A New Study On Wang Ji's "Priori Learning Of Rectifying The Mind"

Academic circles often grasp Wang Ji's philosophy from his distinction between "a priori learning of rectifying the mind" and "a posteriori learning of rectifying the idea".Sound as this idea is,it lacks corresponding historical observations.First of all,inconsistencies exist in Wang Ji's philosophy throughout his ideological period,as he gradually deepened his understanding of the meaning of substance and function,metaphysics and physics,the natural meaning of innate and acquired theories,as well as Shao Yong's cosmogony of "Priori Learning of Changes".In his later years,Wang Ji divided the "Priori Learning" in the theory of effort(gongfu)into two parts,namely "Awareness of Conscience" and "Practice of Conscience",which naturally complement each other and together constitute the natural cosmological ontology of the priori learning and humans' ideal living condition.In comparison,the posteriori learning is an artificial and empirical method system that ultimately joins the natural ideal closed loop together with the innate one.While the innate study emphasizes the power of inspiring and retaining the noumenon to naturally achieve the ideal state of immediate use,the acquired theory focuses on reflection and restriction of empirical factors so as to clean up the path that the noumenon normally passes through.Wang Ji's constant adjustment and deepening of innate study represents how he responded to and overcame the challenges and limitations of the four-non ideas.That is,the limitation of "the inability to look at people" by Wang Yangming and the hidden danger of "developing a stationary ontology".Wang Ji's constant adjustment and deepening of his innate thoughts can help to understand how he refined Wang Yangming's philosophy,especially in terms of the redefinition of the relationship among mind(xin),idea(yi),conscience(zhi)and object(wu).The concept of "yi" in Wang Ji's doctrine of the four forms of non-existence can be mutually glossed with "zhi" in the sense of "conscience in application".This can also help to understand Wang Ji's "moral thought".The re-examination of Wang Ji's innate study can also help to re-understand and judge his thoughts of "Self-achievement in an instant of thought";"faithfulness";"enlightenment";"proceed without hesitation";"thoughts between life and death" and "sit still to adjust breath".Thereinto,"an instant of thought effort";"faithfulness" and "ambition" belong to the priori learning;"enlightenment" to the law of the king and "proceed without hesitation" as well as the "life-and-death thought" to the acquired study.In this sense,the traditional views arguing that Wang Ji leaned towards priori learning and "put ontology before efforts" are not objective.However,he pursued the idea of "simple and straightforward" all the way in his thoughts,thereby oversimplifying the implementation of priori and posteriori efforts.This is another aspect of its "swaying".