Wang Shouren’s ethico-epistemology and the double nature of recognition

Rošker, Jana S. (author)

Wang Shouren 王守仁 (1472 – 1529), who appears more frequently in the history of Chinese philosophy under his pseudonym Wang Yangming 王陽明, is generally recognized as the most important exponent, indeed founder, of the Neo-Confucian “School of the Heart-Mind” (Xin xue 心 學). In the context of Neo-Confucianism, Wang's philosophy is of great importance, especially with regard to his views on the inseparable unity of ethics and epistemology and his latent syntheses of Confucian and Chan Buddhist thought. Within this framework, this article will provide a critical introduction to his epistemology, focusing on the innovative elements of his paradigm of the unity of knowledge and action (zhixing heyi 知行合一) and the underlying concept of innate knowledge (liangzhi 良知). For Wang, these two epistemological concepts were rooted in the human heart-mind (xin 心) and possessed intense moral connotations that were reflected in practical ethics. On this ethico-epistemological basis, the paper will illuminate the methods of gradualism and subitism and critically address their connection to the Chan Buddhist view of gradual and instant enlightenment.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Confucianism, Chinese epistemology, ethics, Wang Shouren, Wang Yangming, Chinese ethico-epistemology, innate knowledge, liangzhi, unity of knowledge and action, zhixing heyi, gradualism, subitism
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 368-386
• Numbering: Vol. 30, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133628
• UDC: 1(510)
• ISSN on article: 2585-8793
• DOI: 10.31577/aassav.2021.30.2.04
• COBISS.SI-ID: 88001283

Copyright

Licenca CC BY 4.0 je navedena na pristajalni strani članka. (Datum opombe: 21. 12. 2021)

• Publication date in RUL: 06.12.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian and African Studies
• Shortened title: Asian Afr. Stud.
• Publisher: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava
• ISSN: 2585-8793
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40930051

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.12.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: konfucijanstvo, kitajska epistemologija, etika, Wang Shouren, Wang Yangming

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P6-0243
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: N6-0161
• Name: Humanizem v medkulturni perspektivi: Evropa in Kitajska