Wang Yangming

Chinese scholar-official

• Born: November 30, 1472
• Birthplace: Youyao, Zhejiang, China
• Died: January 9, 1529
• Place of death: Nanen, Jiangxi, China

As a high official, holding many governmental offices from magistrate to governor, Wang suppressed rebellions and created a reign of peace in China that lasted a century. His Neo-Confucian philosophy exercised tremendous influence in both China and Japan for 150 years.

Early Life

Wang Yangming (wayng yayng-mihn) was the son of a minister of civil personnel in Nanjing. He was renamed Wang Yangming by his students, but his private name was Shouren and his courtesy name was Boan. According to legend, he could not speak until he was given a name at the age of five. He soon began reading his grandfather’s books and reciting their contents. When he was eleven years old, he went to live with his father at Beijing. At the age of twelve, Wang announced to a fortune-teller that the greatest occupation was that of a sage, not that of a government official. His mother, Madame Zheng (Cheng), died when he was thirteen. At fifteen, he visited the Zhuyong Mountain passes, where he first became interested both in archery and in the frontier.

Wang was married at the age of seventeen, but he was so absorbed in a conversation he was having with a Daoist priest on his wedding night that he forgot to go home until he was sent for the next morning. As he and his wife were passing through Guangxin the next year, he had another important discussion, this time with a prominent scholar named Lou Liang. Lou was so impressed with Wang that he predicted that Wang could become a sage if he studied diligently. Wang, however, devoted his nineteenth year to the study of archery and military tactics.

During the next ten years, Wang was torn between pursuing a career in the military, in politics, in literature, or in philosophy. After receiving his civil service degree, he delved deeply into the works of Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi). While visiting his father in Beijing, he spent seven days sitting quietly in front of some bamboos in an attempt to discern the principles of Zhu Xi embodied within them. The stress was too much for Wang, however, and he became very ill. Thoroughly disillusioned with philosophy, he spent his time writing flowery compositions instead of studying for his civil service examinations. Consequently, he failed his examinations in 1493 and again in 1496, and he shifted his interest back to military crafts and to the Daoist philosophy.

Wang finally settled on one career choice after passing his civil service examinations in 1499, at the age of twenty-seven. He was appointed to the Ministry of Public Works, where he impressed his superiors with a method for defending China against invasion. Though his proposal was rejected, Wang was made minister of justice in Yunnan in the following year. In 1501, Wang reversed the convictions of many prisoners after checking the prison records near Nanjing. Ill health forced Wang to retreat to the Yangming ravine to recuperate. He built a house in the ravine and began calling himself Philosopher of Yangming. Wang soon became very skeptical of some of the teachings of Daoism and Buddhism and of his own literary pursuits.

Having fully recovered from his illness, Wang returned to Beijing in 1504, where he was appointed director of the provincial examinations in Shandong. That same year, he became a secretary in the Ministry of War. In 1505, members of his large student following convinced him that he was better suited as a philosopher, and he began lecturing on the importance of becoming a sage. His practice of reciting classics and writing flowery compositions alienated him from the more conservative scholars, who accused him of trying to build a reputation for himself. Only one scholar, the honored academician Zhan Ruoshui (Chan Jo-shui), appreciated his merits. Not only did he befriend Wang, but he also helped him spread the true doctrine of Confucius.

A year later, Wang’s career as a lecturer was dramatically interrupted. In 1506, he came to the defense of a group of supervising censors who had been imprisoned by a corrupt eunuch, Liu Jin (Liu Chin). Wang wrote a memorial that so angered Liu Jin that he ordered Wang to be beaten, imprisoned, and banished to Longchang, a place inhabited primarily by barbarian tribes. Wang was demoted to head of a dispatch station. He began his journey in 1507 and arrived at Longchang a year later. During his trip, he barely escaped an assassination attempt by Liu’s agents.

Life’s Work

The three years that he spent living among the aborigines marked the turning point of his life. Having to scavenge for food and water for himself and his subordinates in a desolate land and to build houses for the Miao aborigines took its toll on Wang’s health. Yet the isolation was beneficial, for his privations forced him to look inward. One night, he suddenly realized that one need only look into one’s own mind to find the eternal principles of life, instead of searching for these principles in objects. In 1509, he developed a theory that held that knowledge and action are one. Monogamy, for example, can be fully understood only when it is practiced. With these theories, Wang was revising Idealist Neo-Confucianism, as it had been pronounced by Lu Xiangshan (Lu Hsiang-shan). In addition, Wang was directly opposing the rationalistic Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi.

As soon as Wang’s term as head of the dispatch station had ended in 1510, he was made magistrate of Luling. During his seven-month stay in office, he carried out a number of reforms. As the result of an audience with the emperor, Wang was promoted to secretary of the Ministry of Justice and director of the Ministry of Personnel in 1511, vice minister of imperial stables in 1512, and minister of state ceremonials in 1514.

Wang enjoyed his greatest military successes at Jiangxi (Kiangsi). When he first arrived there in 1517 as the new senior censor and governor, Jiangxi was the scene of repeated insurrections by rebels and bandits. Two months after his arrival, he suppressed the rebellion and initiated the rehabilitation of the rebels. In 1518, he conducted tax reform, established schools, carried out reconstruction, and instituted the Community Compact, which improved unity as well as community morals.

Wang reached the pinnacle of his political career in 1519. On his way to suppress a rebellion in Fujian, he discovered that the prince of Ning, Chenhao (Ch’en-hao), had declared himself head of state. Wang surrounded the prince’s base, Nanchang, and captured him. Rumors had surfaced as a result of his contact with Chenhao, and Wang was accused by a jealous official of conspiring with the prince, resulting in the imprisonment of one of Wang’s pupils. Nevertheless, Wang was appointed governor of Jiangxi by the end of the year. In 1520, he instituted more reforms.

Wang’s achievements were not viewed as a cause for celebration by everyone in the kingdom. The emperor tried to claim credit for the victory at Nanjing by leading the expedition himself. Wang also embarrassed the emperor, first by capturing the prince and then by giving credit to the department of military affairs. Most damaging of all, though, was that Wang and the prince had exchanged messengers before the rebellion took place. Wang’s political enemies were so incensed by his correspondence with the prince that Wang’s messenger, Ji Yuanheng, was tortured to death.

Wang was exonerated of all charges in 1521 when the Jiajing emperor ascended the throne. After his father died in 1522, Wang went into virtual retirement at Yuyao for five years, where he attracted hundreds of disciples from all over China, even though his critics escalated their attacks against him. During this period, he developed his philosophy to full maturity with his doctrine of the extension of innate knowledge. With this theory, Wang turned psychology into ethics, suggesting that the human mind possesses an innate capacity for distinguishing between good and evil. Wang’s conversations with his students were collected in his major work, Chuanxi lu (1572; Instructions for Practical Living , 1963).

In 1522, Wang was called on to suppress a rebellion in Jiangxi, a feat he accomplished in only six months. The coughing that had bothered him for years became so pronounced during the fighting that he had to conduct the battles from carriages. On his return home, he died in Nanen, Jiangxi, on January 9, 1529. After his death, a political enemy of Wang, senior academician Gui E (Kuei O), vented his anger against Wang by revoking his earldom and all his hereditary privileges, thereby disinheriting Wang’s sons. In 1567, though, a new emperor bestowed on Wang the posthumous title of marquis of Xinjian. In 1584, he was accorded the highest honor of all by the offering of sacrifice to him in the Confucian temple.

Significance

Wang Yangming will be remembered as the scholar-official who brought a lasting peace to China. Under the leadership of such corrupt eunuchs as Liu Jin, fifteenth century China was a chaotic country, overrun with rebels and bandits. Wang rose to power through the civil service examination system, which had been the traditional avenue to fame and political authority for more than one thousand years. Although he had many political enemies, Wang used his various offices to quell the rebellions. Consequently, a large portion of China enjoyed a century of peace.

Wang’s contributions to Neo-Confucian philosophy also had a tremendous effect on China. In the fifteenth century, the Confucian classics, such as the works of Zhu Xi, were being used by the rulers to restrict freedom of thought. Wang arrived at this conclusion through a three-step learning process that began with the writing of flowery compositions, proceeded to intense study of Zhu Xi’s works, and culminated in his revolutionary pronouncements. His doctrine of unity of action and knowledge and his doctrine of innate knowledge invigorated the Confucian system. After his death, Wang’s philosophy would become a potent force in China and Japan for 150 years, producing a number of brilliant reformers.

Bibliography

Berthrong, John H. Transformations of the Confucian Way. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1998. History of the evolution of Confucian thought, emphasizing the struggle of individual philosophers to find their own version of the Way and analyzing Wang’s particular contribution to Neo-Confucianism. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Chang, Carsun. “Wang Yang-ming’s Philosophy.” Philosophy East and West 5, no. 1 (1955): 3-18. A short introduction to Wang’s life and work. Useful primarily for its clear, concise explanation of Wang’s philosophy.

Feng, Yu-lan. The Period of Classical Learning. Vol. 2 in A History of Chinese Philosophy. Translated by Derk Bodde. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983. Contains an introduction to Wang’s philosophy. Although the introduction relies heavily on quotations from Wang’s works, it does offer commentary at the beginning and ending of each section.

Hauf, Kandice. “’Goodness Unbound’: Wang Yang-ming and the Redrawing of the Boundary of Confucianism.” In Imagining Boundaries: Changing Confucian Doctrines, Texts, and Hermeneutics, edited by Kai-wing Chow, On-cho Ng, and John B. Henderson. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. Argues that Wang essentially altered the very definition of Confucianism, changing what did and did not count as authentically Confucian thought. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Ivanhoe, Philip J. Ethics in the Confucian Tradition: The Thought of Mengzi and Wang Yangming. 2d ed. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 2002. An introduction to the thought of both Wang and Mencius, which seeks to demonstrate both the continuity between Wang and earlier Confucian philosophy and the important modifications he made in the Confucian system. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Kim, Heup Young. Wang Yang-ming and Karl Barth: A Confucian-Christian Dialogue. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1996. A comparison of Confucianism and Christianity, placing Wang in dialogue with a Christian thinker. Attempts to demonstrate the radical Humanism of both thinkers and both systems of thought. Includes bibliographic references.

Wang Yang-ming. Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings. Translated by Wing-tsit Chan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. The introduction is a comprehensive account of Wang’s achievements as a politician and as a philosopher, based on standard Chinese sources. This text is an indispensable biography for the English-speaking reader.

Wang Yang-ming. The Philosophy of Wang Yang-ming. Translated by Frederick Goodrich Henke. 2d ed. New York: Paragon, 1964. An uncritical translation, based largely on such legends as Wang’s escape by boat from assassins. Omits some essential material but provides a good overview of Wang’s early life.

Zehou, Li. “Thoughts on Ming-Quing Neo-Confucianism.” In Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism, edited by Wing-tsit Chan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986. Clarifies Wang’s philosophy by contrasting it with the work of Wang’s precursor, Chu Hsi.