Heaven is rooted in spiritual roots, and conscience is born

Pu Yao Xue Palace

In Wang Yangming's thought, "conscience" has the characteristic of endless life. He likened "conscience" to "heavenly planting spiritual roots", "heavenly planting" to illustrate the innate nature of conscience, and "spiritual roots" to illustrate the endless birth of conscience. "Life" is the fundamental way of existence and value of conscience. Conscience "arises from its own nature", and to desire it not to be born is tantamount to "cutting off the caste".

The process of conscience "being born" is gradual, with a natural order, first kissing, then benevolence, and then loving things. Under the background of the idea of the unity of heaven and man, Wang Yangming uses the intuitive phenomenon of grass and trees to illustrate the principle of "life" of abstract conscience. The grass and trees first bud, then dry, and then grow branches and leaves, and the growth is endless and the order is clear. The reason is that grass and trees have roots, and only when there are roots can they grow endlessly, and life and death must be clearly divided. The gradualness of conscience in the process of "birth" shows that conscience has a "root", and benevolence is the "root" of conscience.

The process of conscience "being born" is gradual, with a natural order, first kissing, then benevolence, and then loving things. Under the background of the idea of the unity of heaven and man, Wang Yangming uses the intuitive phenomenon of grass and trees to illustrate the principle of "life" of abstract conscience. The grass and trees first bud, then dry, and then grow branches and leaves, and the growth is endless and the order is clear. The reason is that grass and trees have roots, and only when there are roots can they grow endlessly, and life and death must be clearly divided. The gradualness of conscience in the process of "birth" shows that conscience has a "root", and benevolence is the "root" of conscience.

"Shengsheng" is a core concept of Confucian philosophy. In Wang Yangming's thought, "conscience" has the characteristic of endless life. He likened "conscience" to "heavenly planting spiritual roots", "heavenly planting" to illustrate the innate nature of conscience, and "spiritual roots" to illustrate the endless birth of conscience. "Life" is the fundamental way of existence and value of conscience. Conscience "arises from its own nature", and to desire it not to be born is tantamount to "cutting off the caste". "Caste" is a Buddhist term used by the Soteriology Sect, which Geng Ning interprets as "the disposition toward goodness ('seed') that existed in the beginning of the eighth consciousness (the deepest consciousness, the 'seed consciousness')".

If the conscience is not born, man will lose his good disposition and "fall into the ashes of the dead wood." In Song Ming's theory, reason is the fundamental basis for the existence of things, and Wang Yangming believes that this fundamental basis is born of conscience, so he said that "there is no reason outside the heart" and "nothing outside the heart." It can be seen from this that "birth" is of great value to conscience and to things (including people).

The truth of things is born of conscience

Wang Yangming proposed that "the heart is reason". "Heart" refers to the original mind of man, that is, conscience, and "reason" is the principle of things. "Mind is reason" means that the reason for things is born of conscience, and conscience is the essence of things. The purpose of Wang Yangming's learning is to be sanctified, and the sanctification of saints is only about virtue, so he mainly discusses "reason" in the field of ethics and morality. "Knowledge is the essence of the mind. The heart will naturally know: seeing the father naturally knows filial piety, seeing the brother naturally knows the brother, seeing the widow entering the well naturally knows compassion, this is conscience, do not ask for anything. "The ethics of filial piety, compassion, and benevolence are all born of conscience.

Conscience also gives birth to "physics," the meaning of things to man. Wang Yangming talked about "nothing outside the heart": "My spirit is the master of the heavens and the earth ghosts and gods. Heaven does not have my spirit, who will look up to him? The earth does not have my spirit, who will bow down to him? The ghosts and gods do not have my spirit, who will discern his auspiciousness? If the heavens and the earth, ghosts, and gods, and all things are separated from my spirit, there will be no heaven and earth ghosts, gods, and all things. Wang Yangming did not care about the heavens and the earth and all things in the original world, and what he called the heavens and the earth and all things in the meaning world was the heavens and the earth and all things in the meaning world. The free heaven and earth do not matter whether they are high or deep, high and deep is the meaning of heaven and earth for people.

"Birth" gives the position of the value of conscience ontology. As the ontology of value, conscience is fully formed. Wang Yangming said that the streets are full of saints, because everyone has received the potential of sanctification - conscience, as long as they do the right and sufficient efforts, they can become ready-made saints. Zhu Zi Lixue affirmed the existence of the principle outside the mind, believing that people are born to know only rough principles, and cannot know all the truths. For example, people are born to know filial piety, but what they know is only a rough reason, and they cannot fully know the criteria for doing things in specific circumstances, and learning such as "sex is difficult to cultivate their aspirations" must also be learned from the ancient sages.

Wang Yangming criticized Zhu Xi's views, arguing that all reasons are born of conscience. Man is not only born with filial piety, but also knows the rules of kinship in specific circumstances. As long as people have the sincerity of filial piety, they naturally know how to cool down for their parents in the summer, and naturally know to keep warm for their parents in winter. Wang Yangming did not deny the existence of smelling knowledge, he only emphasized the position of conscience as a scholarly mind. The knowledge of conscience and smell should be the relationship between body and use. What Wang Yangming opposes is to cover up the living conscience, like "playing a drama on the stage", doing things in full accordance with the rules.

Benevolence is the intrinsic basis for the "birth" of conscience

Benevolence is "the principle of creation and life." All things in heaven and earth are born and are based on benevolence, and so is conscience. Wang Yangming demonstrated the one relationship between conscience and benevolence, and conscience is benevolence. "The so-called Ru xin is the one that can hear and speak, and this is sex, which is heavenly reason." Only with this sex can we be born. The physiology of this nature is called benevolence. ”

Wang Yangming's benevolence is "the benevolence of one body", that is, the benevolent person is closely related to all things in heaven and earth, as if they are in a large body with a blood vein, and they all feel empathy for the encounters of all things in heaven and earth. Therefore, when the benevolent see "the well of the widow", he gives birth to a "heart of compassion and compassion"; when he sees "the mourning of birds and beasts", he gives birth to a "heart of intolerance"; when he sees "the destruction of grass and trees", he gives birth to a "heart of compassion"; when he sees "the destruction of tiles", he gives birth to a "heart of pity".

Ren determines the inferiority of conscience". One of the manifestations of inferiority is that the process of conscience "being born" is gradual, with a natural order, first kissing, then benevolence, and then loving things. Under the background of the idea of the unity of heaven and man, Wang Yangming uses the intuitive phenomenon of grass and trees to illustrate the principle of "life" of abstract conscience.

The grass and trees first bud, then dry, and then grow branches and leaves, and the growth is endless and the order is clear. The reason is that grass and trees have roots, and only when there are roots can they grow endlessly, and life and death must be clearly divided. The gradualness of conscience in the process of "birth" shows that conscience has a "root", and benevolence is the "root" of conscience.

The second manifestation of the inferiority of conscience's "birth" lies in the difference in thickness and thickness of emotions. Conscience gives birth to universal love for all things in heaven and earth, but love is inferior. "Compassion and compassion", "intolerable heart", "compassionate heart" and "caring heart" are all sympathetic hearts, but the thickness of emotions is different. The person or object encountered is close to the other, and according to the order of conscience, compassion also changes from thick to thin. Wang Yangming criticized Mozi's "concurrent love" as having no inferior love. Love is not bad, etc., indicating that there is no beginning. Without a beginning, there is rootless love, and nature cannot live endlessly.

Sensing is the mechanism by which conscience occurs

Conscience is endless, but it can only give birth to the truth of things if it is in touch with things, for example, people can give birth to filial piety in the case of "seeing the father", compassion in the case of "seeing brothers", and compassion in the case of "seeing the widow into the well". "Seeing" is not a simple sensory activity, but a conscience that touches things through the senses. Communication with "things" is the condition for the "birth" of conscience, and if there is a feeling, it is endless, and if there is no feeling, the mind and things "return to silence".

Mencius records that King Xuan of Qi "saw" that there were cattle under the hall being led to the bell, and could not bear to hear the cow mourning, and planned to exchange sheep for cattle. The reason for this is that the king "sees" the cow and does not "see" the sheep. The king "saw" the cow mourning, and his conscience was touched, and he gave birth to an unbearable heart. The king did not "see" the sheep, did not communicate with the sheep, and did not have an intolerable heart.

Conscience eternally has the function of sense, realizing phase sensation in the case of contact with things. The contact between mind and matter is the premise and basis of phase sensation. However, the contact of mind and matter does not simply refer to the contact between the senses and things, because there is a situation where the contact between the senses and things does not achieve the contact between the mind and the object, because the conscience is obscured by selfish desires. If selfless desire is obscured, the senses can be connected as a place where the mind and matter touch.

In addition, although people do not feel a certain "thing" in some cases, something is present in people's hearts, and as long as they are selflessly covered, they will also achieve contact. For example, Wang Yangming was obsessed with the Buddhist Taoism of "leaving the world from the dust" and hesitated because he was worried about his relatives. He didn't see his relatives at that time, but they were in his heart. It can be seen that in the case of selfless desire, through the "seeing" of the eyes and the "seeing" of the heart, conscience can communicate with "things".

Conscience is "sensed and passed" and is one with things. When talking about the Oneness of All-That-Is, the disciples have questions: The circulation of blood and qi is called homogeneity, and the circulation of heart and blood qi is not circulating, how can it be called homogeneity? Wang Yangming pointed out that in the "induction of several", all things are one. The "induction of several" is the transformation mechanism of feeling but not responding, and will not be born. On the "induction of several", the mind and matter sense through, and the two qi are combined into "one qi circulation". The vaporized universe is the basis for the sensing of mind and matter. Qi is the original substance that constitutes all things, and conscience is also used as the purest and most spiritual qi. According to the traditional Chinese principle of "same kind of phase feeling", the two qi meet the phase sense as "one gas circulation". Thus, conscience gives birth to the truth of things.

Taking sensing as a mechanism for life is not Wang Yangming's creative idea, but the inheritance and development of the ideas of Zhou Yi. Wang Yangming has a deep relationship with "Zhou Yi", and You Xi read "Yi" in a difficult situation, and in reading "Yi", he fully realized that "the reason why I died" was completely realized. The Zhou Yi ZhiXia points out that "the great virtue of heaven and earth is born". The Taigua depicts the tongtai scene of weather and earthly atmosphere that form all things. On the contrary, the "No Gua Gua" depicts an occluded scene in which the qi of heaven and earth does not communicate and cannot generate all things. There are two kinds of "sense" in "Zhou Yi", one is the sympathy of things, that is, "the sense of heaven and earth and the incarnation of all things"; the other situation is the sense of the human heart, that is, "the saints touch the hearts of the people and the world is peaceful".

The "sense" of conscience is the sense of mind and matter, which is more similar to the sense of communication in the "Book of Music". The Book of Music records that music is born of the human heart. It is just that the scope of the discussion in "Music" is music, and the "birth" of conscience involves the value of all things in the humanistic world.