Research On The Good And Evil Of Yangming's "Four Sentences" Mind Noumenon

Wang YangMing's theory of Mind has left a deep influence on the history of Chinese philosophy.The complete system of his theory of mind is presented in his such four sentences as“no good and no evil is the original mind,good and evil starts from our will,knowing good and evil arouses our consciences,doing good and rejecting evil is exploring and rectifying things”.YangMing's “Four-sentence Doctrine” was proposed under a specific historical and cultural background that in the middle and later Ming dynasty,fatuous and self-indulgent emperors and prevailing corruption resulted in moral degradation of society and fiercer contradiction between classes.Though it is hundreds of years since it was brought up,the thoughts contained in“Four-sentence Doctrine” still spark in the contemporary time and deserve continuous exploration and study of later generations.This paper,through expounding philosophical significance contained in “Four-sentence Doctrine”,coMbines the argument about “Four Haves”,“Four Nos”,“good and evil” between his two disciples Wang Ji and Qian Dehong to further explain the philosophical problem “ontology” in “Four-sentence Doctrine” based on previous interpretation.The purpose of this paper is to make abstract doctrine clear and concrete and further improve the system of Yangming's theory of Mind;and to deeply elaborate on the connotation and essence of Wang YangMing's “Four-sentence Doctrine” to provide guidance for human practice.This paper aims to find new approach to understanding the “original mind” in YangMing's theory of mind and to provide new perspective for later studies on YangMing's theory of Mind through digging into philosophical connotations of “Four-sentence Doctrine” and through a grasp of “have or not have”,“good and evil” and “the Mind,the will,the conscience and the thing”.Meanwhile,this paper also analyzes the philosophical connotations of “no good and no evil” and “Four-sentence Doctrine” to give totally new exposition and interpretation of“Four-sentence Doctrine” from perspectives including ontology and theory of moral practice,which not only provide literature innovation in theory but is also of academic value in deepening understanding of YangMing's philosophy.How to understand “Four-sentence Doctrine” is a philosophical problem,but how to Make use of “Four-sentence Doctrine” is changed into a social problem.In the contemporary materialistic time when humanity is darkened by a variety of temptations,exploring access to the “original mind” without good or evil provides theoretical guidance for morality construction and for pushing forward with socialist cultural andideological civilization construction in China.What's More,it is of Much practice significance for “Unity of Knowledge and Action”.This paper is divided into three parts.Part one starts with an account of Wang YangMing's life and his enlightenment process of philosophy theory and combs through the event“philosophy theory discussion on the Tianquan Bridge” which was significant to his thoughts in his lifetime.Besides,this part also assesses historical status of “Four-sentence Doctrine”.Part two briefly analyzes the meaning of “Four-sentence Doctrine”,explains in detail the basic concepts of the mind,the will,the conscience and the thing in “Four-sentence Doctrine”,and expands discussion on ontology,good and evil and expounds ontology and moral practice to further perfect theoretical structure of YangMing's “Four-sentence Doctrine”.FurtherMore,this part expounds and develops “Four-sentence Doctrine” on a deeper level from combining Wang's disciple Wang Ji's “Four Nos” theory and another disciple Qian Dehong's “Four Haves” theory.Part three includes the assessment and enlightenMent of “Four-sentence Doctrine”,which provides objective evaluation of its influence on self-cultivation and Moral education in the contemporary time to guide human objective practice.