Philosopher Wang Yangming

I chose to write about the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming who is also calligrapher,
military general, politician and writer during the Ming dynasty and he lived between 26, October
1472 to 9, January 1529. I chose to write about him because his philosophical views are both
simple to understand but also revolutionary and insightful at the same time. I also agree with
most of his teachings especially concerning the study of heart and the need to learn by intuition
instead of cramming everything in this world that we can find without finding value in them that
can significantly change our lives for the better or develop our mental and spiritual wellbeing. He
was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang province to a scholarly family. He earned two degrees named juren
and later junshi after taking the Chinese imperial examinations. He later served as executive
assistant in various government departments but he was later banished after offending a eunuch
in 1506. Wang also became a successful military general and he was able to destroy rebel
military forces in his time (Wikipedia, 2021). So we can see that he is a capable person with
great accomplishments and he proved to be a great statesman and general. In addition to his
military and political success he was also interested in spiritual schools of taught like the
Buddhists and the Daoists and he later incorporated both of these schools to his philosophy.

He is known to develop and save the study of heart and this study of heart lives from the Ming
dynasty to the present day. The documents of his taught are considered equivalent to Analects of
Confucius. Through his teachings he opposed and ridiculed the ‘vulgar learning’ that was
prevalent in his time. Vulgar learning includes such activities as memorizations and recitations,
literary compositions, studying texts and broad learning (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
n.d). For him all these activities are learning the external world for its own sake and he as a Neo-
Confucian considers these to disregard the true purpose of learning: construction of the moral
self (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d). So he encourages people to examine and
contemplate on things that they study rather than to merely memorize them. He mentioned that
we love and appreciate a lovely sight not because we are told to so by other people but because
we are inspired from within to love and get happy with the view of the beautiful geographical
scene so we have intrinsic and intuitive knowledge within us that tell us what is good and bad or
what is beautiful or ugly and we do not need to go to school to acquire it since we already have it
and if we are honest to it, it will enlighten us to every true knowledge and insight. Wang stated
that the knowledge that we get through vulgar learning is indirect or ordinary knowledge which
may not be as useful as the ‘real knowledge’ that we get through experience where we appreciate
the inspirations and relevance of the things that we are studying (Raysstyle, 2019).

Wang accepts some of the Cheng-Zhu style of learning which is the investigation of things in
search for moral principles in the external world as well as in the mind. Wang believes that the
internalization of moral principles resolves many problems that vulgar learning created. Wang’s
idea that ‘the mind is principle’ reflected his views clearly (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
n.d.). This can loosely be explained by saying that our mind has a perfect moral principles and
insights and if we follow it without following our selfish desires and changing or amending its
insights to fulfill our impulsive desires then we can be more righteous and content with our life
than if we seek to get all the external knowledge which is potentially limitless so we will end up
being miserable and always dissatisfied.

He also explained his views on the world and how we interact with it. He as a Confucian
considered the teachings of the Buddhists as forgetting the external world and trying to depart
from it as a prerequisite for being enlightened rather he emphasized the fact that we cannot
detach ourselves from outside world. In order to resolve the question “Is there anything in the
world which is outside of our mind?” he formulated an answer that would not contradict with his
initial views by redefining the external world. He defined the external world not as something
which lives out there distinct from the mind but rather as a thing to which the operations of mind
are directed. This shows that the external world is a thing that we experience with our senses and
we perceive and understand that information from the senses in our minds and create a world
inside of us about the external world. So in a sense the external world and our mind are not
distinct but rather they are coextensive entities. This philosophy of Wang is very insightful and
extraordinary because it was able to describe the complex metaphysical and epistemological
concepts by himself without access to well organized and advanced philosophical teachings. His
teachings are very close to those of Immanuel Kant who also described the difference between
the noumena and the phenomena which are the reality that lives out there and the reality that we
can perceive in our mind respectively. As Kant tried to show that we cannot know or explain the
external world beyond what we can sense through our sense Wang also stated the same thing and
he also says that we cannot say that there are things out there distinct from our mind when we are
sensing, perceiving and thinking about them.

He also proposed a theory that he is mostly famous for which states the unity of knowledge and
action. According to this philosophical taught knowing and acting are inseparable. He states that
there never have been people who know but do not act. Those who know but do not act simply
do not know yet. This is a very relevant concept and it can even be helpful to us. It teach us not
to procrastinate and to say that I know how to do this and that but I chose not to do it because if
we do not do that task this means we do not know about the thing enough yet to practice it yet
otherwise we would have acted what have known.

We can learn a lot from Wang Yangming. First, he teaches us to investigate the things that seem
unapproachable or untouchable knowledge or facts. If we can find some missing or contradictory
concepts in the teachings or theories of others we can try to resolve those theories and find a
better solution that can be more coherent and non-contradictory as Wang did with his encounter
with the teachings of Daoists and Buddhists. We can also learn to be more analytical in
approaching any theories or concepts instead of being offended or pushed by things that we
consider alien to our way of thinking. Wang used to be interested in many different schools of
taught at the same time and study all of them at once this indicates his inner brightness and his
search for truth in all the other theories. Instead of hating or disregarding them he studied them
critically and he incorporated them into his teachings. We can also pick something from the
teachings of other people no matter how alien they might seem from our way of thinking.
References:

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(n.d.).Wang Yangming.https://iep.utm.edu/wangyang/

Wikipedia.(2021).Wang Yangming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yangming

Raysstyle1.(2019).Wang Yangming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5kIpVLoUM4