Text and Enlightenment: A Hermeneutical Interpretation of ‘Intuitive Knowing as Change’ from the Perspective of Foundational Intentionality

Wen Haiming

Abstract: Few of Wang Yangming’s writings express his thought on the Book of Changes, and those that exist have been repeatedly discussed in academic research on the subject. This paper takes up the tension between “text” (writing) and “enlightenment” (spiritual plane), from the perspective of the philosophy of foundational intentionality, to develop and expand existing research explicating “intuitive knowing” and “change” from the standpoint of substance and function. It utilizes the philosophical plane of foundational intentionality from Illuminating Intentionality through the Zhouyi to grasp the inherent relationship between Wang Yangming’s material on the Book of Changes and his Learning of Mind, providing an in-depth analysis of his “intuitive knowing” and his philosophical thought on the Book of Changes. Taking this as an example, this paper attempts to advance research on problems connected to the history of Chinese philosophy from the perspective of Chinese philosophy.

Keywords: Wang Yangming, Changes studies, intuitive knowing, philosophy of foundational intentionality, text (writing), enlightenment (spiritual plane)

Introduction [Refer to page 78 for Chinese. Similarly hereinafter]

In 1998, the present author published the fi rst academic paper studying Wang Yangming’s 王陽明 (Wang Shouren 王守仁, 1472—1529) thought on theBook of ChangesorZhouyi[周易], titled “A Brief Discussion of Wang Yangming’s Studies on theBook of Changes” [王陽明易學(xué)略論] in the journalZhouyi Studies[周易研究]. In the more than two decades since, a number of papers have appeared explaining Wang Yangming’s thought on theBook of Changes, most of them explaining the connection with his Learning of Mind (xinxue心學(xué)) from various perspectives,1See related papers on this topic by Dai Lianzhang 戴璉璋, Xie Jinliang 謝金良, Huang Lixing 黃黎星, Li Zhengang 李振剛, Zhang Chunxiang 張春香, and Zhang Shaoyu 張韶宇.and only a few especially focusing on the statement that “intuitive knowing is change” (liangzhi jishi yi良知即是易).2See related papers by Zhong Chun 鐘純, Ning Yilin 寧怡琳, Liao Yiming 廖一鳴, Zhang Pei 張沛, Peng Peng 彭鵬, Li Huangming 李煌明, Zhao Wenyu 趙文宇, Zeng Zhenyu 曾振宇, and Lu Xiangyun 盧祥運.As the present author has previously emphasized, after Wang’s enlightenment of thedao道 in the Wanyiwo (Changes-Play) Cave,

[T]he atmosphere of his learning can be said to be enlightened from theChangesand culminate in theChanges. If his lifetime of transmissions and statements are analyzed solely in terms of the categories of the Learning of Mind and Learning of Principle, they are often diffi cult to understand, yet if seen through thedaoof theChanges, they become merged into one, complete and unobstructed.3Wen Haiming 溫海明, “A Brief Discussion of Wang Yangming’s Studies on the Book of Changes” [王陽明易學(xué)略論], Zhouyi Studies [周易研究], no. 3 (1998): 23—32. A revised version of this text appears as “Wang Yangming’s Changes Studies” [陽明易學(xué)], in Wen Haiming, Comparative Contexts and Chinese Philosophy [比較境遇與中國哲學(xué)] (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2020), 65—86.

Fan Lizhou 范立舟 and Zhu Xiaopeng 朱曉鵬 have recognized this view as “grasping the origins of Wang’s learning.”4See Fan Lizhou 范立舟, “The Zhouyi and Wang Yangming’s Learning of Mind” [《周易》與陽明心學(xué)], Zhouyi Studies, no. 6 (2004): 68—80; Zhu Xiaopeng 朱曉鵬, “The Central Idea of Wang Yangming’s Discussion of the Changes at Longchang” [王陽明龍場《易》論的思想主旨], Philosophical Research [哲學(xué)研究], no. 6 (2008): 17—24.On the other hand, Lin Zhongjun 林忠軍 and Peng Peng 彭鵬 believe it overstates the importance ofChangesstudies (yixue易學(xué)) in Wang’s thought.5See Lin Zhongjun 林忠軍 et al., A History of Changes Studies in the Ming Dynasty [明代易學(xué)史] (Jinan: Qilu Press, 2016), 144; Peng Peng, “An Exploration of the Inherent Logic in Wang Yangming’s Use of the Learning of Mind to Interpret the Changes” [王陽明以心學(xué)解《易》內(nèi)在理路探析], Zhouyi Studies, no. 6 (2015): 89—95.Other scholars have thought that the present author has not yet provided a deeper analysis of the relationship between the Learning of Mind andChangesstudies.6See Zhong Chun, “On the Substance—Function Relation in Wang Yangming’s ‘Intuitive Knowing as Change’” [論王陽明“良知即是易”中的體用關(guān)系], Theory Monthly [理論月刊], no. 2 (2021): 132.Perhaps these scholars have taken the four parts of the above paper, “The River-Diagram and the Luo-Inscription,” “Judgments and Images, Changes and Divination,” “Expressing Inherent Nature and Attaining Destiny,” and “Intuitive Knowing as Change,” and understood them as a framework forChangesstudies. In fact, while the first two are indeed problems inChangesstudies, the latter two mainly concern the Learning of Mind and philosophy.

On this basis, this paper attempts to interpret the view that “intuitive knowing is change” from the perspective of the philosophy of foundational intentionality (yiben lun意本論), in order to advance research on the relation between the Learning of Mind andChangesstudies, to continue to emphasize how Wang’s enlightenment in hisChangesstudies runs through his Learning of Mind and constitutes its essential origin, and to explicate the fi ve levels of meaning of Wang’s “intuitive knowing” (liangzhi良知) from the perspective ofChangesstudies. This paper emphasizes that Wang Yangming’s Learning of Mind is essentially an instance ofChangeslearning and that the two cannot be viewed separately. Although some Yangming scholars have perceived that his Learning of Mind originated from his thinking on theChanges, not many have truly realized the integral unity of the two.

In comparison with existing research on the history of Chinese philosophy, this paper attempts to carry out research on Chinese philosophy from the perspective of the philosophy of foundational intentionality, to demonstrate that the philosophy of the Learning of Mind is inseparable from the philosophy ofChangesstudies, and that the two are aspects of a single unity. This paper argues that if one ignoresChangesstudies when researching Wang’s Learning of Mind, one may easily sever the relation between the two, turning them into two diff erent subjects, and thereby make it diffi cult to recognize the original face of Wang’s philosophy, failing to grasp the subtlety and depth of his conception of “intuitive knowing.” Although Wang’s writings on theChangesare few, these texts have been discussed repeatedly in related papers, and although scholars have interpreted them from different perspectives, they always revolve around “text” (wen文) as writing and “enlightenment” (wu悟) as spiritual plane. “Text” refers to the interpretation of Wang Yangming’s material onChangesstudies, reflecting an interpreter’s depth of understanding of hisChangesthought; “enlightenment” refers to the understanding of the inherent connection between his material onChangesstudies and his Learning of Mind, emphasizing that interpreting the spiritual plane of his Learning of Mind philosophy requires a certain capacity for comprehension and enlightenment.

From the perspective of the philosophy of foundational intentionality, this paper uses the tension between writing and spiritual plane to analyze and discuss the achievements and shortcomings of existing readings of Wang’s material onChangesstudies, and the problem of the connection between this and his Learning of Mind. Taking this as an example, the present author attempts to push research on the history of Chinese philosophy methodologically toward research on Chinese philosophy. At present, most papers on Wang Yangming’sChangesstudies are more like papers researching the history of Chinese philosophy rather than discussing problems in Chinese philosophy.

In comparison to mainstream academic studies on Wang’s thought, research on hisChangeslearning is undoubtedly relatively new, with many new ideas and conclusions that can be helpful in advancing research on Yangming studies, especially setting out from the perspective of the relation between the Learning of Mind andChangesstudies. This ought to have been the most philosophically diffi cult problem in researching Wang’s philosophy. However, most research on Wang’sChangesstudies and his Learning of Mind from a “history of Chinese philosophy” perspective interpret the recorded events of his life connected to theChanges, recounting his experience in reading theChangesand realizing thedao, simply interpreting related materials. Most papers have not discussed hisChangesstudies in depth, nor have they demonstrated the profundity of the connection between this and his Learning of Mind. Although Wang’s writings onChangesstudies demonstrate that he read theChangesand realized thedaobased on theChanges, infl uencing his Learning of Mind thought, objective academic research based on textual material has still made little advance in terms of understanding the spiritual plane of philosophical enlightenment in Wang’sChangesstudies and Learning of Mind, especially the realization of his “intuitive knowing” from the perspective ofChangesstudies.

This paper interprets the statement “intuitive knowing as change” from the perspective of the philosophy of foundational intentionality, attempting to demonstrate and realize Wang’s “intuitive knowing” and hisChangesstudies as an integral whole. Concerning “intuitive knowing as change,” academic circles currently use diff erent analytical structures, such as Zhong Chun’s 鐘純 summary in terms of the three aspects of one origin for substance and function, the active functioning of the mind as substance, and substance as nonexistence and function as existence.7Zhong, “On the Substance—Function Relation in Wang Yangming’s ‘Intuitive Knowing as Change,’” 134—140.Ning Yilin 寧怡琳 believes that it can be understood according to the three aspects of one origin for substance and function, substance as nonexistence and function as existence, and perceiving substance in its functioning.8Ning Yilin, “‘Intuitive Knowing as Change’: On Wang Yangming’s Changes Studies Thought” [“良知即是易”——試論王陽明的易學(xué)思想], History of Chinese Philosophy [中國哲學(xué)史], no. 2 (2019): 48—50.Zhang Pei 張沛 has also noted the relation between the statements “intuitive knowing as change” and “one origin for substance and function,” regarding the latter as aChangesstudies mode of thought refl ecting the monism of the Learning of Mind, including the aspects of “both movement and stillness,” “simple and unchanging,” and “the unity of knowing and acting.”9Zhang Pei, “Wang Yangming’s Conception of Changes Studies in View of His Learning of Mind” [王陽明心學(xué)視域下的易學(xué)觀], Zhouyi Studies, no. 4 (2010): 29—31. Zhang notes that the core of Wang Yangming’s Learning of Mind lies in establishing a connection between the conceptions of “mind” and “intuitive knowing” and the Changes, an approach to reading the Changes that opened up the path of using Changes studies to annotate and interpret Wang’s Learning of Mind. Many later scholars in the Learning of Mind tradition (such as Wang Ji 王畿) followed the path opened up by Wang Yangming and progressed further. Thus, in the history of the Learning of Principle and Learning of Mind, Wang Yangming’s “Learning of Mind Changes” (心學(xué)易) began to become another important school coexisting with Cheng—Zhu’s “Learning of Principle Changes” (理學(xué)易).This paper takes up this question: “In what sense is intuitive knowing also thedaoof theChanges?” and develops an argument for fi ve levels from the perspective of the philosophy of intentionality (yi意), attempting to demonstrate philosophical creativity in interpreting Wang’s “intuitive knowing” andChangesstudies.

Intuitive Knowing as Prior to Fuxi’s Eight Pre-Heavenly Trigrams of the Dao of the Changes [80]

According to his “Chronicle” [年譜], when Wang was thirty-fi ve years old, he submitted a proposal to save Dai Xian 戴銑 (fl . 1496) and Bo Yanhui 薄彥徽 (fl . 1496), who had been imprisoned for attacking Liu Jin 劉瑾 (1451—1510), resulting in Wang’s being flogged and imprisoned by the secret military police of the imperial court. While in prison, he came across Lin Xingwu 林省吾 (1475—1540), who had been a Case Reviewer at the Court of Judicial Review, and the two men “spent a month together discussing theChangesin shackles,” with Wang exclaiming that “we did not rest day or night, forgetting our position as prisoners.”10Wang Shouren 王守仁, “Preface to Farewell to Lin Xingwu of the Investigation Bureau” [送別省吾林都憲序], in vol. 22 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming [王陽明全集], eds. Wu Guang 吳光 et al. (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2011), 975.It can be said that it was this prison discussion of theChanges, enabling his spirit to transcend outer bondage and his mind to gain a supreme mood and spiritual plane of inner freedom, that constituted the true germination of the spiritual plane in his later Learning of Mind. It was precisely through this spiritual plane of unexpected salvation and joy amidst hardship that the Learning of Mind survived periodic proscription in later history,11Of the four occasions in which scholarly schools were banned nationwide in the Ming dynasty, the fi rst three (in 1537, 1538, and 1579) were all directed at the Learning of Mind. See Zhou Yueliang 周月亮, A Biography of Wang Yangming [王陽明傳] (Wuhan: Changjiang Literature and Art Press, 2016), 284.its flame being passed down from generation to generation and continually displaying its brilliance.

Scholars have generally understood and analyzed the related principles of theChangesin Wang’s poem “Reading theChanges” [讀易] which he wrote in prison, such as realizing the connection between “Sitting at dusk toying with [Fu]xi’s 伏羲Changes, / One’s mind is cleansed and perceives subtle profundities; / One can thus know that in every line he drew, / The former venerable master enclosed his supreme teaching”12Wang Shouren, “Reading the Changes” [讀易], in vol. 19 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 747.and Fuxi’s eight pre-Heavenly trigrams (xiantian bagua先天八卦), yet most discussions have not elaborated how theChangescan “cleanse one’s mind” or enable one to see the subtlety and profundity prior to the drawing of the trigrams. In fact, that Wang Yangming understood Fuxi’s eight pre-Heavenly trigrams demonstrates that in his studies of theChangeshe had entered into the pre-Heavenly spiritual plane prior to Fuxi’s drawing of the trigrams, and the atmosphere of this pre-Heavenly spiritual plane can be felt in every line of Fuxi’s eight pre-Heavenly trigrams. It can be said that this pre-Heavenly spiritual plane is continuous with the spiritual plane of “no things outside the mind” in the later realization of thedaoat Longchang.

When Wang treated his own learning of intuitive knowing as a secret transmitted orally, akin to the tacit knowing that “uses the mind to transmit the mind” in Chan Buddhism’s “smile when plucking a fl ower,” this can be regarded as a modifi ed and updated version of Han Yu’s 韓愈 (768—824) “theory ofdao-orthodoxy” influenced by the Chan idea of the lineage of dharma-transmission. Most importantly, he emphasized that intuitive knowing is not only found in daily and commonplace conduct but also that its learning already existed before Fuxi drew his trigrams13Wang Shouren, “Farewell to Various Students” [別諸生], in vol. 20 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 872.and was later passed down orally among the early sages, despite not being recorded in written form.

Intuitive knowing is rooted in the “chaos” (hundun渾沌) prior to the separation of Heaven and Earth, and Wang Yangming thought that “if my two words ‘intuitive knowing’ could be understood as soon as they were spoken, who would not know them? If one wishes to perceive intuitive knowing, who is able to perceive it?”14Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, III” [傳習(xí)錄下], in vol. 3 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 142.In fact, it would be impossible for anyone to truly possess such pre-Heavenly experience, since intuitive knowing is fundamentally transcendental. In this sense, in terms of the pre-existence of philosophical concepts, intuitive knowing and thedaoof theChangespossess the same status, since both were operative prior to the existence of the myriad things of the cosmos. Although thedaoof theChangesis simple and unchanging, it is also invisible, and thus has a pre-Heavenly quality, and intuitive knowing equally also has this kind of pre-Heavenly (i.e., a priori) quality of being in operation prior to all experience. Furthermore, intuitive knowing transcends experience and cannot be demonstrated with any actual experience, and thus it can be said to be empty and incapable of becoming the direct object of any actual experience, much as Heaven itself is similar to the Great Void (taixu太虛). In this sense, intuitive knowing is similar to absence (non-being) and almost equivalent to the formless Great Void.

How should the intentions of our minds understand such an “empty” form of intuitive knowing? Perhaps it can be called the “intentionality of mind and Heaven,” since this state of consciousness, in which the mind is continuous with Heaven, is in fact rooted in the endlessness of the Great Void. The sun and moon, wind and thunder, mountains and valleys, the people and the myriad things, are all things with bodily form, appearance, and color, and all grow, develop, and move within the formlessness of the Great Void. The myriad things and events are all within the Great Void, yet they do not know what the Great Void is. Intuitive knowing is continuous with Heaven, and like Heaven it is formless and without appearance; yet since we do not know what Heaven is, all intuitive knowing is in fact undefi nable. Since Heaven contains everything, none of the things under Heaven can become obstacles to Heaven itself. If intuitive knowing is like Heaven, then nothing can possibly become an obstacle to intuitive knowing, and intuitive knowing can encompass all of existence. Since ancient times, sages understood the spiritual plane of intuitive knowing continuous with Heaven, and they simply followed the intuitive knowing of a formless and imageless “Heaven” to naturally exert their “intentionality of mind and Heaven,” such that Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things all lay within the exertion and fl owing of their intuitive knowing. Between the intuitive knowing that is equal to Heaven and the myriad things and events, there is not the slightest obstacle, just as the diff erence between the Great Void and things constitutes no hindrance.

In this way, when intuitive knowing as equal to Heaven and empty is taken to the extreme, it is as if nothing at all exists, since it completely transcends experience and is a transcendental existence in the sense of “non-existence.” In the year 1526, when Wang Yangming’s disciple Nan Daji 南大吉 (1487—1541) came into confl ict with powerful fi gures in the imperial court and fell into disgrace, Wang wrote to him, “Gentlemen who only possess thedaotruly have insight into the luminous enlightenment and spiritual awakening of their intuitive knowing, integral and penetrating, vast in its consubstantiality with the Great Void.”15Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, III,” 235.A lofty person who has attained thedaoand completely realized intuitive knowing is in fact someone whose mental intentions are continuous with the Great Void and whose mind knows no obstacles, like one who has attained the spiritual plane of Zhuangzi’s “realized man” (zhenren真人) or “perfected man” (zhiren至人), free and distant without dependence, attaining the transformative plane of “cook Ding slicing the ox” (Zhuangzi, chap. 3), and therefore does not come into confl ict with any existing thing. This spiritual plane of intuitive knowing being consubstantial with the Great Void is in fact an a priori spiritual plane that transcends specifi c things with forms and appearances and is thus a spiritual plane equal to the Great Void of Heaven that transcends both “intuition” and “knowledge.”

Intuitive Knowing Is the Dao of Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos [81]

The thesis that “intuitive knowing is change” comes from the “Record of Transmission and Practice, III” [傳習(xí)錄下]: “Intuitive knowing is change, ‘a(chǎn)s thedaoit repeatedly shifts, changing and moving without rest, circulating and fl owing into the six empty places, rising and falling without constancy, hard and soft mutually changing, such that it cannot be taken as a fi xed rule, and follows only change.’ How can this knowing be grasped and attained? When one perceives it fully one will be a sage.”16Ibid., 142.Echoing the pre-Heavenly existential state of intuitive knowing equal to Heaven and the Great Void, Wang Yangming here borrowed from the description of thedaoof theChangesin “Attached Words, II” [系辭下; appendix to theBook of Changes] to express the existential state of intuitive knowing. The post-HeavenlyChangessystem of hexagrams and trigram/line judgments is actually nothing but a mirror for the pre-Heavenlydaoof theChanges, in order to assist people in understanding the intuitive knowing that changes and moves without rest, and thereby regulating their present degree of consciousness. Since intuitive knowing is thedaoof theChanges, intuitive knowing is therefore able to correspond accurately with thedaoof Heaven and Earth, just like the system of hexagrams and lines follows the changes and transformations of the greatdaoof Heaven and Earth in its changes and transformations, and the changes and transformations of consciousness should be unifi ed with the myriad exchanges of things.

In the view of the theory of foundational intentionality, the hexagramHeng恒 (constancy; hexagram no. 32 in theBook of Changes) explains that the fl owing of thought is originally only flowing movement, which necessarily requires extended maintenance, and yet that thought cannot be separated from its intentional context (yiyuan意緣), otherwise it has no way to concretize its intentionality. For Wang, the most stable intentional context is internal intuitive knowing. The operation of the mind’s intention is originally continuous with thedaoof the solar and lunar cycles, and this in fact is the root source of the constancy of the intuitive knowing between Heaven and Earth. Yangming learning regards intuitive knowing as the constancy of the affective context in which thoughts arise, while the constancy of both affective intentionality and the stimulus-response ofyin-yangenergy come from intuitive knowing itself. Intuitive knowing enables life to be produced from nothing and to reproduce without cease, helping people to escape the abandonment and despair they feel in non-being, and thereby to establish a feeling of stability in their intentional context. As Wang Yangming’s disciple Wang Ji 王畿 (1498—1583) said, “The knowing ofQian乾 (pureyang; hexagram no. 1 in theBook of Changes) is intuitive knowing, the fi rst original opening of chaos. It is the beginning of the myriad things and does not stand in opposition to them, whence it is called ‘solitary’ (du獨).”17Wang Ji, “Brief Discussion on the Extension of Knowing” [致知議略], in vol. 6 of Collected Works of Wang Ji [王畿集], ed. Wu Zhen 吳震 (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing House, 2007), 131.Hence it can be said that intuitive knowing is that initiating power ofQian-yangprior to relative fl owing movement.18For the theory of foundational intentionality’s account of the “intentional production” of Qian-yang in hexagram Qian, see Wen Haiming, Illuminating Intentionality through the Zhouyi: New Explorations in the Philosophy of the Book of Changes [周易明意：周易哲學(xué)新探] (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2019), 77—102; Wen Haiming, “The Philosophy of Intentionality and Contemporary Chinese Philosophy as Comparative Philosophy,” Confucian Academy 7, no. 4 (2020): 14.

Intuitive Knowing Is the Dao of Yin and Yang, Movement and Stillness, and Being and Non-Being [82]

Precisely because intuitive knowing is “the knowing ofQian” or “Heavenly knowing,” the concept of intuitive knowing can correspond to cosmological concepts of a “first cause,” such as the Supreme Polarity (taiji太極),qi氣, and principle (li理), or ontological concepts such as original substance (benti本體) and essence (benzhi本質(zhì)). In terms of the expressive unfolding of intuitive knowing, Wang Yangming believed that intuitive knowing isyinandyang, movement and stillness, rising and falling, being and non-being, and substance and function, and that it must be understood through these opposing categories.

Intuitive Knowing Is Yin and Yang [83]

Wang Yangming saw intuitive knowing asyinandyang:

Yinandyangare oneqi, and this oneqicontracts and expands to becomeyinandyang; movement and stillness are one principle, and this one principle hides and manifests itself to become movement and stillness. Spring and summer can beyangand movement, yet they are never withoutyinand stillness; autumn and winter can beyinand stillness, yet they are never withoutyangand movement. In spring and summer this never ceases, nor does it in autumn and winter, so these can all be calledyangand movement; in spring and summer there is this constant substance, as there is in autumn and winter, so these can all be calledyinand stillness. From eras, millennia, centuries, generations, years, months, days, and hours, down to minutes, seconds, moments, and instants, all are like this. In terms of the statement “movement and stillness have no end,yinandyanghave no beginning,” those who know thedaorecognize this in silence, since it cannot be expressed fully in language. If one merely gets tied up in writings and bogged down in sentences, comparing similarities, then this is what was called the mind revolving around theLotus[Sutra], not the [mind] making theLotusrevolve.19Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, II” [傳習(xí)錄中], in vol. 2 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 73.

Since intuitive knowing is like the Great Void, like the endless changes and transformations of thedaoof theChanges, so intuitive knowing andyin—yangqiare spontaneously fused without duality, since allyin—yangand movement—stillness takes place amidst the myriad transformations of time and space. In this sense, intuitive knowing is the “first cause” or original substance of the operation of Heaven and Earth, and it is both the same single change and transformation with things, yet it does not alter itself in following the changes and transformations of things. Only from the perspective of the original substance of intuitive knowing transforming into the fl owing operation ofyin—yangcan we understand the statement that “movement and stillness have no end,yinandyanghave no beginning.”

Thus, Wang Yangming emphasized that thoroughly realizing the spiritual plane of intuitive knowing implies using one’s intentionality to connect with Heaven, grasping intuitive knowing with its myriad transformations, yet not allowing one’s original mind and active thought to become tied down by these myriad transformations. Wang often remarked that “[the original substance of the mind] is originally quiet and unmoving yet originally affective and thereby continuous,”20Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, II,” 65—66.and he quoted Cheng Mingdao’s 程明道 (Cheng Hao 程顥, 1032—1085) saying, “There is nothing that is not vast and grand in its openness, and things come and are followed in response.”21Ibid., 66.It can be said that intuitive knowing is like the deep level of water in ordinary thought, which is spontaneously affective and continuous with the myriad things yet calm, still, and unfathomable, and not manifest as surface waves.

Intuitive Knowing Is Movement and Stillness [84]

The original substance of the mind is originally not divided into movement and stillness, and its movement and stillness only refer to the opportune moments with which it meets. Heavenly principle both moves and does not move. In following the Heavenly principle, the flowing operation of intuitive knowing is both moving and still, such that despite the inconstancy of changes and transformations, it also has its constancy which never begins to move. If people follow desires, even if they deliberately repress the arising of thoughts, their minds and intentions may still be like capering monkeys and wild horses, such that even if they consciously cultivate themselves to reach a spiritual plane like dried wood and dead ashes, their inner minds are already unable to return to peace and stillness.

Since “intuitive knowing is change,” and change alternates between movement and stillness without ceasing, Wang Yangming stated, “Change refers to theyin—yangand movement—stillness of my mind; when movement and stillness do not miss their appropriate times, change is present in me.”22Wang Shouren, “Approaching the Dao to Penetrate the Classics” [與道通書], in vol. 32 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1329.We can say that Wang understood theBook of Changesas “the changes of the mind” (xinyi心易), namely as an expression of the changes—transformations and movement—stillness of the mind. We can also say that theBook of Changesis an image-transformation and language-transformation of the changes and transformations of the mind’s intentionality, expressed as hexagram—images and line judgments, in which the core is time, since time is invisible, as with the invisibility of intentionality and intuitive knowing.

To Cheng Yi’s 程頤 (1033—1107) phrase “taking the stillness of the mind as substance, and the movement of the mind as function,”23Cheng Yi’s statement is found in Cheng Hao 程顥 and Cheng Yi 程頤, “Collected Writings of the Chengs from Henan” [河南程氏文集], vol. 9, in Collected Works of the Two Chengs [二程集], ed. Wang Xiaoyu 王孝魚 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), 609.Wang replied that the mind cannot be divided into original substance and effective function on the basis of movement and stillness, and the original substance and expressed function of intuitive knowing are not separated by the mind’s states of movement and non-movement, for it is not that fi rst there is substance and only then function, as the expressed movement of intuitive knowing is both substance and function. Movement and stillness are only spoken of in relation to the opportune moments in which the mind fi nds itself, and they only manifestly appear in the state of fl owing changes through time, while the original state of intuitive knowing is that of movement and stillness as one. Although intuitive knowing is expressed as different states, there has never been any true stillness, since the so-called “stillness” is merely the stillness of thoughts, such that, in terms of original substance, effort originates in original substance, and in terms of effective function, original substance is to be found within the effort of fl owing operation and function, this being the so-called “one origin for substance and function”24Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, I” [傳習(xí)錄上], vol. 1 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 36.according to which the substance of the mind and its intentional context are interconnected as one. In fact, both the functioning of the substance of the mind and the expression of the intentional context are manifest images of the states of sincerity and centrality (when thoughts are about to arise and have not yet arisen, respectively), expressed as “no gap between manifestation and subtlety.” At most it can be said that, at times of calm stillness, people can observe and recognize the original substance of the mind, while at times of action and movement, people can experience the effective functioning of the mind.

Intuitive Knowing Is Rising and Falling [85]

The present author’s bookIlluminating Intentionality through the Zhouyi[周易明意] has established a system of hexagram changes based on the “Square and Round Diagrams of King Wen’s Hexagram Changes” and holds that the sixty-four hexagrams of theBook of Changesall derive from the twelve rising and falling hexagrams (xiao xigua消息卦).25See Wen, Illuminating Intentionality through the Zhouyi, 52—58.HexagramDun遁 (withdrawal, no. 33) is one of the six hexagrams in the twelve rising and falling hexagrams where soft is growing and hard is retreating, which can demonstrate the tendency ofyinrising andyangfalling, with two soft lines growing upward and forcing four hard lines to retreat, and in the fall and growth ofyinandyangin the twelve months of the year, it corresponds to the sixth month of the lunar calendar, when the weather is turning from hot to cold andyang qiis retreating and being replaced irreversibly byyin qi. Wang Yangming’s poem from prison “Reading theChanges” mentions how “[line] four ofDuncaptivates my mind,”26Wang Shouren, “Reading the Changes,” 747.and he also later said that “as in the time ofDun, thedaois in withdrawal, so one withdraws oneself to benefi t one’sdao.”27Wang Shouren, “Thirteen Suppositions on the Five Classics” [五經(jīng)臆說十三條], in vol. 26 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 1079.Since Wang had once found himself in a situation of fl eeing, he had a deep sense of the situation of hexagramDunin which the gentleman of theyanglines ought to follow the retreat of the times and withdraw.

Wang once said, “Thus theChangesmark the rising and falling of theyinandyangof my mind.”28Wang Shouren, “Record from the Zunjing Pavilion at the Jishan Academy” [稽山書院尊經(jīng)閣記], in vol. 7 of Complete Works of Wang Yangming, 284.He proposed that intuitive knowing refers to the mind following the intentionality of Heaven in producing rising and falling changes and transformations, realizing the appropriate degree of advance and retreat for thought in a situation of fl eeing. In ordinary usage, “l(fā)ife” or “production” always has the sense of advancement, yet in actuality the connotation of “retreat” contains more wisdom, explaining how a conscious subject should deeply grasp his or her affective situation but at the same time have the great intentional capacity needed to quickly change his or her direction of thought. When forced to fl ee, people need the survival wisdom of giving up, abandoning, and leaving behind, and they cannot allow themselves to be dragged down by considerations of gain and loss, all of which is established on the basis of present thoughts possessing a strong vitality. Wang’s realization of thedaowhile reading theChangesat Longchang demonstrates that he was able to quickly concentrate his intentional context into intuitive knowing, exhausting the mental power of his later life to achieve a comprehensive conversion of thought, and thereafter to dedicate himself to showing the brilliance of the Learning of Mind and to establish a new intellectual vitality.

Intuitive Knowing Is Being and Non-Being [86]

Taken literally, intuitive knowing is undoubtedly a “good” (liang良) form of “knowing” (zhi知), namely a fi ne or morally good form of knowing that includes a degree of judgment. However, there has been much debate over Wang’s understanding of “good,” since besides the famous phrase from his Four-Sentence Teaching, “That which has no good or bad is the substance of the mind,”29The Four-Sentence Teaching is: “That which has no good or bad is the substance of the mind, that which has good or bad is the movement of intention, that which knows good and bad is intuitive knowing, and that which does good and removes bad is the investigation of things.” See Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, III,” 133.in Wang’s frequent references to the “good” of “intuitive knowing,” it is in fact not a value judgment concerning the good, being instead an idea closer to nonbeing. Wang said, “Since in inherent nature there is nothing that is not good, in knowing there is nothing that is not good.”30Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, II,” 71.Since the original inherent nature of intuitive knowing is continuous with Heaven, intuitive knowing is a “knowing” that is continuous with Heaven and not ordinary “knowledge,” so that it cannot be judged using the ordinary sense of the word “good.” Put another way, intuitive knowing is the goodness (shan善) of the spontaneousdaoof Heaven, and it cannot be judged using the labels “good” or “not good.”

Wang also said that in intuitive knowing “there is no knowledge, and yet nothing is unknown, and the original substance is originally like this,” much as the fact that the sun “shines on nothing, yet there is nothing on which it does not shine”31Wang Shouren, Commentaries and Sub-Commentaries of the Record of Transmission and Practice [傳習(xí)錄注疏], ed. Deng Aimin 鄧艾民 (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2015), 235.is not because the sun has the benevolence to shine on things. Thus, as the original substance, intuitive knowing has nothing that can be called known or unknown, and just as it can be said to know nothing, we can also say that there is nothing it does not know. Hence Wang clearly stated that “intuitive knowing is originally without knowledge,”32Ibid.since he wished to eliminate the value obsession with “good,” namely believing that intuitive knowing is simply fi ne or morally good knowledge, while in fact it has no partiality or bias.

Intuitive Knowing Is Substance and Function [86]

Wang Yangming said, “In relation to ‘one origin for substance and function,’ if there is this substance then there is this function, so that if there is ‘the centrality prior to arousal,’ then there is also ‘the harmony of arousal in which all is central and regulated.’”33Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, I,” 20.Here he spoke in terms of the states before and after arousal in theZhongyong. Although this way of discussing substance and function has received much scholarly attention, the state of “substance and function as not two” is in fact only one aspect displayed by intuitive knowing. By the time of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130—1200), Cheng Yi’s idea of “one origin for substance and function, with no gap between manifestation and subtlety,” from his “Preface to theCommentaries on the Changes” [易傳序], had been developed as follows:

The perfectly subtle is principle; the perfectly manifest is image. There is one origin for substance and function, and no gap between manifestation and subtlety. Since it “observes gathering and connection to carry out the canonical rituals,” there is nothing not covered by its words. This is one principle, one image, one word. However, if one wishes to comprehend principle and image, one must comprehend them through words.34Li Jingde 黎靖德, ed., Categorized Sayings of Master Zhu [朱子語類], vol. 67 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1986), 1653.

We can say that, as with the manifestation of thedaoof theChanges, intuitive knowing is manifested as words, images, changes, and divination. Intuitive knowing is originally both substance and function, with the emptiness of substance going back to before Fuxi’s eight pre-Heavenly trigrams, and its concrete function being shown in the specifi c contents of the hexagrams, lines, and words. Wang believed that since substance is the original substance of intuitive knowing, function is the effective function of intuitive knowing, and substance and function are united in intuitive knowing, so that intuitive knowing naturally cannot transcend substance and function as something external to them.35Wang Shouren, “Record of Transmission and Practice, II,” 71.

Intuitive Knowing Is the Intentionality of the Mind and Heaven: Both Original Substance and Effort [87]

The fact that intuitive knowing is both substance and functionin ontological terms can be connected to its status as “both original substance and effort” in terms of the theory of effort or self-cultivation (gongfulun功夫論) . The “Attached Words, I” [系辭上] states, “Sages use this to cleanse their minds, retiring to hide it in the esoteric and sharing their concerns for good and bad fortune with the people. . . . Sages use this to discipline and purify themselves, using the spirit to illuminate their virtue!” As Wang said in his prison poem “Reading theChanges,” amusing oneself with theChangesdaily can cleanse one’s mind, with abstemiousness and simplifi cation, so as to enter into a plane of pure and refi ned subtlety in which one is affected and thereby connected. Doubtless, intuitive knowing can be called the knowing of the sage, entry into which requires cleansing the mind, and this is in accord with the present author’s proposal of “change rooted in the changes of the mind, the mind connected with things, and the mind and things as one”36Wen, Illuminating Intentionality through the Zhouyi, 1.as the basis for cultivating and concretizing one’s intentions.

Wang emphasized that people’s fundamental capacities can be divided into higher, medium, and lower, and that people’s differing capacities call for different educational methods, explaining that the root of the greatdaoand the spiritual plane of intuitive knowing both require a capacity for enlightenment. People of higher capacity can directly realize intuitive knowing and can thoroughly realize the fused interconnection of original substance and effort without diffi culty. At the time of his demonstration of thedaoat the Tianquan Bridge, Wang clearly stated that his theory of intuitive knowing was aimed at people with a higher aptitude, since people with a higher capacity for enlightenment can realize directly from the source and fi nd it easier to understand how the original substance of the human mind is originally translucent and open, in an original state of centrality prior to arousal. People with a higher capacity for enlightenment only need a slight enlightenment as to original substance in order to understand effort, namely “both original substance and effort,” and they can proceed directly to completely fusing self and other, inner mind and outer things.

Intuitive Knowing Is the Knowing of Heavenly Conscience [88]

Mencius7A:15 states, “That which people are able to do without learning is their intuitive ability; that which they know without reflection is their intuitive knowing.” Wang Yangming undoubtedly inherited, enriched, and developed Mencius’s account of intuitive knowing. If one simply understands and discusses Wang’s intuitive knowing in the sense of Mencius’s intuitive knowing, one significantly compresses and reduces the rich and profound philosophical connotations that Wang gave to intuitive knowing, since none of these can be separated from his Learning of Mind rooted inChangesstudies.

In Wang’s view, the mind is the ruler of the body and the self-conscious state of the mind is original intuitive knowing. In the flowing action initiated by the intentions of the mind, there is originally an orientation that is continuous with Heaven. In the selfconsciousness of intuitive knowing, that which initiates in keeping with the stimulusresponse of external things is called thought (yinian意念). What Wang called intention (yi意) is in fact what the theory of foundational intentionality calls thought (nian念), since the “intention” of the theory of foundational intentionality has an ontological sense and is not simply that which is moves in response to being stimulated by things, with all states of mental action, all states of consciousness, and everything from original substance to initiated function capable of being called “intention.” However, for Wang, only when there is intuitive knowing can there be thought, and where there is no intuitive knowing there is nothought. For the theory of foundational intentionality, however, thought has nothing to do with knowledge, and regardless of whether it is known or not, the original substance of intentionality can be either hidden or aroused. There is the intentionality of original substance, such as the intentionality opened by the mind, and there is also the intentionality of the already aroused, such as ordinary thoughts. In Wang’s view, intuitive knowing is the original substance of thought, while events and things are the functional objects of thought. Coeval with this thought, there is this event or thing, and without this thought, there is not this event or thing. For example, when thought functions in supporting one’s parents, then supporting one’s parents is an event or thing; when thought functions in governing the people, then governing the people is an event or thing; when thought functions in reading books, then reading books is an event or thing;when thought functions in hearing a case, then hearing a case is an event or thing. Wang emphasized that the effective functioning of intention makes things or events, believing that there is a natural relationship between intention and events or things. Events or things are all accomplished by intention, with all under Heaven illuminated by intention, using intentions to illuminate things.

The theory of foundational intentionality emphasizes that intuitive knowing comes from Heaven, being a “knowing of Heavenly conscience” (tianliang zhi zhi天良之知), where intuitive knowing is present in the myriad things, being spontaneously apparent and present in the human mind. Wang’s prison poem says this about hexagram and line judgments: “In tolerating the ignorant, lest they become enemies, the work of corralling the youthful should be done early; where mounting diffi culties cannot be regulated, being fearful is not against thedao. [Line] four ofDuncaptivates my mind, while the top [line] ofGu蠱 (dangers, no. 18) demands self-protection.”37Wang Shouren, “Reading the Changes,” 747.If one interprets this according to the theory of foundational intentionality, attempting to penetrate the text as completely as possible, one can appreciate that Wang’s spiritual plane in realizing thedaowas already lofty, profound, and unfathomable, even revealing and manifesting the attainments of his whole life. It is usually not hard to recognize that the fi rst sentence, about “tolerating the ignorant to guard against their becoming enemies,” is connected to the secondyangline, “tolerating the ignorant, there is good fortune; accepting a wife, there is good fortune; a son can support his family” and the topyangline, “in attacking the ignorant, it is not benefi cial to make an enemy, but rather to ward off enemies” of hexagramMeng蒙 (ignorance, no. 4). One can infer that Wang is refl ecting that his response to Liu Jin’s excessive attacks on injustice ended in bringing harm upon himself. However, this sentence in fact also implies that, as the torchbearer of the Learning of Mind, when transmitting thedaoof the sages, one must be able to broadly tolerate the ignorant and avoid if possible educating through beating, shouting, and criticizing in favor of a prudence and caution that can prevent ignorant children growing up into thugs. When Wang later dealt with bandits, he always regarded his task as educating and transforming the people, showing that his spiritual plane in reading hexagramMengwas completely continuous with his later work in teaching and transmitting the Learning of Mind, and that he always regarded enlightening the people’s intuitive knowing as his primary task.

Wang’s understanding of these few lines of hexagram and line judgments established his entire ethos in the Learning of Mind, fi xed its unshakeable position in the history of the study of Chinese classics, and unfolded the whole spectacular vista of the Learning of Mind as a philosophical movement. Now let us examine Wang’s discussion of hexagramJin晉 (progress, no. 35):

In the virtue of the mind there is originally nothing that is not illuminated, hence it [the text] speaks of illuminating virtue. That it is sometimes not illuminated is due to concealment by the selfish. If this selfishness is removed, there is nothing that is not illuminated. . . . That which is spontaneously evident simply spontaneously removes the concealment of its selfi sh desire.38Wang Shouren, “Thirteen Suppositions on the Five Classics,” 1079.

HexagramJinhas much to say about how the gentleman manifests his own illustrious virtue and exerts himself to push the further unfolding of the vitality of thought. From ancient times to the present, this path always involves people jostling each other, and this line hopes that people follow a bright and uprightdaoand not concentrate on such jostling. There are always setbacks on the way to success, but if one persists in seeking the rightdaowithout giving up, one will always attain good fortune. Even if one is often not entrusted with important responsibilities, there is no need for concern, and if one can treat it lightly, there will be no need for regret. Where the power of promotion is greater, the power of mutual opposition is also greater, and the forces of light and dark will mutually reinforce and grow and the intentions of the mind be promoted through production and reproduction.

The learning of intuitive knowing depends on specific historical and social contexts in its production, just as thoughts are inevitably dependent on context in their production, a kind ofcreatio in situ. Since it is often difficult for a person’s own consciousness to completely master his or her context, so people need self-control on the one hand, but they also need to wait for their context to change. When the analysis of the Learning of Mind from the perspective of “intuitive knowing as change” had just first emerged, it was in a difficult state—as a new theory, it met with all kinds of objections and repressions. Thus the development and progress of new theories cannot be forced too urgently, but must rather progress through fumbling learning, continually attempting to fi nd the most suitable means, and taking an upright path with an optimistic attitude.

Conclusion [91]

This paper argues for the conclusion that “intuitive knowing is change” through fi ve aspects, explaining that Wang Yangming’s intuitive knowing is first of all not merely people’s intuitive knowing, and emphasizing that, although Wang’s learning of intuitive knowing inherited Mencius’s views, this was in fact limited to the level where intuitive knowing connects with human society. Since the intuitive knowing of Yangming learning greatly transcends the level of human knowledge and moral conscience, in using epistemology and ethics to study Yangming learning, it is hard to see the forest for the trees.

From the perspective of the theory of foundational intentionality, this paper has attempted to raise the existing spiritual plane of philosophical enlightenment in relation to relevant texts from Wang’s studies of theChanges. First, intuitive knowing has a pre-Heavenly, a priori quality. From Wang’s belief that intuitive knowing is prior to thedaoof theChangesin Fuxi’s eight pre-Heavenly trigrams, it can be seen that this already goes beyond the level of ordinary epistemology and can only be grasped intuitively. Second, intuitive knowing is thedaoof Heaven, Earth, and the cosmos. Wang equated intuitive knowing with thedaoof Heaven, Earth, and the cosmos itself as an ultimate primary concept like the “Supreme Polarity” of theCommentaries on the Changesand Zhu Xi’s “principle,” since this intuitive knowing is also completely identical with the “mind” in the Learning of Mind. Third, Wang frequently discussed intuitive knowing as thedaoofyinandyang, movement and stillness, and being and non-being; that is to say, for Wang, intuitive knowing displays itself within relative opposition, flowing operation, change and transformation, the hidden and manifest, and affective continuity, since it is the mind’s comprehension and realization of the intentionality of Heaven and Earth in their spontaneity. Fourth, Wang’s intuitive knowing can be understood as the “intentionality of mind and Heaven” since it can provide insight into the relationship between the mind and Heaven in terms of both ontology and the theory of effort. Fifth, although Wang’s intuitive knowing indeed inherited and developed Mencius’s concept of intuitive knowing, this level of meaning can also only be adequately understood from the perspective of the “knowing of Heavenly conscience.”