Wang Yangming's famous saying: "It is easy to break a thief in the mountains, but it is difficult to break a thief in the heart."

This sentence comes from "The Complete Works of Wang Yangming·Books with Yang Shide and Xue Shangqian".

In the first month of the thirteenth year of Zhengde's reign, before Wang Yangming went to suppress the rioting bandits who attacked Qutou, he wrote to his disciple Xue Kan: "We have arrived in Longnan today and will enter the nest tomorrow. All the soldiers from all four directions have already arrived." As scheduled, the thieves are bound to be defeated. A certain person in Hengshui sent a letter to (Yang) Shide (that is, Yang Ji) saying: "It is easy to break the thieves in the mountains, but it is difficult to break the thieves in the heart." It is not enough to cut off the rats and thieves. It's different. If all the wise men can clear up the enemy, this will be an unparalleled achievement for a sincere man."

The full text is: "The truth of all things is not external to my heart, but it must be said to be the truth of the world. This is almost not enough for the conscience of my heart, but must be sought from outside the world. "(Taken from "Zhuanxilu")

Translation:

Since the truth of all things does not exist outside our hearts, we must say it exhaustively. Regarding the principles of the world, this is probably because we do not yet have enough conscience in our hearts, and we must seek the principles of many things in the world from outside to make up for and increase the conscience in our hearts.

Wang Yangming's famous saying three: "The heart is the reason." "There is no reason outside the heart, there is nothing outside the heart, and there is nothing outside the heart."

"There is nothing outside the heart, there is no reason outside the heart, and there is nothing outside the heart." "Nothing happens outside" is the mind-centered thought proposed by Wang Yangming, which means that in order to understand the mysteries of the universe and achieve the understanding of the truth of things, one only needs to look back and explore one's own mind and conscience.

Wang Yangming’s idea that there is nothing outside the mind means that the mind and things are of the same substance. Things cannot exist without the heart, and the heart cannot exist without things. Without a clear mind, there will be no ghosts, gods, and all things in the world; if one is separated from the heaven, earth, ghosts, gods, and all creatures, there will be no clear mind. On the one hand, the bright mind is the master of all things in the world; on the other hand, the heart has no body, and its body is the right and wrong that the world and all things sense. Objective things are in a state of emptiness if they are not perceived by the mind. Just like a flower in a deep mountain, if no one sees it, it will become silent with the heart; once someone sees it, the color of the flower will become clear for a moment.

Wang Yangming's "The Unreasonable Outside the Heart" means that the essence of the heart is the principle of heaven. Although things are different, the principle is in the heart, and the heart is the principle. There is no need to seek reason in things, seek reason outside the heart, that is, the heart and reason are two. The principle in the heart is the highest goodness, and the lack of reason in the heart means the lack of goodness in the heart.

Wang Yangming’s four famous sayings: “There is no good or disgusting body, there are good and evil actions, knowing good and evil is conscience, doing good and eliminating evil is observing things.”

From Wang Yangming The Four Sentences of Wangmen teach that conscience is the essence of the heart, and that it is a heart without selfishness or material desires. It is the law of heaven. Before it is revealed, it is without good or evil. It is also the state we pursue. It is "In the undeveloped state", good and evil cannot be distinguished, so there is neither good nor evil.

When people have thoughts and add this thought to things, this thought will have likes and dislikes, and the difference between good and evil. It can be said to be "already developed", and things will have neutrality. Those who are in the middle are good and those who are not in the middle are evil. Although good knowledge is neither good nor evil, it can freely know good and evil. This is the essence of knowledge. All knowledge and cultivation boil down to one point. It is to do good and avoid evil, that is, to use conscience as the standard and act according to one's own conscience.

It comes from Wang Yangming's "Zhuan Xi Lu", which is also the most appropriate explanation of the mind science. What Wang Yangming expresses is indeed a traditional Chinese thought. He did not say "together we will perish together." If he said this, it would be a Western thought. He means "returning to silence together". "Silent" is not "nothing", but a state of silence when there is no interaction. Therefore, traditional Chinese culture has a concept called "silence".

Wang Yangming’s Sixth Famous Quote: “Scholars who aspire to become saints, and seek the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, abandon the brightness of the sun and the moon, and hope for the subtle light of a firefly. Isn’t this absurd? ”

From the quotation from Wang Yangming’s "Answers to the Master of Luo Zheng'an" - Negation is the driving force of innovation. Wang Yangming pondered the failure of the sage's way of studying bamboo, and the method of studying bamboo was passed down by the sage Zhu Xi. The words of the saint may not be entirely correct, and there may be gold in the mediocre words. Although it is mainly about academic research, it is also of great benefit to life.

Wang Yangming's Seventh Famous Quote: "The saints and the people of heaven and earth are of the same body. Confucianism, Buddhism, Laoism, and Zhuang are all for my use. This is called the great way. The two are selfish for themselves, which is called the small way."

This sentence also shows that there is a trend of integration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. This sentence is very good. In the final analysis, Confucianism is this one. All things are born, and all things return to one. This one seems simple, but is actually the most difficult. Because to fully understand this one, you not only need to analyze it thoroughly in theory (it is not easy to understand the vast Confucian works, which include various aspects such as classics, histories, zi, collections, etc.), but you must also abide by this heavenly principle in your own practice. , which seems even more difficult.

Wang Yangming’s Eight Famous Quotes: “There is no disaster greater than the merits of the heavens, no crime greater than the good deeds of others, no evil greater than the ability to attack, no humiliation greater than the shame of forgetting oneself, and be prepared for the four. ”

Translation: There is no greater disaster than being rewarded by God, no greater crime than covering someone else’s crime, no greater evil than sneaking into someone else’s place, and no greater humiliation than forgetting yourself. The shame is even greater. If all four are present, it will be a disaster.

Wang Yangming's famous saying 9: "The most important thing to learn is to get it from the heart. It is not from the heart that you seek it. Although it comes from Confucius, I dare not think it is true, let alone that it is not as good as Confucius?" It’s true that it comes from the heart. Although his words are commonplace, I dare not think that they are wrong. What’s more, are they from Confucius? ”

From Wang Yangming’s "Answers to Luo Zheng'an Shaozai", Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Lu Wang Xin-Xue both belong to the category of Neo-Confucianism. They both insist that the principles of heaven are the origin of all things in the universe. However, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism believes that the principles of heaven are independent of the human body. If you want to find the principles of heaven, you must use the method of studying things to gain knowledge. Therefore, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism believes that the principles of heaven are independent of the human body. Zhu Neo-Confucianism belongs to the objective idealism among the philosophical schools; while Luwang Xinxue believes that the laws of heaven exist deep in the human heart and must be realized by introspecting oneself and getting rid of desires, so it belongs to the subjective idealism among the philosophical schools.

From "The Biography of Wang Yangming, Volume 1 (Recorded by Disciple Xue Kan)" Wang Yangming's standard for a saint here is to be "purely based on heavenly principles." Different people may have different opinions on this point. Some people may say that this is something from ancient times and has long lagged behind the trend of the times. Well, let’s put it another way and replace saints with talents. Change the standard from "pure natural principles" to core competitiveness. In this way, we can say that the standard for talents is to have core competitiveness. I think this way everyone will have no objections.