Enlightenment at Longchang

Longchang is located in Xiuwen County of Guizhou Province. Wang Yangming (1472-1529), a thinker of the Ming Dynasty, was relegated to this place, which turned to be a blessing in disguise since he had an epiphany and opened up a new way of thinking. This is the famous event "Enlightenment at Long-chang" in the Chinese history of thought.

In 1506 (the first year of the Zhengde Era during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty), Wang Yangming, demoted for opposing the powerful eunuch Liu Jin, was transferred to serve at a courier station in Longchang. Longchang was located between the domains of two powerful chieftains, so the political situation there was complicated. Danger abounded and life in general was extremely difficult. At one time, he had no alternative but to live in a cave where he spent a lot of time in meditation.

Wang reflected day and night and it dawned upon him that the mind is the key to understanding everything, so he proposed the idea that "the mind is principle". During his stay in Xiuwen County, Wang produced one of his early representative works about the mind, Doctrines to Scholars at Longchang, as well as proses such as Condolence on People Buried in a Foreign Land and On the Shrine of Xiang.

The Yangming Cave, located in the Qixia Mountain to the east of Xiuwen County, was put on the sixth list of national cultural heritage sites by the State Council in 2006. There are several buildings of the Qing Dynasty and many stone inscriptions beside the cave. This is also where Zhang Xueliang was once placed under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek during the Republic of China period.

龍場悟道

龍場位于貴州省修文縣。明朝思想家王陽明(1472-1529)曾被貶至此,卻因禍得福、突然頓悟,開辟了一條新的思想道路。這就是中國思想史上著名的“龍場悟道”。

明武宗正德元年(1506),王陽明因反對宦官劉瑾被貶為龍場驛丞。龍場當時處于兩大土司之間,政治復雜、險象環生,生活條件極為艱苦。有一段時間,他甚至只能寄居山洞,面壁思考。

王陽明在艱難困頓中日夜反省而頓悟,認為心是感應萬事萬物的根本,提出“心即理”的命題。在修文期間,王陽明寫下了早期心學代表作《教條示龍場諸生》以及《瘞旅文》《象祠記》等詩文。

陽明洞位于修文縣城東棲霞山,2006年被國務院公布為第六批全國重點文物保護單位之一。洞旁現存清代建筑數座,石刻題詠甚多,民國時期張學良曾被蔣介石軟禁于此。