Wang Yangming · Philosophy
Wang’s foundational break with Zhu Xi: <em>xin ji li</em>, ‘the mind is principle.’ Moral principle is not a structure waiting to be found in external things and studied; it is constituted in the responses of the mind itself. The bamboo episode and the Longchang enlightenment are the turning points of this discovery.
You learned that Wang rejected Zhu Xi’s search for principle ( li ) in external things and held instead that the mind is principle ( xin ji li ): principle is constituted in the mind’s responses, not stored in the objects. Explain the doctrine, and how the bamboo episode and the Longchang enlightenment led…
Leads to Zhu Xi.
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