Wang Yangming, also known as Wang Shouren (1472-1529), was a famous philosopher, military strategist, and educator in the Ming Dynasty of China, whose doctrine was known as Yangmingxue or Xinxue. Wang Yangming's life has undergone many changes in identity and role, which are summarized in later generations as "the first three changes" and "the last three changes", which is also the process of the formation of psychology.
What are the first three changes? There are three qualitative changes between the ages of 18 and 37.
The first change, the change of words and chapters: Wang Yangming had lofty ambitions when he was young, practiced martial arts, learned the art of war, and was ready to serve the motherland. 18-year-old Wang Yangming visited Lou Liang, and Lou Liang taught him the study of "learning from things". Lou Liang was a famous physicist in the Ming Dynasty, Lou Liang's academic thought was deeply influenced by Cheng Zhu's science, and he had profound attainments in the field of science, especially in the study of the Book of Changes. After visiting Lou Liang, Wang Yangming believed that "a sage must be able to learn", first of all, he flooded the words and chapters, thinking about Song Confucian's so-called "things have the surface and the inside are coarse, and every grass and tree has the truth". Studying the truth of learning from things, I "checked" the bamboo for three days and three nights, and I had a headache and found nothing, but people fell ill because of it. Since then, Wang Yangming has had great doubts about the theory of "Gewu".
The second change, in and out of the Buddha: After Gewu, the next thing is that he likes to stay with Taoist priests and monks. But Wang Yangming later felt that these things were not interesting, especially when he stayed in the temple, and for a period of time he missed his father and grandmother, because his mother died very early, and he missed his father and grandmother very much. He felt that it was wrong, he said that I didn't cultivate enough in this realm, why couldn't I let go of it after practicing for so long? Or miss my grandmother, what's going on? Later, Wang Yangming suddenly felt that if I even broke off this thought, if I could not even miss my grandmother and father, this would be a bad moral. Wang Yangming is actually a very wise person, and he actually has a lot of knowledge of the Buddha's theories. But he felt that he couldn't cut off all this thing, that is, he couldn't have nothing at all.
Clause. 3. Longchang enlightenment: When he was 37 years old, he was sent to Longchang, Guizhou, and he helped the people around him to teach in that place. And then sitting there alone every night and thinking slowly, it's very much like the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree and constantly realizing enlightenment. At that moment, he suddenly figured out one thing, which is called "the way of the saint, self-sufficiency, and those who seek reason from things are mistaken." "It is enough in my nature that the way of the saints is. This is just like what the Buddha said, all living beings have the wisdom and virtue of the same, but they are obscured by delusional attachment. Wang Yangming believes that in the past, he used to seek reason for things, and he used to always check inside the bamboo, and always check the things outside, which was wrong, this thing was wrong, and he should look for it in his own heart.
These are the first three changes of Wang Yangming's mind, from the words to the Buddha, and then to the dragon field to enlightenment. These three changes are changes in nature, that is, each time they adjust a huge direction.
Then the next period is the period from 37 to 45 years old, what is the first stage of the last three changes? The first is to meditate silently and clear the mind, which is to meditate quietly every day. After Wang Yangming returned to the inland from Guizhou, his health was very bad, so he meditated every day in order to recuperate his body. One of the main things in this process is that you have to be able to distinguish between the true self and the false self. What is the true self? The true self is the heart, the true body. Observe yourself and be your own observer. So this is the first stage of the last three changes.
Then the second stage happened around the age of forty-five to fifty, at this time Wang Yangming's life took a major turn, that is, he was going to work, he was going to quell the bandits. One of Wang Yangming's most important theories at this stage is to conscience. What do you mean by conscience? It is when he has gone through so much cultivation in the previous years that he can always distinguish what is the true self and what is the false self, and the conscience is to keep it consistent. To be to be extrapolated and to be expanded, that is, to be able to put your conscience in everything you do at all times.
First, the subject and object are no longer **, that is, Wang Yangming proposed at this time to "sit silently, and the heart is not waiting to be clear". Sitting silently means that if I want to be quiet, I don't need to sit, I can be quiet when I walk, I can be quiet when I talk to others, my heart is always quiet. And then my heart is not clear, that is, my heart does not need to sit there to be able to settle slowly, my heart is always fixed.
Second, what is conscience? Heavenly reason is conscience. Some people say, does a thief have a conscience? Wang Yangming said: Of course, thieves have a conscience. You scolded him to his face, and he was angry. He knew in his heart that it was wrong to be a thief, but he covered it up himself, because I want money now, and I want to live a good life first, so I went to be a thief. After he covers his original conscience with desires and habits, he will do all kinds of things that are out of line. And as a person who has pursuits, as a person who wants to continue the path of the saints, you need to constantly explore your conscience, which is the Tao and the Heavenly Principle.
The third is the integration of knowledge and action. What is the unity of knowledge and action? Wang Yangming said: "Knowledge is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowledge." It is to know the truth, to know the truth, is to do; To be aware and to be discerning is to know. If you really know something, what is the performance? It's that you can really do it. If you want to really do something well, what is the premise of it? Yes, you have to know. The knowledge that we usually talk about is that it is difficult to know and easy to do, or that it is easy to know and difficult to do, is the knowledge that we know not to know. The knowledge of the unity of knowledge and action that Wang Yangming talked about is the knowledge of virtue, and the two kinds of knowledge are different.
The third change of Wang Yangming's three changes is after the age of fifty, which is called the circle of ripening. What is the ripening environment? It's a bit like Confucius said, after seventy, do what you want from your heart. At this time, Wang Yangming said: "What you do is familiar, and what you get is good." "It's that the tools I use become more and more familiar, and then the things I gain become more and more sophisticated, and they become more and more holy, and at this time they are close to the atmosphere of saints. So in the end, before Wang Yangming died, when he went to conquer the traitor, he barely fought a battle. That is, every time he goes to a place, he sees the situation and writes a letter, and the traitor immediately submits to him, that is, man has reached such a state. Like before, he still had to fight with King Ning, or when he was in peace with other places, he still needed to kill people, but by the time he was in the later stage, he almost didn't need to use this kind of violence to solve the problem. That's why he said, "What you do is what you gain."
These six changes summarize the course of Wang Yangming's ideological development and practice throughout his life, and embody his spirit of continuous exploration and pursuit of truth. The above content is based on Fan Deng's lecture "Wang Yangming's Philosophy" (written by Cai Renhou), and criticism and correction are welcome. Listen to Fan Deng's lecture