(East-West Question) Zhang Xinmin: How did Yangming Studies spread overseas?
China News Agency, Guiyang, April 25th: Why is Yangming School spread overseas?
——Interview with Zhang Xinmin, Vice President of the Chinese Confucian Association
Author Zhou Yanling
China's thousands of years of history and culture can be said to have a long history and a large number of talents, but there are not many people who can achieve the three immortals of "virtue, speech, and merit" at the same time.
Wang Yangming of the Ming Dynasty was one of the great scholars.
As a great thinker, statesman, and military strategist in ancient China, Wang Yangming's thoughts have spread overseas, not only showing strong academic vitality, but also becoming an important ideological resource for dialogue with the West.
Recently, Zhang Xinmin, vice president of the Chinese Confucian Association, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions", talking about the spread of Yangmingism in the Western world.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: You have been conducting research on Yangming studies since the early 1990s. What is the most important idea of Yangming Studies? What does it mean to the present day?
Zhang Xinmin:
Yang Ming's philosophy of mind originates from his profound life experience. From the "heart is the reason" and "the unity of knowledge and action" in the early years to the "conscience" in the later years, the proposal of each theory is a leap in the realm of life , promotion, development and improvement, and is related to his life suffering experience and life tempering.
His knowledge is full of lively and energetic life practice, which can best reflect the connotation and spirit of ontology practice unique to Chinese culture.
For contemporary people living in a modern context, Yangmingism is essentially learning oneself.
On the one hand, we must return to ourselves from the noisy and noisy world, find the ontological basis for self-improvement, return to our true human nature, activate the conscience that can distinguish right from wrong, and actively and bravely devote ourselves to the moral practice of transforming and improving human society. middle.
On the other hand, it is necessary to continuously enrich, enrich and realize the value and meaning of survival and life in a community with a shared future for mankind, so as to achieve the ultimate goal of transforming and improving the overall human society.
Portrait of Wang Yangming (Ming Dynasty) Photo by Shi Chunyang published by China News Agency
China News Service reporter: How did Yangmingism spread in Japan, South Korea and Western countries?
Zhang Xinmin:
After Confucianism, including Zhu Zixue and Yangmingxue, spread to Japan and South Korea, it formed a resource of East Asian Confucianism that covers a wider area and population.
Japan and Korea are both in the Confucian cultural circle and can be said to be long-term beneficiaries of Chinese culture.
The Yangming School had been introduced to Japan at the beginning of the 17th century at the latest, but it gradually expanded and formed the peak of Japanese social thought during the Meiji Restoration.
At that time, many fallen and reformers adored Yangming School, and even the whole public opinion was promoting Yangming thought.
Since then, as China's first choice for studying in the West, Japan has in turn influenced Chinese people's overall evaluation of Yangming studies.
Yangmingxue was introduced to Korea earlier than Japan, but its influence was far less than that of Japan.
Yangming scholars in South Korea emphasized the importance of "conscientiousness" and "practice" to oppose all "virtual learning" and "virtual conduct".
This shows that the localized development of Yangmingxue after it was introduced into Korea shows many characteristics of practical learning after the interweaving and integration of psychology and Confucianism.
The Dosan Book Hall, where the Confucian leader Lee Hwang, who inherited Wang Yangming's teachings, educated Confucian students, is located in Dosan Academy in present-day Andong City.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Pan Xulin
The spread of Yangmingism to Western countries was relatively late, and the earliest disseminators may have been a group of missionaries who had been to China.
In addition, the contributions of Chinese-American scholars cannot be ignored. For example, Mr. Chen Rongjie, who has been teaching in the United States for a long time, is an important bridge figure in introducing Chinese philosophy to Western academic circles. The translation of "Mr. Yangming Ji Yao · Li Bian" is later, but more precise and accurate.
Du Weiming's doctoral dissertation "Young Wang Yangming" written in the United States mainly introduces Yangming's early years of learning and thinking, and also has a certain academic influence overseas.
In 1972, Mr. Cheng Zhongying hosted the large-scale seminar on Wang Yangming's academic thoughts at the University of Hawaii, which vigorously promoted the discussion and research of Yangming Studies in North America, and can also be regarded as a sign event for the spread of Yangming Studies overseas. .
Representative foreign scholars in the English-speaking world, such as American sinologist Paul Wienpahl, wrote Spinoza and Wang Yangming, which provides a comparative philosophical perspective.
Another Swiss scholar, Iso Kern, who wrote in German, studied Wang Yangming with the analytical framework of Western phenomenology, and wrote "The Phenomenon of Mind: An Anthology of Geng Ning's Phenomenological Research on Mind" and "First Class Matters in Life: Wang Yangming and Afterwards, two monographs, "On the Conscience", were translated into Chinese and caused great repercussions.
The research of Western sinologists or scholars of Chinese descent, on the one hand, opens up and expands the space for communication and dialogue between Chinese and Western philosophy, and promotes the possibility of mutual invention and mutual improvement. On the other hand, it also places Chinese philosophy into the context of Western rational thought discussions. , which helps Westerners to deepen their understanding and research on Chinese culture.
Although the dissemination and research of Yangmingism is only a part of it, it heralds the development trend of the times when Chinese and Western thoughts will be integrated.
China News Service reporter: What is the role of Yangming Studies in the dialogue between Chinese and Western civilizations?
Zhang Xinmin:
Chinese philosophical thought is the crystallization of wisdom created by countless sages, such as Confucius, Mencius, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, etc., all of them are the most representative ideological figures of each era.
The western spread of Yangming Studies reflects an aspect of the cultural exchange between China and the West, and its role in bridge communication cannot be underestimated.
Yangming is also an intermediary for the exchange and dialogue between Chinese and Western philosophy, especially the philosophy of spiritual practice. Through this, we can better understand or grasp the humanistic spiritual tradition of Chinese and Western cultures, and share the spiritual philosophy necessary for human beings with profound human observation and spiritual experience. So as to jointly build a rational and harmonious new order of world civilization.
If Yangming used to be a confidant of different generations who had a homogeneous dialogue with Zhu Zi in Confucianism, and reflected the deep wisdom of self-adjustment and development of traditional academic thinking, then today he has crossed the ocean and has become a spiritual tradition and philosophy of the West. An international critical friend of ideological heterogeneity dialogue.
The 2018 Yangming Mind Learning Summit Forum was held in Yuyao, Zhejiang, and more than 200 experts and scholars from home and abroad participated in the forum.
Photo by China News Agency reporter He Jiangyong
Reporter from China News Service: The essence or characteristics of Yangming's Mind Learning are multi-faceted. Is it necessary to establish a "New Mind Learning" that meets the needs of the times on the basis of inheritance and development?
Zhang Xinmin: To
study Yangming Studies today, we should have a global vision and establish a "New Mind Study" that meets the needs of the times.
On the one hand, "Xin Xin Xue" should inherit and carry forward China's inherent spiritual tradition and spiritual philosophy, on the other hand, it should also accommodate and integrate Western ideological resources and spiritual philosophy, and not reject outstanding academic achievements from outside.
I personally think that the following three aspects of academic construction should be done well.
First of all, at the level of metaphysical transcendence, it is necessary to carry out active and effective exchanges and dialogues with the world's major religious academics.
Because no matter "heart" or "conscience", in Yangming, they are connected with the heavenly way and the heavenly principle that transcend metaphysically, and are based on the popular theory of the heavenly way and the theory of cosmogony in the ontological sense. Simplified, flattened secular ethics.
For example, according to Kant's rational analysis approach, the "thing-in-itself" is necessarily unknowable, while Yang Ming's approach with intuitive insight is verifiable and knowable.
Whether interpreting Yangming with Kant, or interpreting Kant with Yangming, they can further invent each other at the ontological level, which leads to the great historical significance of rebuilding the "New Mind".
Therefore, on the basis of the original comparisons between Yangming and Kant, Yangming and Nicholas, Yangming and Martin Luther, it is necessary to further expand the scope of exchanges and mutual learning, so as to deepen the construction of "New Mind". To the degree of thinking and the basis of theoretical exploration.
Secondly, in the moral practice level of communication metaphysical and metaphysical, it is necessary to integrate the ideological resources of major cultural traditions, take the traditional Chinese philosophy of mind or spiritual philosophy as the basis, and actively carry out academic discussions on "new mind" at the theoretical and practical levels .
Such construction activities are inseparable from comparison, and comparison in the strict sense is a kind of dialogue, such as Yangming's ideal of sanctification and Kant's moral decrees, Yangming's aesthetics and Kant's aesthetics, Yangming's "harmony between man and nature" and Hyde The comparison of Geer's theory of "Heaven, Earth, God and Man" has spawned a number of academic achievements with an academic vision that can connect the east and the west, thus laying a historical theoretical foundation for the construction of "Xin Xin Xue".
"Wang Yangming" simulation robot shows calligraphy at the World Robot Conference.
Photo by Yulong issued by China News Agency
Finally, at the empirical level of social practice under form, since Yangming strongly emphasizes that body, mind, mind, knowledge, and matter are only one thing, it is impossible not to pay attention to the phenomenon of human psychology, conscious activity and social behavior.
Taking this as a starting point, the mature psychology developed in the West can be included, so as to better analyze the complex psychological structure and conscious behavior of people, in order to solve complex problems such as people's mental illness or disorder of consciousness, and develop a set of Mind exercise and conscience (caring) practice centered therapy.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Zhang Xinmin, Vice President of the Chinese Confucian Association, Vice President of the Wang Yangming Research Association of the Ming History Society of China, Professor and Honorary Dean of the Chinese Culture Academy of Guizhou University, President of the Guizhou Confucian Studies Association, and Director of the International Confucian Association.
He is the author of "The Essence of Yangming: An Exploration of Philosophy", "Returning and Renewing Confucianism", "Existence and Understanding", "Chinese Classics and Academic Culture", "Guizhou: Revisiting the World of Academic Thought", "Draft of Guizhou Local Chronicles" and editor-in-chief of " Yangming Academic Journal, Tianzhu Documents and many other academic monographs.