On The Absorption Of Zennism By WangYang-ming's Mind-Nature Doctrine

In the Dynasties of Song and ruing, Zennism flourished. In response to thischallenge, many traditional Confucianists took in some ideas from Zennism,constructed the ontology of the traditional Confucianism and developed some kindsof Neo-Confucianism, the most perfect one of which is Chu Hsi's RationalPhilosophy. In Yuan Dynasty, Chu Hsi's Rational Philosophy was authorized as theofficial ideology. But when it developed into Ming Dynasty, it had lost its innatevigor gradually and became more and more rigid and hypocritical. So, WangYang-ming's Mind Philosophy emerged just under this circumstances.Wang Yang-ming's Mind Philosophy is constructed by the definition of thephrase "mind" in a fresh way. He puts the "mind" as the highest dominatingnoumenon, advocating that "mind is principle" whose logical train is that "thesubstance of mind is nature, and nature is the principle." This philosophical methodnot only links "mind" and "principle", making "mind" as the noumenon of"principle", but also endows "nature" with the trait of consciousness, ie "knowledge".Consequently, it overcomes the dualistic contradiction of "mind" and "principle" inChu Hsi's Rational Philosophy and overcomes the compromise of Lu Chiu-Yuen'scontention of "mind is principle." This logic of construction of mind ontology isinitially influenced by Hui Neng's Doctrine of Original Mind. Hui Neng's OriginalMind opposes the classification of mind into the pure and the impure, emphasizes theidentity of worldly mind and spiritual mind, and concludes that "all livng creaturs areBuddha" and "Buddha is all livng creaturs" by expounding and proving the originalmind posses the natue of Buddha and then putting Buddha into the original mind ofall living creatures. By the similar logical train Wang Yang-ming and Hui Neng bothput the nature of sage or Buddha into the internal mind of the folks.However, Wang Yang-ming also absorbs the doctrine of the psyche-mindontology of He-tse Sect to improve his doctrine of the knowledge-mind ontology.Psyche-mind is wonderful wisdom which is always bright without any obscurity as well as great capacity which is aroused by any chance. In a word, psyche-mind, as thesame origin of the substance and function, is both substance and function.Correspondingly, Wang Yang-ming's knowledge-mind is also the integration of theknowledge criterion and the action criterion. On the one hand, it is the rational moralprinciple; on the other hand, it is the perceptual feelings. This perceptive elementenhances subjective consciousness in the moral practice and such excels Chu Hsi'sprinciple ontology which focuses on the external restraint.The shift in ontology necessarily brings about the change of moral practice. Onthe aspect of moral practice, Wang Yang-ming advocates the identity of knowledgeand action. His ideas of "knowledge and action" is different from his forerunners, forhis "knowledge" only refers to the subjective form, excluding the course of seekingknowledge; his "action" refers not only to the personal practice but also to the mentalprocesses. He contends that knowledge in its genuine and earnest aspect is action, andaction in its intelligent and discriminating aspect is knowledge. The knowledge andaction cannot be separated, they should proceed simultaneously without distinctionbetween priority and posteriority. The identity of knowledge and action form onethread through all the doctrine of Wang Yang-ming's moral practice. In the early stage,he emphasizes the true ideas and the investigation of things, and in the later stage, hesolely advocates the extension of knowledge. The doctrine of the extension ofknowledge changes the outward direction of Chu Hsi's principle-seeking into theinward direction of the simple practice and such endows the foolish folks with thepossibility of becoming sages. This point is very similar to the doctrine of intuitiveenlightenment of Zennism. Hui Neng simplifies the traditional Buddhism's moralpractice of discipline, tranquility and wisdom, advocates the identity of tranquilityand wisdom, and contends that everyone could be Buddha by practising great wisdomto illumine the self-nature. As the moral practice is not outside the self-nature as HuiNeng advocates, then it is necessary to abandon the persistence of the language in thepractice. Moreover, just as Zennism emphasizes intuitive enlightenment and alsoapproves of gradual enlightenment, Wang Yang-ming ever instructs his disciples to grasp the intuitive knowledge in tranquility and also values the experiences inconcrete events.Of course, the difference between Wang Yang-ming's Mind-Nature Doctrine andZennism is obvious, which can be shown between "benevolent mind" and "emptymind" as well as the reality and falsehood of the practical content, etc.Wang Yang-ming stood soundly on the basis of Confucianism, absorbed thevaluable theoretical resources froms Zennism and made the great contribution to thedevelopment of Confucianism. As the ultimate highest peak of the ancientConfucianism, Wang Yang-ming's Mind Philosophy produced extensive influence onthe later Confucianism and Buddhism.