The Research On Guizhou Wang Yangming School

Wang Yangming comprehended "Dao" at Long Chang, Guizhou where he passed on his theory to the native, which is an significant moment cannot be ignored in the forming process of Guizhou Wang Yangming School. Wang Yangming created and constructed his mind-philosophy initially during his living in Guizhou, which is of a profound impact on his Guizhou disciples as well as their thought and organization process, and then they inherited and developed Wang Yangming's theory and formed Guizhou Wang Yangming School. Among Wang Yangming's Guizhou disciples, there are two outstanding scholars:Sun Ying-ao(short for Sun) and Liwei(short for Li), who represent the academic level and characteristics of Guizhou Wang Yangming School. This paper is mainly to focus on their theory and discuss the contents and characteristics of Guizhou Wang Yangming School.The thought of mind and nature is the foundation and core of Wang Yangming's theory. Sun Ying-ao clarified the most important category:the mind and nature, the mind ontology and nature ontology firstly, then he concentrated on the topic "Le is the Ontologylogy of Mind", which reflects a strong characteristic of subjectivity; he also paid special attention to observe and inspect the theory of human nature which were expounded by various ideologists, and gave it a interpretation from the angle of mind and finally confirmed virtuous humanity thought again.Liwei undoubtedly knew Yangming's mind and nature theory but he paid more attention to the thought of "Benvolence" and directly took it as its ontology, which showed that he returned to the true spirit of Confucius and Mencius Confucian and his criticism to the later Yangming schools' theory abusing, on this basis, he put forward the "Mind has No Boundaries and Rules" to oppose the "Mind has Boundaries and Rules" proposed by Ma Tingxi. Sun Ying-ao comprehensively expounded Yangming's core propositions "Mind is Principle" and "Extension of Innate Knowledge". Relatively, Liwei's exposition and argumentation is scattered although he also complied with Yangming's central thought, which makes Li's thought seemly inferior to Sun's theory. Such proposition showed the return of true spirit that Confucianist always insisted, what is more, in the society at that time, it is a intense criticism on the widespread abuses of the thoughts of the later Yangming schools.The discussion of "Yi" is one of the most important features of Wang Yangming's theory. For this topic, Sun proposed "Sincerity and Vigilance in Solitude" theory, but Li proposed "Un-obstinate". Compared to Li's, Sun's thought is accomplished and closer to the original meaning of Wang Yangming, which can be compared and analyzed to Liu Zongzhou who is famous for "Sincerity and Vigilance in Solitude" theory. Sun and Liu forcefully criticize the later Yangming schools' abusing theory, they take "Sincerity and Vigilance in Solitude" theory as their theory purport and also have ontology significance but Sun's theory is not systemic. Compared to Sun, Li took a different way to explain "Un-obstinate" based on mind ontology,which is inherited from Yangjian and Wangji, and also learned some thought from other ideologists such as Geng Dingxiang and Luo Jinxi. So his "Sincerity" theory is greatly diverged from Yangming. Meanwhile, the debate between Liwei and Xu Fuyuan the master of Liu Zongzhou has "reactionary" affect on Liu Zongzhou's theory.The discussion of "Unity of Knowledge and Action" is another important feature of Wang Yangming's theory. Both Sun and Li inherited the basic concept from Yangming and put forward their own unique understanding. Sun tried to demonstrate his "Unity of Knowledge and Action" thought by the interpretation from classic such as The Analects, the mean. The ontology of knowledge and action what Yangming meant to is mainly embodied in "Unity of Knowledge and Action ", "the Mind is Principle" and " the Extension of Innate Knowledge" as well as their relationship, the Kung fu of his knowledge and action is displayed the relation between sincerity and vigilance. Sun Yingao inherited this route from Ontology-Kungfu. However, Liwei relatively deviated Yangming's method and did not systematically clear up as what Sun Yingao did and just directly used "Action Before" to replace "Unity of Knowledge and Action ", the reason is that he shift "Un-obstinate" to "Action Before" correspondingly as he comprehended the ontology of mind and nature deeper Meanwhile, the "Action Before" theory is one way to make up and remedy the deviation of "ready-made innate knowledge" theory, which is of forceful time consciousness and theoretical value.The scholars of Guizhou Wang Yangming school had got a great success in the studies on Yi, both Sun and Li spoke highly of Yangjian's Yiyi, because their thought on Yi are originated from Yang's mind theory and Yi principle, from Yangming's appreciating Yi to the Guizhou scholars discussing Yi, they have some common points in their thinking method, and Sun's study on Yi was a systematical construction to Yangming's scattered Yi theory. Wangji was the comprehensive synthesist to the Yi theory among Yangming school, Sun's Yi thought is similar with him, they both explained Yi through mind. Both Liwei and Wangji praise highly on Yangjian's complete Minded-Yi though in Yiyi and their thought on Yi are similar; Compared to Li's, Sun's achievement on Yi is plentiful, he make good use of Shu and Principle and use mind to explain Yi, use Yi to prove mind and also take innate knowledge as an important content of Yi.The perpendicular and horizontal discussions above have demonstrated special features and values of Guizhou Wang Yangming School. This paper is to perpendicularly analyze Sun an Li's thought as well as their inheritance and development to the basic category' and proposition of Yangming's theory, and then horizontally analyze their theoretical dialogue and communication with their contemporary Yangming scholars. It is clearly proved that Guizhou Wang Yangming School is not isolated and enclosed, they have close origin with Taizhou Wang Yangming School, to the mind and nature aspect, Sun and Li absorbed Wang gen,Geng Tiantai, Luo Jinxi's thought, but they have great difference in Kungfu theory. Sun and Li have complicated relationship with Jiangyou Wang Yangming School, their main characteristics are close to Zou Shouyi and Zou Yuanbiao's revisionist school thought but opposed to Niebao and Luo Hongxian's "to be lonesome" thought; they relatively have few conversation with Zhejiang Wang Yangming School, they have common points with Wangji at the respect of mind and nature, however, Sun's "Sincerity and Vigilance in Solitude" and Li's "Action before "thought are greatly different from Wangji's "No Kungfu is Kungfu" theory. Qian Dehong's "Afterward sincerity" is similar with Sun's "Sincerity and Vigilance in Solitude" thought but different from Li's "Un-obstinate" thought. Wholly speaking, the two is close to Qian Dehong's character of paying attention to Kungfu, and they both criticized the Ready-Made school.