Research On Wang Yangming's Thought Of Responsibility

The concept of responsibility in contemporary society has been shaped by the Western thought of rule of law: Responsibility with the spirit of law as its core is understood as specific obligations associated with specific identity.Such understanding makes responsibility a legal concept clinging to external conditions,without its moral implications.Seeing responsibility in this external light,people have gradually taken responsibility as a burden and evaded responsibility by all means.Hence,how to stop the evasion of responsibility and put responsibility back onto the track of inner morality is a pressing issue to be addressed.A possible answer can be found from Wang Yangming's thought of responsibility.In the middle of Ming Dynasty,in Wang Yangming's day,Zhu Xi's philosophy long dominated academics and politics as an official philosophy.Under the impact of mentalism/rationalism dichotomy,responsibility was defined as complicated knowledge of morality,external utility of scholarly honor or official rank,and endless oppression of natural laws,which was also why people couldn't bear to face realistic responsibility.At that time,Wang Yangming,conscious of the defects of Zhu Xi's philosophy,upheld the banner of Confucian orthodoxy and advocated “cultivating morality,achieving feats,founding theories”,reinterpreting responsibility in the construction of mentalism and his own experience.He denied the externality of responsibility,but considered responsibility as the basic law of humanity,the inner morality rooted in the mind.Such an interpretation freed responsibility from external bondage and drove people to bear responsibility voluntarily.Wang Yangming's thought of responsibility elucidates the internality of responsibility on three levels.First,on the metaphysical level,Wang Yangming broke through the dilemma of responsibility created by mentalism/rationalism dichotomy of the Cheng-Zhu school of Confucianism.“Mind is reason” gives new meaning to responsibility by integrating “mind” and“reason”,emphasizing the connection between “mind” and “reason”.In this connection,responsibility is no longer externally imposed by natural laws,but an active response of “mind” to external things.In this response,inner morality and outer norms are also connected.Wang Yangming enabled this kind of connection by expounding on “affectionate towards loved ones”and “considerate and tolerant towards others”.According to him,people are born into relationships of “affectionate towards loved ones”,in which we are inevitably cared for,so it is our responsibility to respond to our loved ones.Meanwhile,this responsibility is not limited to specific people: our responsibility to our loved ones means “considerate” and,as this responsibility develops and permeates,there comes “tolerant”.From “affectionate towards loved ones” to “considerate and tolerant towards others”,responsibility comes from internal to external and transcends specific others to become a response to everyone.Arguably,in Wang Yangming's thought of responsibility,responsibility starts with “mind” and eventually extends to “reason” of everything.Second,on the practical level,Wang Yangming believed that responsibility,as the individual's response to others,can only be felt by others when put into moral practice;if responsibility only stays at the cognitive level,it is undoubtedly just a bargaining chip of self-satisfaction for hypocrites.This theory verifies that responsibility is a spontaneous moral behavior out of conscience.In this way,responsibility works autonomously from the inside out.It is no longer an external requirement,but contains the moral practice of “ontology of knowing and acting”.It is through driving the external realization of responsibility that the internal conscience connects “knowing” with “acting” and enables consummation of conscience.Finally,on the level of fulfillment,Wang Yangming stressed that the completion of responsibility is not for external utility or honor,but for “fulfillment of self and things”.Such fulfillment includes three realms: the first is the return to the inner self,or “realm of honesty”;the second is the perception and knowledge of the external world,or “realm of benevolence”;the third is the transformation of external predicaments into internal peace and happiness,or “realm of happiness”.Through “realm of honesty”,“realm of benevolence” and “realm of happiness”,Wang Yangming depicted the realm of responsibility being assumed voluntarily,in which the internal and external are blended,in which “fulfillment of self” and “fulfillment of things” were also merged into one.On these different levels,Wang Yangming endowed responsibility with internal autonomy,making inner morality no longer distinct from outer norms.Under the dominance of inner morality,outer norms are incorporated into the practice of responsibility.This makes responsibility no longer an external compulsion,but an inexhaustible endogenous power that drives people to take responsibility and take initiative.Wang Yangming's thought of responsibility provides great inspiration for our reflection on the concept of responsibility in modern society,and brings everyone a new opportunity to reembrace our innate responsibility.