Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"To a conscience."

These three words were Jiang Xinghuo's answer.

Jiang Xinghuo's "Toward Conscience" is not exactly the same as Wang Yangming's. He incorporated the modern philosophy he learned and tried his best to avoid the possibility of the theory of mind and nature of mind leading to crazy Zen. This will be discussed later. Interpretation.

In the three debates of "Ancient and modern kings dominate justice and interests", he once said through Zhang Yuchu's words: "There is no good or disgusting body, there are good and malicious actions, knowing good and evil is conscience, doing good and eliminating evil is The Four Secrets of Mind Learning: "Searching for Things".

But the word "to conscience" only appeared twice in Jiang Xinghuo's mouth before today's Taixue meeting.

One time was when he was giving lectures at the Shanghai County Government, and the other time was when he was debating with Kong Xilu on fate theory and ambition theory in prison.

In these two appearances, there is no separate explanation of "to conscience".

In fact, if before the Taixue Meeting, Jiang Xinghuo mainly used the views of Wang Fuzhi and Huang Zongxi among the three gentlemen in the late Ming Dynasty, then it was the views of Xinxue that could really crack the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucian theory of mind.

It is useless to fight against idealism with materialism.

The only thing that can defeat magic is magic.

If you want mental proof, then come to mental proof.

The reason why "To Conscience" is the panacea for cracking Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism's theory of mind is because in the middle of the Ming Dynasty in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, the core social issues that Wang Yangming was thinking about were the ones just mentioned.

At that time, with the economic development in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the overall economic structure of the Ming Dynasty also underwent tremendous changes. This change was very obvious in the fields of agriculture and handicraft industry. The most obvious example is the employment relationship in the Jiangnan area. The basic production methods gradually matured, thus accelerating the partial disintegration of the traditional natural economy.

The traditional ethics based on the natural economy, that is, the "Three Cardinal Principles and Five Constant Virtues" and other moral principles, can no longer function normally in the relationship between people, and are replaced by people's pursuit of interests in economic relationships. Regarding this point, Wang Yangming et al. Thinkers in the mid-Ming Dynasty showed great importance to how to let the world better deal with the relationship between ethics and fame and wealth, and to establish correct values ​​​​and life pursuits. They should not deny the changes in the economic form, but also maintain moral standards at the same time. It has become a subject that Wang Yangming and others have been studying hard.

At that time, Neo-Confucianism, as the official school of the Ming Dynasty, was in a rather embarrassing situation. Almost all knowledgeable people realized that with the changes in the economy and society, if they wanted to maintain moral standards and save the social situation at that time, they had to rely on "natural principles". External coercion is not enough. It is also necessary to break down the barriers of Neo-Confucianism and find a new way.

Wang Yangming’s point of view is that the root cause of social crises is the divergence between the laws of nature and people’s actual economic and social behaviors. This situation of contradicting what is said and what is actually done will only cause the Ming Dynasty to become more divided. Therefore, there must be The new moral theory bridges this gap, and the path chosen by Wang Yangming is “towards conscience.”

To achieve conscience is to integrate universal truth with my heart, use inner consciousness to replace the forced transformation of external "natural principles", and regulate from the heart of people.

The root logic of this line of thinking is that "conscience", as the conscience that is integrated with the external laws of nature and our heart, is both internal to the subject and constitutes a universal norm. Therefore, as long as conscience is used as the criterion for behavioral norms, all words and deeds of the world will be carried out according to the norms, which will naturally meet the requirements of most traditional moral ethics and avoid the poison of the extremely rigid and conservative thinking of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

So, many people here may be wondering two questions.

Why are the three words "to conscience" called a timely remedy for the social atmosphere in the mid-Ming Dynasty?

In the final analysis, "promoting conscience" still requires moral reflection. What is the difference between it and the moral principles such as "benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust" in Neo-Confucianism?

The answer to the first question is, although there are few words, it is really effective, because with the development of social economy, the conservative and decadent moral concepts in the past have actually become an obstacle to the continued progress of society. The entire society is in urgent need of new moral concepts. The guiding ideology emerged to reduce the burden on society and lift the heavy ideological and moral shackles.

The second question is that there are two differences. One is that in terms of logical relationship, the moral principles of Neo-Confucianism are imposed by heavenly principles on human nature and have a superior nature, while "leading to conscience" is a person's inner self. Reflection is not imposed by external forces, which is equivalent to doing it yourself willingly rather than being forced to do it; secondly, in terms of practice, "toward conscience" itself is a methodology, which is combined with "unity of knowledge and action" Together, they advocate seeking truth and being pragmatic, and advocating practice to produce true knowledge. There is a complete set of supporting methods, and they are simple and easy to implement in the practice process. They are much easier to promote and practice than the mysterious mental cultivation methods of Neo-Confucianism in the past.

This is true for any doctrine or method. The easier it is for people to understand and the more standard steps it has, the easier it will be accepted by the public.

Therefore, once Xinxue was launched in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it immediately became a prominent school. A considerable number of cabinet members during the Jialongwan period were all believers in Xinxue.

Yang Shiqi, who was on the opposite side, felt vaguely uneasy.

This kind of uneasiness is not because Yang Shiqi realized something in advance. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to realize this new theory that has never been published in this world. It is because Yang Shiqi looked at the calm and composed Jiang Xinghuo in front of him and felt it. That familiar pressure.

Jiang Xinghuo was too confident.

This feeling of being sure of victory left a deep impression on Yang Shiqi, especially when he looked into Jiang Xinghuo's eyes, he even felt that he could read the other person's thoughts——

‘Oh, you lose! ’

This extraordinary self-confidence and determination made it difficult for him to adapt, because he himself did not know why the situation had evolved like this. Even before the Taixue meeting began, he still asked himself that he had a 50% to 60% chance of winning, and he had painstakingly prepared For a long time, he asked himself what preparations he should make, and everything was in place. If the theory of cellular matter was indeed an empirical blow that was beyond his expectation and could not be refuted, Yang Shiqi accepted it. Then in terms of the theory of mind, Yang Shiqi now thinks He broke his head and couldn't figure out how Jiang Xinghuo could complete the final blow.

Moreover, although Yang Shiqi has met many great scholars who have been famous for many years in the past, to be honest, no one can be as relaxed and calm as Jiang Xinghuo.

It is as if solving this difficult problem that has plagued the academic world for many years is as simple as eating and drinking.

You must know that starting from the Southern Song Dynasty, the debate on the theory of mind among Practical Learning, Mind Learning and Neo-Confucianism has been going on for hundreds of years.

And Jiang Xinghuo quickly started his round.

"When Confucianism in the Song Dynasty talked about morality, it was necessary to use 'benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust' as the interpretation of heaven's principles in the human heart. However, humans are nothing more than material cells, and the theory of the nature of heaven and earth is absurd."

"But in my opinion, morality does not exist in the human heart. Morality is conscience."

"Natural nature is not bad, and all emotions are true. When a child enters a well, there is compassion. When he first sees it, he can't bear it. It is called Tao, and it is shared by everyone. The so-called conscience, for the most part, is the morality that everyone has. Instinct is something you are born with, you can learn it if you can't, and you can know it without thinking. This is true for everyone, whether rich or poor, male or female, old or young."

Jiang Xinghuo's views, for the extremely conservative group of Neo-Confucianists, are of course a heretical theory that wants to eat flesh and sleep on skin.

But as long as it is not so extreme, this view is actually not difficult to gain acceptance, and it is highly consistent with Jiang Xinghuo's material monism.

Human beings are made of matter. There are no transcendental, preset moral principles in the world that are based on natural principles and integrate human nature (benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, trust, the three cardinal principles and the five constant principles, etc.), but humans have a spontaneous moral heart, that is, conscience. .

Therefore, in Jiang Xinghuo's theory, conscience is the moral code of society, or conscience is the former "natural law", which is the moral code that people need to abide by in economic activities and social life.

This is the meaning of the so-called "knowing good and evil is conscience". Conscience plays two roles in the moral heart. First, it can judge the good and evil of other people's words and deeds, make objective moral evaluations, and push the social atmosphere in the right direction. Development; second, conscience can self-understand and correctly evaluate one's own words and deeds, and this ability to judge right and wrong is possessed by all people, whether they are saints or fools, so people can judge the good and evil of their own actions. Make good judgments.

Based on this point, since conscience can evaluate people's behavior as good or evil, it also has the ability to urge people to do good and avoid evil, and to change evil and do good.

Jiang Xinghuo slowly stated his point of view, and this kind of saint-like preaching temperament seemed to be born with an unquestionable majesty, making every word, every word, and every action of his full of aura. Such persuasiveness can make even the observers think.

In this environment, Yang Shiqi's self-confidence and pride were shattered, and he finally couldn't help it anymore.

"If conscience is so useful and does not require many principles such as benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and trust, why didn't the sages realize it? If we only rely on one's inner conscience, and a person's conscience has the appearance of a person, I am afraid that it will inevitably turn into a crazy meditation in the heart. .”

"Well, what you said is not unreasonable."

Knowing and correcting are two different things.

There are many people in this world who say "I know I'm wrong and I won't change it."

When it comes to moral choices, people will face realistic choices. Good results cannot be achieved only by having a conscience, so conscience must be allowed to play its role, that is, "leading to conscience."

Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "That's why we have to work hard to develop a conscience."

It is not without reason that Yangming’s theory of mind became popular in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and became the prominent school at that time. Its core essence lies in the three words "to achieve good knowledge". Wang Yangming reviewed the academic mistakes of Neo-Confucianism in the early and middle Ming Dynasty and proposed This point of view hit the critical shortcomings of the scholarly ethos at that time, and had the hope of cleaning up the academic ethos and re-establishing the world's ethos. It could not be better to bring it out at this time.

In fact, although "conscience" is innate and can enable people to know good and evil, make correct evaluations of their own behavior, guide people's behavioral choices, and encourage people to abandon evil and do good, but in the real world, That is, there are many people who are unable to know good and evil, cannot make correct evaluations, and cannot change evil and do good. The study of "leading to conscience" is the answer to this most difficult question.

"What is the result? First, it is called intermediary. If a dim-witted person can carefully observe the natural principles of the heart at any time, so that his natural conscience will be clear, even if he is ignorant. The second is called practice, knowing the conscience and the The only difference between practicing conscience is practice. Only practice can make people realize that excessive material desires and self-interest are the main reasons for blinding conscience, and then they can always reflect on themselves and keep the conscience in their hearts, that is, broad-minded and righteous. The nature of silence and immobility.”

“As for why we need to develop good knowledge, it is because humans are made up of matter. Although good knowledge is innate knowledge, it is not the conscious knowledge of everyone. Therefore, through the development of good knowledge, we must transform innate knowledge into conscious knowledge. "

In fact, here Jiang Xinghuo made some supplements to the meaning of conscience. "Innate knowledge" is actually another way of saying "transcendental knowledge", which is to combine the concept of "practice" in the terminology of German classical philosophy with Integration and at the same time taking a new approach, bypassing the old path of the Neo-Confucianists in the past.

This is also based on Hegel's in-depth analysis of Chinese psychology. According to Hegel, "conscience" is "transcendental knowledge", that is, "the object determines itself, rather than obtaining its own knowledge from the outside." "Predicate", and Hegel believes that the theory of "leading to conscience" in psychology, as "transcendental knowledge", has standard methodology and practical means, that is, through various limitations of predicates, people can "lead to conscience" We are getting closer to the truth step by step, but we cannot fully understand this "transcendental knowledge".

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "Innate knowledge is truth. Truth is the same understanding of the same objective world in a certain time and space in different subjective worlds across time and space. When the objective conditions are met, it manifests as repeated occurrences and It will inevitably appear, and the practical process of 'developing conscience' is the process of connecting the subjective world of innate knowledge with the objective world of a certain time and space."

In other words, Jiang Xinghuo combined "practice" and "truth", important concepts in modern philosophy, with "conscience" to complete his theory of mind.

From then on, Jiang Xinghuo's left hand was the ontology of "cell material theory", and his right hand was the theory of mind that "brings to conscience (or practice leads to truth)", thus completely constructing his own philosophical edifice of material monism.

On this basis, Jiang Xinghuo used practical knowledge to carry out social construction and used science to cultivate the talents needed for the industrial revolution.

In this way, it is equivalent to completing everything from guiding ideology to practical methods, from ontology to theory of mind.

With the guidance of Jiang Xinghuo's complete theory, problems such as world style and academic style can be easily solved.

Jiang Xinghuo continued to add: "Innate knowledge is different from heavenly principles. Although it is truth, it is subjective in form because it belongs to the category of cognition and cannot be equated with the objective reality of matter. However, it is objective in content and the test results The only way in which conscience can be effective is through its objective social practice."

In fact, in the past, Neo-Confucianists represented by Song Confucians always liked to say that "knowledge lies in the study of things" and believed that to achieve the goal of knowledge, one must start from the study of things. However, Jiang Xinghuo believed that this was not the case. He believed that "knowledge lies in the study of things". "It lies in rectifying the mind", that is, people eliminate excessive material desires and evil thoughts during moral reflection, so as to restore the obscured "conscience".

"Practice is an interesting term."

Cao Duan was very interested in this, and he asked again: "Can the Imperial Master explain more clearly the practical method of cultivating conscience?"

"Of course you can, but it should be different from what you learned in the past."

"Oh? What's different?"

Hu Jishen asked with interest.

He was not an ordinary person. He had read poetry and books since he was a child, was rich in knowledge, and was praised for his virtue. In the later period, he was regarded as Sima Yi, and in the early period, he was regarded as a role similar to Wang Mang in Annan.

Therefore, Hu Ji-sao still has some say in the matter of virtue.

"There are three steps in the practical method of achieving conscience."

In fact, since Jiang Xinghuo was able to propose this theory of mind that is compatible with the monism of the material world, he must have given it careful consideration.

"To Conscience" is a great weapon in Xinxue, but it also has drawbacks. What Jiang Xinghuo did was to avoid the drawbacks as much as possible.

This is based on sufficient historical experience, because after the death of Wang Yangming, Xinxue was mainly dominated by the Wang Ji and Wang Gen schools, and these two schools went astray because they did not have a unified methodology.

One of the sects entered into the Buddhist theory of mind and became the Kuang Zen sect, namely the Jianzhong Wangji sect. They advocated that "conscience is perfected immediately, and there is no need to use the effort of eliminating desire, no need to guard against inspection and exhaustion, and to obtain "Enlightenment comes in, that is, the essence is more work, and heaven's destiny is always there, and even if you have desires, they will disappear as soon as you wake up." He regards conscience as Buddha nature, advocates sudden enlightenment, and has no practical methodology. In the end, it goes further and further wrongly.

The other school began to approach the mind-nature theory of Wei and Jin metaphysics, and became the Qingtan School, that is, Taizhou Wang Gen's school. They gave guidance to conscience everywhere from daily use, saying that conscience is natural willfulness, eating and clothing, hunger and thirst. Drinking, winter clothes and summer ge, the Taizhou School broke down all barriers between personal morality and social morality. As a result, its morality was lacking, its behavior was weird, and there were many objections. "The theory is to shock the world and shock the world; the lower level is dissolute and unbridled, every time outside the famous religion." This is the case. He behaves and talks too much and is uninhibited. He only knows how to talk about his mind and is not practical.

In Wang Yangming’s system of psychology, conscience has a very strong meaning as the original heart. The initiation of moral behavior and the formulation of moral principles are all derived from the ontology of conscience. Moreover, Wang Yangming believes that all things in the world are based on the original heart of conscience. Through the subject, a little conscience The preservation and expansion of it can lead to the realm of the unity of all things.

In other words, "To Conscience" in Wang Yangming's theory of mind is different from Jiang Xinghuo's "To Conscience". Jiang Xinghuo only regards "To Conscience" as the moral code and method of moral cultivation in the theory of mind, while Wang Yangming regards "To Conscience" as a method of moral cultivation. "Conscience" is included in the ontological category, which is completely opposite to Jiang Xinghuo's monism of the material world.

Therefore, from the perspective of the ontology of mind science, "conscience is the only knowledge." The conscience given to the subject in the contract is the only one who knows it. If there is no practical effort to interpret the ontology of this unique knowledge, the ontology will be suffocated in the body. Similarly, if there is no reliable methodology to support the extension of this ontology, it will inevitably become a mysterious thing.

The proposition that "conscience is unique knowledge" has many possible interpretations in theory, and it is also one of the sources of abuse.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo first posited that "innate knowledge" is the truth, and truth must be explored through practice, which is the methodology of "leading to conscience", thereby completing a logical closed loop and avoiding various shortcomings of Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind.

Then, what is happening now is that Jiang Xinghuo needs to come up with a complete methodology for the general public to use and teach them how to use standard steps to "achieve conscience."

Jiang Xinghuo looked up at the sky and said slowly: "The first one is Shendu."

The term "Be cautious of independence" comes from many classics of pre-Qin Confucianism. For example, "The Sincerity of the University" records: "The so-called sincerity of one's intention is not to deceive oneself, such as hating a bad smell or being lustful. This is called self-effacing, so a gentleman must be careful of being alone. "Ye", "The First Chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean" records "Don't see what is hidden, don't show what is subtle, so a gentleman should be careful about his independence."

"Prudent independence" in the context of pre-Qin Confucianism means that in social moral practice, the subject must always maintain a cautious mentality as if facing an abyss or walking on thin ice, not relaxing even in subtle places, and must practice moral practice effectively time.

Zheng Xuan, a famous scholar in the Han Dynasty, explained the concept of being alone in "The First Chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean": "Those who are cautious about being alone should be careful about what they do when they live in leisure. A villain is a hermit, and his actions and words are thought to be unseen. If he is not seen and heard, he will use his passion to the fullest." "Yes, he who lives idle should be alone", which means that a gentleman should be cautious even when he is alone. This interpretation is a bit literal and lacks the connotation of subtle words and great meaning. But in the era of Confucian classics, many Confucian scholars It focuses on finding chapters and excerpts, textual research and exegesis, etc., but does not elaborate on the subtle words and great meanings of ancient sages and sages, so it doesn't matter.

It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that Zhu Xi gave a new interpretation of Shendu. Zhu Xi believed that the meaning of Shen should be the same as Zheng Xuan's explanation. However, Zhu Xi had his own understanding of the word "du". He believed that "the word "du" is unknown to others but is unique to oneself. "The place of knowledge", in Zhu Xi's case, Duzhi means Duzhi (know alone).

Jiang Xinghuo's explanation was different from Zhu Xi's.

"Those who are careful and independent should observe the hidden aspects of inner activities, so that they can be carefully examined and cured."

In other words, Jiang Xinghuo believes that "being cautious in independence" is a special form of self-understanding and the most important method of moral cultivation. In this process, a person's innate conscience that can know good and evil, To maximize one's own initiative and clarify any excessive selfish desires and evil thoughts that have sprouted, in a practical sense, it is a very important cultivation skill.

There is a reason why "being cautious about independence" is placed first.

Perhaps people generally only remember the name of the champion, but in the Ming Dynasty academia, this was not the case.

The "Crown of Ming Dynasty Scholars" is undoubtedly Cao Duan, while the title of "The Palace of Ming Dynasty Scholars" belongs to Huang Zongxi's teacher, Liu Zongzhou.

In the late Ming Dynasty, Liu Zongzhou was deeply aware of the corruption of the academic style and social customs at that time. How to re-establish the academic style and correct the shortcomings and shortcomings became his most important theoretical exploration, and "be cautious about independence" was the solution proposed by Liu Zongzhou, which can be said to be the most well-intentioned.

In other words, Jiang Xinghuo really invited a bunch of future gods for this Taixue meeting.

Wang Yangming, Liu Zongzhou, Wang Fuzhi, and Huang Zongxi in China, and Hegel and Kant in foreign countries.

In response to the problems of social customs and academic styles, in terms of the theory of mind, the methods proposed by Wang Yangming, Liu Zongzhou and others are most in line with the reality of Ming Dynasty society. If these methods are to promote their essence and avoid their dross, they will naturally have the effect of defeating the old Neo-Confucian theory of mind. .

Later, Jiang Xinghuo talked about the specific methods of being independent, including the famous "meditation method".

"Second, respect the Lord."

"Be cautious about independence" is the method of Liu Zongzhou, while "main respect" is the method of Wang Yangming's disciple Zou Shouyi. Some are biased towards the "Ju Jing" and "Yong Jing" of Neo-Confucianism, but they are not exactly the same thing. The method is more conservative, but compared to Compared with the laissez-faire ideas of the radicals such as "ready-made conscience" and "the common people's daily use is the Tao" in Yangming's studies, it is actually a truly practical methodology.

"Respect is the main thing. If the heart has the master, it is respect. If the main respect is self-denial, and self-denial means the master, that is, to maintain the spiritual awareness of the inner conscience, so as to realize the correction of people's behavior in terms of 'things' and 'thoughts'."

Regarding this method, Huang Zongxi commented in "The Case of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty" that "Jing Ye has a shrewd conscience and is not mixed with selfish desires. Therefore, when he goes out to serve the people, he makes troubles and relies on balance, and he is always wary of the prevalence of fear. That is to say, if we can achieve respect for the Lord, we can ensure that the inner mind is not disconnected from the external practical behavior, fully realize the moral regulations of the inner conscience on people's desires and external behaviors, and make the external Behavior is entirely based on the moral regulations of innate knowledge, which is the inner conscience.

After spending a lot of time, I finished explaining "main respect" in depth.

Jiang Xinghuo continued in a calm tone: "Third, be careful of fear."

This may seem a bit awkward to say at first, but if you think about it carefully, it makes sense.

"Beware of fear" comes from "The Doctrine of the Mean": "A gentleman is wary of what he does not see, and is afraid of what he does not hear. He does not see what is hidden, and does not show what is insignificant. Therefore, a gentleman is careful of what he alone is."

"The essence of conscience is inherently broad and impartial. It naturally adapts to things. It has no self, no desire, no choice, and no ignorance and recklessness. If you are careful and fearful and do your best, you will always be successful. The spirit is always clear, the rules are regular, the spirit is always deficient.”

In other words, only the "preservation of fear" of the conscience itself is the real vigilance and fear, and "always sharp and always clear, regular and regular, always empty and always spiritual" is the effect of "the original body of guarding against fear" and is the real " The inner expression after "To Conscience".

As for Jiang Xinghuo's unhurried explanation, everyone who participated in the Taixue Meeting easily realized how powerful Jiang Xinghuo's theory of "promoting conscience" was.

If you don't understand, the analogy of martial arts novels is that Lin Pingzhi printed 100,000 movable type copies of "Evil Sword Manual" and distributed them free of charge.

The methodology of "To Conscience" has clear arguments, reliable evidence, is simple and easy to implement, and can be easily promoted.

With this kind of thing, most people will choose to accept it instead of continuing to pursue traditional moral values ​​that have a natural reason in their heads.

Everyone present looked at Hu Yan.

Unknowingly, the Taixue meeting has lasted for nearly a day. It gets dark early in winter and the sun is already setting in the west.

Yang Shiqi wanted to say something else, but at this time Hu Yan's body swayed and he almost fell to the ground, but he still managed to hold on with his hands and looked at everyone.

Hu Yan struggled to get up and staggered back to his seat. His face was pale, his lips were trembling, and his voice was hoarse: "I give up."

The whole place was silent!

But this time, Hu Yan seemed to find it difficult to regain his footing. He sat down, covering his chest, breathing heavily, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.