The Religious Dimension Of Wang Yangming's Thought

According to the theory of Religions Pluralism, this dissertation tries to characterise the religious dimension of Wang Yangming's thoughts. Religions Pluralism, which is developed by John Hick, claims that all the religious traditions in the world have different, but the same valuable, responses to one Ultimate Real, but none of them has direct perception of the Real because the Ultimate Real is infinite while human cognition is finite. As a result, the Real has been experienced and conceived as different Penultimate. At the same time, based on these responses, Human existence is transformed from self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness. Furthermore, each religious tradition has its Saint/Sage who had manifested the transformation more remarkable than ordinary people.Yangming regards Tianli (the Principle of Nature), or Tiandao, or Dao as the Ultimate Real, but he realizes that the Ultimate Real is ineffable unless it transforms to Liangzhi( innate knowledge about the morality), which is inherent in human. For Yangming, Liangzhi is a penultimate not only because it is transcendental, but also because it can be recognized from moral behavior. One should make great efforts to transform himself from self-centeredness to Liangzhi-centeredness both by means of experiencing Liangzhi and by means of representing Liangzhi. Accordingly, Yangming develops a series of theories about Gongfu (Askese or efforts). Firstly, it is necessary to know that all the ordinary people have the same Liangzhi as the Sage has, but they cannot represent it in their moral behavior because of their selfishness. Secondly, in order to represent the Liangzhi, and furthermore, to represent the Ultimate Real, one should do his best to overcome his selfishness to be more virtueless. Yangming also discusses the problem of how to be a sage. He emphasizes that the sage is different from the ordinary people not because of his ability to work or his profound knowledge, but his ability to overcome the desire of selfish purpose. Therefore, everyone can be a sage by representing his Liangzhi.Yangming's view of religions is more inclusive than others'in his time. He claims that Buddhism and Taoism affirm the same Ultimate Real as Confucianism. The only difference between them is the way of transform. Consequently, Yangming suggests that Confucianism should admit Buddhism and Taoism into Confucianism for the purpose of improving itself.