Prof. Lu Yongsheng, Southeast University
From the perspective of the history of academic thoughts, the socialized forms of Wang Yangming’s Mind-Heart Philosophy came into completion with the enlightenment, verification, dissemination, and implementation of his thoughts in Longchang, Guizhou. The forms are present in ideological, academic, consciousness, and cultural aspects. Centered around the Mind-Heart Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Wang’s concept enriches the socialized form of Chen Baisha’s philosophy of the mind and lays the foundation for the integration and deepening of Zhan Ganquan’s philosophy and Neo-Confucianism.
The broad sense of socialization of the Mind-Heart Philosophy manifests in four specific dimensions: institutionalization, academicization, politicization, and secularization. Through the lens of the Mind-Heart Philosophy, people will see the internal logic of thought and life practices, as well as the philosophical and cultural significance of the concept.
The research perspective into the socialization of the Mind-Heart Philosophy is conducive to the reassessment of the value of Zhan Ganquan’s learning. As it is commonly believed that Zhan’s learning reconciles Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming’s concepts, its “purity” was often criticized by previous studies on the history of Ming Dynasty’s philosophy and Wang Yangming’s thoughts, which was held from the standpoint of the Mind-Heart Philosophy and led to disregard for the value of Zhan’s learning.
However, from the perspective of socialization, Zhan’s learning has actually deepened the socialization of the Mind-Heart Philosophy, which distinguishes between official and heterodox studies at the level of political control as well as between orthodox and heretical doctrines at the level of ideological traditions, or it could be seen as an academic endeavor. Thus, reassessing the value of Zhan’s learning has been put forward in the context of the history of academic thoughts.
The socialization of the Mind-Heart Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty is a systematic study with the duality of historical construction and theoretical system elaboration, which is different from previous studies that only focused on practical activities. It unifies the four dimensions (institutionalization, academicization, politicization, secularization), the four forms (ideological, academic, consciousness, cultural), and the four worlds (world of thought, world of history, world of life, world of meaning), manifesting in the following three aspects.
Firstly, in a macro perspective, the Mind-Heart Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty is “three-dimensional”. It not only has ideological and rational forms but also practical forms. From the perspective of the relationship between cultural context and cultural generation, the philosophy’s socialization is an inevitable historical process which deserves systematic and comprehensive research. The study of the philosophy’s socialization is one under the learning of the mind, supplementary to previous research which usually goes upward. Thus, it enriches the philosophical narrative of the research history and highlights the practical value of the learning of the mind.
Secondly, to look at it closer, integrating Chen Baisha’s learning, Wang Yangming’s learning, and Zhan Ganquan’s learning into a single system from the perspective of socialization is different from the previous research model which solely focused on “similarities and differences”. It looks at the entire study of Mind-Heart Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty and presents a discontinuous history of academic thoughts with internal coherence.
Thirdly, from a micro perspective, the core of the socialization of Ming Dynasty’s Mind-Heart Philosophy lies in people’s lifestyle, with its value pointing towards the world of meaning which constructs life by changing the lifestyle, fundamentally addressing how people live morally, as morality is the fundamental way of human existence.
In conclusion, the theoretical system of the socialization of the learning of the mind is a philosophical abstraction and innovative construction of its practical experience in the world, as well as a philosophical response to its contemporary value and role paradigm.
Published on December 21, 2023