The Significance of Yangming Studies for the Era of Globalization✴

Chen Lisheng

Abstract:It was Wang Yangming’s lifelong eff ort to make his teachings a mainstream school of thought,which revealed its timely signif icance as a cure to the social chaos during the Zhengde and Jiajing reigns of the Ming dynasty.At the turn of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China,when China encountered Western thought,the consciousness of “century” was awakened among the Chinese literati,and Yangming Studies again manifested a rich splendor of historical effects when East Asian countries stepped onto the path of modernity.In the context of globalization in the twenty-f irst century,it is the mission of contemporary Yangming researchers to develop and extend the spirit of Yangming Studies and its worldwide signif icance.

Keywords:Yangming Studies,extension of innate moral knowledge,oneness of the myriad things,the Way of benef iting human livelihood,era of globalization

Yangming Studies in the Mid-and Late Ming[Refer to page 35 for Chinese.Similarly hereinaft er]

The mid-and late Ming period that saw the budding and dissemination of Wang Yangming’s philosophy was marked by some new developments in this time of social change.

First,the monetization of silver was beginning to take hold in commerce.Gold and silver had been banned from transactions in the early Ming,but by the Chenghua (1465—1487) and Hongzhi (1488—1505) period during Wang Yangming’s lifetime,taxation on agriculture,labor,salt,tea,and tariff s,as well as expenses incurred by the state (the royal family,offi cial stipends,military and government expenditures) were widely paid in money rather than in kind.1See Wan Ming 万明,“Twenty Years of Inquiry on Silver Monetization in the Ming Dynasty:A Summary of Scholarly Progress” [明代白银货币化研究20年——学术历程的梳理],Researches in Chinese Economic History [中国经济史研究],no.6 (2019):6—17.Wan Ming,“Monetization of Silver and the Shift of System in the Ming Dynasty” [明代白银货币化与制度变迁],inHistoriography of Jinan [暨南史学],vol.2,eds.Ji Zong’an 纪宗安 and Tang Kaijian 汤开建(Guangzhou:Jinan University Press,2003),276—309.The series of events that led to the monetization of silver marked the transition of China from an ancient system of corvee and conscription to a modern staterun tax system.Not long aft er Wang Yangming’s death,the monetization of silver was a juncture for associating China with the start of world economic globalization,involving all the strata of society.With the progress of trade,the social hierarchical structure that formed at the beginning of the Ming began to loosen and change,while professional commercial groups,specialist handicraft communities,and labor markets began to take shape.

Second,the changes in socio-economic life and the emergence of commercial culture came as a shock to people’s lives and the mentality of the whole society.Handicraft workers,employed laborers,and industrial and business owners gradually rose to be new productive forces.Local governments found themselves relying more on revenues from trade and commerce to maintain the operation of administrative,productive,and cultural activities.Businessmen learned to donate money to aid local officials in exchange for higher social status for themselves,and eventually the inner rings of the literati and offi cialdom of Ming fell deeply under the inf luence of commercialism.2Timothy Brook,The Confusions of Pleasure:Commerce and Culture in Ming China (1998).Translated by Fang Jun 方骏et al.as [纵乐的困惑：明代的商业与文化](Beijing:SDX Joint Publishing Company,2004),94—99,138—147.The prosperity of trade and commerce not only intensified disparity in wealth,driving poor people into desperate poverty and making the rich richer,but also corrupted social mentality into money-worship.Such a money-craving mentality affected the official-literati as well as the commoners,and the whole of offi cialdom degenerated into a fairground of trade for prof it,fame,and vanity.In the end,the literati had to face the stark reality of survival:how to avoid straying into the mire of an offi cial career that had deviated from moral sageliness into commercialism.

Third,land annexation during the mid-Ming became increasingly widespread,owing to the insatiable desires of royal households,princes,imperial relatives,high offi cials,and even court eunuchs.Natural disasters like droughts,f loods,and locust plagues aggravated the misery of peasants,driving them from their hometowns in crowds of refugees that brought instability to the country.The government had an immediate need to restore order to society.

Wang Yangming’s philosophy offered a solution,proposing that the “four trades of people engage in different vocations but follow the same Way,” that officials,peasants,craft smen,and businessmen diff er only in their division of labor in society,but all “contribute to the Way that benefits human livelihood.”3Wang Shouren 王守仁,Complete Works of Wang Yangming [王阳明全集],vol.25,eds.Wu Guang 吴光 et al.(Shanghai:Shanghai Classics Publishing House,1992),941.His proposal could certainly be deemed as a confirmation of the value of commerce,and even suggests that the doctrine of innate moral knowledge (liangzhi良知) can include more secular concerns.On the other hand,he included the economic life of the “silver-age” of the Ming in his discourse on the extension of innate moral knowledge (zhi liangzhi致良知),which aimed to convert and bring the emerging commercial sector of society into the purview of Confucianism.By emphasizing the same Way for people of diff erent vocations,he endeavored to curb the prof it-seeking trend of society under the inf luence of commercial culture.4Chen Lisheng 陈立胜,“New Interpretation of Wang Yangming’s Doctrine of the ‘People of the Four Classes Engaging in Diff erent Professions yet Sharing the Same Way’:On the Cause of the Publishing of ‘Epitaph for Fang Lin in Jie’an Prefecture’” [王阳明“四民异业而同道”新解——兼论《节庵方公墓表》问世的一段因缘],Philosophical Researches [哲学研究],no.3 (2021):45—55,128—129.

To counteract depravity among the offi cial-literati in his day,Wang Yangming drew a line of opposition between the “learning of the sage” and the “learning of the layman.” The primary duty of a scholar is to give Confucian instruction,according to Wang Yangming,and because of this he was critical of Xu Luzhai 许鲁斋 (1209—1281),a famous Confucian in the Yuan dynasty,who said that “the first thing a scholar should do is to secure a livelihood.”5Wang Shouren, “Supplemented Writings for Instructions for Practical Living” [传习录拾遗],in vol.32 ofComplete Works of Wang Yangming,1171.Such awareness of the literati’s commitment gave expression to his deep concern for political reality.He endeavored to instill his conception of “innate moral knowledge”and “benevolence in the myriad things as one” (wanwu yiti zhi ren万物一体之仁)6Wang Shouren,“Instructions for Practical Living II” [传习录中],in vol.2 ofComplete Works of Wang Yangming,55.into the spiritual and political beliefs of the literati.

To restore social order in the provincial regions,Wang Yangming sent memorials to the emperor proposing to establish new county seats in Congyi,Heping,and Pinghe.In the meantime,he set up community schools in all counties of Nangan (roughly mapping onto the present Ganzhou city of Jiangxi Province),reformed children’s education,and introduced village-convention and neighborhood administrative systems.Wang Gen 王艮(Wang Xinzhai 王心斋,1483—1541),a student of Wang Yangming’s,wrote in his “Treatise on the Kingly Way” [王道论]that social disorder stemmed from the “indeterminacy of land ownership in the country.” Owing to the unstable relation between land and peasants,many laborers left their homes and became vagrants,having been deprived of their plots by the greed and extravagance of the upper class.He even proposed to make equal distributions of land modeled on the ancient “nine squares” system of land ownership.7Wang Gen 王艮,Complete Works of Wang Xinzhai [王心斋全集],eds.Chen Zhusheng 陈祝生 et al.(Nanjing:Jiangsu Education Press,2001),64—66.

Wang Yangming’s conception of “benevolence in the myriad things as one” expresses an intense concern for political realities as well as embodying his keen experience of human intellectual life.It may be regarded as a “top-level” design of the Yangming School for ethics and politics.From its origination,Wang Yangming’s philosophy exhibited a heroic spirit for improving the world and saving society.He believed that all sectors of human existence were governed by “benevolence in the myriad things as one,” and that the benevolent Way that benef its human livelihood is the straightforward Way between Heaven and Earth.

Essentially,as a major school of thought that informed the Neo-Confucianism of the Song (960—1279) and Ming dynasties,Wang Yangming’s philosophy supplies extraordinary courage to those who wish to engage in the most excellent of undertakings.It points out an easier route for people to acquire sageliness,namely,“At the idea of self-correction,one gets one’s original mind.”8Wu Zhen 吴震,ed.,“On the Extension of Knowledge” [致知议辩],in vol.6 ofCollected Works of Wang Ji [王畿集](Nanjing:Phoenix Publishing House,2007),134.At the same time,it came to be part of a deep-running social movement,with active participation by intellectuals in the commercial culture that emerged during the mid-and late Ming dynasty.They took it as their duty to educate the masses by instructing peasants,craft smen,and businessmen,trying to restore order to society.

Yangming Studies in the Twentieth ‘Century’[39]

The inf luence of Wang Yangming’s learning had died down with the dynastic change from the Ming to the Qing,but by the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century,when a transformation of civilization took place in China and East Asia,Yangming Studies saw a revival and glowed with intellectual radiance.The reason is that his learning of the mind came at the right time,in harmony with the creative ethos of a new age.

The term “century” as a temporal measurement f irst came into Chinese writing during the late Qing,when it radically altered the traditional Chinese conception and recording of time.It also marked the beginning for the nation to take a holistic view of civilization when ref lecting on national history,planning the future,and envisioning possible horizons.The“Song of the Pacif ic in the Twentieth Century” [二十世纪太平洋歌],a poem written by Liang Qichao 梁启超 (1873—1929) on a trans-Pacif ic voyage in 1899,reveals the deep signif icance of the term “century.”9Liang Qichao 梁启超,Complete Works of Liang Qichao [梁启超全集],book 9 (Beijing:Beijing Press,1999),5426.In this long poem,Liang divides human civilization into three eras according to the water bodies related to its existence:the river era,the sea era,and the ocean era.The f irst,the era of the great rivers,saw four ancient civilizations,namely China,India,Egypt,and Asia Minor.The second era was one of “inner seas,” where civilizations arose around the Mediterranean,the Baltic,the Arabian Sea,the Yellow Sea,and the Bohai Sea.The third was the era of the oceans,beginning with the discovery in 1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus.This was undoubtedly a fresh historical consciousness on the part of Chinese scholars,who began to locate Chinese civilization relative to the historical and spatial coordinates of other civilizations of the world.Traditional beliefs in the Way of Heaven were replaced by a new outlook on the world,where “survival of the f ittest” and the law of the jungle reign.10Ibid.,5427.The literati at the turn of the century were suddenly seized with an urgent,unprecedented sense of crisis,which called on them to think of the future and the destiny of China,for that would shape the character of both the state and the nation.

Eric Voegelin (1901—1985),observing the evolution of Western history,remarked,“The appearance of psychology is a recurrent phenomenon in political societies.It marks the period when the traditional principles and standards of conduct lose their authority and when,correspondingly,the behavior of man loses its orientation.”11Eric Voegelin,History of Political Ideas Volume I:Hellenism,Rome,and Early Christianity (Columbia:University of Missouri,1997),79—80.No doubt the case was the same with the revival of the Neo-Confucian school of the mind,as well as the consciousness-only doctrine of Buddhism,at the turn of the imperial Qing and the Republic of China.The great changes during the late Qing dynasty,however,were different from the previous succession of imperial dynasties,for they were the beginning of a systemic transformation of Chinese civilization.Because this gigantic body of civilization had formed a powerful tenacity and inertia,it was not an easy job to redirect its course of orbit.The change took a full spectrum of reforms,ranging from the instrumental (Self-Strengthening Movement,1861—1895),institutional (Hundred Days’ Reform,1898),to ideological (New Culture Movement,1919),with a series of tactical operations from the superf icial to the indepth and from the external to the internal,taking place in diff erent periods and aff ecting different sectors of society.This series of revolutionary maneuvers,involving technical operation,consideration of national tradition,and native character of the population,were all in need of a spiritual commitment—a consciousness of religious salvation,a courageous charisma as inMencius2A:2,“Even if it be an army of one hundred thousand,I will go forward,” and high self-conf idence in the sense that “even a single follower is not too few and the whole world not too many.”12Wang Shouren,“Instructions for Practical Living II,” 79.Such a revolutionary course called for the assistance of personalities with revolutionary minds and natures,and Yangming Studies was applied as a source of spiritual guidance for those “revolutionary sages” (political leaders and pioneers of the age) in their self-discipline,self-persuasion,and self-determination.

A “revolutionary sage,” aft er all,was in need of support from a “revolutionary multitude,”and to form and identify such a legion of intellectuals with a consensus on goals and purposes proved to be the foremost task for moral edification in the modernity of China.Social transformation for the nation and self-transformation for the individual were both needed,like a bird that needs both wings to lift itself in the air.This emphasis on self-cultivation is a consistent theme,recurring in Liang Qichao’s advocacy of renewing the people and in Liu Shaoqi’s theory on how to be a good communist.Wang Yangming’s philosophy of the mind,unsurprisingly,was found to be important for indoctrinating people with their sense of national belonging,partisanship,and even human awareness,repeatedly employed in political and social reformation campaigns.From the Self-Strengthening Movement,the Hundred Days’ Reform through more recent revolutions or political campaigns,Wang Yangming’s philosophy has been tapped as a “spiritual resource” (power of the mind) in the constructive process of modernity in China.I have summarized the revival and recasting of Yangming Studies in the context of Chinese modernity using four characteristics:

In the salvation campaigns for national,cultural,and ethnic survival,Wang Yangming’s advocacy of autonomy,self-dependence,determination to rescue the world,and a compelling sense of his benevolence,has been reshaped into a philosophy of reformation and revolution.As Wang Yangming claimed,“His benevolence—a benevolence,which he had in common with heaven,earth,and all things—was sore distressed and provoked to the extreme,so that though he might wish to be indiff erent he could not give complete consent to such indiff erence.”

In combating foreign invasion,Wang Yangming’s call for the union of knowledge and practice,intrepidity of death,and staunchness of will have been recast into a military code or spirit and a warrior’s philosophy.

In matters of party politics,his concept of “being conscious of an awakening (realization),”as well as his emphasis on “knowledge being action” was turned into the mobility and promptness in executing party policies and unifying opinions.

When encountering modern philosophy introduced from the West,in academic research on philosophy as a modern discipline of learning,and in the enlightenment of individuals and self-awakening,many of his thoughts on the individual’s self-confidence,selfreliance,and self-construction of moral autonomy were easily adapted into the Western concept of subjectivity.13Chen Lisheng,The Crux of Being a Sage:An Inquiry into Wang Yangming’s Eff ort Theory on the Extension of Innate Moral Knowledge [入圣之机：王阳明致良知工夫论研究](Beijing:SDX Joint Publishing,2019),28.

These are not,however,an exhaustive summation of Wang Yangming’s signif icance to the twentieth century.In 1903,Liu Shipei 刘师培 (1884—1919) noted that Wang Yangming’s proposition of “benevolence in the myriad things as one,” and “moral knowledge being innate to simple-minded persons as well as sages”14Wang Shouren,“Letter in Reply to Nie Wenwei” [答聂文蔚],in “Instructions for Practical Living II,” 79.convey the same tenets as Rousseau’sThe Social Contract,but in different words.Though Wang Yangming did not explicate civil rights,his doctrine on innate moral knowledge carries the full import of “essential principles of equality and liberty.”15Liu Shipei 刘师培,Essentials of Chinese Folk Covenants [中国民约精义](Changsha:Yuelu Publishing House,2013),64—65.During the twentieth century,Wang Yangming’s words were rarely missing from chapters or treatises on national character and citizen cultivation.

In fact,the significance of Yangming Studies to the twentieth century went beyond China and played a role in the social transformation of all the East Asian countries that came under Chinese cultural inf luence.According to Mizoguchi Yuzo 溝口雄三 (1932—2010),the advent of Yangming Studies in late-modern China was actually a reverse introduction from Japanese Yangming research,16which exerted an inf luence on some Chinese revolutionary thinkers toward the end of the Qing dynasty.In a certain sense,such interlinking between countries was oft en seen in East Asia when the construction of nation-states was undertaken in modern times.One point,however,must be remembered:in their anxiety for saving the country,the nation,and Chinese culture,many of the proposals by revolutionary scholars,like “saving the country through the learning of the mind” and the effort of constructing a nation-state,turned out to be make-shift measures.Lying behind the cosmopolitanism(specifically,globalism) endorsed by Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen with their ideal of international egalitarianism,the sovereignty of state is really the true objective of the national construction of China.That is quite different from Yōmeigaku,the Yangming learning in late modern Japan,where political loyalty and f ilial piety are taken as one.

The Signif icance of Yangming Studies in the Era of Globalization[41]

The trend toward acceleration (in technology,social change,and modern pace of life),coupled with globalization,characterizes the twenty-first century as sharply distinct from previous eras.17Hartmut Rosa,Alienation and Acceleration:Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporality (2010). Translated by Zheng Zuoyu 郑作彧 as [新异化的诞生：社会加速批判理论大纲](Shanghai:Shanghai People’s Publishing House,2018).Human beings are ever more alienated and estranged from their past homes,while globalization,having engendered all species of ultranationalism and religious extremism,adds to the unrest of the world.Global risks (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) gravely threaten the development and even survival of the human race.In Charles Taylor’s words,the “malaise of modernity” has taken on a new form.Philosophy and moral ref lection must keep pace with the changing world to play their proper role.How to turn the prof it-driven f low of capital into the warm humane love and radiance of moral knowledge from the inner heart? How to remove barriers of communication and even confrontation resulting from diff erent national and religious identities? How to arrive at a globally accepted arrangement of world order? And,how to keep such rapidly expanding technology as genetic engineering within the course of serving humanity? To put it brief ly,how to keep our fast-racing lifeworld on the right track,as guided by “benevolence in the myriad things as one,” “to live and let live”—this is the question that we expect to be answered by Yangming Studies in the globalization era of the twenty-f irst century.

First,put human innate moral knowledge in control of the global flow of capital.The end of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century will be known as the era of globalization,when reality and virtual reality will be woven into each other and the infinite expanse of time and space will be compressed into a “keyboard cosmos” thanks to internet technology.The current force of globalization is propelled by the capitalist market system,where the values and principles of commodity exchange have virtually become the overwhelming force,while life-giving Mother Nature is reduced to a warehouse of energy and resources,and human beings to mere “human resources.” The consumerism and materialism that accompany globalization turn it into a global spread of

16 Mizoguchi Yuzo 溝口雄三,Li Takugo:Two Yōmeigaku Traditions[李卓吾 正統を歩む異端](1985).Translated by Sun Junyue 孙军悦 and Li Xiaodong 李晓东 as [李卓吾·两种阳明学](Beijing:SDX Joint Publishing,2014),261—263.pollution,ecological crisis,polarization of the rich and poor,and the havoc of a pandemic.Admittedly,globalization as well as commercial culture have their own moral codes to follow and spread.For example,they have taught people the virtues of diligent work,punctuality,honesty,self-discipline,justice,effi ciency,and even some wisdom in becoming successful.The border between “economic exchange” and “moral exchange” is indeed not sharply def ined in real life,18Francis Fukuyama,The Great Disruption:Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order (2000).Translated by Liu Bangli 刘榜离 and Wang Shengli 王胜利 as [大分裂：人类本性与社会秩序的重建](Beijing:China Social Sciences Press,2002),318—319,324—327.but few would deny the fact that f inancial capital has worsened injustice in the global imbalance of regional development,disparity of income and wealth,and environmental pollution.According to Wang Yangming’s teachings,“benevolence in the myriad things as one” requires,in an era of globalization,that the circulation of goods should be preceded by the circulation of humanity,an awareness of the moral obligation to ensure all people’s livelihood.In this way,the f low of capital around the globe may be led to serve the welfare of all people in the world,where surplus makes up for def iciency,where one lives better by letting others live well,too.

Second,Wang Yangming’s undifferentiated benevolence may help to overcome unreasonable enmity across nation-states.Samuel P.Huntington notes two phases that non-Western countries had to pass through in the process of modernization:“In the early phases of change,Westernization thus promotes modernization.In the later phases,modernization promotes de-Westernization and the resurgence of indigenous culture in two ways.”19Samuel P.Huntington,The Clash of Civilizations and the Remarking of World Order (New York:Simon &Schuster,1996),75—76.Actually,strong senses of national identity and nationalism rely on the presence of Otherness as their reference point,and that explains the resurgence of various radical species of nationalism and statism that come along with globalization.In the opinion of some political philosophers,“The specif ic political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.”20Carl Schmitt,Der Begriff des Politischen (1932).Translated by George Schwab asThe Concept of the Political (Chicago:University of Chicago Press,2007),26.Such an interpretation of politics,which originated from identif ication with nation-based states and religions,will inevitably bring about tensions and conf licts between civilizations in this era of globalization.

Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (1909—1978) once borrowed the expression “no hedges” from the Chinese novelOutlaws of the Marsh[水浒]to characterize the spirit of Chinese culture,which takes benevolence as its core value.It is an all-inclusive benevolent Way that breaks racial—cultural boundaries and transcends the narrow-mindedness of nation-or ethnicbased state identities.21Tang Junyi 唐君毅,Reconstruction of Humanistic Spirit [人文精神之重建](Beijing:Jiuzhou Press,2016),202.Feng Youlan 冯友兰 (1895—1990) in hisA New Inquiry into Man[新原人]posited man as “one element of the universe” according to the concepts of heavenly citizen,heavenly honor,and heavenly obligation from theMencius.22Feng Youlan 冯友兰,Zhenyuan Six Books [贞元六书],vol.5 ofAnthologies of Feng Youlan [冯友兰文集](Changchun:Changchun Press,2017),141—142.Immanuel Kant,in his masterworkPerpetual Peaceconceptualized “three definitive articles of a perpetual peace” based on national law,international law,and world citizenship.He repeatedly stated that “the idea of a law of world citizenship is no high-f lown or exaggerated notion.”23Immanuel Kant,Perpetual Peace:A Philosophical Sketch,accessed November 20,2021,http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/Class%20Readings/Kant/Immanuel%20Kant,%20_Perpetual%20Peace.pdf.In recent years,Kojin Karatani 柄谷行人 has taken over Kant’s theme and proposed a Mode D in addition to the three basic modes of exchange (Mode A as reciprocal exchange of gifts,Mode B as exchange of rule and protection by conquest,plunder,and redistribution,and Mode C as exchange of commodities and capital),aiming to transcend the Borromean ring of Capital—Nation—State,which he thinks has brought trouble to the world of globalization.24Kojin Karatani 柄谷行人,Construction of World History [世界史の構造](2010).Translated by Zhao Jinghua 赵京华as [世界史的构造](Beijing:Central Compilation &Translation Press,2012).

Confucianism,too,took the securing of perpetual peace for the world of the future as its mission.Wang Yangming imagined an age when:

The learning of one’s mind is pure and clear.25Wang Shouren,“Instructions for Practical Living II,” 55.

All under heaven share the same ethos,and everyone exerts himself or herself to contribute.26Wang Shouren,“Chronological Biography III” [年谱三],vol.35 ofComplete Works of Wang Yangming,1285.

At that time the people of the Empire,with clear,resplendent virtue,all view one another as relatives of one home.27Wang Shouren,“Instructions for Practical Living II,” 54.

He also said that it was only the “great person” who could identify themselves with all others(other people,birds and beasts,grass and trees,and even bricks and stones).Compared with Wang Yangming’s broadmindedness,those who see politics in the division between enemies and friends betray their outlook as that of the “petty person.” Confronted with the nationalism,statism,and religious extremism that run rampant in our era,we need to invigorate Wang Yangming’s political legacy of “all under heaven share the same ethos,” by which we may foster in ourselves an ambition to be the “great person” worthy of the global age.Only by awakening our benevolence in all things as a whole from the depths of our mind,which enables our spirit to “run through and permeate all and our will prevail and reach everywhere,” with “no distinction between the self and the other,or between the self and things,”28Ibid.,55.can a global community with a shared future for humankind f ind a fountain to sustain its life.Perpetual peace cannot be obtained with big powers competing with and rivaling each other.In our era of globalization we should endeavor to acquire the moral character of citizens of the world,a consciousness of our civil rights and moral obligations as citizens of the world.The ideal of peace is rooted in the “great mind” of Heaven and Earth forshengsheng生生 (regeneration,production and reproduction,creative creativity) as well as “great aspirations” derived from the great mind,which alone can resist temptations or coercion by extreme nationalism,statism,and fundamentalism.

Third,respond to the risks of globalization with our innate moral knowledge.We can achieve it by “adapting to changes of the time” and with a sense of self-obligation,as Mencius said,“The myriad things are all brought to completion by me” (Mencius7A:4).As is known to all,the era of globalization means an era of high risks.Global risks that confront mankind are caused by social factors of high indeterminacy,for even a single irresponsible decision or accident may have a disastrous eff ect on human existence,be it a nuclear accident,fatal air pollution,or a pandemic that runs out of control.These risks are often closely linked to modern technology.Cloning and transgenic engineering as well as the NBIC (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno),known as “human enhancement technology,”are high dubious as regards their unknown risks to human existence.We should never naively imagine that technological risks can be dealt with by technology per se.Hans Jonas(1903—1993),the German-born philosopher who pioneered the imperative of responsibility,endeavors to awaken a global consciousness of responsibility in our age of technology,a responsibility not only for the future of human beings,but also for other species of life beyond the world of Homo sapiens,and for the outer space that lies beyond the vision of the earth.29Hans Jonas,Technik,Medizin und Ethik:Zur Praxis des Prinzips Verantwortung (1985).Translated by Zhang Rong张荣 as [技术、医学与伦理学：责任原理的实践](Shanghai:Shanghai Translation Publishing House,2008),27—29.In fact,it is a necessary corollary from Wang Yangming’s advocacy of “benevolence in the myriad things as one.”

“All aff airs in the universe are aff airs of my own responsibility,”30Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊,“Miscellaneous Sayings” [杂说],in vol.22 ofAnthology of Lu Jiuyuan [陆九渊集](Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company,1980),273.as the myriad things between Heaven and Earth are originally one body with me.Heaven and Earth have placed me where I am,and the myriad things were created as I was created.Therefore,if anything goes amiss between Heaven and Earth,I am to take the responsibility.Mencius’s famous words “The myriad things are all brought to completion by me” is interpreted in Yangming Studies as meaning that it is my duty for the myriad things to be brought to completion.This cosmological orientation of responsibility is quite analogous to Jonas’s ethics of global responsibility.According to Jonas,global responsibility may be expressed in positive or negative forms:“‘Act so that the eff ects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life’;or expressed negatively:‘Act so that the eff ects of your action are not destructive of the future possibility of such life.’”31Hans Jonas,The Imperative of Responsibility:In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age (Chicago:University of Chicago Press,1984),11.Wang Yangming’s advocacy of selfconfidence,self-dependence,and self-autonomy establishes a firm ground for people’s responsible subjectivity.His assertion of realistic existence a s “one-body benevolence that compels one not to stop” provides powerful motivation for a global-oriented ethics of responsibility.His goal of instruction is to advocate the principle ofshengshengthat benef its human livelihood,to ensure that all human actions must conform to the creative Way for all mankind.“Act according to what you believe to be the highest creed for your own duties,and apart from that,ensure that the mode by which you act has taken into account the predictable outcome of your act based on your adequate knowledge of it.”32Li Meng 李猛,ed.,Max Weber:Law and Value [韦伯：法律与价值](Shanghai:Shanghai People’s Publishing House,2001),314.From the Neo-Confucian standpoint of Wang Yangming’s philosophy,the term “highest creed of one’s own duty” already includes the consideration of the consequences of one’s action.Otherwise one would not be right to call it either “exerting the mind to the utmost,” or “extending innate moral knowledge.” Innate moral knowledge is the way of change and adaptation.How to adapt to constantly changing situations so that the path of human development keeps to the Way of benefiting human livelihood is the critical component in extending innate moral knowledge in an era of globalization,of technology,and of uncharted risks.

Fourth,use the consciousness of a great person to construct one’s self-identity in the era of globalization.The individual of modernity,having drift ed away from his or her roots in the history,culture,and values where his or her ancestors made their existence,has essentially become “the unencumbered self.”33See Michael J.Sandel,“The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self,” in “Liberalism,Pluralism,and Community,” chap.3 ofPublic Philosophy:Essays on Morality in Politics (Cambridge,MA:Harvard University Press,2005).Lacking any demands from history and nature,or need of companionship,sense of belonging to a group,duty required as a citizen,or call from his god,the individual hence loses his “horizons of signif icance” and the self is cut off from its “source of authenticity,”34See Charles Taylor,“The Sources of Authenticity” and “Inescapable Horizons,” inThe Ethics of Authenticity(Cambridge,MA:Harvard University Press,1991).so that it is engulfed by a “loss of signif icance”and fragmentation of life.As a result,the dubious future of modernity in the age of globalization seems to have reached an inescapable impasse:The compression of time and space by globalization has brought diff erent civilizations,ethnicities,and religions into one global village where an awareness of “being a citizen on the same globe” and “one global community with a shared future” should have been accepted.However,the anticipation of unpredictable social mobility,instability,indeterminacy,decentralization,and a diversity of self-identities has reduced all identities virtually into “a unique and choiceless identity”based on religion and culture.People are lost in the “illusion of singularity,”35Amartya Sen,Identity and Violence:The Illusion of Destiny (2006).Translated by Li Fenghua 李风华 et al.as [身份与暴力：命运的幻象](Beijing:China Renmin University Press,2009),9.in Amartya Sen’s words.Our world is split into two separate continents:one is a continent of the global circulation of commodities,communication,capital,and industrial technology;the other is a continent of mutually exclusive communities that cling to their own culture,values,religious faith,social customs,and way of life.The dilemma lies in these alternatives:either one loses the identity of traditional communities so that different groups of people can live together in peace,or else the global community requires homogeneity,purity,and uniformity from its member societies or cultures.36Alain Touraine,Can We Live Together?:Equality and Diff erence (2000).Translated by Di Yuming 狄玉明 and Li Ping’ou 李平沤 as [我们能否共同生存？——既彼此平等又互有差异](Beijing:The Commercial Press,2003),4—5.The key to resolving this impasse is to f ind out how to maintain the consciousness of “world citizens” and a sense of belonging to a global community of life,while allowing adequate freedom and respect for individuals and ensuring a connection with their ethnic,religious,and cultural traditions.To put it bluntly,Charles Taylor’s conception of “horizons of significance” and “source of authenticity”should include open,global,cosmological,and universal characteristics in addition to its historicity,cultural continuity,and communal awareness.

Wang Yangming’s “benevolence in the myriad things as one” has the merit of such openness and inclusiveness,extending one’s concern from one’s own historical and cultural traditions to alien cultural traditions,and further to all things between Heaven and Earth.The benevolence in the myriad things as one,the eff orts of which are practicably prioritized,well connected to each other and open to inf inity,enables the individual to f ind a place for existence.There one draws inexhaustible resources for self-development.37Wang Shouren,“Four Poems on Innate Moral Knowledge for Instructing Students” [咏良知四首示诸生],in vol.20 ofComplete Works of Wang Yangming,790.As individuals we are devoted to our national community and cultural tradition,and at the same time we contribute to the interests of the whole human community and to all creatures that constitute the beings of the cosmos (humankind,animals and plants,and bricks and stones forming a hierarchical system of community).What Wang Yangming ultimately endorsed in his philosophy is just the Way that benef its both human livelihood and things,emanating from Chinese cultural traditions.This is where the “true self” resides,according to him.The identifications of world citizens and citizens of specific religions and cultures are compatible rather than confrontational,and such greatness of the Way in Yangming Studies undoubtedly should serve to guide the co-existence of mankind in the era of globalization.

Fifth,overcome conflicts of religions by the great Way of Confucianism.Wang Yangming advocated the “completion of benevolence in the myriad things as one” in his preaching of an “all-inclusive Way,” that “Confucianism,Daoism,and Buddhism are under the roof of the same house.” His aim and purpose was to remove distrust between religious sects and overcome their mentality of contention,rivalry,and hostility toward each other.He repeatedly emphasized the following points:(1) In the face of the great Way,each disparate religion is a testimony to one facet of the Way as viewed by a certain group of people with given qualities,who should not,however,take what they witness as the Way per se.Otherwise,they fall into religious bigotry of one kind or another.(2) People of a community should learn from other communities and seek common ground while preserving differences so as to live in harmony with others.(3) All religions essentially serve to complete human nature,which can be used for our being in the world,and that is the great Way for us to pursue.38See Wang Shouren,“Chronological Biography III,” 1289.And (4) to contribute “my own use” to the community,to “complete myself” for moral perfection,these Confucian goals are to be realized in thisworld human existence.If one were detached from care and concern for the life of the real world,but merely making a fuss over religious solemnity and transcendence,one would fall into religious fanaticism and bigotry.Unquestionably,Wang Yangming’s awareness of a “great Way” overcomes the partiality that arises from specif ic religions taking themselves as the center.It encourages diff erent religions to f ind peaceful coexistence in a global age by learning from each other,and its humanistic orientation toward concerns of “thisworldliness” helps to call our attention to the realization and confirmation of real-world humanity apart from attempts at metaphysical religion.His invaluable insight may help us avoid the religious fanaticism and bigotry that are prevalent in various fundamentalist doctrines in today’s world.39Chen Lisheng,“‘Wang Yangming Mode’:A New Mode of Religious Dialogue” [“王阳明模式”：一种新的宗教对话模式之提出],Philosophical Trend [哲学动态],no.2 (2020):30—37.

Conclusion [46]

To put it brief ly,Yangming Studies as well as the Chinese learning of mind represents the most productive and enlightening concept for developing a “mind of Heaven and Earth.”As the neural center of human sensibility and intellect,the mind is a node of connections and interactions between the Way of Heaven,of Earth,and of humanity.It manifests the loftiness of Heaven,the profundity of Earth,the dignity of humanity,and the source of creativity for all things.Yangming Studies in the twenty-f irst century will be aiming at the loft ier,vaster,deeper,and greater expectations that the human mind is capable of,rather than narrowing,restricting,or f ixing it to nationalism or regionalism.

Bibliography of Cited Translations

Henke,Frederick G.,trans.The Philosophy of Wang Yang-ming.London:Open Court Publishing,1916.