(1) philosophy:
Wang Shouren's theory of mind is characterized by his theory of conscience. He believes that the soul of human heart is conscience, and conscience is justice, so it is impossible to seek justice outside conscience. He said that conscience is a "fine record" of nature. "Being born as a human being, being a ghost and being a human being, and being an emperor are all born from this. It really has nothing to do with things." Everything in the world comes from conscience. Without my conscience, there would be no universe, but conscience is inherent in human heart. He also said that conscience is a "paradise" and the root of the development and popularity of all things in the world. So conscience is also called "space". Everything in the world develops and becomes popular in the void, that is, it develops and becomes popular in the conscience, not outside the conscience.
The so-called conscience of Wang Shouren and Wang Shouren is actually subjective moral consciousness, which is both a standard of right and wrong and a standard of good and evil, that is, truth and moral standards. He said: "Conscience is just a heart of right and wrong. Right and wrong are just likes and dislikes. If you have to do evil, do right, do wrong, don't do it, and everything has changed. " This kind of heart of right and wrong, good and evil is shared by everyone, and so are saints and fools. It's perfect, it's not lacking, there's no need to borrow it. There will be no more saints and no fewer ordinary people, so everyone can become a saint. Since everyone has a conscience, everyone can use his own conscience as the only criterion to measure right and wrong, good and evil. Therefore, there is no need to seek from saints or classics. "Conscience is your own rule and your master." Conscience will know all right and wrong, good and evil. It is in your heart, if you ask from the heart, "Although it comes from Confucius, you dare not think it is true"; If you want something in your heart, you can't think it's wrong, although it's a cliche. Although Wang Shouren's theory of conscience is a kind of transcendentalism, it breaks the boundary between sage and mortal, and objectively has the function of shaking the authority of Confucianism.
Wang Shouren also put forward the view that conscience has no good or evil, and thought that conscience is an absolute good beyond good or evil and an absolute truth beyond right or wrong. The right and wrong between good and evil are relative, but the conscience is absolute, so he called it "the supreme good" or "no good and no evil". In his later years, he put forward "four-sentence teaching", that is, "no good and no evil is the body of mind, good and evil is the trip of will, knowing good and evil is the conscience, and eliminating evil is the object of expression", which showed the inherent contradiction of thought and caused it in the later research of Wang.
Wang Shouren's theory of unity of knowledge and action is not only aimed at Zhu, but also different from Lu Jiuyuan. Zhu Ludu advocated that the prophet should know later. Wang Shouren opposed the split of knowing and doing, and advocated seeking the truth from my heart. He said: "knowledge is the idea of doing, and doing is the kung fu of knowing;" Knowing is the beginning of doing, and doing is the achievement of knowing. Just say one thing, it has its own lines; Just say one line and you'll already know. "Knowing and doing are two aspects of kung fu. There is action in knowledge, and there is action in knowledge. The two are inseparable, and there is no order. Knowledge divorced from behavior is not true knowledge, but delusion; The line separated from knowledge is not a faithful line, but an invisible line. He put forward the unity of knowing and doing, on the one hand, he emphasized the consciousness of moral consciousness and asked people to work hard on their inner spirit; On the other hand, it also attaches importance to the practicality of morality, pointing out that people should hone in things, be consistent in words and deeds and be consistent in appearance. However, he emphasized the result of consciousness and thought that an idea was the correct starting point, which confused the boundary between conscious activity and practical activity. The fundamental purpose of his advocating the unity of knowledge and practice is to overcome the "bad idea", which is his "purpose of making a statement"
(2) Education:
Wang Shouren's educational thought
Wang Shouren began to give lectures in his thirties, which lasted for 25 years. Everywhere he went to work, he built academies, advocated social studies, and gave lectures in his spare time in politics. When living in Longchangyi, Guizhou, I built Longgang Academy and gave lectures at Guiyang Academy. During the governor's stay in Jiangxi, he established a mass organization and Lianxi Academy, and gathered people to give lectures in Bailudong. During the military period of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor established Sitian School, Nanning School and Wenfu Academy. During his retirement, he founded Jishan Academy, then Yangming Academy, and gave lectures at Longquan Mountain Temple in Yuyao. Scholars from all over the country gathered together, and more than 300 people sat around to listen to the lecture. His school-running and lecture activities played a certain role in promoting the development of academy and social research in Ming Dynasty.
education in ethics
Wang Shouren inherited the ancient Confucian educational tradition in China, and put moral education and self-cultivation in the first place in school education.
On the method of moral cultivation, Wang Shouren put forward the following four basic propositions.
(A) a quiet place to understand
Wang Shouren This is a moral cultivation method advocated by Wang Shouren in his early years. He believes that the fundamental task of moral cultivation is to "uncover the clear mind", that is, to remove the ignorance of material desires and invent the "conscience" possessed by the original heart. Therefore, moral cultivation does not need "seeking from outside", but only needs to do savvy kung fu in a quiet place. He wrote in the book of life in the morning: "people who used to sit in the temple;" I don't want to meditate, because we are busy with things on weekdays and we don't know it ourselves. We want to make up for primary school and rest assured for a while. " Although Wang Shouren's confession here is not the same as Buddhism's "meditation and meditation", the so-called "meditation and meditation" actually makes people sit still, purify their hearts, get rid of all selfish thoughts and realize their true intentions. This is the inheritance and development of Lu Jiuyuan's thought of "keeping one's own heart", which is not fundamentally different from Zen meditation and observing nature.
(2) Things are impermanent
This is the moral cultivation method put forward by Wang Shouren in his later years. He realized that blindly emphasizing meditation will produce various disadvantages, which will easily make people "like quiet and hate moving, and flow into a disease", and even make people "silent" and "demented". Therefore, he advocates that moral cultivation must be replaced by "tempering things". Obviously, Wang Shouren's emphasis on "tempering things" in his later years is the embodiment of his thought of "unity of knowledge and action" in moral cultivation methods.
(3) provincial inspection and ruling
Wang Shouren advocated continuous introspection and private prosecution, and consciously restrained all kinds of selfish desires. Obviously, this is the inheritance and development of the traditional Confucian cultivation methods of "introspection" and "self-denial", and the reasonable factors that emphasize the consciousness and subjective initiative of moral cultivation can be critically absorbed.
(4) It is more expensive than correction.
Wang Shouren believes that people will always make some mistakes that violate ethical norms in social life, even if they are great sages, it is hard to avoid them. Therefore, in moral cultivation, it is not expensive to make mistakes, but expensive to correct them. The proposition that "reform is more important" embodies Wang Shouren's realistic spirit and forward-looking attitude in moral education, which is desirable.
Although the fundamental purpose of Wang Shouren's moral education thought is to maintain the rule of Ming Dynasty, some of his moral education thoughts reflect some laws of school moral education and moral cultivation, which is of enlightenment significance to modern education.
Children education
He attaches great importance to children's education, and in the article "Teaching and Reading Liu, etc.", he focuses on his own thoughts on children's education, mainly including the following contents.
1. Expose and criticize that traditional children's education ignores children's physical and mental characteristics.
2. Children's education must conform to their temperament.
3. The contents of children's education include "songs and poems", "rites" and "reading".
4, to "people-oriented", teaching students in accordance with their aptitude.
Wang Shouren believes that childhood is in an important period of development, and children's energy, body and intelligence are in the process of development, that is, the so-called "full, strong and Zhi Ming". Therefore, teaching must take this characteristic into account, and teaching should be carried out to what extent the child's acceptance ability develops. Similarly, if you instill a lot of profound knowledge into your child regardless of his actual ability, it is like pouring a bucket of water on a bud and soaking it, which is of no benefit to your child.
At the same time, Wang Shouren also believes that children's teaching "is not more books, but more sophisticated than expensive". Therefore, there should be room for teaching. "Only 100 words can be given to those who can develop their talents to 200 words", so that children can "have more spiritual strength" and "have a sense of self-satisfaction". They will not be tired of learning because of hard work, but are willing to receive education.
Wang Shouren's thought of children's education aims at instilling feudal ethics in children, that is, "filial piety, younger brother, loyalty, faithfulness, courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame should be the only education that children should receive today", but he opposes traditional methods of children's education such as "adults" and brutal corporal punishment, and demands that children be educated according to their temperament and acceptance, so as to make them develop morally, intellectually and physically in an all-round way. This idea was put forward as early as 15 and 16 centuries, which is really commendable.
The above is for reference only, thank you!