The main viewpoints of Wang Yangming's theory of mind are "mind is reason", "unity of knowledge and action" and "to conscience". These three viewpoints are progressive, from "mind is reason" to "conscience", from shallow to deep, forming a philosophical system that starts from the heart, takes the heart as the standard and looks for answers from the heart. These views are profound and great. Of course, they have been described by predecessors, so I won't repeat them today. There are still four sentences in Wang Yangming's mind, which are not as famous as the above viewpoints, but they are the most practical and common way of learning and thinking. These four sentences are Wang Yangming's "four sentences teaching"! The full text of the four sentences is "there is no body of good and evil, there is action of good and evil, knowing good and evil is a conscience, and doing good and evil is a dignified thing." These four sentences probably mean: the noumenon of the mind is a pure, flawless, non-evil and transcendental state, and it is an undeveloped state; But once people's thoughts are produced, this state will be broken, there will be a distinction between good and evil, and thoughts will be implemented in the two camps of good and evil, which can be said to be the middle section; Good and evil will immediately touch conscience, which is the moral standard contained in the heart, and good and evil are now conscience; At this time, conscience has put good and evil, good and evil in front of you. You just have to obey your heart and do evil for good. This is the so-called "respecting things". Why are these four sentences the essence of Wang Yangming's theory of mind and the foundation of Confucianism?
? At the beginning of "University", it is proposed that "the way of university lies in showing virtue, being close to the people and stopping at perfection." This is the highest spiritual pursuit of Confucianism, which is summarized as "three cardinals" by later generations. In order to achieve this ideal state, later scholars also summarized the eight realms of "respecting things, knowledge, honesty, honesty, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" as the "eight goals" of Confucianism. It can be said that "three cardinal guides" is the world outlook of Confucian philosophy, and "eight cardinal guides" is its methodology. It is these words that support the theoretical system of Confucian philosophy! Because the eight realms are progressive from bottom to top, this case has become the first introductory lesson in learning Confucianism.
There is an old saying in China that "everything is difficult at the beginning". As the door of Confucianism and the cornerstone to the realm of saints, is it difficult to become a "thing"? That's quite difficult! Why do you say that? Throughout the development of Confucianism, from the concept of "teacher's affairs" put forward by universities to Zhu's advocacy of "teacher's affairs", no one or a school has put forward the specific practice of "teacher's affairs". Zhu believes that "people who know things in a certain way want to do what I know, and what they know is poor." In other words, everything in the world has its inherent truth. If you want to exhaust its truth, you must constantly learn from things and practice. It can be seen that he only put forward a concept of "physical things", only talked about practice, and did not put forward a feasible plan. In this way, "Wu Ge" becomes vague, or it has always been vague.
When Wang Yangming was young, he was convinced of Zhu's statement and thought that what Zhu Shengren said must be right, so he followed Zhu's example and changed things. At that time, he made an appointment with a friend to check things together, and the location was in the bamboo forest in the back mountain. Facing the bamboo all over the mountain, his friend insisted on not going back after three days, but stared at it for seven days and seven nights and finally vomited blood. The difficulty of things can be seen! Afterwards, he thought: either my realm is not enough, or Zhu Shengren's method is wrong! Later, in practice, his mind became more and more firm, and finally parted ways with Zhu's Neo-Confucianism and embarked on the road of mind learning.
By contrast, let's take a look at the "four-sentence teaching" proposed by Wang Yangming. How easy it is to understand and explain the specific practice of this style! Everyone has a conscience. When you do something, your conscience will appear. Just obey the good and evil judgment of conscience! It omits so many complicated processes and goes straight to the essence of the avenue! To do this, you just need to ask yourself.
In fact, this "four-sentence teaching" is important, not only because it continues the fault of "things" and opens the door to the holy road, but also because of its practical significance to us. Since the Westernization Movement, in order to change its backward appearance, China has been studying western culture and introducing western systems. Modern teaching methods have been gradually established, and school-style teaching has gradually replaced mentoring learning. It's getting harder and harder! In ancient times, students learned from teachers all the year round. Relatively speaking, the teaching method of words and deeds made the method of learning things imperceptibly in the morning and evening. Nowadays, teaching pays more attention to imparting knowledge, thus neglecting the education of students' learning methods and life, which leads to the increase of "dangerous goods" such as talents and morality. It is precisely because of the mechanization of our modern teaching system that we should pay more attention to the cultivation of body and mind. There is a saying in "University", "From Tian Zi to Shu Ren, self-cultivation is the foundation." The starting point of self-cultivation is the grid!
From this point of view, as one of the Confucian classics, "Four Sentences of Wang Men" not only has its academic significance to supplement the specific practical methods of "learning things", but also helps us cultivate our body and mind, enhance the realm of life, and lay a solid foundation for us to "be honest and clean, cultivate our morality and rule the country." This may also be the place where Yangming's theory of mind has been baptized for 500 years but lasted for a long time!