to exemplify his method of dealing with the ethical problem, was as follows:25 Wang Yang Ming said: "You are unable to speak or discuss either that which is right or that which is wrong. You cannot hear that which is right nor that which is wrong. Is your mind still able to distinguish right from wrong?" Mao replied: "I know right and wrong." "In that case," said Wang, "though your mouth is different from that of other men, and your ears are not like other men's ears, yet your mind is like that of other men." Mao replied in the affirmative by nodding his head and thanking with his hands. "In man," wrote Wang, "the mind alone is important. If it cherishes the principles of Heaven, it is the mind of sages and virtuous men. In that case, though the mouth cannot speak and the ears cannot hear, it is only sageness and virtue that cannot speak or hear. If on the other hand the mind does not cherish the principles of Heaven, it is the mind of birds and animals. Though under such circumstances there were the power of speech and audition, yet it would be merely an instance of a speaking and hearing bird or animal." Mao struck his breast and pointed toward heaven. Wang said: "Toward your parents you should exhaust the filial piety of your mind; toward your elder brother, its respectfulness; toward your village clan, your neighbors, your kindred and your relatives, its complaisance, harmony, respectfulness, and docility. When you see others prosperous, you should not covet their wealth and advantage. Within yourself you should practice that which is right and not that which is wrong. It is really not necessary that you should hear it when others say that you are * Ibid., Book 4, pp. 83 and 84. right, nor do you need to hear it when they speak of your mistakes." Mao nodded his head and bowed in thanks. "Since you are unable to discuss or hear right or wrong, you are saved the necessity of making distinctions between a great deal of idle, useless right and wrong. The discussion of truth and error begets truth and error and brings forth trouble and vexation. By hearing good and evil one adds to one's right and wrong and to one's troubles. Since you cannot speak or hear, you are spared a good deal of useless good and evil, as well as much trouble and vexation. You are much more cheerful, happy, and self-possessed than others." Mao struck his breast, pointed toward heaven, and replaced his feet on the ground. Thereupon Wang said: "My instruction to you to-day is that it is only necessary to act in accordance with your mind and not necessary to speak; that it is only necessary that you comply with your mind and not necessary to hear." Mao prostrated himself, saluted, and departed. In its practical aspects, Wang's ethical system places special emphasis upon action as the sine qua non of moral progress. Knowledge and action, theory and practice, are so interrelated that the former does not exist without the latter. Nature can be developed only as the individual directly applies what he knows. In case he fails to act, the knowledge that he supposes himself to have has not really been acquired. Here Wang is not far from pragmatism, which urges that the truth of an idea consists in its verifiability. As Paul S. Reinsch has stated in Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East (page 138), this phase of his philosophy has doubtless had a profound influence upon students in Japan and China. The absolute moral perfection of the intuitive faculty presented a serious problem to some of Wang's disciples. 26 That the main divisions of the doctrine and the general direction of the path of duty could be readily understood in this way seemed clear to them; but with regard to changeable sections and paragraphs and the details of conduct under changing circumstances, they felt considerable apprehension. Is the intuitive faculty really able to mediate reliable knowledge in such cases, or is it necessary for a person to seek earnestly for what is right and wrong in things themselves? Is knowledge of right and wrong innate, or is it acquired from experience? In a letter to his teacher, Ku Tang Ch'iao urges that when one reaches the facts that Shun married without informing his parents, that Wu put troops into the field before he buried his father, that the son endures the small stick but evades the large one, that he cuts flesh from his thigh to feed his ill parent, that he erects a straw hut beside the grave of his parent, or any similar thing, then the knowledge mediated by the intuitive faculty is inadequate and a person must depend upon his experience." Wang considered this position incorrect, for he felt that the intuitive faculty has the same relation to the details of right and wrong and to changing circumstances as compasses and squares have to squares and circles, and measures to length and breadth. "The changes in circumstances relative to details," he said, "cannot be determined beforehand, just as the size of the square or the circle, and length and breadth, cannot be perfectly estimated. But when compasses and squares have been set, there can be no deception about the size of the square or the circle, and when rule and measure have been fixed there can be no deception about length or shortness. When the intuitive faculty has been completely developed there can be no deception regarding its application to changing details. As for Shun's marrying without tell "Shun and Wu were two famous emperors of ancient China. ing his parents, was there any one previous to his time who served as an example of such a deed? In what historical and mythological document did he find a precedent, or of what individual did he make inquiry? Or did he rather make use of the intuitive faculty to consider what should be done, and there being no other way act thus?"28 What is true in this instance Wang taught as true in all others. From his point of view the intuitive faculty is quite competent to grapple with any moral problem whatsoever. Last, but not least, is the problem of evil. No system of philosophy is complete without having attempted a solution for this perennial problem, and more than one system has suffered shipwreck in the attempt. Wang also was unable to disregard it. Hsieh K'an, one of his favorite disciples, was pulling grass out from among the flowers. "How difficult it is," he said, "to cultivate the good in Heaven and on earth, and how hard it is to get rid of the evil!" Wang said, "You should neither cultivate the good nor expel the evil." A little later he continued, "This way of viewing good and evil has its source in the body and thus is open to mistakes." As Hsieh K'an was not able to comprehend, he added: "The purpose of Heaven and earth in bringing forth is even as in the instance of flowers and grass. In what does it distinguish between good and evil? If you, my disciple, take pleasure in seeing the flowers, then you will consider flowers good and grass bad. If you wish to use the grass you will, in turn, consider the grass good." Hsieh K'an replied, "In that case there is neither good nor evil, is there?" Wang answered, "The tranquility of the principles of Heaven is a state in which there is neither good nor evil, while the stirring of the passion-nature is a state in which there is both good and evil."29 For him there was only one real evil, and that consisted in exceeding or failing to realize nature. All other distinctions between good and evil seemed to him to savor of arbitrariness and superficiality. The mind is by nature clear and bright and the intuitive faculty, if given free play, will develop to the utmost. Selfish desire and ceremoniousness are things that obscure it and obstruct its smooth functioning. If the mind in its natural condition is like a clear bright mirror, then selfish desires and deeds are the dust and spots that darken it and hinder it from reflecting clearly. The mind of the sage allows no obscuration to take place, but the mind of the ordinary man is subject to all the evils that inhere in the selfish striving for gain and fame.30 As a remedy for evil he advocated that all obscuration be removed from the mind and every obstruction be taken away, so that it can function normally. To this end the determination must be fixed and the purpose made sincere. The mind must continually cherish the principles of Heaven, for so long as it does this it is proceeding along the line of nature. If the individual fails at the point of making and keeping his purpose sincere, no amount of striving to understand so-called external things will keep the evil from sprouting, for this striving is itself a token of selfishness. By removing all obscuration and every obstruction of selfishness, passion, pride and ceremoniousness from the intuitive faculty, it is given perfect freedom to develop naturally and normally. The teacher spoke to his disciples saying, "Sirs, in your task of developing the mind, you must not in the least hinder or force the development. The student cannot leap over into the principles of the sage. Rising, falling, advancing, receding, are naturally the order of the task."" However, in all this the determi "Ibid., Book 4, p. 5. |