An empirical interpretation of Confucianism: a modern re-evalution of the philosophies of the Ming Dynastyconfucian Wang Yangming

Abstract

Wang Yangming, the most renowned Ming dynasty Confucian, has often been accused of

being unorthodox and subjectively idealistic in his doctrines and influence. This claim

will be refuted. The title of “idealism” in association with Wang’s work has been misused

and misunderstood if the common Western usage of the term is applied. My examination

of Wang’s teachings in a metaphysical-empirical sense and comparison of them with

descriptions of Western reason, will reveal that Wang’s teachings are immanently holistic

on a cosmological level, and practically pluralistic on the physical plane. This holds true

as Wang makes no dualistic separation between mental and non-mental substances

(cosmologically) and makes little distinction between self and other in his conception of a

unified plural universe. In other words, Wang’s Confucian materialism allows for no

concept of an Absolute that lives in another dimension. The result proves that Wang’s

philosophy has little in common with traditional Western idealism.

The overall precedent of this work will follow the ‘four sprouts’ or the four inherent

feelings described by Mencius and the ‘four axioms’ described by Wang. And in similar

manner to the methodology used by these two Confucian scholars, they will be used by

this writer in a progressive developmental way which leads toward individual and

societal betterment. A humanistic path used in many Chinese philosophical systems and

a “Way” that combines the four virtues described by Mencius into a natural evolving

continuum. A pattern that is in agreement with how Mencius and Wang associated

human development with both instinctual and theoretical knowledge to reach the highest

state of enlightened virtue and wisdom associated with sage-hood. The underlying

premise insisting that the four virtues of both Wang and Mencius are best understood

when both the yin and yang elements of the virtues are combined and harmonized into a

pluralistic oneness that results in both happiness and healthiness.

According to this rationale, the enlightened person or sage does the right thing because

they instinctually feel the action is correct and because the rational part of their thinking

mind has confirmed this course of action. As Wang infers there is a higher

consciousness that makes the decision either to follow our instincts or not, then he allows

that our thinking is instinctual, rationalistic, and intuitional all at once. Using this

description, Wang’s teaching will be proven to have more in common with modern

scientific views and traditional Western empiricism and/or materialism. The result

reveals Wang’s interpretation of Confucianism has much in common with the liberalist

foundations of Western democratic and conceptions of human rights, Western concepts

which have traditionally been linked to empiricism and materialism. This work thereby

provides significance for modern political discussion on whether Confucianism supports

these Western concepts.