Yangmingism
School of the Heart (Chinese: 心學; pinyin: xīn xué), or Yangmingism (Chinese: 陽明學; pinyin: yángmíng xué; Japanese: 陽明学, romanized: yōmeigaku), is one of the major philosophical schools of Neo-Confucianism, based on the ideas of the idealist Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Shouren (whose pseudonym was Yangming Zi and thus is often referred as Wang Yangming).
[1] Wang Yangming, on the other hand, developed his philosophy as the main intellectual opposition to the Cheng-Zhu School.
Yangmingism is considered to be part of the School of Mind established by Lu Jiuyuan, upon whom Yangming drew inspirations.
This idea, "regard the inner knowledge and the exterior action as one" (知行合一) is the main tenet in Yangmingism.
[4] In the 20th century, Japanese author and nationalist Yukio Mishima examined Yangmingism as an integral part of the ideologies behind the Meiji Restoration as well as further samurai resistance, in particular the Shinpūren rebellion.
At the age of eighteen, Yangming had a talk with Lou Liang [zh], who was one of the representative figures of Cheng-Zhu School at that time.
After their conversations, Yangming managed to read through all of Zhu’s work, reflecting on Cheng-Zhu School’s principle that “to acquire knowledge one must study things” (格物致知).
To practice this principle, Yangming spent seven days doing nothing except staring at, or so to say, studying the bamboos planted in the garden.
[7] Instead, he began to read texts written by other Chinese philosophers, and eventually narrowed his focus on Taoism and Lu Jiuyuan, whose work had been a major opponent to the Cheng-Zhu's Rationalistic School.
[8] Yangmingism became hugely popular in Southern China, especially Jiangxi and Jiangnan (except Suzhou), but not Anhui and Fujian, and by the sixteenth century the Cheng-Zhu orthodox school even in the North could not ignore its basic philosophical claims.
Northern literati, more dependent on governmental routes to success than their Southern counterparts, were less receptive to Yangmingism.
Only does one actually do things to take care of his families can be considered as knowing the ultimate consciousness.
"[11] MIT's motto "Mens et Manus,"[12] or "Mind and Hand," also reflect the importance of combining the inner knowledge and actions as one.
In 1528, one year before his death, Yangming summaries his philosophies into a doctrine called "the Four-Sentence Teaching (四句教)".
[14] Notable figures in this genre include Nie Bao, Zou Shouyi, Xu Jie, and Zhang Juzheng.
[8] Notable figures include He Xinyin, Yan Shannong, and Wang Gen. Taizhou School became widespread because it focuses on the general public.
Scholars in Taizhou School believe that even the most ordinary person has the possibility of accomplishing extraordinary achievements.
Yangming's excessive concentration on minds had made his teaching contain a negative attitude coming from his early education in Buddhism.
He also argued that 知行合一, the unity of inner knowledge and actions had made people can no longer separate theories and actual matter apart.
