In the mid-Ming Dynasty, there was a popular custom: if you want to be a "saint", you must read and write. The more books you have, the more status you have and the more respect you get from others, regardless of your actual conduct. In this social atmosphere, although many scholars have learned a lot from books, they often do evil deeds that are inconsistent with or even contradictory to the truth of "sages" in their actions.
Wang Shouren often criticized them for "too much knowledge, so it is appropriate to do evil". He believes that one of the important reasons is that the popular Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng divides "mind" and "reason" into two parts, resulting in the separation of people's knowing and doing.
It is worth mentioning that Wang Shouren was also a devout "believer" of Zhu Cheng School at first. He often looked for Zhu's works for research and visited and consulted the masters of the school at that time. But his belief in Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism was completely changed by one thing. At that time, according to Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, he stood quietly for several days in front of the bamboo outside the window. As a result, he was ill instead of "standing" and "knowing". Therefore, Wang Shouren began to turn to other research directions, and finally formed the idea of "mind study". He believes that everything is in people's hearts. As long as people find their own "initial heart", they can naturally act according to ethical standards and pay more attention to people's inner cultivation.
Wang Shouren's unique thought of "Mind Learning" also left its mark on his educational thought. Unlike Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism, which was popular at that time, which separated "mind" from "reason", Wang Shouren believed that "reason" existed in "mind" and he advocated that "conscience is justice". In Wang Shouren's view, "conscience", as a natural principle, is innate and can be learned without teaching. People, whether saints or fools, have a conscience, that is, "conscience lies in people's hearts and is inseparable from saints and fools." "Conscience" will not "disappear" or "die out" for no reason, that is, "conscience is in people, no matter what you do, it is impossible to die out".
Wang Shouren pointed out that people are not born with "conscience", and people will be tempted by things other than "conscience", such as material desires. At this time, "conscience" may be temporarily "confused", that is, confused by people's selfish desires, thus losing moral nature. Faced with this situation, Wang Shouren proposed to rely on education, and "conscience" "cannot but be confused with material desires, so we should learn to get rid of it". Get rid of the blind of people's "conscience" by material desires through education and find "conscience" again.
Wang Shouren put forward the educational idea of "learning to get rid of its disadvantages" and "clarifying its mind" from the perspective of "mind learning". In layman's terms, it is to get rid of the blind of people's selfish desires by receiving education. He believes that everyone can receive education and has innate conditions for receiving education. No matter what industry you are engaged in, you can become a "saint". At this point, he is more progressive than Zhu's educational thought.
Define "Unity of Knowledge and Action"
Since modern times, the influence of the theory of "integration of knowledge and practice" has been expanding. Liang Qichao once commented on Wang Shouren's "Unity of Knowledge and Action": "The teaching of the unity of knowledge and action is the most famous and valuable slogan left by Mr. Wang Yangming of Ming Taizu."
In the era of Wang Shouren, from the emperor to the ministers, they were basically corrupt, greedy and cruel people, constantly fighting for power and profits, and the social morality was corrupted, so the rule of the Ming Dynasty was facing a serious crisis. In education, it is also corruption. Wang Shouren once pointed out that the literati at that time did not do business seriously, but expressed themselves by studying some "tricks" and competed for fame and fortune. Although they are well-dressed in appearance and verbally preach to fight for the restoration of the three generations of Taoism, they are like animals at heart. At that time, due to the influence of the imperial examination, students concentrated on reciting eight-part essays and pursuing fame and fortune. What teachers teach and students learn is no longer the educational content of "understanding human feelings".
Wang Shouren believes that the important reason for these serious problems lies in the separation of knowledge and practice. Therefore, he put forward the idea of "unity of knowledge and practice" and opposed those who only knew what they could not do or what they could not do in moral education. He further pointed out that the reason of moral corruption at that time was not only the social environment at that time, but also the moral cultivation method of Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism pursued by scholars. Because knowledge and behavior are divided into two parts, when bad ideas arise, although they are not implemented, they cannot be banned.
After years of educational practice, Wang Shouren put forward the idea of "unity of knowledge and practice" in moral education under the system of "to conscience".
Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism advocated "the unity of knowledge and action", while Wang Shouren put forward the idea of "the unity of knowledge and action". He pointed out: "knowledge is the theory of doing, doing is the work of knowing, knowing is the beginning of doing, and doing is the achievement of knowing." He believes that the reason why "mortals" can't be "holy" is mainly because "knowledge" and "behavior" are separated, and "behavior" without "knowledge" is chaotic, and "knowledge" without "behavior" is not "true knowledge". Therefore, the essence of his proposition lies in the combination of "knowledge" and "behavior", without which "knowledge" cannot be sought.
An important function of "the unity of knowing and doing" is to prevent people from "thinking bad". In moral education, when people are about to sprout "bad thoughts", they should nip them in the bud to avoid this kind of "bad thoughts" lurking in students' minds, thus solving students' "heart disease".
Wang Shouren attaches great importance to the cultivation of students' aspirations. He believes that if a person wants to be a "saint", he must first establish a "sage's ambition". He said: "You need to be trustworthy, just determined." Aspiring is like "steering a boat", nothing is difficult in the world. He once said to his students, "Learn without waiting for progress, but aim without standing." If a person has no ambition, he will be "like a piece of dead meat. Even if he hits it, it will hurt, and it will be useless if he is afraid of the end." If you have the will, you must persist and persist.
In fact, this once again reflects his moral education concept of "unity of knowledge and practice" and Wang Shouren's moral education spirit of paying attention to practice and pursuing practical results. From this, we can easily see that in the process of moral education, we should cultivate students' good moral will, set up lofty aspirations and encourage students to practice their ambitions in their daily study and life.
To achieve "unity of knowledge and action", we must first be able to calm down, "be sincere" and abandon our own selfish distractions. This is actually a subjective idealistic view of moral cultivation. It's not enough just to sit there and think. If people always sit there thinking hard, some problems will appear if they sit there for a long time, such as "like quiet, hate activities" and even become "dementia". Therefore, people need to "temper things" and achieve "unity of knowledge and action", which is the completion of morality. Wang Shouren pointed out: "True knowledge means doing what you do. It is not enough to know what you can't do." In his view, people should practice their moral cultivation according to specific conditions. If you just daydream, you will be confused when you encounter something. If you don't work hard, the efforts you usually think about will be meaningless.
Wang Shouren once gave an example: When a person sees a child fall into a well, he will inevitably feel sympathy. If he follows the natural development of this compassion, he will definitely run for help. This is the unity of knowing and doing, which is what Wang Shouren said: "Knowing is the beginning of doing, and doing is the success of knowing." However, if this person changes his mind at this time, is afraid of difficulties and dangers, or refuses to go because of his bad relationship with his children's parents, it is "knowing" and "not doing it".
Of course, in daily life, people should always pay attention to self-reflection and inspection of their moral behavior, which is exactly what Wang Shouren put forward, that is, in daily life, people should constantly conduct self-reflection and inspection, consciously restrain all kinds of selfish desires and prevent them from endangering their moral cultivation. He suggested that people should consciously review and resolutely correct. As long as this kind of "inspection" work is carried out regularly and in time, people will develop good moral habits after a period of time.
If the inspection is not timely enough, there is no shame in making a mistake. Wang Shouren believes that in real life, people will inevitably make moral mistakes of one kind or another, and the key is to be brave in changing and doing good. Repentance is a good medicine to get rid of illness, however, repentance alone is not enough. If you just regret without understanding, or regret without changing, there will still be problems. Therefore, Cheng Gui can still win the trust of others as long as they can correct their mistakes. This tells us that in the process of moral education for students, we should not only cultivate students' good moral and emotional quality of bravely admitting mistakes, but also cultivate students' moral practical ability of bravely correcting mistakes, that is, "integration of knowledge and practice". When carrying out moral education for students, teachers should have a targeted understanding of students' ideological status, prescribe the right medicine, let students realize the teachers' good intentions, and help students to establish confidence in turning over a new leaf.