"If the ancient desire is obviously superior to the world, govern the country first; If you want to govern your country, you should first get your family together; If you want to reunite with your family, you should first repair your body; If you want to cultivate yourself, you should be upright first; If you want to be correct, be sincere first; Be sincere, let him know first; Knowledge exists in things. If you know things, you will be honest, sincere, correct, repair, repair, rule the country, and rule the world. "
As can be seen from this order, the style of things is the most basic thing. Although we often hear the ancients say "I can learn from things", how to practice it? Many people still feel confused. There are three realms of "Wu Ge", and mastering these three know-how is the real knowledge of Wu Ge.
1 heavy realm: Wu Ge, see the essence through the phenomenon.
Cheng Yi, a Neo-Confucianist in the Song Dynasty, thought that "being poor in style, being reasonable in things, but still poor", that is, being poor in style and reasonable in order to achieve understanding.
Zhu basically inherited this statement. He believes that it takes time to get through, and everything should be exhausted, from near to far, from shallow to deep, from coarse to fine. Study, interrogate, think carefully and distinguish. Divided into four sections, step by step.
This is consistent with modern scientific research and reasoning methods. In layman's terms, it is to see the essence through the phenomenon.
For example, there are three people, facing a stone that looks ordinary but beautiful.
A said, this is the original stone, useless, it has been lost.
B said this stone looks very artistic and can be used as a paperweight when practicing calligraphy.
C weighed it with his hand and asked about the origin and origin of this stone in detail. Finally, he thought that this stone might contain jade, and asked an expert to identify it. That's really a piece of raw jade!
As can be seen from this case, A has the lowest ability to handle things, B is slightly better, and C has the highest ability to handle things.
The second realm: knowledge, usefulness as an angle, uselessness as an example.
"Historical Records" said: "Those who have horns mean that everything has branches such as horns".
The ancients believed that everything has an angle, the angle is the external image, and the lattice is the internal space. The angles are different, but the lattice is the same. Wu Ge, that is, from Vientiane abstraction, from abstraction to non-image, seeks to understand the characteristics of all things.
How to understand it?
Everything has two sides, a useful and visible side; There is also an invisible and useless side. It's useful for the angle, not for the case.
For example: a bowl. You can look at the material, craft, style and color of the bowl, which is useful. What's useless is the empty place in the bowl. The empty place can hold things. This is also what Taoism calls "useless, but useful."
"Book of Rites and Clothes" says: "Words have substance, actions have style".
A person's usefulness usually means that he has the skills and ability to create some value. For example, Ma Yun built Alibaba, which is useful. You have learned the skill of driving, that is, you can drive. You can become a lawyer by passing the judicial examination. This is all useful.
A person is useless, usually referring to character and morality. A person's moral character is noble, he doesn't steal or rob, he doesn't cause trouble, he is sincere to others and loyal to his partner. Such moral character usually cannot create value. Although useless, it is very useful.
The third realm: integration, integration of things and me, and integration of mind and things.
"Shu Jun Xuan": "In the past, Cheng Tang was ordered, there was Yi Yin, and people were in heaven."
The situation here refers to empathy. Stay in heaven, feel heaven.
Gezhe and Ye Zheng are the unity of spirit and matter.
Wang Yangming said: "What you mean is what you mean; Gezhe, Ye Zheng. "
Later, he said, "In my conscience, you should know." In his view, things are right and knowledge is conscience. In psychology, mind and matter are integrated, mind is regular and matter is positive. Taoism says that heaven and man are one.
The above is the triple realm of knowledge. Step by step is to achieve true knowledge.