Experiencing The Principle Of Heaven Everywhere

Zhan Gan-quan, also named Zhan Ruo-shui, is a famous official and great Confucian scholar in the middle of the Ming dynasty, in which another ancient Chinese thinker Wang Yang-ming lives. When Zhan is young, he learns from Chen Bai-sha. He follows Chen's doctrines of "nature" and "practical reflection" and puts forward the idea of "experiencing the principle of heaven everywhere" which is very similar to Chen's spirit. So Zhan is eulogized by Chen very much and becomes Chen's academic inheritor.Impacted by Zhang Zai's monism of Qi(material force), Gan-quan's cosmology claims that Qi is the origin of the universe, the principle (Li) cannot separates from Qi. It criticizes the malpractice of Cheng-Zhu school's philosophy which disconnects Li from Qi. In his theory of mind and nature Gan-quan brings forward the theory of Universal Mind which advocates "mind can experience everything of the world". Zhan deems that "Mind " not only is the organ bearing the function of apperception and cognition and contained by our body, but also most importantly covers and runs through everything of the world. It is the internal and external noumenal mind. Mind is nature, also principle. As to the viewpoint of knowledge and practice, Gan-quan holds that knowledge and practice should be identified, which, on the one hand, criticizes Cheng-Zhu school's standpoints of knowledge prior to and more important than practice; on the other hand, redresses Yang-ming school's "knowledge annexes practice" and rectifies Late Yang-ming school's Buddhism tendency of "talking about knowledge but ignoring practice". It becomes the first signs of the academic style recovery of putting what is learned into practice in late Ming and early Qing."Experiencing the principle of heaven everywhere" is the kernel notion of Zhan's philosophy, whose noumenon is the mind of " experiencing everything of the world". "Neither negligence nor hastening" is its experiencing theorem; and nature and practical reflection is its ideal realm. It stresses "holding fast to seriousness" through idea, mind and behavior; and gives prominence to the continuity of mind cultivation and the importance of experiencing the principle of heaven through the matters of family, state and the world. It unites mind together with idea and behavior, inside and outside, motion and motionlessness. It advocates knowledge and practice being embodied in the ordinary at the same time to achieve the cultivation of sage's personality and to attain the absolutely free realm of "the identification of heaven and mankind". Thus , Zhan's thought possesses both Lu-Wang school's introspection and Cheng-Zhu school's outer-seeking by "investigating things to the utmost so as to gain an exhaustive knowledge". The mediating inclination of Zhan's philosophy makes it appear strong compatibility because of its making use of Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang's achievements. Furthermore, because Zhan's "practical reflection" learnings combine principle and Qi, mind and nature, mind and principle, mind and Qi, inside and outside, motion and motionlessness, acting and knowing, it casts off Lu-Wang's disadvantages of introversive deflection and Cheng-Zhu's drawbacks of fragmentation.There are two main characters in Zhan's doctrines: Mind and Oneness. Firstly, Gan-quan thinks that "Qi" is the foundation or "seed" of our world and everything in the universe comes from Qi. But, in his proposition of "experiencing the principle of heaven everywhere", "the principle of heaven", which comes from ordinary life and is endowed with ontic significance, comprises both objective natural laws and social ethical rules. Mind can comprehend the principle on account of its cognition function. Gan-quan expands this kind of function as possible as he can so as to make everything of the world be ingested by mind and gets the conclusions that "the principle of heaven is in our mind", "mind can experience everything of the world". So, in Zhan's phylosophy Mind becomes the highest noumenon, which makes his thought take on obvious Mind-learnings property, although possessing factors of dualism (Mind and Qi). Latterly speaking, Gan-quan considers that the conceptions such as principle and Qi, mind and nature, mind and principle, mind and Qi, inside and outside, motion and motionlessness, knowledge and practice and so on cannot be talked about separately, or it will lead to the malpractice of "disconnection". They should be regarded as the unity of opposites. So, in some degree, we can approve that Zhan's thought is "Oneness" philosophy.Five hundred years passes since Zhan's philosophy's naissance, but it has not drawn enough attention from scholars, neither obtains its deserved position in Chinese academic history, which is rather disproportional to his great contributions to ancient Chinese academy development. As the appointed Chen Bai-sha's successor Zhan Gan-quan plays the first role of Ling-nan school after Chen's death. He follows, modifies and develops Bai-sha's teachings, which gives significant play to the booming and progressing of Ling-nan academy. Secondly, Zhan Gan-quan and Wang Yang-ming are good friends. Drastic debates often take place between them on some academic problems, which is beneficial to their research. Zhan's "experiencing the principle of heaven everywhere" stands up to Wang's "extending innate knowledge" as an equal. Their arguements happened face to face or by letters help them constantly amend their own theories. So it cannot be negated that Zhan Gan-quan has great influences on the maturity of Wang Yang-ming's thought. Moreover, Zhan's philosophy introjects Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang's ideas, combines "honoring moral nature" and "following the path of inquiry and study". It challenges to authorities and develops a school of its own; and plays a precursor role in the turning of Mind-Nature learnings to the teachings of putting what is learned into practice in Ming dynasty. Thus it can be seen that Zhan's philosophy is a integral part of Mind learnings in Ming dynasty, and even it takes important position for its forming a connecting link between the preceding and the following during the whole history of Song-Ming neo-confucianism.