dc.description.abstract | This is a study on the moral philosophy of Wan tang-nan (王塘南, 1522-1605). As a disciple of Wang Yang-ming (王陽明, 1472-1529), Wan tang-nan is known for his creative interpretations of Wang Yang-ming’s theory of the concept of “pure consciousness” (良知). Some commentators doubt about Wan tang-nan had already disobeyed Wang Yang-ming’s doctrine, and others took Wan tang-nan’s works as a contribution to the development of the theory of pure consciousness in the later part of the Ming dynasty. This thesis attempts to show that Wan tang-nan interpreted Wang Yang-ming’s doctrine by his comprehension to solve the problems that other disciples of Wang Yang-ming had caused.
There are three characteristics could be pointed out. The first, Wan tang-nan’s moral philosophy was set up through the onto-cosmological statements as a foundation of his theory. Secondary, Wan tang-nan tried to explicate the concept of pure consciousness in terms of the concept of “under the transcendence and beyond the empirical world” (先天之子,後天之母) and the “channel” (發竅). The final, Wan tang-nan argued that pure consciousness could not be yielded by moral decision or judgement. Pure consciousness could only present itself in human mind by truly realizeise or affection, and Wan tang-nan called such a kind of practical activity the “wu xing” (悟性) or “tou xing” (透性).
It is not difficult to figure out, Wan tang-nan’s interpretation of the concept of pure consciousness is different from Wang Yang-ming’s. However, if not only the transcendental property of pure consciousness but also the possibility of instantaneous actualization of pure consciousness should be keep, Wan tang-nan’s unique theory provided a proper solution to the problem that Wang Yang-ming gave us indeed. Furthermore, a developing direction that focus on the “invisible” (密) was raised and a clue of the study of Liu ji-shan (劉蕺山, 1578-1645) was discovered in Wan tang-nan’s moral philosophy.
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