Wang Yangming

Wang Yangming (1472-1529), a famous philosopher, educator and strategist in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Having carefully reviewed Confucianism, Wang Yangming opposed blind obedience to feudal ethics and morality, but emphasized individual initiative, put forward the important theory of "mind is reason", the philosophical proposition of "conscience" and the methodology of "unity of knowledge and action", collectively called "Yangming's Mind Theories" by later generations. Wang Yangming strongly advocates the theories of mind, and proposed that "there is neither reason nor a thing outside a person's mind", while "conscience" is the noumenon of the mind, the innate moral goodness and cognitive instinct of human beings, from which all virtues come. He stressed that we should remove the cover of "material desire", find "reason" from within, fully demonstrate the inherent "conscience" in our hearts, and extend conscience and heavenly principles to everything, that is, "to reach conscience". In terms of the relationship between knowledge and action, Wang Yangming advocates the unity of the two, and opposes separating knowledge from action. He believes that there is action in knowledge, and there is knowledge in action. The two cannot be separated and neither is more superior than the other.

Wang Yangming's ideology and theory spread widely after the Ming Dynasty, offshoot into many schools, and spread to Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries, leaving a deep mark on the local ideology, culture and social developments there. Wang Yangming is the epitome of philosophy among ancient Chinese thinkers. He paid attention to the cultivation of human virtue and subjective initiative, and puts forward "mind is reason", "reaching conscience", "unity of knowledge and action", fermenting the unities of theory and practice, of subjective and objective, of internal saints and external kings, bearing great theoretical value and practical significance even till today.

王陽明

王陽明（1472—1529），明代著名哲學家、教育家、軍事家。王陽明通過對儒家思想的審視，反對盲目服從封建倫理道德，而是強調個人能動性，提出“心即理”的重要學說、“致良知”的哲學命題和“知行合一”的方法論，被后世稱為“陽明心學”。

王陽明力倡心學，提出“天下無心外之理，無心外之物”，而“良知”是心的本體，是人先天具有的道德善性和認知本能，一切德性皆出于此。他強調，要去除“物欲”的遮蔽，從自己內心去尋找“理”，充分彰顯心中固有的“良知”，將良知、天理推及到事事物物中去，即“致良知”。在知與行的關系上，王陽明提倡“知行合一”，反對將知行分作兩截，認為知中有行，行中有知，二者不能分離，也沒有先后。

王陽明的思想學說在明代之后流傳甚廣，流派眾多，還傳播到了日本、朝鮮等東亞國家，對當地思想文化和社會發展產生重要影響。王陽明是中國古代思想家中哲學思想的集大成者，他重視人的德性修養和主觀能動性，提出“心即理”“致良知”“知行合一”等思想理念實現了理論與實踐的統一、主觀與客觀的統一、內圣與外王的統一，在當今時代亦具有重大的理論價值和現實意義。