How to understand Wang Yangming's psychology?

Pu Yao Xue Palace

Practice (behavior) is the way to produce knowledge (consciousness), and practice (behavior) is also a manifestation of insight (consciousness). These two mutually reinforcing judgment sentences may be used as another expression of "the unity of knowledge and action". The former judgment constitutes Wang Yangming's methodology of active practical philosophy; the latter judgment is the means of understanding through explicit behavior to achieve implicit consciousness to sincerity and hypocrisy.

In the history of Chinese philosophy, there is a big topic called "Lu Wang Xinxue". Therefore, when talking about Wang Yangming's mind, we must first talk about Lu Jiuyuan.

According to the Annals of Lu Jiuyuan:

Since he was three or four years old, he has been thinking about the world and the earth, and he has not eaten. The missionary public hehe, so he ignored it, and the doubt in his chest was finally there. After more than ten years of age, because of reading the ancient book to the word "universe", the interpreter said: "The four directions up and down are known as the universe, and the ancient and the present are known as the universe." Suddenly, the province said: "The yuan comes infinitely." Man and all things in heaven and earth are also in infinity. The book of Nai Yuanbi said: "The affairs of the universe are the internal affairs of oneself, and the internal affairs of oneself are the internal affairs of the universe." He also said, "The universe is my heart, and my heart is the universe." There are saints in the East China Sea, and this heart is the same, and this reason is the same; there are saints in the West Sea, and this heart is the same; there are saints in the South China Sea and the North Sea, and this heart is the same. From thousands of lifetimes to below a thousand lifetimes, there are saints who have come out, and this kind of mind is no different. ”

This means that as early as the age of three or four, Lu Jiuyuan wanted to know how high the sky was and how big the earth was. Once he asked his dad, and he couldn't answer, so he couldn't eat. When he was 13 years old, he happened to see a commentary on the "universe" in an ancient book, and suddenly realized: The original heaven and earth are endless, and man's understanding of all things in heaven and earth is also endless; the human universe is based on human experience and perception, that is, how big a person's heart is, how big his world is; people with the same heart, the same mind, the heroes of the world see a little the same - people with the same cultivation behavior, their level of understanding and the results of their understanding should be the same. For a child who is only 13 years old, it is very remarkable to have such a deep understanding!

Later, Lu Jiuyuan also mentioned in his letter "With Li Zai", "Mencius said: 'The official of the heart thinks, thinks and gets, and if he does not think, he must not also.'" ’...... Everyone has a heart, the heart is a reason, and the heart is a reason. ”

Wang Yangming's mental system contains basic elements such as "mind is reason", "unity of knowledge and action", and "to conscience". Among them, "mind is reason" originated from Lu Jiuyuan.

So, how to understand "mind is reason"? Let's take a look at the following two sentences first: "The official of the eye sees, sees it, and does not see it; the official of the ear listens, hears it, and does not hear it." ”

Obviously, these are two sentences modeled on the above statement in Mencius. If we continue to continue, if the "eye" sees the "color" and the "ear" smells the "sound", then there can be "the eye is the color" and "the ear is the sound" - isn't this the same as the "heart is the reason"?

The human world is the sum of all human experience and perception, and this "sum" of course includes the mind as reason, the eye as the color, the ear as the sound, and so on.

In my article "How to Know the Real Wang Yangming", I revealed that the "reason" of "mind is reason" refers to the principle of human affairs (ethics), rather than the principle of nature and all things in the modern scientific sense (physics). This is particularly prominent in Wang Yangming's mental system. In the field of Wang Yangming's psychology, he repeatedly mentions qualitative perception concepts such as good and evil, beauty and ugliness, sincerity and falsity, as well as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness, without any quantitative numerical statistics or experimental deduction. If we apply the theory of the German scholar Max Weber, Wang Yangming's philosophy, there is only value rationality, not instrumental rationality.

In the Records of Transmission and Practice, there is a conversation between Wang Yangming and his disciple Xue Kan:

Kan went to the flowers and grasses, because he said, "Why is it difficult to cultivate good and evil between heaven and earth?" ”

Sir: "I haven't gone to my ears." "If you look at good and evil in this way, you will be wrong when you think of it from the shell of your body." ”

Kan wei da.

"The business of heaven and earth, flowers and plants, how can there ever be a distinction between good and evil?" If the Son desires to see the flowers, he regards the flowers as good and the grass as evil. If you want to use grass, repeat the grass as a good thing. Such good and evil are born of the good and evil of the heart, so it is wrong to know it. ”

It can be seen that even if Wang Yangming talks about flowers and grasses, he is also a value judgment of "the unity of heaven and earth".

Although the sentence structure of "mind is reason" and "sight is color" and "ear is sound", although the sentence structure is the same, the difference is still very large. This is because the spectrum and sound waves in "sight is color" and "ear is sound" are dominant, while the consciousness in "mind is reason" is implicit. The explicit "color" and "sound" are seen and heard by everyone, and the implicit consciousness is difficult to know.

Or: How does human consciousness arise? Can the consciousness of so-and-so be known by so-and-so? A new theory invented by Wang Yangming can answer both questions at the same time. This theory is "the unity of knowledge and action." Of course, the great value of "unity of knowledge and action" is not only used to answer these two questions.

In the "Genealogy of Wang Yang next year", there is a passage that Wang Yangming said to Xu Ai (the gist of this passage is also found in the "Records of Transmission and Practice", because it is not taken because of complexity), which can be said to be the best explanation of "the unity of knowledge and action":

The University points out true knowledge and deeds to show people: "Like lustful, like stench." "When you see lustfulness, you know that lust is good; when you see color, you are already good, and you don't see it and start to be good." Smelling the stench is knowing, and the stench is doing; when you smell only the stink, it is already evil, and you don't smell it and then you start to set your mind to go to evil. Another example is to say that someone knows filial piety, and someone knows his brother, and only when he has already practiced filial piety can he be called a filial piety and a brother: this is the essence of knowledge and action.

Simply put, the so-called "unity of knowledge and action" refers to the "knowledge" and "action", just like the two sides of a coin, which cannot be separated. It contains two deep directions, namely: what kind of experience and experience will produce what kind of cognition and consciousness; conversely, what kind of consciousness and cognition, what kind of behavior and behavior will be generated. For example, when you see a beautiful woman ("beauty" is your cognition), you will immediately and at the same time open your eyes and smile (a cheerful person), or a red-faced person (a shy person), or even a blood rush (a young person who is full of qi and blood); when you smell the stench, at the same time, you will immediately frown, hold your breath, vomit, and vomit.

Therefore, practice (behavior) is the way to produce knowledge (consciousness), and practice (behavior) is also a manifestation of insight (consciousness). These two mutually reinforcing judgment sentences may be used as another expression of "the unity of knowledge and action". The former judgment constitutes Wang Yangming's methodology of active practical philosophy; the latter judgment is the means of understanding through explicit behavior to achieve implicit consciousness to sincerity and hypocrisy.