Translation: When you don’t see this flower, you and the flower exist normally in the world without affecting each other. When you see this flower, its color makes you Surprised, and this flower also makes its color known because of you.

Principle: Of course flowers bloom and fall on their own, but it is up to me to decide whether they can disturb my heart. Even if the earth breaks apart, the floods hit the sky, there are lightning and thunder, and there are heavy rains, as long as my heart is at peace, I will always be in the Peach Blossom Land and the sunny sky.

The above famous saying comes from "Chuan Xi Lu". It is said that once Wang Yangming and his friends were traveling in Nanzhen. The friend pointed to the flower trees in the rocks and asked: "There is nothing in the world outside of my heart. How can such flowers and trees bloom and fall in the deep mountains of their own accord to my heart?" Wang Yangming replied: "When you don't look at this flower, this flower will die with you; when you look at this flower, the color of this flower will become clear for a moment, and you will know that this flower is not in your heart."

One spring, Wang Yangming and his friends went to the mountains to play. The friend pointed to a flower among the rocks and said to Wang Yangming: You often say that there is no reason outside the heart, and there is nothing outside the heart. Everything in the world is in your heart and is controlled by your heart. Look at this flower, it blooms and falls on its own in the mountains. Can your heart control it? Could it be that it only opens when your heart is opened, and it falls only when your heart is allowed to fall?

Wang Yangming’s answer is very interesting: When you don’t look at this flower, this flower and your heart are silent together; when you look at this flower, the color of this flower becomes clear for a moment; you know that this flower is not outside your heart.

Extended information:

Wang Yangming inherited the tradition of Xinxue from Cheng Hao and Lu Jiuyuan, and further criticized Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism on the basis of Lu Jiuyuan. The thoughts in "Zhuan Xi Lu" clearly express these positions and views.

"The heart is the principle" was originally a proposition of Lu Jiuyuan. Wang Yangming believed that "the highest good is the essence of the heart" and "the heart is the principle. This heart is not covered by selfish desires, it is the principle of heaven, and there is no need to add external principles." One point." He said this to emphasize that the foundation of ethical norms in society lies in the goodness of the human heart.

Based on this principle, his interpretation of "The Great Learning" is very different from Zhu Xi's. Zhu Xi believed that the "investigation of things to achieve knowledge" in "The Great Learning" requires students to ultimately understand the "all usefulness" of the human heart through understanding external objects.

Wang Yangming believes that the "Ge" of "Gewu" is to "remove the injustice of its mind and keep its essence righteous". "The essence of meaning is knowledge, and the location of meaning is matter." "Knowledge" is inherent in the human heart and does not come only after knowing external objects. This knowledge is "conscience". He said: "The so-called "knowledge and investigation of things" means that the good knowledge in my heart applies to everything.

The good knowledge in my heart is the so-called heavenly principle. The "natural principle" that leads to my heart and conscience applies to everything. Everything has its own reason. The one who has a good understanding of my heart is the one who knows;

The one who knows everything has its reason is the one who understands things; it is the combination of mind and reason. "In him. It seems that Zhu Xi's theory of "Ge Wu Qi Li" is precisely the analysis of mind and reason. It can be seen from this that Wang Yangming’s proposition that “mind is reason” mainly serves his theory of self-cultivation. The theory of conscience is the development of Lu Jiuyuan's thought that mind is reason. Wang Yangming's thought that mind is reason also has ontological implications in a general sense.