One Family with Heaven, Earth, and the Myriad Things: Probing Wang Yangming’s Doctrine of Loving the People*

Chen Lisheng

Abstract: Wang Yangming’s doctrines of mingde (manifesting the clear character) and qinmin (loving the people), which constitute the core component of his philosophy, can be viewed in an earlier and a later period of advancement. And the essential tenet and distinctive feature of his doctrines can be appreciated only from a dual perspective—a theory of the “effort to manifest one’s clear character” and a contemplation of the “kingly Way” of rule. His doctrine of loving the people, by extending the love of one’s parents to humanity in general, invests the Confucian concept with the signifi cance of constructing a universal order for human society as well as the cosmos of all beings. Together with his assertions of “the world as one family” and “the whole country as one person,” Wang’s doctrine has become a spiritual motivation for social reconstruction in early modern China, having a profound practical effect on society and a far-reaching infl uence on intellectual history.

Keywords: Wang Yangming, manifesting the clear character, loving the people, kingly Way

A Dual Perspective on Wang Yangming’s Doctrine of Loving the People [Refer to page 65 for Chinese. Similarly hereinafter]

Wang Yangming’s 王阳明 (Wang Shouren 王守仁, 1472—1529) philosophy is usually summed up by people today with propositions such as the “extension of intuitive knowledge,” “unity of knowledge and action,” “mind as principle,” and his expanded doctrine that regards “Heaven and Earth and all things as one body.” And this impression is generally true, taking account of the many prefaces and postscripts to his collected or selected works, which correctly represent the major tenets of his philosophy. The only exception is Huang Wan 黄绾 (1480—1554), who repeatedly notes that Wang’s essential doctrine isqinmin亲民 (loving the people):

Wang Yangming’s learning consists of three major tenets: One is termed “extension of intuitive knowledge,” which is based on the teachings of former sages and worthies. . . . A second is known as “loving the people,” which is also based on teachings by former sages. . . . Why did Heaven and Earth install sovereigns, sage-kings, to govern the country? That is because humanity cares for life and this care is extended to one’s cherished relations to whom one stays close. Thus they provided land and residences for their livelihood, and made ceremonies, music, punishments, and laws to govern them. They followed the Way of absolute sincerity to fulfi ll their benevolent mind that cares for life. That is what we call the kingly Way. Without human care, all advice on government concerns statecraft aiming for hegemony and mere success, far beyond the concern of kingly government. His third tenet, termed as the “unity of knowledge and action,” is also based on teachings from former sages and men of worth.1Huang Wan 黄绾, “Memorial to the Throne for Elucidating Right and Wrong, Ascertaining Awards and Penalty” [明是非定赏罚疏], in vol. 32 of Collected Works of Huang Wan [黄绾集], ed. Zhang Hongmin 张宏敏 (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2014), 626—627.

Thus, Huang Wan ranks Wang’s “loving the people” among three principal tenets of his philosophy, which consists in the Confucian concept of a “kingly Way” of benevolent government. Therefore, the true implication of Wang Yangming’s doctrine of loving the people can only be understood through the perspective of the Confucian conception of the kingly Way.

Xue Kan 薛侃 (1486—1546), another student personally instructed by Wang Yangming, said, “Eff ort in ‘manifesting the clear character’ (ming mingde明明德) can only be realized by ‘loving the people.’ And that was so intimately elucidated in his later years that one would wonder if he had ever talked of it in his early years.”2Xue Kan 薛侃, “Records at Yunmen” [云门录], vol. 1 of Collected Works of Xue Kan [薛侃集], ed. Chen Ye 陈椰 (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2014), 4.It is well known that theInstructions for Practical Living[传习录] begins with an argument for loving the people against Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130—1200) “renovating the people” (xinmin新民), a diff erent paraphrase of the opening statement in theGreat Learning. Xue Kan, after personally retrieving, collating, editing, and printing the text of the first volume of theInstructions for Practical Living, explicitly confi rmed the view that Wang Yangming in his old age did advance the ideas of manifesting the clear character and loving the people.

Both being disciples within the inner circle of Wang Yangming, Huang Wan and Xue Kan certainly knew better the true value and development of their teacher’s thought. Regrettably, their emphasis on the importance of Wang Yangming’s loving the people is not given adequate attention by current research. More importantly, as a major component of Wang Yangming’s philosophy, his idea of loving the people, which went through a process of growth and maturation, can only be fully appreciated from dual perspectives, that of the Confucian ideal of the kingly Way on the one hand and that of the moral effort of character cultivation on the other hand.

The Advancement of the Doctrine of Loving the People [66]

When did Wang Yangming come up with his idea of loving the people?

At the age of thirty-seven, when Wang Yangming was staying at Longchang during his banishment, he grew suspicious of Zhu Xi’sCommentary on the Great Learning[大学章句] as a reliable interpretation of the authentic Confucian canon. He hand copied the Old Text version of theGreat Learningand scrutinized its text, trying to fi nd out its ideas. The ancient or Old Text version of theGreat Learningrefers to the original text as a chapter in theBookof Rites, where it remains undivided into paragraphs of classic and commentary. According to the original text, the second keyword in the opening statement is “to love the people” rather than “to renovate the people,” as is paraphrased by Zhu Xi following Cheng Yi 程颐 (1033—1107). This fi nding signaled the beginning of his serious thinking on loving the people.

After he was released from exile, Wang began a tour of teaching, which consisted mostly of instructions on “sitting in meditation” and other “effort for enlightenment.” Words of “loving the people” were seldom mentioned. In the third lunar month of 1510, when Wang was appointed District Magistrate of Luling (present-day Ji’an of Jiangxi Province), he issued a series of pronouncements: “Instruction to Both the Old and the Young in Luling” [告谕庐陵父老子弟书], covering eleven measures for agriculture, medicine, tax, drought resistance, fire prevention, official honesty, folk customs, and social stability. The main purpose of these measures was to ensure settlements of the local people so as to protect their properties (an act of loving the people), and to promote honesty and peace by good conduct (an act of renovating the people). His personal experience as a local government official enriched his ideas on loving the people.

The fi rst volume of the present version ofInstructions for Practical Livingcontains fourteen passages recorded by Xu Ai 徐爱 (1487—1518). They are dated by Shu Jingnan 束景南 as being printed in 1512. If the dating is correct, Wang Yangming should have begun to give explicit discussions of loving the people no later than 1512. In 1515, Wang Yangming met Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水 (1466—1560) at the harbor of Longjiang Pass, while Zhan was passing through Nanjing mourning his mother’s death. Wang conveyed his condolences and sent him the old-text version of theGreat Learningwith his notes on the investigation of things (gewu格物), and they debated the interpretations of “loving” or “renovating” the people.3Wang Shouren 王守仁, “Instructions for Practical Living, Part III” [传习录下], in vol. 3 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming [王阳明全集], eds. Wu Guang 吴光 et al. (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1992), 91.Instructions for Practical Livingwas published three years later in 1518.

Wang Yangming’s idea of loving the people is summed up in three of his quoted sayings in the fi rst volume ofInstructions for Practical Living.

1. I asked: “Zhu Xi said that the phrase ‘in loving the people’ (qinmin) in theGreat Learningshould read ‘in renovating the people’ (xinmin). Since in a later section of the book it says, ‘arouse the people to become new,’ he seems to have some evidence for his contention. Do you also have evidence for believing that the phrase ‘in loving the people’ in the old text should be followed?” The Teacher said, “The wordxinin the phrase ‘arouse the people to become new’ (zuo xinmin作新民) means the people become new themselves. It is diff erent in meaning from the same word in the phrase ‘in renovating the people’ (zai xinmin在新民). How can it be accepted as evidence? The term ‘zuo’ (arouse the people to become) parallels ‘qin’ (love) but does not mean the same. The passages that follow in the text on bringing order to the state and peace to the world do not amplify the meaning of renovation. . . . Reading the phrase as loving the people expresses both the ideas of educating and nourishing the people. Reading it as renovating the people, however, seems to be one-sided.”

2. [The Teacher said,] “The various steps from the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge to the bringing of peace to the world are nothing but manifesting the clear character. Even loving the people is also a matter of manifesting the clear character. The clear character is the character of the mind; it is benevolence. The benevolent man regards Heaven and Earth and all things as one body. If a single thing is deprived of its place, it means that my benevolence is not yet demonstrated to the fullest extent.”

3. [The Teacher said,] “Merely to talk about manifesting the clear character and not to talk about loving the people would be to behave like the Daoists and Buddhists.”4Wang Shouren, “Instructions for Practical Living, Part I” [传习录上], vol. 1 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1—2, 25. The English translations are from Wing-tsit Chan, trans., Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-Ming, 5—6, 55—56, with some alterations.

Quote 1 is Wang Yangming’s argument against Zhu Xi’s interpretation ofxinminas renovating the people. The use ofxininzuo xinminis different from that inzai xinmin, as in the former it is used as an adjective, meaning “people becoming new in themselves,” while in the latter as a causative verb, meaning “to make them new.” More importantly, as Wang Yangming said, loving the people expresses the ideas of educating and nourishing the people. Renovating the people, however, seems to be one-sided. Quote 2 takes “manifesting the clear character” as the idea that governs such statements as “the investigation of things,” “the extension of knowledge,” and “bringing peace to the world,” including that of “loving the people.” The “clear character” actually is the virtuous moral character of benevolence, and “loving the people” is a manifestation of such a virtue, which takes the self as in one body with all other people and things. Quote 3 highlights “loving the people” as a dividing line between Confucianism and Buddhism or Daoism, for “manifesting the clear character” is inseparable from “loving the people.” Confucianism would lose its grounding if the two were separated. To sum up, “manifesting the clear character” and “loving the people” constitute Confucius’s idea of morally cultivating oneself and securing others. In a 1515 record of the rebuilding of the Confucian school in Liuhe County, Wang Yangming noted that the aim of scholars is to “learn to manifest the clear character and love the people.”5Wang Shouren, “Record of Rebuilding Confucian School in Liuhe County” [重修六合县儒学记], in vol. 23 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 902.

The “Interpretive Commentary on the Old-TextGreat Learning” [大学古本傍释] and “Original Preface to the Old-TextGreat Learning” [大学古本原序], both written in 1518, contain sections on “loving the people” as below:

4. To manifest the clear character and love the people is the same as cultivating oneself and giving the common people security and peace. To manifest the clear character and love the people is none other than abiding in the highest good, which is to fulfill the original substance of the mind. . . . [As theGreat Learningsays: “Future] rulers deemed worthy what they deemed worthy and loved what they loved, while the common people enjoyed what they enjoyed and benefi ted from their benefi cial arrangements. That was why they are not forgotten even after they passed away.” Therefore, manifesting the clear character and loving the people are the same thing. One’s effort to love the people, if accomplished to such effect, is no other than having manifested his clear character in its own right.6Wang Shouren, “Interpretive Commentary on the Old-Text Great Learning” [大学古本傍释], in vol. 32 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1193—1194.

5. If [abiding by the highest good] is applied to oneself, it is called manifesting the clear character; if applied to others, it is called loving the people, and if applied to all under Heaven, then it is all!7Wang Shouren, “Original Preface to the Old-Text Great Learning” [大学古本原序], in vol. 32 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1197.A comparison of the above-quoted passages shows clearly that quotes 4 and 5 perfectly match quote 1.

Wang Yangming’s discussions on loving the people illustrated above can be summed up in its two usages: In one it means manifesting the clear character; in the other it means that Confucianism is the learning of manifesting the clear character and loving the people. Talking of manifesting the clear character without loving the people would render Confucianism indistinguishable from either Buddhism or Daoism; Replacing “loving the people” with “renovating the people” would make Confucianism, which takes care of both the self and others, a mere educational tool without the function of feeding or caring for the people, and hence one-sided. In his old age, then, how did Wang Yangming proceed to further advance his idea of manifesting the clear character and loving the people?

New Development of Wang Yangming’s Doctrine [68]

Wang Yangming put forth his idea of extending intuitive knowledge around 1520. His philosophy saw rapid development during the six years of his stay at Yuecheng from the eighth lunar month of 1521 to the ninth lunar month of 1527. He received more and more students during the period, and hundreds of scholars came to follow him from around the country. He elaborated on the benevolence of all things having the same substance from theGreat Learning, which allows one to attain the highest good by following one’s original nature and extending one’s intuitive knowledge.8Qian Dehong 钱德洪, “Chronological Biography, Part III” [年谱三], vol. 35 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1290.This idea of “all things having the same substance” became a central theme of his late-year teachings. Accordingly, the idea of loving the people was also highlighted in his discourses.

In 1524, while conversing with Zhu Tingli 朱廷立 (Zhu Zili 朱子礼, ca. 1492—1566), Wang Yangming advocated the unity of government and scholarship, or offi cialdom and learning, and revealed new aspects of his ideas on manifesting the clear character and loving the people.

6. While Zili was a local official at Zhuji, he asked about government with Wang Yangming, but our master talked of learning but said nothing of government with him. He then retreated and refl ected on what he would do of himself: By chastising his own anger, an offi cial gets to know what the people are averse to; By curbing his own desires, an offi cial gets to know what the people would like to have; By giving up his own profi t, he gets to know what the people crave; Being wary of what he would neglect, he could get to know what the people would ignore; By removing his own corruptibility, he could see the people’s vulnerabilities; Seeing his own clear character, he could know what the people have in common. He did this for three months and saw good results in government. “Now I have got to know how learning could help with government,” he said. On another occasion they met and discussed subjects on learning, but Wang Yangming talked with him of government affairs only, without a word on learning. Zili then returned to refl ect on what he had done in his duties: He erased what the people hate to see, and hence chastised his own anger; He followed what the people like to do, and hence kept his own desires at bay; He allowed the people to have what they want, and hence gave up what he might keep to himself; He saw what the people would ignore, and get vigilant of what he himself would have neglected. He tried to rescue the people from what they were suffering, and hence prevented himself from falling prey to it; He practiced what all people unanimously approved of, and hence had his own clear character manifested. Barely one year had passed when he saw his influence widely spread and felt in the place. He exclaimed, “Now I see how the knowledge of government could add to one’s learning.” Another day he met Wang Yangming and asked him about both government and learning. Wang Yangming said, “One actually does the same thing by manifesting one’s clear character and by loving the people. In former times, a person of virtue sought to manifest his clear character in order to love the people, and through loving the people he managed to manifest his bright virtue. It is the substance when one manifests his clear character, and it is the function when one loves the people. The import of all this is that one abides in the highest good.” Then Zili returned to study his doctrine of abiding in the highest good, where his innate moral knowledge appeared in its splendor, as he said, “I have got to know today that engagements in government and in learning are reciprocal, for they both manifest one’s innate knowledge of the good. Undoubtedly, the import of all this is that one abides in the highest good.”9Wang Shouren, “Discussion with Zhu Zili” [书朱子礼卷], in vol. 8 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 281.

Though the wording of “manifesting clear character” and “loving the people” in the quoted passage above seem to be the same as what he said earlier, there are some diff erences in his points of emphasis. Earlier he had equated the two, but now the unidirectional emphasis, from the self to other people and further to things, was reformulated into a bi-directional reciprocity: from the self to other people and to things and back from other people/things to oneself. The unidirectional approach emphasizes establishing one’s clear character in the “true self,” by abandoning the “petty self” which might tarnish the clear character with selfi sh desires and obscure one’s view of the people’s likes and dislikes. By this means one could expect to approach loving the people through manifesting one’s own clear character.

The reciprocal approach, on the other hand, opens a regressive route of cultivation. Only by following the people’s likes and dislikes in government, as is stated in theGreat Learning, could the virtuous persons reveal and practice their true disposition, real love, or hate. In other words, one realizes the manifestation of one’s clear character by loving the people. The latter approach does not fall back on the unidirectional effort in affairs theory, either, for loving the people is not a means to “polishing and refi ning” one’s nature, but in itself constitutes the Way to realize one’s moral mind and nature. In other words, it is in a mutually constructive act, an ongoing, dynamically genetic, and continual progress of moral endeavor whereby one seeks to pursue learning and perform offi cial duties, to perfect oneself, establish others and complete things, and to manifest one’s clear character and love the people. One perfects oneself in the perfection of other people and of things.10A systematic account of the dynamic process is given in Wang Jun 王俊, Phenomenology as Way: From Heinrich Rombach to Intellectual Phenomenology [作为道路的现象学：从罗姆巴赫到跨文化现象学] (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2021), 64—86.

Wang Yangming again expounded on manifesting the clear character and loving the people when he met Nan Daji 南大吉 (Nan Yuanshan 南元善, 1487—1541) in 1525:

7. Nan Yuanshan came to ask Wang Yangming about government affairs on his way to an official assignment at Yuecheng. Wang Yangming answered, “Good government consists in loving the people.” “How to love the people, then?” “By manifesting the clear character.” “How to manifest the clear character, then?” “By loving the people.” “Are they the same, to manifest the clear character and to love the people?” “Yes. The clear character is rooted in our heaven-endowed nature, vacuous, intelligent, and not beclouded, from whence the myriad principles comes forth.” “Why is it said to consist in ‘loving the people’?” “The clear character could not be manifested in itself. To manifest his character of fi lial piety as a son, he must love his father; to show the clear character of brotherly respect, he must love his brother. The same applies to other relations, between ruler and minister, husband and wife, and between friends.” “It is truly granted to love the people and manifest the clear character by cultivating the person, but why the bother to align one’s household, to order the state, and to set the world at peace?” “Humanity refers to the mind of Heaven and Earth; and the people refers to all men other than oneself; where the people are taken into account, all the three powers of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity are involved. Therefore, only when I love my father and the fathers of others can there be fi lial love between all sons and fathers under Heaven; only when I love my brother, the brothers of others, and the brothers of all men can there be fraternal love between brothers of all men under Heaven. Everything from the ruler, minister, husband, wife, and friends to mountains, rivers, heavenly and earthly spirits, birds, animals, and plants, all should be truly loved in order to completely manifest my clear character.” “Then why does the learning of the great man consist in abiding in the highest good?” “In the past there have been people who wanted to manifest their clear characters, of course. However, simply because they drove their own minds toward something too lofty, they thereby lost them in illusions, emptiness, and quietude, having nothing to do with the work of the family, the country, and the world. Such are the followers of Buddhism and Daoism, who did not understand that manifesting the clear character consists in loving the people. There have been those who wanted to love their people, of course. However, they simply lost their own minds in scheming and tricks, having neither the sincerity of benevolence nor that of commiseration. Such are the followers of the Five Overlords who did not understand manifesting the clear character by loving the people. All of these are due to a failure to know how to abide in the highest good. Therefore abiding in the highest good is the ultimate principle of manifesting character and loving the people.”11Wang Shouren, “Record of the Hall for Loving the People” [亲民堂记], in vol. 7 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 250—251.

Wang Yangming began his discussion with the theme words “clear character” and “loving the people,” then noted that other acts of love like fi lial piety and brotherly respect are also manifestations of the clear character. The Five Social Relationships are realized by virtue of loving the people. Then, he elevated the act of “loving the people” to a metaphysical level, basing his argument on the precept that humanity is the mind of Heaven and Earth, and that the people is a general reference to all others in contrast to the self. This means that the people involves the three powers of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, a cosmic order that justifi es human relations. Then loving the people is the human principle of natural law that governs in the cosmos as well as in the human world. It is a new discovery from the old idea of loving the people.

TheGreat Learningexpounds on loving the people from the perspective of ruling monarchs, who were conventionally compared to parents who naturally love their children. The “Announcement of Kang” [康诰] says, “Act as if you were watching over an infant.” In the motto is a metaphor seeing the people as an infant that needs care and feeding by its mother. And Zhu Xi even saw its need of education in the term “renovating.” “To be affectionate to one’s family, to be benevolent to other people, and to take care of things”: these are classical expressions of the Confucian diff erentiated idea of benevolence. Wang Yangming took an inclusive view of all the relations: between monarchs and subjects, between husband and wife, between friends or between men and things, taking them as the legitimate object of love in the phrase “loving the people.” It is two aspects of the same thing to manifest clear character and to love the people, one being the substance of moral virtue and the other being its function or application. When its function is applied to infinity, all that exist in the cosmos are beloved as of one family. Such expansion of kinship love is characteristic of the subjectivity in Wang Yangming’s regarding Heaven and Earth and all things as one body, but at the same time symptomatic of a weakening in the Confucian concept of graded love across different relations. In his early years Wang Yangming was quite alert to the Confucian dispute on the universal love of Mohism, but his focus shifted to separation from Buddhism, Daoism, and vulgar utilitarianism, so that he put manifesting clear character and loving the people as the essential principle for abiding in the highest good. Only by pursuing and resting with the highest good could one abstain from reducing the Confucian ideal to empty eloquence or exploiting it for selfi sh gains.

In a letter to his close friend Gu Lin 顾璘 (Gu Dongqiao 顾东桥, 1476—1545) in the same year (1525), Wang Yangming made a systematic exposition of the Confucian stance on the kingly Way.

8. The mind of a sage regards Heaven, Earth, and all things as one body. He looks upon all people of the world, whether inside or outside his family, or whether far or near, but all with blood and breath, as his brothers and children. He wants to secure, preserve, educate, and nourish all of them, so as to fulfi ll his desire of forming one body with all things. . . . The essentials of this teaching are what was successively transmitted by Yao 尧, Shun 舜, and Yu 禹, and what is summed up in the saying, “the mind of the Way is precarious [liable to make mistakes], the moral mind is subtle [follows the moral law]. Have absolute refi nement and single-mindedness and hold fast the mean.” Its details were given by Emperor Shun to Qi, namely, “between father and son there should be affection, between ruler and minister there should be righteousness, between husband and wife there should be attention to their separate functions, between old and young there should be a proper order, and between friends there should be faithfulness, that is all.” At the time of Yao, Shun, and the Three Dynasties, teachers taught and students studied only this. . . . At that time people were harmonious and contented. They regarded one another as belonging to one family. . . . For the learning of their mind was pure and clear and had what was requisite to preserve the benevolence that makes them and all things form one body. Consequently their spirit ran through and permeated all and their will prevailed and reached everywhere. There was no distinction between the self and the other, or between the self and things.12Wang Shouren, “A Letter in Reply to Gu Dongqiao” [答顾东桥书], in “Instructions for Practical Living, Part II” [传习录中], vol. 2 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 54—55.

This is a theoretical deepening of his argument in quote 1. The Confucian kingly Way is rooted in “the mind of being benevolent to all people,” that is, “the benevolent mind of forming one substance with the myriad things.” The benevolent way of government advocated by Confucianism must transcend the difference of being external or internal, distant or close in relationship, but regard all with blood and breath as one family. The essential logic of benevolent government or the kingly Way lies in the need for all of the large family to be secured, preserved, and educated. In that way, people of all trades and professions, whether being engaged in government, agriculture, industry, or commerce, shall be free to exhaust their capacities, to feed and support one another as in one household, for the benefi t of all the family. In a 1526 letter showing his sympathy for Lin Sixun 林司训, he mentioned the old days when the kingly Way had secured the old and poor with food and money, a system to guarantee the livelihood of all people.13Wang Shouren, “Letters on Lin Sixun” [书林司训卷], in vol. 8 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 282.It is worth noting that he always expounded the kingly Way with his doctrines of manifesting clear character and loving the people. He poured high praise on the kingly Way but violently attacked the “techniques of the despots,” with which they “every day searched for theories to acquire national wealth and power. . . . Consequently the teachings of the sage became more and more distant and obscured, while the current of success and profi t ran deeper and deeper.”14Wang Shouren, “A Letter in Reply to Gu Dongqiao,” 55, 56.“Never again has there been known any real learning on manifesting the clear mind or loving the people.”15Wang Shouren, “Letters on Lin Sixun,” 282.

Wang Yangming’s treatise, “Inquiry on theGreat Learning” [大学问], was formally written down in 1527. He developed his idea of loving the people proceeding from “the oneness of the myriad things” and “all the world being one family.” He first affirmed the presence of the benevolent mind in all people, who could not help a feeling of alarm on seeing a child about to fall into a well, or feeling pity on hearing the cries of birds and animals to be slaughtered, and even suff ering pain when seeing plants broken and destroyed, or tiles and stones being shattered and crushed. These feelings are all issued from heavenendowed human nature, which is called the “clear character.” To manifest the clear character is essential to reveal the substance of the state of “forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things,” while to love the people is to bring about the function of that state.

9. To manifest the clear character is to bring about the substance of the state of forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things, whereas loving the people is to put into universal operation the function of the state of forming one body. Hence manifesting the clear character consists in loving the people, and loving the people is the way to manifest the clear character. Therefore, only when I love my father, the fathers of others, and the fathers of all men can my benevolence really form one body with my father, the fathers of others, and the fathers of all men. When it truly forms one body with them, then the clear character of fi lial piety will be manifested. Only when I love my brother, the brothers of others, and the brothers of all men can my benevolence really form one body with my brother, the brothers of others, and the brothers of all men. When it truly forms one body with them, then the clear character of brotherly respect will be manifested. Everything from ruler, minister, husband, wife, and friends to mountains, rivers, spiritual beings, birds, animals, and plants should be truly loved in order to realize my benevolence that forms one body with them, and then my clear character will be completely manifested, and I will really form one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things.16Wang Shouren, “Inquiry on the Great Learning” [大学问], in vol. 26 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 968—969.

Compared with quotes 7 and 8, Wang Yangming has taken a step here to intensify his concept of a generalized human love. The object of love extends from within the family and the country to wider domains: “Everything from ruler, minister, husband, wife, and friends to mountains, rivers, spiritual beings, birds, animals, and plants should be truly loved.” He linked this theory of generic love to his advocacy of forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things, which he affirmed as the order of reality in the cosmos.

An obvious contrast could indeed be observed between his earlier remarks (quotes 1—5) and later discussions on loving the people (6—9), which “he expounded at such length in his old age but not so in his early years,” according to Xue Kan. The greater detail, length, and depth of his later discussions can be summed up as follows:

First, his earlier unidirectional view of loving the people, which proceeds from one’s own kin to other persons and to things, is replaced with a bi-directional account involving reciprocity, that is, both from oneself to others and to things and the other way around.

Second, his discourse on manifesting clear character and loving the people is closely linked to his advocacy of benevolence to form one body with all things.

Third, his generalization of human love from that between father and son, elder and younger, ruler and minister, husband and wife, and between friends, now includes birds, beasts, grass, and trees.

Fourth, a logical system is expounded of his doctrine of loving the people in relation to the kingly Way of rule by moral infl uence endorsed by Confucianism.

The Intellectual Logic of Wang’s Generalized Conception of Human Love [71]

The basic tenet of benevolence forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things, embraced by Wang Yangming and many other Song and Ming Neo-Confucians, is barely distinguishable from the universal love championed by Mohism. Therefore, it is seemingly contrary to the orthodox Confucian view that human feelings are proportionate to social closeness and human love is graded according to degree of blood relation. Accordingly, “one should be affectionate to one’s family, be benevolent to other people, and take care of things.” Wang Yangming’s generalized human love made his unorthodox stance more vulnerable to attack.

Even Huang Wan, his ally among philosophers of the mind, accused him of falling into the fallacy of universal love of Mohism in his later years.17Huang, Collected Works of Huang Wan, vol. 34, 657.And it was not Huang Wan alone who took this view. Chen Longzheng 陈龙正 (Chen Jiting 陈几亭, 1585—1645) (inComplete Works of Cheng Jiting[几亭全书], vol. 18) and Luo Zenan 罗泽南 (1808—1856) (inElucidations onYaojiang School[姚江学辨], vol. 2) both agreed on this point, and the former gave a clear demarcation of the doctrines: the Confucian sage gives his love to family kin only, Mozi pours his love out over all the people, while the Buddha chooses to love even non-human things. The extension of love to others seems to be morally attractive, but it may also end up with an indiscriminate egalitarianism, putting one’s kin on a par with strangers and even non-human things. At the worst, it may even result in fi nding an excuse for unkindness to and negligence of one’s blood relations. He Lin 贺麟 (1902—1992) in his “A New inquiry Into the Conception of Five Human Relations” [五伦观念的新探讨] justifi es the graded love endorsed by Confucianism. He distinguishes four kinds of human affinity to others: the graded love of Confucianism, universal love of Mohism, egotistic love of Yang Zhu 杨朱 (ca. 395—335 BCE), and the love of altruism, and he concludes that only Confucian graded love has enough rationality to avoid absurd incongruities. He quotes an American scholar R. B. Perry as saying that when someone claims to take a stranger as his brother, he is not really treating him like a brother, but actually treats his real brother as a stranger.18He Lin 贺麟, Culture and Human Life [文化与人生] (Beijing: Commercial Press, 2017), 55.Obviously, his judgment is highly in agreement with Chen Longzheng’s.

Apparently, Wang Yangming’s doctrine of loving the people is a general love of other people and things as well as of one’s own family, a claim which invited suspicion of having fallen into an absurd incongruity. In its essence, however, this is a version of the kingly Way, which aims to make institutional conditions that ensure sufficient care be duly given to one’s family, to others, and to things. And that is the spiritual essence of Wang Yangming’s doctrines of manifesting the clear character and loving the people. In its narrower sense, it is an advocacy of extending one’s love from one’s own father to someone else’s father, and eventually to the fathers of all sons in the world. Institutional conditions should enable both nourishment and education. That is, the son must have enough plots of land to produce enough grain to feed his elderly parents. And he must also be enlightened to have filial virtues and be dutiful to them. As for the love for “mountains, rivers, ghosts, gods, birds, beasts, grass, and trees,” it is one’s duty to allow whatever should be made available to them and to take care of them. Therefore, though seemingly indistinguishable from the Mohists and Buddhists, Wang Yangming’s doctrine is never detached from the basic color of Confucian benevolence.

AsMencius1A:7 read, “Treat with the reverence due to age the elders in your own family, so that the elders in the families of others shall be similarly treated,” Wang Yangming proposed to “love my father and extend it to other people’s fathers.” The logic of ethics in both of them should be appreciatively understood, for by no means does it require one literally to love the father of a stranger in the way that one loves one’s own. As an institutional arrangement for the kingly Way of rule, its aim is to create conditions for every household to live in happiness through familial harmony, which parallels the cosmic order, in which “Heaven and Earth attain their proper order and all things fl ourish.” And this is the true meaning that Wang Yangming intends with his emphasis on everything being truly loved and forming one body with the myriad things.

It is undeniable that the Mencian discourse on “being affectionate to family, being benevolent to other people, and taking care of things” (7A:45) serves to build an ethic for the family, but Wang Yangming’s advocacy of love aims rather to establish the universal order of society and the world. Xiong Shili 熊十力 (1885—1968) noted the Mencian concept of benevolent love and his attack on Mohism,

[B]eing confi ned by the moral dogmas from patriarchal clan societies was too narrowly following their conventional rules to advance his ideas any further. As a result, the private benevolence-love within families is too much stressed, but the idea of general love is made all the harder to popularize. Too few people are capable of the Mohist universal love which Mencius was so strongly opposed to. In view of the scarcity or absence of universal love, why was he so intolerant of what there is of it? Certainly virtues such as fi lial piety and respect for elders are not to be despised, but if modern science remains unpopular, and charity and collective welfare based on universal love not encouraged, how could a new social system be founded? And how can political democracy be expected?19Xiong Shili 熊十力, “On the Six Classics” [论六经], in vol. 5 of Complete Works of Xiong Shili [熊十力全集] (Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2001), 680—681.It is not the point here to give comments on Xiong’s criticism of Mencius, but his observation no doubt hints at the possibility of using Wang Yangming’s doctrine for spiritual resources to build new social systems. His philanthropic tendency in loving the people, coupled with “being one family with the world” and “forming one person with the country,” has given the innermost psychic drive for the offi cials-literati to redress and rectify the social order, attracting like-minded “comrades” to form charity communities. “To befriend the Way fi rst of all” was taken as a motto by later scholars who followed his doctrine. It drew like-minded people from across the country who were determined to “complete a task of eternity,” an enterprise that “governs the universe and renews man’s destiny.” The Taizhou School that arose in the 16th century was to take this task as its historic mission.20Yan Jun 颜钧, Collection of Literary Works of Yan Jun [颜钧集], vol. 1, ed. Huang Xuanmin 黄宣民 (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1996), 8.

Historical Eff ect of Wang’s Doctrine of Loving the People [73]

Wang Yangming’s doctrines of manifesting the clear character and loving the people, which functions both for self-cultivation and for social transformation, were promoted, advanced, and carried out by his disciple Wang Gen 王艮 (Wang Xinzhai 王心斋, 1483—1541), who founded the Taizhou School of Confucianism, named after the place (in present-day Jiangsu Province) where he lived and taught.

Wang Gen praised his teacher’s doctrines as “the kingly Way and heavenly virtue,” and “the Way of ancient kings Yao and Shun.” His point was to realize Wang’s ideal of “benevolence forming one body with all people and things” and a “mind of Heaven and Earth that fosters all life” in a political principle which “forms one body with all things.” For that aim, he advocated “the Way of being a teacher.” That is, when a person assumes a government post, he should position himself as an exemplary teacher for the emperor, and if he does not wish to take up an official career, he should make himself a model of virtue for all posterity in the world.21Wang Gen 王艮, “Supplement to Questions and Answers” [答问补遗], in vol. 1 of Collection of Bequeathed Literary Works by Wang Xinzhai of Ming Dynasty [明儒王心斋先生遗集], in Complete Works of Wang Xinzhai [王心斋全集], eds. Chen Zhusheng 陈祝生 et al. (Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, 2001), 39—40.In either case, one should take to heart the kingly Way of manifesting the clear character and loving the people, whether engaged in or free of government duty, whether in a position of power or not.22For a detailed exposition of the kingly Way, see his two treatise, “On the Kingly Way” [王道论] and “Letters to Friends at Nandu” [与南都诸友]. For reviews on Wang Gen’s kingly Way, see Hou Wailu 侯外庐, Qiu Hansheng 邱汉生, and Zhang Qizhi 张岂之, eds., A History of Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties III [宋明理学史下] (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1987), 443—446; Monika Übelhör, Wang Gen (1483-1541) und seine Lehre: Eine kritische Position im späten Konfuzianismus [Wang Gen and His Teachings: A Critical Position in Late Confucianism] (1986), translated by Qiu Huanghai 邱黄海 and Lee Ming-huei 李明辉 as [王艮及其学说] (Taipei: Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica, 2018), 157—180; Wu Zhen 吴震, On Taizhou School [泰州学派研究] (Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2009), 159—167.

Remarkably, Wang Gen put these ideas into practice by aiding and educating local people in his hometown. The place had been troubled with social problems from unemployment and imbalance of distribution. Wang Gen made proposals for equal distribution of local resources for livelihood, and these were adopted by the government. He engaged in detailed planning and obtained exact data on the acreage for salt production and the size of the working population. After surveying and measuring production areas for fuel weeds, ash yards, heating bases, cropland, residence quarters, and burial grounds, these resources were redistributed equally in fairer and more reasonable proportions. He compared such measures to the ancient method for royal enfeoffment, which he regarded as a kingly enterprise of political significance.23Wang Gen, “Missing Writings in the Letters” [尺牍论议补遗], in vol. 2 of Collection of Bequeathed Literary Works by Wang Xinzhai of Ming Dynasty, 66.It is conceivable that he would have undertaken a gigantic venture no less than a revolution if he had been granted the power of a king. The fact is that though he remained a humble philosopher all his life, Wang Gen “never forgot the mind of sage kings like Yao and Shun who loved their people.”24Wang Gen, “Chronicles” [年谱], in vol. 3 of Collection of Bequeathed Literary Works by Wang Xinzhai of Ming Dynasty, 70.Such a personality, “with no ambition for worldly power but bent on remolding the world,” naturally aroused suspicion among the elite class.25Wu Zhen, On Taizhou School, 96, 148, 187—189.

Wang Yangming’s doctrines of manifesting the clear character and loving the people not only guided the direction of learning during the middle and late Ming dynasty, gradually taking root even among the people, but they also exerted a major infl uence on the restructuring of social order in early modern China.

It is commonly agreed that discourse on “national character” in Chinese academics began with Liang Qichao’s 梁启超 (1873—1929) “Renewing the People” [新民说]. Terms like “new citizenry,” “new culture,” “new China,” and “renewed people,” though refl ecting persistent influence from Zhu Xi’s rephrasing of “renovating the people” from theGreat Learning,26The modern conception of “renewing the people” is fundamentally diff erent from that of Zhu Xi’s “renovating the people,” of course. See Gao Ruiquan 高瑞泉, China’s Tradition of Modern Spirit: A Genealogy of Chinese Conception of Modernity [中国现代精神传统：中国的现代性观念谱系], supp. ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2005), 387—432.fundamentally exhibited the nationalist passion and heroism of intellectuals who wished to save the nation from peril. Before that, Wang Yangming had raised his doctrine of generalized love to a political height in a series of expositions during his later years. His ideas became an indigenous resource and motivation to restructure social order in early modern China, when there was an urgent need to find ways to extend human affection within the family to external society, by which the whole nation might be reconstructed into a commonwealth of love like one family.

Owing to his emphasis on education and cultivation, Wang Yangming’s doctrine is particularly taken to be a protest against despotism in the philosophical writings of Contemporary New Confucians, owing to the fact that despotic politicians liked to seize people’s life and property in the moralist disguise of “renovating the people.” Wang Yangming’s reiteration of his disagreement with Zhu Xi reveals his true understanding that a touchstone to judge good from bad government is to see whether or not it aims to be benevolent by nourishing the people, for no cheating is possible with that. It was indeed a heroic political act when Wang Yangming spoke out against Zhu Xi’s interpretation of “renovating the people” instead of “loving the people.”27Xu Fuguan 徐复观, The History of Chinese Theories of Human Nature: Pre-Qin Period [中国人性论史•先秦篇] (Shanghai: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2001), 258—259.

Contemporary Signifi cance of Wang’s Doctrine of Loving the People [75]

The socio-political change taking place in China for the past hundred years is a fundamental shift, as is described by Ferdinand Tönnies in hisCommunity and Civil Society(1887), from a traditional community based on agrarian and handicraft modes of production to a modern industrial society and mass production with machines. Traditional communities formed with ties of kinship were dismantled and split apart into individual persons. The traditional family and home, as the prototype of human feelings of belonging, were the birthplace of human spiritual solidarity. Modern businesses also like to name various organizations, despite their lack of blood ties, as “homes”—“home for staff members,” “home for soldiers,” and “home for Party members,” a gesture of seeking the solidarity of the family in accordance with Wang Yangming’s advocacy of generalized love.

The inexorable force of the market economy, however, tears down all their false pretenses of human warmth. The Internet buzzwords,qin亲 (dear) andqinmen亲们 (darlings), for example, have been in vogue for a long time as forms of address shared not only between members of a group with common interests, but also between buyers and sellers who do not know each other at all. It is undoubtedly a symptom of the need for human affections in a society of strangers. A society under the economic rule of the market, which operates by the merciless laws of money, transaction, profi t, or loss, needs something cohesive to connect individual people for its operation. The greeting with “darlings” calls back the feeling of kinship between transactional participants, a substitution of an apparent kinship relation for that of market roles. Such decoding and recoding of relationships reestablish the rapport of trust and affinity between traders as if between family members.

Taking home life for example, today an increasing number of families in China are keeping pet animals, even rodents and beetles, in the house, and many treat their dogs and cats affectionately as members of the family. Is not that one of the manifestations of Wang Yangming’s benevolence of “loving birds, animals, and plants truly and forming one body with the myriad things”? Humans, as one of the beings in the world, form a link in the continuum of Heaven and Earth and feel at home only when they form one body with that continuum.

Such an endorsement of the kingly Way in Wang Yangming’s doctrines of manifesting the clear character and loving the people will be all the more enlightening in the modern era when, as Zhuangzi said, “The art of the Way in time comes to be rent and torn apart by the world” (Zhuangzi, chap. 33). In his political discourse on philanthropic love in the kingly Way, Wang Yangming affirms that the “sincerity of benevolence and commiseration” is the spiritual fountainhead of benevolent government and the kingly Way. In other words, the politics of benevolence is based on the benevolent love that ties the individual to everyone else. By contrasting the political concept of the kingly Way in Chinese culture with what Carl Schmitt defines as “the political,” which has become quite influential recently, we might be alerted to the hints of hegemony inherent in his political concept of national states.

Schmitt defines the political phenomenon as an autonomous phenomenon, whose basic problem is to distinguish friend from enemy. Schmitt endeavors to establish the autonomy of the political as distinct from moral (virtue and vice), aesthetic (beauty and ugliness), and economic (benefit and loss) concerns. Ultimately, war is the final consequence of the cleft between friend and foe.28Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, trans. George Schwab (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).The “foe” in the sense of a political enemy does not refer to a rival in the general sense, nor does it mean anyone’s personal antagonist. It is a “common foe” or the national enemy in the vulgar sense. Such a sense of opposition in politics is fundamentally rooted in the fact that Homo sapiens is a dangerous species naturally endowed with antagonistic feelings. The sense of “we” (friends) grows out of the sense of division from or confl ict with “them” (enemies). Therefore, any concept of human being that transcends the antagonism between “us” and “them” is essentially not a political one. Undoubtedly, Schmitt’s political theory reveals the deep-seated nature of rivalry and confl icts among modern nation-states.

If Schmitt’s “politics-for-politics’-sake” exposition were to stand, then the Confucian kingly Way would have nothing to do with “what is political” at all. However, if we take a political view of the kingly Way, as clarifi ed in Wang Yangming’s doctrines of manifesting the clear character and loving the people, the tide might turn. Schmitt’s political concept of the modern nation-state, it seems, betrays itself as none other than what Confucianism has denounced as the “rule of hegemony” or the “way of despotism.” In contrast, Wang Yangming’s doctrines advocate humanity as one body with all human relations and nonhuman beings. They embody his political ideal to break all borders of division and strive for “one family” with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things. It holds enormous value for us today to build our own concept of “national identity” in step with the rising infl uence of China in the world.

Bibliography of Cited Translations

Chan, Wing-tsit, trans. and comp.A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.

——, trans.Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-Ming. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.

Legge, James, trans.The Works of Mencius. https://ctext.org/mengzi/ens, accessed May 2, 2022.Watson, Burton, trans.Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.