On The Wang Yangming's Theory Of ‘Yi'

Yi is an most important concept of Chinese philosophy,many schools have discuss it in Pre-C hin Period. Confucius' no foregone conclusions, and Xunzi's ‘cultivating intention', and the‘sincerity' of <The Great Learning>, etc. indicate that the ‘yi' is the key to cultivation. In the Mid-Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming inherits the ancient confucianists' ‘yi'. He associates the ‘yi'with ‘body', ‘mind', ‘conscience' and ‘things', then so-called ‘the Domination of Body is the Mind, the Appearance of Mind is the Yi, the Ontology of Yi is the Conscience, the Function of Yi is the Things', therefore build a ontology of cultivation as the center of ‘yi'. Terms of points, ‘the Domination of Body is the Mind', is that the spirit of the void mind compared to the full body of materialism, with the priority status, it is the logical starting point of cultivation. ‘The Appearance of Mind is the Yi', is that the silent mind must be associated with the phenomenal world, and will launch for the idea and fixed in all things. The mind-in-itself can be described as neither good nor evil, however the ordinary people have covered by desires and selfish, thus lead to the good and evil intermingled. ‘The Ontology of Yi is the Conscience', is that although covered by ones own desires, then the ontology of yi itself is the endless motions of the conscience, which is a priori moral being, beyond good and evil, right and wrong at all, and all discernment between good and evil, right and wrong, thus it is the the ultimate destination of the themoral activity of the origin and cultivation. ‘The Function of Yi is the Things' is that the ‘things' are not some subjects that exist outside of the human, but root in the realm of people's lives, ‘Nothing outside the Mind, No Pattern outside the Mind'. ‘Investigation of things' is not to investigate things outside the mind,but to start in the process of sincerity. The cultivation and ontology can not separate in the School of Mind. The mind's intention is the yi, the essence of yi is the conscience, the function of yi is the things, the mind itself penetrates layer by layer, it is from the ontology to the function;Investigating is sincerity, sincerity is conscience, conscience is to reach the ontology, it is from the function to the ontology. Ultimately, the mind, conscience, yi, things are just one, without any obstacles in itself. From Investigating to sincerity is full developing one's nature, and vice versa.Beyond the moral practice but also live in the earthly life, make the living things and the cultivation related, then is is the poetic presence of ‘to extremely sophisticate and to moderately practice '. However, the School of Mind itself contains a gene intrinsic differentiation, Wang Yangming's third generated student Wang Dong advocate ‘yi dominate the mind' which push the theory of ‘yi' to the peak. The development of ‘Prejudice against yi' and ‘Tendency of just yi'makes the School of Mind reach the situation of ‘embracing empty' inevitably.