A Preliminary Study On The Civilian Characteristics Of Wang Gen's Thought

The Taizhou school is the most prosperous one in the branch of the Wang Yangming school,and Wang Gen,the founder of the Taizhou school,is also a legendary figure.This paper focuses on the issue of the civilian characteristics of Wang Gen's Confucianism thought,takes Wang Gen as the three stages of learning as the clue,combs Wang Gen's person and his theory,and analyzes the civilian characteristics of his thoughts.First of all,this paper reviews Wang Gen's first change in learning.He gradually changed from an illiterate craftsman to a Confucian scholar who cared about the common people,which was inseparable from the social environment and his family background at that time.Secondly,from the perspective of his second change in learning,this paper analyzes his experience of learning from Wang Yangming,expounds Wang Gen's academic temperament in a consistent line with Wang Yangming,and his transformation of Wang Yangming's mind theory.Thirdly,on the basis of Yangming's theory of mind,this paper expounds Wang Gen's theory of Common People Daily Use witch is based on the theory of the Heaven's Principle Equal to Intuitive Knowledge,and his theory of Respecting and Protecting the Body witch is based on the theory of GeWu in Huainan.In addition,Wang Gen also gave play to Wang Yangming's theory of Happiness Is the Original Nature of Mind,and wrote a poem called A Song of Study with Happiness to refute Zhu Xi's Moral Training theory,and at the same time made Confucian ethical activities civilian.Finally,this paper describes the last change in Wang Gen's three changes for learning.At this stage,Wang Gen entered the period of independence and education.He summarized his academic achievements as the Learning of DaCheng,which was inherited from Confucius and Mencius.Wang Gen spared no effort to devote himself to the cause of civilian education,so that people at the bottom of society can be educated,let them have the enlightenment idea of protecting their right to live.The consistent commonality of Wang Gen's thoughts and his practice of the commonality of Confucianism caused a great stir in the middle of the Ming dynasty,and left behind a great legacy of spiritual wealth.