What's more, calligraphers from all walks of life and their calligraphy lovers always think that practicing calligraphy with these four words is "the unity of knowledge and action". A little naive!
It is conceivable that not many people really understand this golden sentence. Logically speaking, knowing and doing cannot be integrated. Therefore, readers may feel very entangled! I even want to give the author a bunch of bad reviews: you just don't pretend to understand! You misinterpreted what Mr. Wang meant. You have no idea what Mr. Wang thinks.
Well, let me talk about why knowledge and action can't be integrated.
First of all, let me explain the original intention of the unity of knowledge and action and the understanding of ordinary people. The idea of the unity of knowing and doing comes from the philosophical thought of Wang Shouren, a thinker in Ming Dynasty. "The unity of knowing and doing means that the object conforms to the subject, knowledge refers to conscience, and action refers to human practice. The unity of knowing and doing is neither swallowing action with knowledge nor swallowing action with knowledge, thinking that action is knowledge. In other words, understanding the truth of things and its application in reality are inseparable. This is the proposition of epistemology and practice in China's ancient philosophy, which mainly focuses on moral cultivation and practice. Ancient philosophers in China believed that we should not only know ("know"), but also practice ("do"). Only by unifying "knowledge" and "action" can it be called "goodness". The unity of conscience and knowing and doing is the core of Yangming culture. " (Source: Sogou Encyclopedia)
As can be seen from the above, this is a question about epistemology and practice. Logically, this is the content of two different categories. Only when the two categories are the same or overlap can we say that knowledge and action are one.
This is the so-called unity of knowledge and action, which is what most people say. However, it can be seen that people with this kind of understanding can't distinguish the boundary between epistemology and practice.
In fact, there are many things in life that we know but can't do and things that we do but don't need to know.
For example, a billiards master can still play billiards well without knowing the calculation method of mechanics. A mechanics physicist knows how to calculate the impact angle and trajectory of billiards, but he will not become a billiards master.
For example, medical students, no matter how rich their knowledge is, have to go through long-term practice before they can operate surgery, because knowledge can be taught, but experience is gained from personal practice and cannot be taught. Every medical student learns a standard mannequin, but in fact, everyone's physical condition is different, which can't be obtained through theoretical study except practice. Therefore, doctors with the same academic qualifications can be divided into low-handed and high-handed, and the difference lies in the different personal experiences. I remember the difference between knowledge and experience, as if I had read it in Aristotle's Metaphysics.
Although knowing and doing cannot be integrated, I have no intention of overthrowing Mr. Wang's theory. If we only understand it from the moral aspect, Mr. Wang advocates that people, especially intellectuals, should be integrated with knowledge and action, instead of being full of hypocrisy of benevolence, righteousness and morality, which has a certain effect on purifying the bad atmosphere of society. In other words, in terms of moral practice, the integration of knowledge and practice is the best and most ideal state.
But it doesn't mean that knowing and being able to do it is the unity of knowing and doing, but that practicing "conscience" is the unity of knowing and doing. This is understood from the original meaning, not from people's daily life. Therefore, the scope of knowledge of the integration of knowledge and practice has been relatively reduced. But no matter how they expand or contract, there is always a certain boundary between them. This boundary is a marker line that delimits the scope of knowledge and action.
Finally, let's review, why can't knowing and doing be one? Because these are two different categories, only when the two categories are the same or overlap can there be unity. From the logical category, the category of knowledge is greater than that of line, so these two categories are not the same, but they can overlap. Only where the two categories overlap can we achieve the unity of knowing and doing, instead of all knowledge and all lines. So knowing and doing can't be one.