Ai Yin wei knew the precept of unity between deeds and deeds, and debated back and forth with Zong Xian [1] and Wei Xian [2], but could not decide. To ask Mr. Yu. Sir: "Try to see."
Ai Yue: "Nowadays, people know that the father should be filial, and the brother should be a brother, but he cannot be filial piety, and he cannot be a brother." That is, knowing and doing are two things."
Sir: "This has been cut off by selfish desires, and it is not the essence of knowledge and action." Those who do not know and do not. Knowing and not doing, but not knowing the sages teach people to know and act, it is precisely to restore the essence. It's not just your. Therefore, the university refers to a true knowledge and deeds and people looking at it, saying 'like good lust', 'like a foul smell'. See lustful genus know, lustful genus line. When I saw that lustfulness, I was already good. It is not that after seeing it, it is better to set up a heart. Smelling the stench is knowing, and stenching is doing. When you smell only the stench, you have already sinned against yourself. Not after smelling it, don't set up a heart to go to evil. If a nasal congested person sees a foul odor in front of him, but does not smell it in his nose, he is not very evil. It's just that I don't know the smell. It is like saying that someone knows filial piety, and someone knows brother. Only when he has done filial piety can he be called a filial piety. If you don't just know how to say something filial piety, you can be called a filial piety. If you know pain, you will already hurt yourself, and you will know pain. If you know the cold, you will already be cold. If you are hungry, you will be hungry. How to separate knowledge and action? This is the essence of knowledge and action, and there is no selfish separation. The saints teach people that it is necessary to know. , otherwise, just didn't know. But what a real effort. Now what does it mean to say that knowledge and action do two?. What does it mean to say that you want to make one? If you don't know the purpose of the statement. What's the use of just saying one or two"?
This passage is the story of Xu Ai, Zong Xian, and Wei Xian discussing the kung fu of "the unity of knowledge and action" and asking Wang Yangming for advice. Xu Ai said: "Although people now know to honor their parents and respect their elders. But very few people can do it. It can be seen that 'knowing' and 'doing' are two different things. Wang Yangming said, "The reason why people now think that 'knowing' and 'doing' are two things is because people do not really understand the admonitions of the ancients. What the ancients told us to be filial to our parents and respect our elders is not simply to let us know this truth, but to do it after knowing it. If you just know the truth and don't act, you don't know. Wang Yangming proposed the relationship between "knowing" and "doing" here. The two are inseparable, and to know the truth without acting is to not know the truth. "The so-called sincere ones should not deceive themselves, such as lustful, such as good smell." "It means that people with sincerity do not deceive themselves. Just like you like it when you see beauty, and disgust when you see a bad smell. Seeing beauty is "knowing", liking beauty is "doing", seeing stench is "knowing", and disgusting stench is "doing". The so-called "unity of knowledge and action" is like seeing beauty will naturally like, and when you see the stench, you will naturally dislike it. There are feelings in the mind, not words or words recorded in the mind. Just like a person whose nose is stuffed, even if he sees a foul odor, but his nose can't smell it, he won't feel very disgusted.
[1] Zongxian: Huang Xuan (wǎn) (1477-1551) Zi Zongxian, No. Jiu'an, Zhejiang Huangyan people. Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty entered Wang Yangming's door for five years. However, in his later years, he criticized Cheng Zhu Lixue and Lu Wangxinxue and advocated the study of the classics.
[2] Wei Xian: Gu Yingxiang (1483-1565) Character Wei Xian, Trumpet (ruò) Creek, Zhejiang Changxing people. Wang Yangming student.