"Don't be happy with things, don't be sad with oneself" comes from the famous poem "Yueyang Tower" by Fan Zhongyan, a writer in the Song Dynasty. The sadness and joy of the outside world will affect one's own value judgment and state of mind. A person who values ??spiritual cultivation adopts an open-minded attitude towards external objects and gets what he wants, just by chance, so he uses them naturally; when things that originally belong to him are lost, they are Once the fate with oneself is over, one should be content with the current situation and adapt to changes. Neither sadness nor joy can enter a peaceful inner world. This is what the ancients said: "Don't be happy with things, don't be sad with yourself." Although this sentence comes from Fan Zhongyan, to be fair, Fan Zhongyan cannot achieve the ideological state of "not to be happy with things and not to be sad with oneself". In "Yueyang Tower", "I live high in the temple and worry about the people, and I live in the rivers and lakes." "Worrying about his king when he is far away" shows that his mood is still concerned about the country and the people. Although it is a high righteousness, it is vaguely seen that Fan Zhongyan's mood was not peaceful after moving to the left.
If there is any figure who can come close to the state of neither being happy with things nor sad with oneself, after thinking about it, Mr. Wang Yangming, a great Confucian in the Ming Dynasty and the founder of "Xin Xue", may have this qualification. Wang Yangming is the culmination of the learning of the kings of Lu. He successively served as the chief of the Ministry of Justice, the postmaster of Guizhou Longchang, the magistrate of Luling, the censor of Youqiandu, the governor of Southern Jiangxi, and the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. In his later years, he served as the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing and the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. history. He was named Xinjian Bo for his military achievements in quelling the Chenhao Rebellion.
Wang Yangming had two major achievements in his life: First, he "enlightened the Tao in Longchang" and founded "Xin Xue", "unity of knowledge and action" was his core idea; second, he put down the rebellion of Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao and fought twice Declined the title of Duke Xinjian. Both of these things reflect the mentality of "not to be happy with things and not sad with yourself". Let’s talk about “Longchang Enlightenment” first. Longchang Enlightenment was the most important leap in Wang Yangming’s ideological development in his life. In the third year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1508), Wang Yangming offended the eunuch Liu Jin, a powerful eunuch of the imperial court, and was demoted. After a long and arduous journey, he finally escaped the danger of life and death from Liu Jin who sent people to chase him all the way, and arrived at his relegated residence. Place - Longchang, Guizhou (now Xiuwen, Guizhou), he was the postmaster of Longchang. The natural environment of Longchang was very harsh at that time, and it was a chieftain-ruled area that was very different from the Han culture. While feeling the political persecution and the misfortune in his life, Wang Yangming was never discouraged and educated the people according to local customs. More importantly, he also continued to reflect and question the value and meaning of life. He gained a profound understanding of both thought and spirit, and began to form and spread his own thoughts on psychology. He wrote "Dog Showing Dragon Field Zhu" "Sheng" and many other writings, known as Longchang Enlightenment in history.
Let’s talk about the suppression of King Ning’s rebellion and two words about the imperial title. In the fourteenth year of Zhengde (1519), Zhu Chenhao, the king of Ning in Nanchang, launched a rebellion. After receiving the news of Zhu Chenhao's rebellion, Wang Yangming, who was in Jiangxi at the time, immediately rushed to Ji'an, recruited volunteers, issued a proclamation, and sent troops to conquer. In order to prevent King Ning from taking Nanjing directly to expand the rebellion, Wang Yangming first adopted the strategy of using suspicion to lure King Ning to stay in Nanchang for more than 10 days. Then, on King Ning's way to Nanjing, he went straight to King Ning's hometown Nanchang, and finally captured King Ning easily. At this time, the crusade army led by Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty had not yet arrived. After the success, Wang Yangming quietly retreated, with no intention of seeking a reward from the court. Even when the court of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty wanted to grant a reward, he did so twice. The emperor declined the title, but in the end he could not resist the imperial decree and was granted the title of Xin Xin Bo.
Generally speaking, "Longchang Enlightenment" embodies Wang Yangming's unwillingness to grieve for himself. Under the harsh natural environment and complex and difficult humanistic environment of Longchang, he devoted himself to enlightenment and created the most influential work in the Ming Dynasty. Philosophical thought can be juxtaposed with Neo-Confucianism. He made great contributions to quelling the rebellion of King Ning and declined the imperial title twice, which reflects Wang Yangming's ideological state that he does not take pleasure in material things and regards fame and wealth as external things.