Wang Yangming's "Pulling Out the Origin" Thought

Pu Yao Xue Palace

Wang Yangming established the premise of his "theory of the origin of the pull-out", which pointed directly to the fundamental question of "what is the study of saints". Although the "Theory of pulling out the source of the book" is only the last part of the answer to Gu Dongqiao's book, compared with the answer to the specific questions of Gu Dongqiao's book, which is mainly aimed at Gu Dongqiao, this last part has a fundamental significance of the general theory, and thus also has a relatively independent significance.

Wang Yangming's thought is very rich, and although the theory of "pulling out the source of the root" put forward in his later years was highly valued in the wangmen at that time, it received less attention in the contemporary era. Therefore, here we will sort out some of its ideas and their practical significance, so as to promote the study of this idea.

Solution: Pull the source of the plug

Wang Yangming's "Treatise on the Origin of the Pulling Of The Origins" was originally the last section of his "Reply to Gu Dongqiao Book", which is published in the middle volume of the "Records of Transmission and Practice". The "Annals" jiajing four years in September under the "answer to Gu Dongqiao Xuanshu you", it can be seen that the chronology is to tie this answer to the fourth year of Jiajing, Wang Yangming is fifty-four years old.

The Book of Answering Gu Dongqiao is an important work of Wang Yang in the next year, and its weight in academic thought is equivalent to that of a work. Although the "Theory of Pulling Up the Origin of the Origin" is the end of the answer to Gu Dongqiao's book, Yang Ming himself has pointed out that the part before the end is mostly answering questions on scattered questions, and has not yet talked about fundamental issues. In a passage immediately following the Treatise on the Origin of The Pulling-Up, he says:

The reason why the saint is a saint is that he is born to know it. And those who interpret the Analects say: "He who is born to know, righteousness." If the famous things of the Fu Li are happy, the events of ancient and modern times will also be learned and then tested in order to test the reality of their actions. ”

If there is such a thing as the famous things of Fu Li Le, if there is a merit of holiness, and the saint must be learned and then be able to know, then the saint cannot be said to be born to know! To say that a saint is a living and knowledgeable person refers exclusively to righteousness, and not to the liturgical music name, it is the liturgical music name object that has nothing to do with the work of holiness.

The reason why the saints call them the one who is born to know refers specifically to the doctrine of righteousness, and not to the name of liturgical music, is that those who learn and know only should learn and know this righteousness, and those who are sleepy and know should only be trapped in knowing this righteousness.

The scholar who learns the saints today has not been able to learn and know what the saints can know, and those who seek to know what the saints cannot know think that they have learned, and they have lost their hopes for the saints. All those who are confused by my son, and who are slightly divided, do not reach the theory of "pulling out the source of the source".

It was only after this passage that the discussion of the "Plucking Origin Theory" began. The words quoted here as "interpreters of the Analects" are yin's words quoted in the chapter of Zhu Zi's "Commentary on the Analects of the Analects" and "Those I Am Not Born to Know", so it is clear that Yang Ming's discussion is aimed at Zhu Zixue, because Gu Dongqiao himself is a Zhuzi scholar, and he holds the position of Zhu Zixue to argue with Wang Yangming.

In fact, since the beginning of the first volume of the "Chuan Xi Lu", the criticism of Zhu Zi in the quotations can be said to be everywhere, which is the consistent attitude of Yang Mingcheng since he became a scholar, and it is not surprising. However, Yang Ming's quotation of Yin's theory here is not to criticize his theory, but to prove the rationality of his argument by means of the Yin's theory quoted by Zhu Zi.

That is to say, the knowledge of social culture is learned by the saint and then known, and the moral principle is known by the saint without learning, so the essence of the saint is not what he learned later, but what he has mastered differently. To learn the sages, one should not seek what the saints have learned and then learned, but should concentrate on what the saints can know, so that the focus of learning is on moral doctrine rather than concrete knowledge.

In this way, by listing morality-knowledge pairs and emphasizing the priority of moral righteousness, Wang Yangming established the premise of his "pull-out theory of the source of the source", pointing directly to the fundamental question of "what is the study of saints".

Although the "Theory of pulling out the source of the book" is only the last part of the answer to Gu Dongqiao's book, compared with the answer to the specific questions of Gu Dongqiao's book, which is mainly aimed at Gu Dongqiao, this last part has a fundamental significance of the general theory, and thus also has a relatively independent significance.

Only in this way, after Wang Yangming's death, his disciples later learned to independently name this passage as the "Theory of the Origin of The Pulling-up", which gave this passage a special place in the history of science and the history of thought. This article is devoted to the discussion of the ideas of this passage of the Purana Seiyuan Theory, and does not deal with the content before the last text of the Reply to the Book of Dongqiao.

Let's focus first on the section that serves as an introduction:

If the theory of "pulling out the source of the source" is not clear in the world, then the learners of the saints under the heavens will be in difficulty day by day, and the Si people will fall into the knowledge of the beasts and beasts, and they will think that they are the learning of the saints; although my saying may be temporarily clear for a while, it will eventually freeze in the west and the ice is firm in the east, the fog will be released in the front and the clouds will be in the back, and the people will die in danger, and the pawn will not be saved by the world!

The term "Baben Saiyuan" first appeared in the ninth year of the Zhao Gong in the Zuo Zhuan. Cheng Yi, the founder of the Song Dynasty, once said: "Just for posterity to seek benefits, there are disadvantages, so Mencius pulled out the source and refused to speak of profit." "Tendency is chasing, it can be seen that "pulling out the source" in the science of science is for the idea of partiality and evil, especially the idea of pursuing selfish interests. As the saying goes, "water has a source, trees have roots", and pulling out the source of this is to emphasize the removal of the foundation of these ideas and block the source of these ideas.

As far as Wang Yangming is concerned, what he calls the source of the pull-out is mainly based on "selfish desires" and "utilitarian poison"; and the correct method of pulling the source of the pull-out is, in his opinion, to resort to the real and uninterpreted "study of the saints". In his view, if we do not understand that the study of saints is aimed at pulling out the source of the source, such scholarship will be cumbersome and difficult, and those who pursue the study of saints in the world will fall into this kind of false study of saints and drift farther and farther away from moral righteousness.

Therefore, sun Qifeng, the great Confucian of the late Ming Dynasty, commented: "The theory of pulling out the source of the book takes the universe as one family and the heavens and the earth as one body." It is really sad, painful, indignant, it is a concentrated big text, and it is also a number of words in the world. ”

Although Wang Yangming does not explicitly point out the academic objects of his criticism here (later he explicitly criticizes the four miscellaneous sciences such as memorizing and reciting dictionaries), we know that what he is talking about here includes the Zhu Zixue that he has always criticized, and the complicated difficulties he said should also include the Zhuzixue's lattice and material exhaustive kung fu.

In addition, we know that Wang Yangming took "to conscience" as his purpose in his later years and always publicized the theory of "to conscience" everywhere. Here, he stressed that if we do not understand his theory of "pulling out the source of the source," although his theory of conscience can be accepted by everyone for the time being, in the end I am afraid that erroneous ideas will arise one after another, and "pressing the gourd and rising the scoop" will not solve the fundamental problem.

From this point of view, his theory of pulling out the source of the source has become the key to Wang Yangming's "conscience" thought being able to spread and become popular in the world in the sense of practice. Throughout the text, the removal of the utilitarian mind of selfish desires and the attainment of conscience are the two key points of yang and night thought, and the theoretical basis for the removal of the selfish utilitarian mind here is the idea of The Oneness of All Things. If according to this article, the idea of All-That-Is is to be implemented to eliminate selfish desires and restore the original mind, then it can also be said that the Theory of All-That-Is and the theory of Conscience together constitute the main body of Wang Yang's moral philosophy in the next few years.

The Bright Body: The Study of All-That-Is and the Saints

In the Treatise on the Origin of the Baben Sai, Wang Yangming put forward the elaboration of the heart of the saint, the study of the saint, and the teaching of the saint, which is also the purpose of this article. He said:

The heart of a saint is one with heaven and earth and all things as one, and he regards all the people under the heavens as one, no one outside, near or far, and whoever has flesh and blood is the relative of his brother and son, and he does not want to be safe and cultivate him, so as to fulfill his idea of the unity of all things.

The hearts of the people under the heavens are not different from those of the saints, especially in the midst of selfishness, separated from the cover of material desires, the great are small, the commons are plugged, and everyone has his own heart, and even regards his fathers, sons, and brothers as enemies.

The saints have worries, but they teach the world by pushing the benevolence of the unity of heaven and earth and all things, so that they all have the same thing as their selfishness, remove their concealment, and restore the sameness of their minds and bodies.

To learn the teachings of the saints, it is necessary to understand the hearts of the saints and the teachings of the saints. Wang Yangming believes that if the heart of a saint is expressed in one sentence, it is "to make heaven and earth and all things one." What is "oneness of heaven and earth"? According to Wang Yangming, the saint regards the people of the world, whether he has a relationship with him, whether he has social relations, whether he is far or near, as long as he is flesh and blood, as long as he is a living person, the heart of the saint will be regarded as the baby of his brother or relative, and he hopes to make them safe, to raise them, to educate them, to realize and satisfy his mind of The OneNess.

Wang Yangming believes that all the people in the world, their original minds (that is, their original minds), were not separated from the saints in the beginning, and they were all one with the heavens and the earth; it was only later because they were blinded by the selfishness and material desires of the individual that they separated themselves from the heavens and the earth and all things, and they could no longer have the consciousness of the oneness of all things. The saints were so anxious about this that they established the teachings of the saints to enlighten the people of the world. The content of the teachings of the saints is to promote "the benevolent one with the heavens and the earth and all things as one" to eliminate people's selfish hearts, remove their deception, and restore people's original hearts and minds.

"The benevolent one takes heaven and earth as one" was first proposed by Cheng Hao of the Song Dynasty, using "taking heaven and earth as one" to explain "benevolence", and developing the classical Confucian understanding of "benevolence". Wang Yangming inherited this point and regarded this point as the basic connotation of the "heart of the saint" and as the basic content and starting point of the "religion of the saints". The teachings of the saints are to teach people to overcome the blindness of individual desires and to restore the essence of the mind, that is, the original state of the mind, with such the benevolence of All-That-Is. He added:

The great end of his teachings, yao, shun, and yu, are taught to each other, and the so-called "Tao heart is small, only the essence is the only one, and it is allowed to cling to the middle."

And its program is Shun's fate contract, the so-called "father and son have relatives, kings and subjects have righteousness, husband and wife are different, the elderly and young are orderly, and friends have faith" five. In the tang, Yu, and three generations, the teachers only used this as a teaching, and the scholars only used this as a learning.

When it is, there is no dissent, no different habits in the family, and those who are safe are called holy, and those who encourage this are called virtuous, and those who carry this are as enlightened as Zhu Yiyi. Down to Lujing, fields, farmers, workers, merchants, and Jia Zhiyi, all of them have learned, but they can only do their moral deeds.

Who? There is no miscellaneousness of hearing, no trouble of memorization, no excesses of rhetoric, no utilitarian rush, but let him be filial to his relatives, brothers to his elders, and believe in his friends, so as to restore the sameness of his heart and body. If it is inherent in the cover of sexuality, and not those who are false, then what can not be done?

Wang Yangming believes that the teachings of the saints have a program and a purpose, and the main program of the saints' teachings is the mantra that Yao Shunyu taught: "The Tao is small in heart, only the essence is the only one, and it is allowed to be in the middle." These few words are found in the "Great Yu Mo" chapter of the ancient Shang Shu, which means that the Dao mind is very subtle, and it is necessary to cultivate the mind using the methods of Jingyi and Zhongzhong. The "Taoist mind" is the direct revelation of nature, which is not mixed with any selfish desires. "Jingyi" is the state of concentrating on the Taoist mind, and "clinging to the middle" is to persevere and make it go on.

The program of the Religion of the Saints is to keep the Great Book, and the entry of the Religion of the Saints is to lead to the Tao. The main entry of the religion of the saints is the five religions of the ancient book that record Shun's fate in The Qi: "Father and son have relatives, kings and subjects have righteousness, husband and wife are different, elders and children are orderly, and friends have faith", the reference to these five religions has been found in Mencius, that is, the five kinds of human ethics and their norms. This is the Dadao, and the Dadao is the universal principle.

Father and son, monarchs, husbands and wives, elders and children, and friends are the five most basic social relations valued by the ancients, and there are correspondingly five kinds of human norms: fathers and sons should have family affection, monarchs and subjects should talk about obligations, husbands and wives should have differences, elders and children should talk about order, and friends should talk about credit. Here, Jingyi Zhizhong is inner cultivation, and the five teachings and shun are social norms. From ancient times to the Three Dynasties of Xia and Shang Dynasties, educators were educated with the content of "Dao Xin Jing I" and "Five Teachings and Shun", and learners also studied completely with the content of Dao Xin Jing Yi, Wu Jiao and Shun.

Wang Yangming believes that in ancient times, not only did the nobles above the rank of scholar learn from this, but also from the ordinary people of Lujing, fields, farmers, workers, merchants, and Jia, all of them were learned, that is, they all learned from the Tao Xin JingYi, the Five Teachings, and Shun. He believes that in ancient times, no matter whether they were noble or lowly, people practiced "only to achieve their virtues and deeds", which is what Wang Yangming understood as "the study of saints".

Why were the ancients able to "do their work only with virtue"? He believes that the main reason is that in that era, there was no use of seeing and hearing to disturb people's hearts, there was no use of memorizing the study of cluttered people, there was no general lesson in lexicography, and there was no popular trend of utilitarian pursuit, and the social and cultural environment only urged people to be filial to their parents, respect their brothers, and be honest with their friends in order to restore people's hearts. It can be seen that when Wang Yangming advocated the study of saints, he also attached great importance to the role and orientation of people's social and cultural environment. Here, Wang Yangming also expressed a clear criticism of the four miscellaneous sciences of lexicography, the study of memorization, the study of smell, and the study of utilitarianism.

"Inherent in sexual division", this sentence is originally derived from Zhu Zi's "University Chapter and Sentence Order", Zhu Zi took the "University" as the religion of the first king and the saint, so Wang Yangming was also affected by Zhu Zi's "University Order" when discussing the religion of the saints. His learners have the influence inherent in knowing their character." Zhu Zi's "University Chapter and Sentence Order" describes the ancient teaching method and learning, and Wang Yangming's above exposition can be said to be another teaching theory put forward from a different position from Zhu Xi's "University Chapter and Sentence Order". Wang Yangming believes that the teachings of the ancient saints are not chaotic, but only the five religions of the Taoist heart; the human heart is also pure and clear, and only to achieve moral behavior. This is the golden age of "teaching" and "learning".

It should be pointed out that the original words of the "Sixteen-Character Heart Transmission" of Shangshu Dayu Mo have four sentences, that is, "The human heart is in danger, the Taoist heart is small, only the essence is the only one, and it is allowed to be in the middle", while Wang Yangming only mentions the last three sentences, and does not mention the first sentence "People's hearts are in danger". This is obviously because it is inconsistent with his original thoughts, because "the human heart is in danger" is an unreliability that emphasizes the human heart. According to the Sixteen-Character Heart Transmission, the human heart and the Taoist heart should be possessed by human beings, and the human heart even ranks ahead of the Daoist heart, and the requirement of the saints to learn is to carry forward the Daoist mind and restrain the human heart. Wang Yangming, on the other hand, believes that the Taoist mind is the original mind and is the first nature.

According to what he said here, the human heart is born after the loss of the heart of unity, and it is the blinding of man's selfishness plus material desires, and the original mind cannot be embodied, and only then does the human heart of "each man has his own heart" is formed. However, Wang Yangming's thinking also has its inherent ambiguities, such as, where does my selfishness come from? If, as expressed here, the selfishness of having oneself and the original mind seem to be possessed by birth, why is it that the Tao mind is the original mind and the selfish desire is not the original mind?

If this is because reason is the heart and desire is not the heart, then how to explain the sixteen-character "human heart" theory? If both the Taoist mind and selfish desires are innate, can a person be freed from selfish desires when he restores the Daoist mind? It can be seen that on these issues, Wang Yangming's psychology has not yet been dealt with very satisfactorily.

Success: Ann divides the industry and the world's family

Wang Yangming went on to discuss the idea of An Fen Qinye, which is also worth noting that there is also the influence of Zhu Zi's "University Chapter and Sentence Order" and the idea of "what is inherent in sexual divisions" and "what is inherent in the duties".

Guys,

In schools, only those who are virtuous, and whose talents are different, or who are good at liturgy, good at politics and religion, and good at planting water and soil, are virtuous, and because they are refined, they can be in the school.

It is not easy for a man to hold his post for life. Those who use it are only of one heart and one virtue, and the people of the world are regarded as whether they are able to do so, and they regard talent as no, and they do not regard humility as the weight, and labor and leisure as beauty and evil; the utility also knows that they are of one heart and one virtue, and the people of the world are in a state of common security, and if they are able to do so, they will be in a troubled drama all their lives and will not think of labor, and they will be content with triviality and not as lowly.

When it was, the people of the world were bustling and looked at each other as if they were relatives of the same family. Those who are under the quality of their talents are divided into farmers, workers, merchants, and Jia, and each of them is diligent in his own work to live and nurture each other, and there is no heart for Xi Gao to admire the outside world. The difference in their talents is like Gao, Gong, Ji, and Qi, and they all have their own abilities.

If a family does its own business, or buys its food and clothing, or knows whether it has it or not, or prepares its instruments, and gathers its strength and efforts, in order to fulfill its wishes to look up to it, lest those who do it neglect or neglect it will be tired of themselves.

Therefore, he is diligent in his deeds, and he is not ashamed of his ignorance of teaching, and he regards the good teachings of the contract, that is, the good religion of oneself; the good teachings of oneself; the practice of one's own pleasure, and the general etiquette of oneself, that is, one's own general etiquette.

Wang Yangming believes that ancient schools took Chengde as the fundamental pursuit, and under this premise, they also attached importance to the cultivation and development of talents. The liturgical music mentioned here is culture in a broad sense, politics and religion are political administration, and water and soil sowing are agriculture. Human talents are different, each has its own strengths, and school education is under the leading policy of Chengde, so that individual abilities and strengths can be developed and reach a more profound level.

In ancient times, the appointment of talents in the country took virtue as the first priority, and then made people engage in a full-time job for life. The appointees are also of one heart and one mind, and together they aim for the peace of the people of the world. Zhu Zi's "University Chapter and Sentence Order" said that "the duties should be done", that everyone has their duty in the division of social occupations, Wang Yangming put this idea into play even more, so that the idea of abiding by duties has become the focus of this article. This is different from Wang Yangming's assertion in the Records of Transmission and Practice that "夔, 稷易艺 and when they are also able to do it".

In Wang Yangming's imagination, in the ancient era, the people of the world were like a family, and the division of labor and the attitude towards the division of labor were also like in a family, content with their duties and would not care about each other. Like in a family situation, where a family works together to fulfill the desire to live, each person is afraid that the things they bear are not done well and increase the burden on others.

Therefore, Hou Ji diligently engaged in his cultivation affairs, and did not feel ashamed of not knowing how to educate, in his opinion, everyone is safe in their work, and they do not have the concept of dividing work into high and low, nor do they envy the work of others. Because they all see each other as one family. He added:

Gai Qi's mind is pure and clear, and there is the benevolence of all its all-that-is, so its spirit flows through and its ambition is clear, and there is no distinction between people and themselves, between things and me. For example, the body of a person, seeing, hearing, holding, and walking, for the benefit of one's body.

The eyes are not ashamed of their wisdom, but the ears are involved, the eyes will be blind; the feet are not ashamed of their non-attachment, and the probe of the hand will be enough to go forward; cover their vitality, the blood veins are smooth, it is an itch to breathe, feel the divine response, there is a self-evident wonder.

The learning of this saint is therefore easy to be simple, easy to know and easy to follow, and easy to learn and easy to become, and it is the same as the big end of the complex mind body, and the knowledge and skills are not the same.

The "study of the heart" here refers to the study of the healing of the mind. Why did the ancients achieve such a peaceful state? That is because their study of mind management is pure and clear, and can preserve the inherent benevolence of all-things in their hearts, so that their spirit can flow through you and me, their ambition can reach others, and their spiritual ambition is no one's own distinction, and there is no separation between things and me.

Just like the human body, the ears, eyes, hands, and feet are all to meet the needs and use of the body, and do not consider each other important. Because the human body is one, the qi flows around in one body without being deficient, and the blood vein runs smoothly in one body, so the mutual induction and cooperation between the various parts of the body are very tacit.

The study of the saints is very simple, never complicated, easy to understand and easy to practice. The study of the saints is both easy to start and easy to achieve, because the main point of the study of the saints is to restore the a priori identification of righteousness in the heart, rather than to focus on the accumulation of knowledge and skills. If you pursue knowledge and skills, that kind of scholarship cannot be simple and effective.

The theory of All-That-Is originally directed to the people-friendly practice of the scholars, and here Wang Yangming also applies the idea of "making heaven and earth all things one" to the argument of the theory of peace and duty, which is different from the point of his other places when he talks about the meaning of All-That-Is.

Debate: Hegemonic folklore and the poison of utilitarianism

However, the golden age of teaching and learning in ancient times has declined after three generations, and after Confucius and Mengmeng, various miscellaneous "techniques" have emerged, and the teachers no longer teach the Oneness of All Things, and the scholars no longer learn from the OneNess. Wang Yangming particularly criticized the "hegemonic arts" of the Spring and Autumn Warring States and the legalists who advocated the power of magic:

In the decline of three generations, the king's way was extinguished and the hegemony was rampant; Kong and Meng were neither, and the sacred learning was obscure and heretical; the teachers no longer took this as a teaching, and the scholars no longer learned from it.

The tyrant, the one who steals the similarity of the previous king, pretends to be outside, and helps his own selfish desires from inside, and the world is calm, and the way of the saints is blocked.

Similar to each other, the theory of seeking wealth and strength every day, the conspiracy of deception, the plan of attack, all the deceitful and reckless, the temporary gain, the art of hunting for profit, if the guan, shang, Su, and Zhang belong, it is innumerable.

Even if it is long, the struggle and robbery will not be overcome, and the Slovak people will be reduced to beasts and beasts, and the hegemony will not be able to do anything.

Wang Yangming recounts the evolution of academic history as he understood it. After Kong Meng, the royal path sank and hegemony prevailed, and the Holy Learning Sect was drowned out by heresies. At that time, the popular science of hegemony, advocating hegemony, stole some fragments of the words of the previous king as a flaunting to the outside world, in fact, in order to seek their own selfish interests.

The whole world follows this trend to pursue the study of the hegemon, and the path of the saints is blocked. Therefore, treacherous schemes and armed attacks prevailed, and as long as they could meet the temporary results, as a means of gaining fame and fortune, all methods of deceiving the heavens and deceiving people could be adopted. At that time, there were many such hegemonic disciples like Shang Martin, Su Qin, Zhang Yi, etc.

Over time, such battles and struggles caused countless calamities, and the people were reduced to people like beasts and Yidi, so that hegemony could not be practiced. In Wang Yangming's view, the assertion of strong competition and selfish utilitarianism completely overwhelms the civilization of value and morality, and such a world will no longer be a civilized world, and it is impossible for people to accept this world forever.

The reason why Wang Yangming mainly criticizes hegemony and legalists is not only because it is the earliest miscellaneous science that appeared after Confucius and Meng, but also because he believes that hegemony and legalism are the main representatives of utilitarian science and have become the root of utilitarianism in academic history.

The Confucians of the world, grieving, searched for the canonical laws of the First Holy King, and picked up and repaired them in the embers; they covered their hearts, and liang also wanted to save the way of the first kings.

The sacred learning is far away, and the transmission of hegemony is already deep, although it is known in the sages, it is not free from habitation, so it is explained and modified, in order to seek the restoration of the world, it can only increase the barrier of the hegemon, and the door wall of the sacred learning is no longer considerable.

Therefore there is the study of exhortation, and the transmission of the name; the learning of memorization, which is considered to be bo; the study of words and chapters, and the extravagance of beauty. If people are all registered, the group stands in the world, and they do not know how many of them are, and they do not know what to do.

Here Wang Yangming recounts the academic chaos and its historical occurrence and evolution. When he said, "searching for the canonical system of the first holy king, and picking up and repairing it in the embers", he refers to the "Book of Rites" and other works collected by Confucians from the early Han Dynasty to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and the study of exegesis, the study of recitation, and the study of words and chapters refer to the classics, literature and other scholarships from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. In short, in his view, the scholarship after Mencius has left the study of the sages, so that scholars do not know where to go, and this great academic historical judgment is consistent with the judgment of Song Dynasty Taoism.

The scholars of the world, such as entering the field of a hundred plays, jumping with joy, dancing with joy, being skillful, offering laughter and contending, competing on all sides, looking forward and looking forward, should not be left behind, and the ears and eyes are dazzled, the spirit is confused, day and night wandering and drowning, like a person who is sick and mad, he does not know where his family business belongs.

The lords of the world are also comatose and upside down on their sayings, and they have been engaged in useless fiction all their lives, and they do not know what they are called. Occasionally, there is a sense of emptiness, absurdity, and stagnation, and those who are self-motivated and want to see the truth of their actions are extremely resistant, but they are only stopping for the cause of the five hegemons of wealth, strength, and utilitarianism. The learning of the saints is getting darker and darker, and the habits of utilitarianism are getting more and more interesting.

In the meantime, although they have tasted the temptations of the Buddha and the old man, the Buddha and the old man have not been able to have the heart to overcome their utilitarianism; although they have tried to compromise with the group Confucianism, the theory of the group Confucianism has not been able to break its utilitarian view in the end.

As for the present, the poison of utilitarianism has been reduced to the essence of the human heart, and the habit of becoming a nature has been accustomed to for thousands of years.

Successive generations of learners have faced this situation, as if entering an acrobatic field, full of all kinds of acrobatic performances, in which the learners are forward-looking, overwhelmed, mentally confused, overwhelmed, and eventually may lead to the complete loss of self and falling into a situation of not knowing the homework.

Not only scholars, but also successive monarchs have been fascinated by these doctrines, pursuing empty and useless articles all their lives, and not understanding what these are. In the middle, a few people of insight appeared by chance, aware of the absurdity and fragmentation of these scholarships, and rose up to seek change, and tried to replace them with learning practiced in close connection with practice, but the ultimate state they reached was only a rich and powerful utilitarian cause. What is referred to here should be a figure and scholar like Wang Anshi.

Wang Yangming believes that although such people have been influenced by the Buddha, who originally wanted people to dispel all utilitarianism, the Buddha's doctrine did not overcome their utilitarianism in the end; they also compromised with the doctrines of different schools of Confucianism, and all schools of Confucianism rejected utilitarianism, but the theory of Confucianism ultimately failed to break their utilitarian views. To this day, the poison of utilitarianism has penetrated deep into the heart of man, and habits have influenced nature for thousands of years.

These expositions are intended to point out the impact and consequences of the academic chaos in history on the learner, and to discuss the origin and evolution of utilitarianism. Here, Wang Yangming specifically pointed out that the "utilitarian view" centered on selfish desires is the fundamental obstacle to the study of saints, and believes that the utilitarian habit has become the culprit that poisons society and culture. This is still relevant today.

Abuses: Ethos and Academics

The above points out the impact and result of the academic chaos in history on learners, and then Wang Yangming specifically describes and analyzes the phenomenon that these learners are out of utilitarianism and unable to keep their responsibilities after they become officials, mainly aiming at the official atmosphere and study style of the current scholars:

Know each other, roll with each other, compete with each other for profit, high with skills, and take each other's reputation. The one who comes out of the money valley wants to be punished by the husband, the ceremonial musician wants to be with Yu Quan axis, the county is thinking of the high level of the domain, and the jutai is looking forward to the need of the ruler.

Therefore, if you cannot do anything, you must not be an official at the same time; if you do not understand what he says, you cannot ask for his reputation. The breadth of memorization is suitable for longevity; the greatness of knowledge is suitable for doing evil; the knowledge is suitable for discernment; the richness of words is suitable for decorating its falsehood.

It is the things that gao, 夔, 稷, and deeds cannot do at the same time, and now the beginning of the school students all want to understand their theories and pursue their skills. His name is arrogant, and he does not know that I want to make the world a common business; and where his sincerity and sincerity lie, he thinks that if he is not good, he will not be able to help his selfishness and satisfy his desires.

The poison of utilitarianism corrupts the atmosphere of social culture, and selfishness has become the inner master of man, so they are proud of each other with knowledge, demean others with skills, and use each other's power to crush each other, compete for interests, and compete for fame. Learners grew up in such an academic environment, and when they became officials, the officials in charge of the economy and financial management wanted to be in charge of both the military and the criminal law, the officials in charge of the management of the ceremonial music wanted to concurrently serve as the selection of the organization, the envy of the county and the county orders (the envoys of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the envoys were called the clans), the officials in charge of the Taiwan Counsel always wanted to be the prime minister, and everyone did not have the concept of segregating and keeping their jobs.

Since he does not have the ability to do a certain aspect of the matter, he cannot concurrently hold an official position in this aspect; without knowing a certain aspect of knowledge, he cannot gain the reputation of this aspect, so the breadth of the recitation is making him proud, the increase of knowledge is helping him to do evil, the breadth of smell can only enable him to exert his eloquence, and the beauty of the dictionary is just used to cover up its hypocrisy. Therefore, the ancient Gao, Chu, Ji, and Chi An divided the profession of keeping the work and did not seek to be both, and today's beginners want to understand and study it at the same time.

"Only a few things can become the affairs of the world" is the words of the "Yi Zhi Ci Biography", on the surface they say that they want to use this to jointly achieve the affairs of the world, but in fact, they think in their hearts that they cannot get the satisfaction of their selfish desires without this, to put it bluntly, it is only for the sake of promotion. It can be seen that Wang Yangming's concern about the safety and management of work is not aimed at the agricultural, industrial, and commercial Jia, but at the atmosphere of scholars. In his view, the scholar-doctor atmosphere is full of selfish wisdom and utilitarianism, and has become the main symptom of corrupt society. 1 These still deserve our deep reflection today.

The last paragraph ends:

alack! If it is a stain, if it is a heart, and if it is an academic, it is advisable to hear the teachings of our saints, and to regard it as a wart chisel, then it is not enough to be conscience, and it is said that the study of saints is useless, and it is inevitable that it will be complete!

Whoops, the soldiers are alive, and why ask the saints to learn! Why talk about the learning of the saints! The scholar who wants to be a scholar is not only hard and difficult! Not only is it rigid and dangerous!

Woohoo! Sadly! Fortunately, the heavenly reason is in the hearts of the people, and in the end, there is something that cannot be lost, and the clarity of conscience, once in eternity, will hear my theory of "pulling out the source of the root", there will be compassion but sorrow, affection but pain, anger and anger, and it will be like a river and a river and some invincible! Who do I look forward to those who have nothing to wait for?

With regard to those who oppose his theory of conscience, Wang Yangming pointed out that with the historical habit of hegemony and utilitarianism, with the current mentality of people, with the influence of this kind of scholarship that people have accepted in the past (that is, the study of exegesis, the study of recitation, and the study of words), when they hear my teachings of the saints, they will naturally oppose them, thinking that my teachings are superfluous and useless, or that they feel that The Fang is as incompatible as the circle, so that they think that conscience is not sufficient, that the study of the saints I am talking about is useless, and these reactions are inevitable.

However, how does an intellectual life pursue the study of the saints in today's time? How to comment on the study of the saints? Isn't it very laborious and difficult and sad for an intellectual life to pursue the study of the saints in this day and age, and to have so many miscellaneous studies in front of him?

However, conscience is the virtue of the human heart, and everyone has it all, and it is unchanged and consistent throughout the ages, so if people hear my theory of "pulling out the source of the source", they will certainly be compassionate and sad, affectionate but painful, indignant and unstoppable, like rushing through the flow of rivers and rivers and irresistible, to pursue the appearance of conscience. Therefore, in addition to the heroic people who have risen up without waiting for anything else, who else can I expect!

When talking about Yang Yangming's idea of "all-that-is-oneness" in the next year, Wang Yangming pointed out: "In his ordinary life, he risked the world's non-slander and fell, and he died all his life, not to mention not forgetting to preach, but he was afraid that my people would not hear the Tao, and would be in a utilitarian and witty way, and would fall into the Yidi beasts without realizing it; his heart of unity and unity of things would be a lifelong oneness, and as for his death, he would die later." This Kong and Meng had come to the sages to be bitter, although the disciples of the disciples were not enough to comfort their feelings. ”

This thesis is completely in line with the ideas of the "Theory of the Origin of The Pulling-Up", which shows that "flowing from utilitarian wit" and "falling into Yidi beasts" are Wang Yangming's most prominent diagnoses of the academic utilitarianism and official morality degeneration at that time, and the "OneNess" theory he preached was precisely to deal with the diseases of the social reality at that time.

In fact, "utilitarian wit" is also a common disease in our contemporary society. This shows that Wang Yangming's text still has its significance that cannot be ignored for the moral self-cultivation of contemporary cadres and officials and the improvement of life in the broad society.