the rulers’ultimate principle.

In traditional Chinese society, Confucians are not the rulers, but they belong to the elite society, they have their interests attained from the rulers, they are the components of the ruling class.[121] They are not the real rulers, but they think they are the spiritual rulers. Because of their education, they think they are the representatives of the society or the public. The principle for them is to maintain the public interest more important than the royal family interest. [122]

In my opinion, we can look at the contradiction between rulers’ principle and the principle of Confucianism from two aspects. On one hand, there is obvious contradiction ( or conflict ) between rulers’ principle and the principle of Confucianism at the first glance, one purpose is merely for more selfish goal ( wrong ), anther is for more public interest ( right ).

But, at the same time, we can see there is an inherent mutual benefit relation between rulers’ principle and the principle of Confucianism on the other hand. Briefly, for most of the cases, they need each other. During the long historical process, the Confucians have become the servants of the royal families or political autocracy, [123] their spiritual influence is much weaker than the political power.

As the result, one interesting phenomenon is that the culture which is without subject awareness and independent consciousness has gradually become more popularized, under this cultural atmosphere, people merely the tools of the government [124] and lost their independency to choose their values, and even they don’t know how to choose and they don’t know what is right to choose.

For the more specific case of Wang Yangming, the contradiction between rulers’ principle and the principle of Wang Yangming is almost the same as the contradiction between rulers’ principle and the principle of Confucianism. But, a slight difference and the interesting difference is existed, it is simple because his principle is strictly stress on the real unification of your knowing and your action for monarch, for high ranking officials and even for ordinary people.

But the tragedy is after his death, his doctrine or his philosophy vanished as well. His spiritual world has been long ignored. During as long as 400 years, to chase after the outer achievements ( as modernization, material construction and so on ) has become the main trend ideology in China. The spiritual world construction has become weaker. If we say the contradictions between rulers’ principles and the principles of intellectuals is vanished. The contradiction between rulers’ principle and the principle of Wang Yangming is existed.

Why I say it is the tragedy that we have ignored his doctrine or his philosophy, because I think something valuable in it, because I think if history really gains progress, the progress has to not only contain the progress of material world, but must also contain the progress of the spiritual world. If there is no progress of the spiritual world, we hardly to say we have already achieved the real progress.

3) The significances and influences of Wang Yangming’s philosophy

I don’t think that Wang Yangming’s doctrine or his philosophy is completely correct, but, I believe there is something valuable in his doctrine or his philosophy which is still worth of being picked up by us, the valuable thing is his doctrine discussed deeply about the importance of moral and cultural backgrounds for the development of national character in a society.

Zhang Taiyan（章太炎）, a famous scholar in the period of Republic of China, summarized Wang Yangming’s doctrine with a very brief sentence, he said: “ if there are some merits for Wang Doctrine, they are only two things, the self-respect and the fearless ”. [125] They are actually moral characteristics. It means Wang Yangming’s doctrine stressed on moral reason development.

The discussion on morality for human being existed long time ago, Socrates once said: “good virtue is knowledge.” As my understanding, Socrates connected moral reason and knowledge reason together, which formed the tradition of parallel moral reason and knowledge reason relation in the west. From this point of view, I might say Wang Yangming’s doctrine is more or less closer to the western tradition. But, in his eyes, moral reason is a little bit more important and difficult to gain than that of knowledge reason.

Traditionally, Chinese people could not correctly look at cultural phenomena ( reading, morality, philosophy, various arts ), yes, there is a proverb saying‘ everything is humble, but reading ’（万般皆下品，唯有读书高）but it doesn’t reflect the real importance of reading, it is just because reading can bring you the opportunity to be an official in the government, that is to say, if reading, morality, arts and thinking etc could not bring with real material benefits, they are useless.

Reading is most important in traditional society, but such attitude is not for real reading, is not for the moral training of your mind, but for real material benefits. We had another prevailed concept that reading was the useless thing during the Cultural Revolution. These two opposite concepts reflect the same attitude to reading actually. Such kinds of phenomena reflect we can not have the right attitude to reading.

Zhang Taiyan, provided us with a comparison between the different influences of Wang’s doctrine on the social developments in Japan and China. He summarized that it was because of the sturdy national character that Japan succeeded in making use of Wang’s doctrine and realized its modernization. But, Chinese national character was perfunctory, so, they had Wang’s doctrine, but they failed in making use of it for its modernization.[126] The different national character resulted from their different attitude to reading, I guess.  

Zhang Taiyan’s statement comes from 岛田虔次, “ The Reverse of the Thought in Modern China ”, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2005, p. 217. note 16. This book tells us some tragedy stories about Wang Yangming’s student descendants as Li Zhi.

Another American-Chinese scholar Sun Longji （孙隆基）also wrote such influences of national character in his book “ the Deep Structure of Chinese Culture ” published in USA in English almost 30 years ago, under the long autocratic ruling conditions, one of the shortcomings in the traditional culture of China is the populace is badly lack of self-restrain spirit, on the contrary, they need the management from outer force.[127]

The very basic reason for the above shortcoming is there lacks independency consciousness in the spiritual world of the Chinese people. If the philosophy of Wang Yangming is integrated into the culture, to some extent, it might have positive significance to the society.

So, the first significance of his doctrine or philosophy I want to say is it is helpful to enlighten the independency consciousness of the populace and let them know their rights and know how to correctly judge and monitor the social justice, though it is difficult.

As everybody knows that the decline of public morality in many ways has seriously continued in China today which possibly threatens China’s future, this phenomenon even has lasted for more than hundred years.[128] So, I think his doctrine or philosophy may help to improve the level of the spiritual world or moral world for the people and let them know how to behave themselves correctly.  

4) We still need such philosophy today

In recent years, the soundest voice for the central government of China is to build a harmony society. It reflects the dream of the urgent social management need. Its goal is to realize the establishment of the harmonious relations between man and nature, government and the people, officials and the ordinary people, the rich and the poor and so on. So, it is clear we still need his doctrine right now and in the future.

China looks successful in material world, but still faces a lot of environmental and social problems, such as the corruption in official circles, irrational inequality between the rich and the poor, the trust crisis, food security crisis and the continuous environmental pollutions. In my opinion, all these problems root in one basic problem, that is, the moral world collapses. In other words, China is successful in outer achievement, but unsuccessful in inner world construction. I may briefly provide you with some cases for illustration below:

The corruption in the official circles is now a very serious and popular phenomenon, [129] but, the legal sentence normally is light. According to a recent report, since 2009, there 18 high ranking officials ( vice ministers ) have been sentenced to legal punishment for the corruption of huge money, for examples, the amount money corrupted by the chairman of China Oil ( Chen Tonghai ) and the vice mayor of Hangzhou ( Xu Maiyong ) reached respectively to 0.2 billion and 0.3 billion yuan, but there is no death punishment, only the stay of execution for them. [130]

I know unequal distribution is long exited and the worldwide problem, but now it is becoming more serious in China, in the socialist country which has the equality as its ultimate aim. According to a piece of news, the rich who has over 10 million yuan has reached 170000 in Beijing, every 100 people has one,[131] the per capita annual income of the non-state owned enterprises is 65683 yuan. [132] This huge gap shows the unequal distribution between the rich and the poor is seriously irrational.

Moral problem dose not only happen to the powerful and rich people, it also happens to the ordinary people, for instance, peddler. It was reported recently, for better sale, some peddlers smoked their ginger by sulphur. If people eat such kind of ginger long time, it is harmful to the health of the people. [133]I mean such kind of ugly things happen to both upper society and lower society.

Another serious food security problem is the various additives disorderly or uncontrolled used, only in the first half of this year, we can have many cases reported in the newspaper. According to these reports, we can find that the usage of chemical additives happen to many food processing, as in the powder food processing mainly in Henan,[134] rice processing more general, [135] milk processing in Zhejiang,[136]salted meat processing in Guangzhou [137] and so on. People are worried about their food security.

Ecological and environmental pollution and damage events are also frequently happened to China. More ridiculous thing is some serious pollutions are caused by some famous star enterprise. One example is in Hebei Province, one company named “ Sincerity Company ” is the star enterprise, but it has been the bigger polluter to the environment nearby for many years. A lot of chemical elements and poisons polluted the local water conditions, the residents have to buy water for their life. [138]

“ Haijiu Battery Factory ” is also a example enterprise in environmental protection. But, recently, people found that adults and children in the villages nearby have polluted by lead, at least 19 families showed the medical check report to certificate their children are polluted. [139]

One Academician Chen Junshi, when expressed his comments on the food security problems, said: “ the most difficulty in monitoring these problems is that millions of producers don’ t listen to words ”. [140]But, in my opinion these problems root in the morality lose. It seems for me it is our society provides an atmosphere, that outer material or money is the most important thing. Inner sacred is nothing.

In my opinion, another piece of news could be the most typical example to illustrate the money or material worship phenomenon in China. It reported on April 7, 2011 of “ the Daily of New Beijing ” that the professor of Beijing Normal University, Dong Fan, who said after 20 years of graduation, if his student could not be worth of 40 million yuan in social status, it is better for his student not to come back to see him. [141]

In my opinion, if everybody ( both the social manager and ordinary people ) has prettified mind ( good morality ) by remembering the principle ‘ inner sacredness and outer achievement ’ in his mind and behave himself to carry out the principle throng Wang Yangming’s principle of ‘ the unity of knowing and doing ’, all of the above problems could be better solved step by step, to some extent.

So, we still need Wang Yangming’s thought today. But the social and environmental conditions are quite different from that in wang Yangming’s time, if we practice his principle, it is also necessary for us to further study his doctrine and to correctly understand his principle before hand and then correctly carry out his principle.

At the end of my lectures here, I ‘d like to say my grateful feeling to Prof. Berque, your attention and patience and the invitation of your institute. I believe my stay in Paris, in France or in Europe in next 20 days around must be very happy.

References：

1. Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008.

2. Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009.

3. Huang Zongxi, “The Academic History of the Confucians in Ming Dynasty ”, Chinese Publishing House, 2008.

4. Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” or “ Chuan Xi Lu ”, Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008.

5. Zhang Xuezhi, “ Essays on the Idealisms in Traditional China ”, China Social Sciences Press, 2006.

6. Edited by Wu Guang, “ The Comprehensive Studies on Yangming Doctrine ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009.

7. Liang Qichao, “ The Academic History in the Recent Three Hundred Years ”, Shanghai Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 2006.

8. Feng Youlan, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2000.

9. Qian Mu, “ The Academic History in the Recent Three Hundred Years ”,  The Commercial Press, 1997.

10. Edited by Hou Wailu, “ Outline History of Chinese Thoughts ”, The Chinese Youth Press, 1980.

11. Edited by Ren Jiyu, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, People’s Press, 1966.

12. Dong Ping, “ Stories of Wang Yangming ”, The Commercial Press, 2010.

13. Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004.

14. Wang Shouren, “ The Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Press of Shanghai Classics, 1992.

15. Lin Yusheng, “ Creative Transformation of Chinese Traditions ”, Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 1988.

16. Lin Yusheng, “ The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness ”, The People’s Press of Guizhou, 1986.

17. 岛田虔次, “ The Reverse of the Thought in Modern China ”, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2005.

18. Xunzi, “ Brief Annotations on Xunzi ”, by Zhang Shitong, Shanghai People’s Press, 1974.

19. Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006.

20. Xiao Gongquan, “A History of Political Thoughts in China”, Hebei Education Press, 1999.

21. Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1959.

22. Yu Yingshi, “ Humanity, Democracy and Thoughts ”,  Dolphin Press, 2011

23. Noted by Yang Bojun, “ Notes on the Analects of Confucius ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1980.

24. Cai Fanglu, “ Zhu Xi and Chinese Culture ”, Gui Zhou People’s Press, 2000

25. Mou Zongsan, “ The Questions and Development of Song-Ming Confucianism ”, Eastern China Normal University Press, 2004.

26. Liu Zehuan, Wang Maohe and Wang Lanzhong, “ The Autocratic Right and Chinese Society ”, Jilin Culture and History Press, 1988.

27. Noted by Yang Bojun, “ Notes on the Analects of Mencius ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1962.

28. Sun Longji, “ the Deep Structure of Chinese Culture ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2004.

---

[1] See Ge Zhaoguang, “ The World of Knowledge, Ideas and Believes before 7 Centuries in China ”, Press of Fudan University, Shanghai, 1998, p5, note 2

[2] Quoted in Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p.309-310.

[3] “ There are a hundred of academic schools of thoughts, but are not perfect ”, see Xunzi, “ Brief Annotations on Xunzi ”（荀子简注）, by Zhang Shitong, Shanghai People’s Press, 1974, p.276.

[4] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”（史记）, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3288.

[5] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3290.

[6] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3290.

[7] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3290-91.

[8] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3291.

[9] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3291.

[10] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 130, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3292.

[11] Xiao Gongquan, “A History of Political Thoughts in China”, Hebei Education Press, 1999, p.17.

[12] See Hu Shi, “ Discussion about Confucians ”, Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2005, pp.31-79.

[13] Ban Gu, “A History of Han ”, vol. 56, copy 8, Chinese Publishing House, 1962, p.2495.

[14] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, vol. 121, copy 10, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, p.3128.

[15] Edited by Ren Jiyu, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, copy one, People’s Press, 1966, p.65.

[16] Ban Gu, “A History of Han ”, vol. 56, copy 8, Chinese Publishing House, 1962, p.2523.

[17] There are some other translations, as ‘ The Great Unity ’, ‘ Grand Union ’ and so on, see Xiao Gongquan “ Modern China and A New World ”, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2007, p.329.

[18] The concept of ‘ the Confucian project ’ was proposed by American Chinese scholar Yu Yingshi, and the English version of it was translated by him, see his works  “ The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p.315.

[19] Yu Yingshi, “ Humanity, Democracy and Thoughts ”, Dolphin Press, 2011, p.57.    

[20] We can see such explanation of this principle in many scholars’ works for example, Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009; Lin Yusheng, “ Creative Transformation of Chinese Traditions ”, Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 1988; “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006.

[21] Zhu Xi, “ Notes to ‘ the Four Books’”, Yuelu Press, 2008, p. 6. The so called ‘ the Four Books ’ are ‘ the Great Learning ‘; ‘ the Doctrine of the Mean ’; ‘ the Analects of Confucius ’ and ‘ the Analects of Mencius ’.

[22] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, pp. 17-21.

[23] Quoted from Xiao Gongquan, “A History of Political Thoughts in China”, p. 16, note 19.

[24] See Noted by Yang Bojun, “ Notes on the Analects of Confucius ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1980, p. 169.

[25] “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.1220.

[26]  “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.1221.

[27]  Dong Ping, “ Stories of Wang Yangming ”, The Commercial Press, 2010, p. 11.

[28] “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.1221, 1223.

[29] Dong Ping, “ Stories of Wang Yangming ”, The Commercial Press, 2010, p. pp.32-35.

[30] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 16

[31]  “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, pp.1227.

[32]  “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, pp.1229-1230.

[33] “ The Chronicle of Wang Yangming’s Life ”, see “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.1324.

[34] Edited by Timothy Brook and Gregory Blue, “China and Historical Capitalism: Genealogies of Sinological Knowledge”, New Star Press, 2005, p. 4.

[35] Fu Yiling, “ The Statement about the Social Changes in the Periods of Ming and Qing Dynasties ”, People’ s Press, 1989, pp. 160-199.

[36] Quoted Fu Yiling, “ The Statement about the Social Changes in the Periods of Ming and Qing Dynasties ”, People’ s Press, 1989, pp. 161.

[37] Quoted Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p.351.

[38] Zhang Tingyu etc, “ History of Ming ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1974, vol. 203, copy18, p. 5363.

[39] Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008, p.6.

[40] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.814.

[41] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.884.

[42] Some one thought that Wang Yangming’s thought system is the reaction to the philosophy of Zhu Xi, see Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, p. 200.

[43] Edited by Wu Guang, “ The Comprehensive Studies on Yangming Doctrine ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p.161.

[44] Quoted Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p. 271.

[45] Edited by Wu Guang, “ The Comprehensive Studies on Yangming Doctrine ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, pp. 125-139.

[46] I am happy to see the statement below, which is very close to my idea, “ the movement of ancient Chinese prose, Chan sect and Neo-Confucianism shared many similarities with the Renaissance in the West. ” see Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, p.13.

[47] Quoted Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, 28.

[48] Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, pp. 185-189.

[49] Quoted Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p. 12.

[50] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.231.

[51] Wang Shouren, “ The Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Press of Shanghai Classics, 1992, p. 796.

[52] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ”, Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 345.

[53] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 971.

[54] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ”, Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 179.

[55] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 1279.

[56] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p.990.

[57] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 168.

[58] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ”, Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 161.

[59] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 29.

[60] Feng Youlan, “ History of Philosophy in China ” ( first copy ), Press of Normal University of East China, 2000, p. 7.

[61] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 205.

[62] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 1231.

[63] Lin Yusheng, “ Creative Transformation of Chinese Traditions ”, Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 1988, p. 90.

[64] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 277.

[65] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 312.

[66] Huang Zongxi, “The Academic History of the Confucians in Ming Dynasty ”, Chinese Publishing House, 2008, p. 1470.

[67] Edited by Wu Guang, “ The Comprehensive Studies on Yangming Doctrine ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, 221.

[68] For example, Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, pp. 346-362; Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, p. 13 and its preface; Cai Fanglu, “ Zhu Xi and Chinese Culture ”, Gui Zhou People’s Press, 2000, pp. 7-8. etc.

[69] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, preface.

[70] See Cai Fanglu, “ Zhu Xi and Chinese Culture ”, Gui Zhou People’s Press, 2000, pp. 1-2.

[71] Edited by Ren Jiyu, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, ( third copy ), People’s Press, 1966, pp.232-256.

[72] Mou Zongsan, “ The Questions and Development of Song-Ming Confucianism ”, Eastern China Normal University Press, 2004, p. 38.

[73] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, pp. 146-147.

[74] Mou Zongsan, “ The Questions and Development of Song-Ming Confucianism ”, Eastern China Normal University Press, 2004, p. 131-132.

[75] Edited by Ren Jiyu, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, ( third copy ), People’s Press, 1966, pp.257-268.

[76] See Mou Zongsan, “ The Questions and Development of Song-Ming Confucianism ”, Eastern China Normal University Press, 2004, pp. 131-135; Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, pp. 61-79.

[77] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, pp. 167-168.

[78] Mao Zedong, “ On the Practice ”, see “ Selected Works of Mao Zedong ”, ( first vol.), People’s Press, 1966, pp. 271-286.

[79] Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008, pp. 144-145.

[80] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, pp. 161.

[81] Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p. 125.

[82] Quoted Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p. 188.

[83] Wang Yangming, “ Quotations from Wang Yangming ” , Press of Zhongzhou Classics, 2008, p. 373.

[84] Edited by Fu Jianzhou, “ Poems of Mao Zedong ”, Yili People’s Press, 1999, p. 293. Yao and Shun were the emperors long time ago. They have been considered sacred men.

[85] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 348.

[86] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 349.

[87] Deng Guangming’s book “ The Stories of Wang Anshi ” also provides an interesting study about him. See Deng Guangming, “ The Stories of Wang Anshi ”, People’s Press, 1975.

[88] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 349.

[89] About his story, see Wu Han, “ The Story of Zhu Yauzhang ”, Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 1965. Wu Han, the former vice mayor of Beijing, and was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.

[90] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 12, pp. 349-351.

[91] About his story, see Liu Zhiqin, “ How a Reformer Formed – the Premier of Ming Dynasty Zhang Juzheng ”, Modern China Press, 2007; Zhu Dongrun, “ A Story of Zhang Juzheng ”, The Hainan International News Publishing Center, 1993.

[92] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 55.

[93] Liu Zhiqin, “ How a Reformer Formed – the Premier of Ming Dynasty Zhang Juzheng ”, Modern China Press, 2007, 261-263.

[94] Yu Yingshi, “The Idealist Philosophy and the Political Culture in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2006, p. 12, pp. 359-361.

[95] Xunzi, “ Brief Annotations on Xunzi ”, by Zhang Shitong, Shanghai People’s Press, 1974, p. 62.

[96] See Liu Zongxian, Cai Guide, “ Yang Ming Doctrine and the Modern Neo-Confucianism ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, pp. 217-244.

[97] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, 269-280. Some people thinks he shared similarities with existence belief of Jean-Paul Sarter, see Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008, p. 137, footnote 1.

[98] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, 252-268.

[99]岛田虔次, “ The Reverse of the Thought in Modern China ”, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2005, p. 77-112. He did excellent comments on Li Zhi.

[100] Chen Lai, “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, 292-310.

[101] Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008, p. 182.

[102] Edited by Ren Jiyu, “ History of Philosophy in China ”, People’s Press, 1966, fourth copy, p. 14.

[103] Yang Rongguo, “A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2008, p. 5.

[104] Feng Qi, “ the Preface to ‘ A General Survey of Wang Doctrine - from Wang Yangming to Xiong Shili ”; Also see the preface of Chen Lai to his book “ Idealist Philosophy in the Dynasties of Song and Ming ”, Press of Normal University of East China, 2004, the study on Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming Dynasty had been seriously ignored since 1920s in 20 century.

[105] Yu Yingshi, “ Humanity, Democracy and Thoughts ”,  Dolphin Press, 2011, pp. 91-93.

[106] Edited by Wu Guang, “ The Comprehensive Studies on Yangming Doctrine ”, Press of People’s University of China, 2009, p. 54-60.

[107] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 76.

[108] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 76.

[109] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 76.

[110] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 429.

[111] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 640.

[112] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 820.

[113] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 548.

[114] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 624.

[115] Wang Shouren, “ the Complete Works of Wang Yangming ”, Shanghai Classic Press, 1992, p. 866.

[116] Liang Qichao, “ The Academic History in the Recent Three Hundred Years ”, Shanghai Press of Life, Reading and New Knowledge, 2006, p. 1.

[117] To say it is traditional, because it has a long history, for examples, Confucius had the statement that good politics depends on virtue ( see Noted by Yang Bojun, “ Notes on the Analects of Confucius ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1980, p. 11 ); Mencius also said to practice benevolence politics  ( see Noted by Yang Bojun, “ Notes on the Analects of Mencius ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1962, p. 10 ).

[118] Lin Yusheng provided an interesting and profound study on this topic in his book “ The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness ”.

[119] For example, the book “ The Autocratic Right and Chinese Society ” by Liu Zehuan, Wang Maohe and Wang Lanzhong, Jilin Culture and History Press, 1988.

[120] Si Maqian, “ Records of History ”, Chinese Publishing House, 1959, pp. 2506-2507.

[121] Some people said since Confucius, the Confucians started to flatter the autocratic right. See “ The Autocratic Spirit of Confucianism Pre-Qin Dynasty ”, by Li Xiantang, the Press of People’s University, 2003, p. 9.

[122] Mencius did have this idea, he said: “ people is more important than monarchs ”, see “ Notes on the Analects of Mencius ”, Noted by Yang Bojun, Chinese Publishing House, 1962, p. 328.

[123] See Liu Zehuan, Wang Maohe and Wang Lanzhong, “ The Autocratic Right and Chinese Society ”, Jilin Culture and History Press, 1988, pp. 233-257.

[124] Liu Zehuan, Wang Maohe and Wang Lanzhong, “ The Autocratic Right and Chinese Society ”, Jilin Culture and History Press, 1988, pp. 252.

[125] Zhang Binglin, “ The Complete Works of Zhang Taiyan ”, ( vol. 4 ) Shanghai People’s Press , 1985, p. 369. about the moral nature of Wang Doctrine, also see “ Essays on the Idealisms in Traditional China ”, China Social Sciences Press, 2006, by Zhang Xuezhi,

[126] See岛田虔次, “ The Reverse of the Thought in Modern China ”, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2005, p. 217. note 16.

[127] See Sun Longji, “ the Deep Structure of Chinese Culture ”, Press of Guangxi Normal University, 2004.

[128] Edited by Liu Zhifeng, “ Moral China ”, China Social Science Press, 1999, pp.5-18.

[129] Even the prime minister Wen Jiabao admitted that the corruption is the most serious crisis at present in China. See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, Mar. 15, 2011.

[130] Source is the Golden Goat Networks, May 11, 2011.

[131] See  “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, April 13, 2011.

[132] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May 4, 2011.

[133] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May27, 2011.

[134] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May22, 2011.

[135] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May21, 2011.

[136] You can see such reports in “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, Feb.19, 2011;

[137] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, April, 28, 2011.

[138] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May 3, 2011.

[139] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May 6, 2011.

[140] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, May 16, 2011.

[141] See “ The Daily of New Beijing ”, April 7, 2011.