The Philosophy of Wang Yang-ming

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The Teacher was named Shou-jen ( ^ fH ) Po-an ( i& $c)- His ancestor at the time of the Westem Chin dynasty was Wang Hsd-chih, a general of the right division of the army; and the ancestral home was at Shanyin in the province of Chekiang. Twenty-three generations later, Wang Shou, an official of rank, moved the home to Yiiyao, also in Chekiang. At the time when the Ming dynasty first came into power, Wang Kang, who lived six generations before Wang Yang-ming, lost his life in the service of his emperor, at the hands of the aborigines in Canton Province. His son, Wang Yen-ta, wrapped his father’s remains in sheep’s skin and took them back to Yiiyao. A censor named Kuo Shun reported this to the emperor, who had a temple erected in honor of the father at Tseng in the province of Canton. In the fourth generation Wang Yii-chun was requested by Emperor Yung Lo to become an official, but refused, styling himself “the old man in obscurity among the rocks. ‘ ‘In the third generation, Wang Shih-chieh was honored with the degree of Chinshih, because of superior knowledge of the classics. In the second generation Wang T’ien-hsii was the first of the Hanlin. He and his son “Wang Hua were vice-presidents of the Board of Rites. The latter, who was styled Long-shan, was the father of “Wang Yang-ming. He was the first of the Chinshih, held the oflCice of President of the Board of Civil Office at Nanking, and was given the title of Earl of Hsinchien. Seeing that at the old home at Shanyin there was excellent mountain water, and that it was really the original family home, he moved his effects from Tiiyao to Yuehch’eng at Kuanghsiangfang. “Wang Yang-ming built a home iii Yang-ming Grotto about twenty li southeast of Yuehch’eng, and because of this was called Yang-ming by his students.