Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies at Shandong University; Major research fields: Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Ethics; Selected works: Studies on Confucian Moral Philosophy (2005) [Chinese], Daoism and Chinese Philosophy (2004) [Chinese].

Speech Abstract

Wang Yangming's Principle and the Establishmen of a Leading Role for Humanity

Understanding “principle” (li) is Wang Yangming’s core mission. Wang Yangming mainly uses the term “principle” to refer to the cause, the order, and the underpinning of things’ existence. It can also be called “nature,” “great foundation,” and “yet-manifest”, and is categorized as the absolute ultimate existence that transcends experience. In contrast to Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming’s notion of “principle” is singular: it is Heaven’s principle. There is only one principle in the world and it is Heaven’s principle. It is a universal principle of Heaven that pervades all through the nature of things as well as human society. From the perspective of human behavior, Heaven’s principle is the basic principle that should guide all human practices. Beyond this state of mind there is nothing. All moral behaviors take it as their foundation. From the perspective of the existence of everything in the universe, it is the source principle of life for the living body of the universe, also the source principle for the lives of all things in the universe. More specifically commonly shared principle of Heaven for both humanity and nature is benevolence. From Wang Yangming’s perspective, the natural world follows the human way of benevolence, so this makes humanity the leader of the universe. As result, following thousands of years humanity and Heaven fighting for power, humanity finally seized its voice.