Spirit of Wang Xue

Author: Wang Xiaoxin, Li Youxue / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Wang Yangming was born in Zhejiang but achieved enlightenment in Guizhou. "The Enlightenment at Longchang" marks the beginning of Wang Xue (Wang Yangming's philosophy). The emergence of Wang Yangming's thought in Guizhou was both accidental and inevitable. On a personal level, his exile to Guizhou was largely accidental. However, his tragic circumstances transformed his life and his thinking. The era's transformation was inevitable, as was Guizhou's specific environment. The times called for new social (thought currents), and Wang Yangming's doctrine arose in response. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, commerce flourished, capitalism began to (sprout), and society underwent rapid changes. The mindset of "disdaining the old and embracing the new" emerged, making Wang Yangming's doctrine a reflection of the nascent capitalism in thought.
During the Ming-Qing transition, the Enlightenment thinker Gu Yanwu wrote in Ri Zhi Lu (Record of Daily Knowledge): "Since the Hongzhi and Zhengde eras, scholars across the land have disdained the old and embraced the new. The shift in customs and trends had already taken root. Wang Cheng (referring to Wang Yangming) used his extraordinary talent to advocate his new ideas, stirring the entire nation. After the Jiajing era, followers of Wang's school began to appear one after another in society."
Since Emperor Wu of Han "suppressed the hundred schools of thought and upheld Confucianism alone," Confucianism had become the official ideology. By the Ming Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism based on Cheng and Zhu had become dominant. In culturally advanced regions like Central China and Jiangnan, orthodox Confucian thought was deeply entrenched, making it difficult to break free from its constraints. In contrast, Guizhou only began Confucian education in the Ming Dynasty, a thousand years later. In this region with weak traditional thought, Wang Yangming's ideas, considered a "heresy" within Confucianism, found a breakthrough. Thus, Wang Xue (Wang Yangming's philosophy) burst forth. "The Enlightenment at Longchang, the preaching in Guiyang"—Wang Xue spread far and wide, and this was the social reason why Wang Xue originated in Guizhou.
Guizhou was where Wang Yangming found a lifeline. Accused of injustice, he endured great humiliation and felt utterly despondent, except for the lingering thought of life and death. He lamented before a stone coffin: "I am left with nothing but fate!" Upon arriving in Longchang, he gathered firewood, drew water to cook, sat in a dilapidated house, his mind in turmoil, lost in confusion. Alone and friendless, his frustration could not be alleviated. Poetry offered no solace, so he composed "Yue Qu" (a folk song). When even songs failed to ease his distress, he resorted to jesting. Calling out to the sky in vain, he felt utterly abandoned. He had reached the lowest point in his life, a period of profound suffering and despair.
During his loneliness, misery, and confusion, the local ethnic minorities extended their help to him. Sympathetic to his plight, they felled trees to build him a new home, and he composed the Record of the Humble Pavilion in gratitude. The minorities also built a pavilion for him, surrounded by bamboo, which made him contemplate the bamboo's upright and independent spirit. He named it the "Pavilion of the Gentleman." When the Binyang Hall was completed, he felt as if he had seen the light of day again, bowing twice to the morning sun in the east. He was no longer a solitary crane but became close to the local people. When a prefect sent someone to humiliate him, the minorities, moved by righteous indignation, drove the official away. The Yi chief An Guirong became his friend, often sending him rice, meat, chickens, ducks, gold, silk, and horses, for which he was deeply grateful.
These kind and honest people helped Wang Yangming through his hardships, easing his loneliness and isolation. They showed him true human warmth, enabling him to stand up again. It was the people of Longchang who gave him the strength to be reborn, the courage and confidence to face a bleak life and challenge feudal rituals. In adversity, he saw the light, freed himself from the (troubles) of fame and fortune, and calmly reflected on life, adopting a "rational" attitude to re-examine Neo-Confucianism. This became the turning point of his "Enlightenment at Longchang."
In the "Play Easy Cave," he reflected on the Book of Changes and grasped the truth of "unity between heaven, earth, and humanity." His mood shifted from agitation to tranquility, from sorrow to joy, and a vibrant energy surged within him. He suddenly realized that since heaven, earth, and humanity were one, "Heavenly Principle" and "conscience" were naturally connected. Therefore, "Heavenly Principle" also resided in the human heart, leading him to the proposition "the mind is the principle." This fundamentally contradicted Neo-Confucianism.
The result of his enlightenment was the Conjectural Commentary on the Five Classics. This work expressed his "personal insights," which "did not necessarily align entirely with the sages of old," revealing his bold "rebellious" thoughts. He arrived in a hurry and could not carry all his books, so he relied on his memory of "what he had studied before" and engaged in independent thinking. This allowed him to break free from the rut of citing classics and interpreting them through other classics. Everything he wrote was his own reflection, with unique perspectives. He believed that Zhu Xi's teachings were not entirely trustworthy, that some were even distorted and discarded, and that they should be weighed anew on the scales of "reason."
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