All along, the books introducing Wang Yangming and his ideas and doctrines can be said to be not in the minority, Wang Yangming, Wang Shouren, Xinxue, To conscience, knowledge and action are one... These have almost become familiar nouns, even if you have not read the relevant books and literature, you must be no stranger to these words, or to borrow the joke of Professor Li Qing in the biography of Wang Yangming, that is, "there is a high degree of popularity", it can be said that people who have read some books will probably not be unaware.
So, since there are already so many related works, do we still need a copy of "Wang Yangming"?
need! In other words, what we need is such a clear, true and comprehensive "Biography of Wang Yangming".
In order to seek its clarity, the book presents Wang Yangming as a different aspect of different identities one by one in chronological order; in order to seek its truth, Li Qing breaks the god-like "Dragon Field Enlightenment" and restores the true process of enlightenment; in order to seek its comprehensiveness, the author has collected and consulted a large number of materials at home and abroad, and repeatedly studied and solved it.
Li Qing's "Biography of Wang Yangming" can be said to be very ambitious, he wants to get rid of the research status quo of "repeatedly tumbling and tossing in the low-level quagmire", so that our culture can "take root in the real land and withstand the fierce winds and waves", it is precisely because of such high requirements and expectations, Li Qing is also particularly rigorous in writing this biography, and strives for objective description, and has made a clear collation and elaboration.
"I definitely don't think that what I wrote is a completely true reproduction of history —that's just what I'm after."
It is hoped that through the continuous criticism and discussion of comrades, we will gradually approach the truth of history.
There is always a gap between ideals and reality, but historical research, in the final analysis, still has to let facts and reason speak. ”
Let facts and reason speak, and that's where the author and this book are so sincere.
Break the myth of the "Dragon Field Enlightenment"
Wang Yangming's body has many mythical "famous scenes", of which "Dragon Field Enlightenment" is a very famous one.
The rumored Wang Yangming "The way of the saints, I am self-sufficient, and those who seek reasoning from them are mistaken." After some tempering in the dragon field and the painstaking meditation of day and night reflection, I suddenly had an epiphany in the middle of the night.
However, this "rumored Wang Yangming" is like a god, is his "enlightenment" really so sudden? Of course not, unless he is really a god incarnate, there is no "great enlightenment" that can be achieved overnight, and no great idea is innately generated.
What Li Qing presents in "The Biography of Wang Yangming" is that his thoughts have begun to sprout, to form a framework, and then to gradually mature, such a step-by-step process, understanding the process that Wang Yangming's thought has undergone, and understanding what is the study of the mind, what is to conscience, what is the unity of knowledge and action, and also see the deification and removal of the aura, there are emotions, ideas, speculations, and living Wang Shouren.
When he was studying the book of Song Ru in guozijian, Wang Shouren "read it all over the examination pavilion", engaged in the study of what Song Ru called "gewu", traced the roots, explored the principle of "Taoism", and even fell ill because of repeated thinking but unreasonable, and it was from then on that the seeds of doubt about Zhu Xi's doctrine had been planted in Wang Shouren's heart.
Wang Shouren, who had experienced two attempts to fail the list, became indifferent, and at that time he saw that "Mu Xiaoxiao was chaotic and chaotic, and Jiang Haohao was boundless; the whale Ao Ao was gushing into the sea, and the wings of the peng were carrying the wind", and what he thought was "the jealousy of the faith and customs, from the past life and the certainty", as Li Qing wrote in the book, "The infection of the magnificent mountains and rivers, the resonance of historical figures, stimulated the dissatisfaction with the world in his heart, and rolled up the stirring feelings." At the same time, it also shows a kind of vigor that does not meet talents and is used for the world. This was his basic ideological tendency at this time. From this we can see that what he did later was not accidental."
The tempering of the Longchang years gave Wang Shouren the sublimation of his thoughts, and put forward a solid foundation for concepts such as "the unity of knowledge and action". During the Nanjing period, Wang Shouren further concretized "sincerity" and "licheng", and later put forward the famous thesis that "it is easy to break the mountain and the thief is difficult to break the heart", and the "to conscience" theory has begun to take shape, and at this time, the general framework of Wang Shouren's thought has been clarified.
The so-called "enlightenment" is just a matter of long and one wisdom, even if the wisdom is suddenly like Wang Shouren, it takes such a gradual process to finally create the myth of "Dragon Field Enlightenment".
Forgive me for loving freedom uninhibitedly in this life
The year when the 27-year-old Wang Shouren had just ascended to the political arena, the Ming Dynasty was in the autumn of many events, but compared with the Ming Dynasty, which was gradually entering the downturn, Wang Shouren was just full of ambition and full of spirit, and in the examination article in which he won the jinshi, Wang Shouren emphasized that the independent consciousness, handling concept and style of self-determination in his heart had begun to be revealed, which was the "midpoint" of wang Shouren's life, just like a dividing point between his thoughts and actions in the first half of his life and the second half of his life.
After entering the official field, Wang Shouren went through several ups and downs, and his state of mind also changed from the initial spirit to indifference, until the final enlightenment. In fact, some of the encounters and experiences from the beginning of his childhood have become crucial factors in the formation of Wang Shouren's thoughts and dispositions.
When he was young, the family relationship was complicated, and Wang Shouren, who gradually grew up by the maintenance and care of his mother, grandparents and uncles, was sensitive and silent; the death of his birth mother brought a great impact on Wang Shouren's heart, and also made him confused and uneasy, and then gradually matured in the process of rethinking and examining life; after returning to his hometown of Yuyao with his grandfather, the distant and quiet mountain village could no longer meet Wang Shouren's baggage, and his heart began to gush with the pride of his big husband fighting the sword to go to the end of the world; when repairing the tomb for Wang Yue, Standing on the top of the mountain overlooking the central plains, Wang Shouren's chest was open-minded, with the dream and ambition of "Ji Shi"...
The situation is constantly changing, Wang Shouren's various personality characteristics are gradually formed, complex family relationships, childhood poetry, premature interpersonal relations, social environment changes, these circumstances make Wang Shouren both sensitive and intelligent, but also crazy renxia, both maverick, but also quite understanding of human feelings, both feel the vastness of the universe, but also experience an unknown loneliness.
It was precisely these that "shaped the basis of his knowledge structure, in addition to Confucian learning, he also had the ability to ride and shoot, as well as the multifaceted factors of the three religions and nine streams, such as Buddha, Tao, immortality, and self-cultivation."
Different aspects and identities of Wang Shouren
Because of the profound influence of his ideological doctrine on later generations, for the vast majority of people, Wang Shouren's most famous identity is that of a philosopher and thinker. In fact, he was able to give lectures on the altar, and he was able to go into battle to kill the enemy; he had both studied hard in the Guozi Prison and squatted in the prison of Zhenfusi; he was not only a prominent figure in the political situation, but also a feudal official with tigers and tigers; in addition, he was also a son of man, a father, and a teacher.
Wang Shouren's life revolves between these identities, and his planning and planning are also painstaking, and his unusual life also reflects a period of strange Ming history.
Wang Shouren once pondered and meditated on the book of Song Ru in the Guozi Prison and could not understand it, and he was also thrown into purgatory to feel the pain of cutting his heart and bones, and the school and prison made him wise, forbearing, and mature, forging his thoughts, personality, and temperament; he was once ranked as the "Ninth Qing", and he was also innocently implicated as Liu Jin's "friend party", but he felt the spring and autumn changes in the political situation, and he was accustomed to the deceit of the officialdom, and he still did not change the ambition of "gentle and keeping, this stone friend of mine, the sun will be immortal". The ups and downs of life were absorbed by him as a driving force for further thinking; he had done his work as an official and a supervisor with outstanding administrative ability, and had also gone into battle to kill the enemy, sent troops to Ting, Zhang, pacified Damaoshan, suppressed Zuoxi and Hengshui, and attacked The practice of Gonggang Dazhai, these life and social practices made him feel the importance of his inner judgment at critical moments, and further improved the concept of speculation...
The gains and losses, the rises and downs, of these identities he experienced eventually became the "gains" in the formation of his thoughts.
From Wang Shouren to the last to become "Wang Yangming", from several ups and downs to being revered as a semi-saint, There are too many unexpected and unfathomable in Wang Yangming's life, throughout his life, the adjustment of mentality and the thinking that has never stopped, throughout his life, and Li Qing let us see through this "Biography of Wang Yangming" that whether it is a "myth" or a "saint", it is not achieved overnight, restoring the real Wang Yangming, but also the true respect for history.
Biography of Wang Yangming: The Focus of Chinese Political History and Intellectual History in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries There is flesh-and-blood psychology, and the original Qingyuan says that Yang Ming was purchased at ¥69.5