Chinese civilization is self-confident and self-reliant and musically rich of ancient civilization, this musicality tone is first contained in the Zhou civilization of the cultural tradition of ritual music, through Confucianism has been carried forward, its philosophical model is the life style of Confucius and music, this style in the Northern Song Dynasty through the Zhou Dunyi and Ercheng re-development and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, become the life realm that the Confucian people of all generations yearn for and repeatedly experience and interpret. Rising in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Yangming Xinxue was a revolutionary development of Confucianism, and Wang Yangming took the continuation of the Zhou (Lianxi) and Cheng (Mingdao) learning as his own responsibility, and put forward a unique interpretation of Confucius's music, which profoundly influenced his subsequent studies and enriched Confucianism's exploration of Confucius's music. Kong Yan Le is originally the cultivation realm of Confucian sages, and Wang Yangming's unique place is to transform this realm into an ontology, proposing that "music is the essence of the heart". As a result, Yang Ming Xinxue has made Confucius a joy that everyone can experience in principle, and strengthened the attraction of Confucius to ordinary people. This idea is of great practical significance in the popularization of Confucianism today, but it is also necessary to reflect on the omission of explaining the joy and the study of Confucius only from the ontology of the innate mind, and it may also ignore the historical dimension of the study of Confucianism.
Happiness is the essence of the mind
As a Confucian immersed in the tradition of science, Wang Yangming showed his yearning for the joy of Confucius very early, and he had repeatedly mentioned the joy of Confucius in his poems before the enlightenment of Longchang, but at this time he was still studying Zhu Zixue, and he was troubled by the problem of physics and my mind "judging into two", and he may not have really experienced the joy of Confucius and Yan. After the enlightenment of the dragon field, Wang Yangming solved the problem of "two", realized that "the way of the sage is self-sufficient", and gained a new experience of the joy of Confucianism. With this joy of realizing the ontology, Yang Ming repeatedly expressed the joy of lecturing during the Longchang period, such as "There is true joy in lectures, and there is no vulgar flow in talking and laughing" ("All Beings Sitting at Night"), "Wealth is like dust and sand, and fame is also flying." My second and third sons, my way is really interesting. During this period, Wang Yangming had not yet made a philosophical exposition of the mind of Confucius Zhile.
Wang Yangming's unique interpretation of the mind of music came after he put forward the idea of conscience. When asked by student Lu Cheng whether the happiness of Kong Yan and the happiness of the seven emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love and evil desires) are the same or different, Yang Ming's answer was, "Happiness is the essence of the heart, although it is different from the joy of the seven emotions, and it is not the same as the joy of the seven emotions". Why is the joy of the heart and body different from and not only the joy of the seven emotions, there is a dialogue between Wang Yangming and the disciple to give the answer: "Ask: 'Happiness is the essence of the heart, I don't know if this happiness is still there when I cry?' Mr. said: 'You must cry a lot, and if you don't cry, you won't be happy.' Even though we cry, this peace of mind is happiness, and the body has not moved.' Happiness is the essence of the heart, which means that this happiness is self-sufficient in our hearts, and we do not seek anything else, we are happy when we are rich, we are happy when we are poor, we are happy when we are successful, and we do not lose our happiness when we are frustrated. But when we are grieving and weeping in the face of great changes (such as the death of a loved one), can we also say that the joy of the mind and body is still there? Yang Ming replied that there is joy in the great cry when the grief is released, and if the true disposition is suppressed and cannot cry, then it is not happy; the happiness of the essence of the mind includes the release of natural emotions, but not only that, as long as the master of the heart is clear and unobscured, the release of emotions will be controlled, and this control and the mind that dominates it is still safe and immovable, and this place of peace is happiness.
Yang Ming's explanation of the joy of the heart is in line with the atmosphere of peace and contentment in the joy of Confucius Yan, Confucius eats coarse rice and drinks clear water and the pillow is also happy, Yan Hui does not change his happiness, there is a calm and comfortable way of peace and poverty, and the joy of Confucius contains the peace and security beyond the external circumstances. Confucius said that "the benevolent are benevolent", and praised Yan Hui for "not violating benevolence in March", and there is happiness in Anren. Yang Ming believes that this kind of peace that dominates the constant stability is the essence of the mind that ordinary people also have, but it is only through the reflexive and sincere efforts of conscience that this ordinary happiness can be restored. Therefore, Yang Ming often uses his conscience to explain this happiness of the mind and body.
To the steady happiness of conscience
The essence of the heart is peaceful and happy, and peace is the premise of happiness. Wang Yangming believes that this kind of peace and happiness can be obtained as long as it is conscience. In the fifteenth year of Zhengde, Wang Yangming in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, experienced the test of "a hundred deaths and thousands of difficulties" and realized the mind of "to conscience", and the student Chen Jiuchuan stated to him the distress of "difficult to find a stable and happy place", Wang Yangming told him the trick of "seeking fun": "Er's conscience is Er's own bottom standard, Er's mind is everywhere, he knows what is, and he knows what is wrong, and he can't hide something from him." Don't deceive him, but do what you do, and the good will remain, and the evil will go. How secure and happy he is here. This is the true recipe of Gewu and the practical skill of enlightenment. As long as we act according to the judgment of conscience, do not deceive our conscience, keep good and eliminate evil, and our hearts will naturally be at peace. There is no need to seek happiness from outside, as long as there is conscience in everything, this is the true secret of Zhizhi Gewu revealed by Yang Ming, and it is also the true secret of seeking pleasure.
The steady happiness of conscience is not only the pleasure of oneself, but the joy of oneness in communion with all things in heaven and earth. This joy of unity is described by Yang Ming as "harmony and smoothness". The disciple Huang Xingxing once reported to Yang Ming in a letter about his interpretation of the first chapter of the Analects, and Yang Ming replied with his approval and made further developments. He wrote: "Happiness is the essence of the mind. The heart of benevolence, with heaven and earth and all things as one, is harmonious and smooth, and there is no interval. This is to explain the joy of mind and body in terms of the idea that all things are one. He applied this idea to his interpretation of the first chapter of the Analects, arguing that "those who practice the time seek to restore the essence of the mind." Joy is the gradual recovery of the ontology", so "learning and learning, not also happy" is the gradual recovery of the ontology; The harmony and smoothness of the ontology were originally like this, and they did not increase at the beginning. so that there are no friends and the world does not know what I know, and there is no reduction", so "people do not know and are not ashamed, and they are not gentlemen". In the end, Yang Ming thinks that this chapter tells the story of Confucius's study of Kung Fu with sincerity and sincerity, and "the key to learning is only to be cautious." To be alone is to conscience. Conscience is the essence of happiness." Wang Yangming believes that the purpose of Confucius's learning is to restore the ontology of the mind, which is inseparable from all things in heaven and earth, and is originally happy. In this way, Yang Ming made a mental interpretation of Confucius's learning and Confucius's pleasures.
Yang Ming uses "harmony and smoothness" to describe the happiness of the heart of benevolence and all things in heaven and earth, which is worth playing. The word "" and the word "Xin" are the same, but "" is the joy of mutual communication in verbal communication. The union of human beings is beyond the instinctive union of male and female animals, and is achieved through verbal communication, and the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that man's ability to speak constitutes the condition for man to be a political animal (Politics). The harmony between parents and children, brothers, teachers and friends, and monarchs and ministers is inseparable from affectionate and righteous speech and exchange. Even the harmony between men and women must be achieved by the communication of words and the soul of the heart, the ancient "piano and sister", "bell and drum music", and the current "falling in love", are all said to be the "cooperation" of men and women with words and courtesy. This kind of cooperation requires mutual listening, mutual understanding, and mutual consideration, which includes the mental effort to remove the separation of selfishness. But this process also needs to be learned, language and communication etiquette is not a person innate, so Confucius told his son "do not learn poetry, no words" "do not learn etiquette, no stand" ("Analects of Ji"), in the Spring and Autumn Period in which Confucius lived, "learn and learn it", first of all, it should be to learn poetry, books, etiquette and music, understand human feelings and be familiar with the etiquette of communication, talent and virtue are full and brilliant, it is possible to "have friends from afar" and harmony and smoothness. Yang Ming's interpretation of Confucius's teachings as only the ontology of the mind and only to the conscience is inevitably suspected of commenting on the Six Classics, which contains a misreading of "creativity".
The joy of Confucius and the learning of Confucius
As a sage's spiritual realm, the joy of Confucius is connected with the kung fu of Confucian learning. Yang Ming interprets this happiness as "the essence of the mind", which is the steady happiness of conscience, which has both uniqueness and negligence, and the root cause is his negligence in understanding the science of Confucius and Yan. The joy of Confucius and the learning of Confucius are inseparable, as can be seen in the first chapter of the Analects, and in the chapter of the Analects: "Ye Gong asked Confucius about the sub-road, and the sub-path was not right. Zi said: 'You don't say it, he is also a person, he is angry and forgets to eat, he is happy to forget his worries, and he doesn't know that the old man will come to Yun'er'. In this Master's own way, anger and forgetting food is the master's learning, happiness and forgetting worries is the master's happiness, and happiness and forgetting worries comes from anger and forgetting food, and this happiness includes the self-improvement of anger, the transcendence of forgetting food, and the self-satisfaction of forgetting worries.
Wang Yangming's tall Wang Ji has an explanation for this chapter: "Anger is the righteousness of seeking understanding, and happiness is the essence of the heart." The human heart is originally harmonious, and it is in circulation with heaven and earth, so that it has the slightest intention and selfishness, and it is not similar to heaven and earth; only then some evil and filthy scum stir up this harmonious body, and there is some hindrance and cannot be happy. Anger is only to remove its obstacles, so that the evil is completely cleansed and the dregs are melted away, and it is not stirred up by the slightest selfish intention, so as to restore its harmonious body, and it is not something to add. Wang Ji believed that Confucius's anger was only the evil scum that would remove the selfishness of the mind and cleanse the soul, so that he could restore the harmonious body of the soul. He ignored the word "worry" in "happiness to forget worries", Confucius's happiness contains worries, forgetting worries is not worry-free, Confucius said that the gentleman "worries about the road and does not worry about poverty", and the happiness of Confucius and the consciousness of sorrow coexist. The "way" that Confucius was worried about not being able to do is exactly the way of the ancestors and the way of etiquette and pleasure that he sought when he was angry and forgot to eat. Anger and forgetting food is the sincerity of aspiration and seeking the truth, and being happy to forget worries is the self-confidence and hope of the road and the use of it. The interpretation of Confucius by Yang Ming Xinxue detracts from the historical dimension of Confucius Zhizhi's path to the ancestors, so the interpretation of Confucian Zhile inevitably lacks the strength, thickness, and breadth of Confucian Zhixue. Yangming Psychology ontizes and normalizes the "Confucian Pleasure", which is unique and wonderful, and its hidden omissions also need to be examined.
(Author: Li Xu, associate researcher, Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences)