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Author: Chasing History and Exploring the Present
Editor: Tracing the Past and Exploring the Present
He is a philosophical master in Zeng Guofan's mouth that "merit is not under Yu", and he is also a scholar with great achievements in modern academic circles recognized by Liang Qichao.
He is Wang Yangming, a famous thinker of the Ming Dynasty who proposed "learning from things";
is also a very good prodigy in civil and martial arts, and he entered the army as a jinshi, but it only took 42 days to quell the rebellion of King Ning.
In the eyes of many, his abilities and outstanding intellectual achievements could guarantee him a lifetime of prosperity and wealth.
What is embarrassing is that on the last day of his life, his whole body ulcerated, and even the doctor who came to see the doctor was scared away.
But even so, the 8-character proverb he left before his death has influenced the lives of many apprentices, and it has also become a wise saying.
What exactly was his last word?
The saint came into the world, and the vision was born
In 1472, Wang Yangming was born in a scholarly family, and his grandfather Wang Lun was a famous Confucian in the local area, but he had no intention of being an official to teach for pleasure.
His father, Wang Hua, entered the official career early, participated in the imperial examination in the 17th year of Chenghua (1481), won the first prize and was elected as the champion, and then became the official secretary of the Nanjing Ministry [1].
Wang Yangming, who was born in such a family environment, naturally has many things that are different from ordinary people, for example, his birth is full of many legends.
It is recorded that Wang Yangming's mother gave birth to him when she was 14 months pregnant, and the night before he was born, his mother actually dreamed that the Bodhisattva was holding a child with a golden light all over his body and sending it to him.
When Wang Yangming's grandfather heard about such a vision, he thought that his grandson was extraordinary, so he named him Wang Yun and focused on training.
What made Wang Lun strange was that his grandson couldn't speak until he was five years old, which also made him think that Wang Yun was born dumb.
However, at that time, a senior monk came to Wang's house as a guest, and after seeing Wang Yangming, he couldn't help but praise: "This son is extremely talented, and he needs to change his name to inspire him to speak." ”
After hearing the words of the senior monk, Wang Lun immediately decided to change his name to Wang Shouren.
The next day after changing his name, Wang Yangming was able to speak clearly, and his thinking was clear and brilliant, not at all like a child who could just speak.
Seeing that his grandson was so good, Wang Lun also tried his best to cultivate it.
When Wang Yangming was ten years old, Wang Hua was admitted to the top prize and stayed in the capital as an official, so that Wang Lun brought his family to Beijing for reunion.
When the Wang family passed by Jinshan Temple, they met Wang Lun's former friends, and everyone drank and recited poetry together.
But when composing poems independently, many people felt that it was very difficult, and they never thought that Wang Yangming would write two poems in a row, and the lofty artistic conception amazed everyone present.
At the age of twelve, Wang Yangming began to study in a private school, compared to other students who only crammed to learn Xi knowledge, Wang Yangming began to think about the purpose of learning Xi early on, and what is the top priority in life?
He even gave his opinion that the most important thing in life is to be a sage[2].
Although many people laughed at the first moment when they heard this, what they didn't expect was that Wang Yangming would really become a sage in the future.
Determined to be a saint and unswerving
After setting the goal of becoming a saint at the age of 12, Wang Yangming firmly moved forward towards his goal.
Although Cheng Zhu science was prevalent at that time and was also the focus of the imperial examination, Wang Yangming believed that learning Xi should achieve the unity of knowledge and action, rather than learning knowledge for the sake of death.
In order to achieve the unity of knowledge and action, he once went to the border pass to investigate, climbed the Great Wall to understand the customs of the border pass and the war situation between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia.
This trip made him very interested in the art of war, and after returning to the capital, he found a lot of military books to study, and also used melon seeds and peanuts to arrange troops.
In addition to talking on paper, he also used his father's connections to understand the problem of the rebellion of the displaced people in the Huguang area, and then wrote his opinions into a memo, hoping to let his father submit them to the emperor.
But it is a pity that his father did not hesitate to reject his idea and reprimanded him for studying hard.
Since then, he has devoted himself to studying Xi and preparing for the imperial examination, but his road to the imperial examination has not been smooth, and he has failed to take the examination six times in a row.
It wasn't until he was 28 years old that he successfully won the first place, and he was given the seventh place in the second class to be born as a Tongjinshi.
After that, he was assigned to the military department, which was a very suitable position for him.
But just as he was about to show his ambitions, he didn't know that a greater calamity was quietly coming to him.
Because he has had the goal of being a saint since he was a child, Wang Yangming hates any traitor, no matter how high the other party's official position is.
At that time, the great eunuch Liu Jin controlled the government and was called the Eight Tigers along with seven other eunuchs.
These eight people caused chaos in the court and took revenge on those officials who opposed them for personal gain, and for a time caused a miasma of smoke and treachery in the court.
Wang Yangming was not afraid of power, although he was only a six-rank official, he exposed the truth of Liu Jin's usurpation of power in the court, and hoped that the emperor would strictly investigate.
But this kind of behavior is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, so Liu Jin sent Wang Yangming to Longchang as a post station official by framing him.
And in order to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, Liu Jin also sent many Jinyi Guard killers on land to kill Wang Yangming.
Fortunately, Wang Yangming was prepared early, carefully guarded all the way, and escaped by jumping into the river after leaving two desperate poems on the Qiantang River, and rushed to Longchang to take up his post as scheduled.
Wang Yangming, who successfully arrived at the Dragon Farm, felt that his life was gloomy, but he never thought that he would open a new chapter in the Dragon Farm and gradually achieve his goal of becoming a saint.
The dragon field is enlightened and the dream of a saint is realized
When Wang Yangming first came to Longchang, he felt that life was hopeless, but he never forgot his dream, so he calmed down in the boring days to reflect and review himself.
After in-depth reflection on his past experiences and the writings of ancient sages, he gradually formed a new and mature system of mind thought, and began to comprehend the mind ideas such as "learning from things".
During the time when Wang Yangming was enlightened in Longchang, the outside world also changed a lot, and the loss of power of the great eunuch Liu Jin allowed him to be reactivated.
This time, his career went much smoother, and he was promoted one after another from the fourth year of Zhengde (1509), and in the eleventh year of Zhengde, he was appointed as the imperial history of Zuo Yandu, responsible for the suppression of bandits in the four provinces of Southern Gan Tingzhang.
He not only successfully exterminated the bandits who had been entrenched in the four provinces for many years, but also easily eliminated the rebellion of Zhu Chenhao, the king of Ning, in only 42 days.
But it's a pity that Wuzong was very dissatisfied with the result of Wang Yangming's suppression of the rebellion so quickly, and specially released King Ning who was imprisoned in the prison car, and staged a scene of the royal driving and personal conquest.
However, at this time, Wang Yangming had already seen the chaos of the court today, so he stayed away from the court since the 15th year of Zhengde and put more energy on education.
When the news came out that he was going to give a lecture, more than 300 people expressed their willingness to be his disciples, and since then, Wang Yangming has also begun to teach and discuss Taoism with young disciples.
After Jiajing ascended the throne, Wang Yangming was briefly reused, but he returned to his hometown because of his father's death to guard the system, and he continued his lecture career.
In the sixth year of Jiajing, Lu Su, Wang Shou and other Tusi in the Liangguang region rebelled, and also defeated the local Ming defenders, so Wang Yangming was reused again.
Wang Yangming only relied on his former prestige to intimidate Lu Su and Wang Shou into surrendering, and then he reused the two to quell the rebellion of other rebels and successfully suppressed the border rebellion.
Returning to his hometown and dying of illness halfway
After quelling the rebellion, 56-year-old Wang Yangming felt that his body had reached his limit, so he asked the court to return to his hometown, and left early without waiting for the court's approval.
On the way back to his hometown, he talked with his disciples about the scriptures and taught them the knowledge of Yangming Xinxue, and he did not stop even though he was seriously ill.
On November 28, the seventh year of Jiajing, Wang Yangming's condition suddenly worsened, his whole body ulcerated, and the high fever did not go away.
Although the family invited Langzhong for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.
But after seeing Wang Yangming's symptoms, Lang Zhong was taken aback, and then shook his head and told his family: "Mr. Yangming's illness has dragged on for too long, and now he is festering, and there is nothing I can do about it." ”
The family members and students who heard this all wept bitterly, but Wang Yangming accepted his fate very indifferently, and left the words "This heart is bright, what can I say"[3] before he died, and calmly passed away.
epilogue
Wang Yangming's life is a legendary life of always pursuing his dreams, he made his dream of becoming a saint at the age of 12, and in the following decades he unswervingly pursued his goals, and achieved them through dragon field enlightenment and many great achievements.
Moreover, in the process of enlightenment, he also saw the nature and essence of humanity, and finally learned to face any moment in his life calmly, and this state of mind is also worthy of our Xi and respect.
Resources:
[1] Wang Yangming's father, Daoist Baba
[2] 传奇王阳明.道客巴巴
[3] Wang Yangming's Life and Deeds and the Development of His Thoughts; Social Sciences II
Original debut, it is strictly forbidden to carry!
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