Research On Chen Mingshui’s Doctrine Of Innate Knowledge

As one of the closest disciples of Wang Yangming, and one of the important scholars in the late Yangming school, Chen Mingshui is considered to be the important representative of Jiangyou Yangming school whose achievement has been highly praised by his contemporaries. Chen is said to be the best and most capable scholar to get Wang’s spirit, and the most popular one in his class (Wang Shenzhong, Preface for Mingshui s corpus), which is all because he plays a significant role in maintaining Yangming’s thought, and in trying to advance the conformation of the Innate Knowledge theory and spread it. His doctrine of Innate Knowledge possesses a universal value which breaks through the limits of time and space.Chen Mingshui’s doctrine of Innate Knowledge was originated in his double reflection on the personal experience and surroundings in contemporary time. He lived in the middle period of Ming Dynasty with great transition, when commodity economy developed quickly, with political ruling beginning to corrupt, culture being popular, and social living standard starting to become extravagant and wasteful. These great changes brought about many negative consequences, such as the corruption of social values and the deterioration of social morality, which urged scholars to reflect on the situation and possible solutions. Chen Mingshui’s doctrine of Innate Knowledge is just the achievement of his consideration on the contemporary social reality. On the other hand, Chen Mingshui’s doctrine of Innate Knowledge is also a reflection showing his study journey in his lifetime. Chen Mingshui, with a weak body, suffered many hardships in his life, experiencing ups and downs in his academic and official careers, which pushed him into a much deeper thought. It was just with the double stimulations of social reality and personal experience that Chen Mingshui constructed the relatively complete system of Innate Knowledge theory, including the doctrine of ontology, Gongfu, and realm transcending.View of Innate Knowledge is the logical basis of Chen Mingshui’s doctrine of Innate Knowledge, which means the essence of Innate Knowledge defines the theory of Gongfu and the theory of realm. The reason of divergences in late Yangming school lied in the different understanding about view of Yangming’s Innate Knowledge. Most had done a personal interpretation of Yangming’s thought and thus went against his original purpose and understand one-sidedly. Chen Mingshui, on the other hand, had his own ideas about the Innate Knowledge, which was the beneficial expanding based on the correct understanding of Yangming’s thought. Chen Mingshui annotated Innate Knowledge from different dimensions—Du, Ji, Su, Ren, Zhong—which largely enriches the content of Innate Knowledge. He defined Innate Knowledge using "There is No Stable Substance in Mind""The Quiescence and The Movement are Linked to a Whole", grasping characteristics of Yangming’s idea about "The Unity of Activity and Quietness" accurately. Chen Mingshui’s view of Innate Knowledge reveals the supreme, absolute, pure, smart and lively qualities of the Innate Knowledge, which become the fundamental basis of the theory of Gongfu.How to achieve and extend Innate Knowledge is always the focus in the late Yangming school. It is becoming a question whether to stay rigidly in a quiet corner apart from the outside world and be inflexible, or to be capricious and casual, losing the realistic Gongfu. Chen Mingshui’s "There is No Stable Substance in Mind" is based on his fully understanding of Yangming’s thought. He not only persisted in the inward rational thinking—"Awakening Oneself by Discreet on One’s Own", but also advocated outward fulfilling in real world—"Practicing Needs Immediate Action." Both the orientations in the theory of Gongfu guarantee the supreme status of Innate Knowledge and also ensure its practical meaning. Meanwhile, the two orientations—rational thinking inwardly and practice in the real world—provide the process of Gongfu with distinct levels and stages:one should firstly reflect on oneself and know his own Innate Knowledge, and then extend and develop his Innate Knowledge. This is more practical than just viewing it as a whole, and more coherent with Yangming’s thought than the way of staying rigidly in a corner apart from the outside world or being capricious and casual. Chen Mingshui’s doctrine focus on the social practice in the theory of Gongfu shows the consciousness of responsibility of Confucianism. On the other hand, the Gongfu to extend Innate Knowledge in practice also reveals the interdependent relationship between the ontology and Gongfu.On the problems about Gongfu in extending Innate Knowledge, Chen Mingshui emphasized people’s rational spirit, and meanwhile did not exclude the necessary emotional factors and therefore agreed on meeting reasonable emotional needs. He also noticed the difference of each individual in this aspect, so he advocated it should vary with different individuals in the process of Gongfu. Besides, Chen Mingshui noted the fact that each individual may be easily distracted, and thus claimed the supportive role of one’s will in the process. The division and analysis of emotion and will help to recognize the truth clearly that only when being combined with individual,Innate Knowledge can be achieved and become practically useful, and also help to avoid the simplification of achieving Innate Knowledge and the ignorance of practical Gongfu. When an individual can be recognized with emotion and directed by his will, his own Innate Knowledge can be transformed into his conscious virtue, so as to ensure the coherence of his inner motivation and exterior behavior in the moral practice.Chen Mingshui’s theory of Gongfu standed in the social practice, implying a realm in which the individual goes from himself to the outside world and even goes beyond. This realm indicates the transcending limitation of oneself as well as the real life. And just because of this realm, the individual can ignore fame and fortune, life and death, in the process of pursuing better achievement in building himself and the world, so that he can live as his will in the sophisticated world. Chen Mingshui’s view on realm can endow the individual with a spiritual home.In a word, there are many original ideas in Chen Mingshui’s doctrine of Innate Knowledge which also carries on the essence of Yangming’s thought. It has a universal value beyond the limits of time and space. Unavoidably, due to the limitations of the times, his theory still has its own inherent tension.