Wang Yang-ming (wäng yäng-mĭng), 1472–1529, Chinese philosopher. He developed an idealist interpretation of Confucianism Confucianism (kənfy
..... Click the link for more information. that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Chu Hsi Chu Hsi (j

shē), 1130–1200, Chinese philosopher of Neo-Confucianism.
..... Click the link for more information. . Wang believed that universal moral law is innate in man and discoverable through self-cultivation. In contrast to the orthodox Confucian reliance on classical studies (see Chinese literature Chinese literature, the literature of ancient and modern China.

Early Writing and Literature

It is not known when the current system of writing Chinese first developed. The oldest written records date from about 1400 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ) as a means to self-cultivation, Wang stressed self-awareness and the unity of knowledge and action. One school of his followers emphasized achievement of mystical enlightenment in a manner strikingly similar to Zen Buddhism Zen Buddhism, Buddhist sect of China and Japan. The name of the sect (Chin. Ch'an, Jap. Zen) derives from the Sanskrit dhyana [meditation].
..... Click the link for more information. .

Wang Yangming

or Wang Yang-ming

(born 1472, Yuyao, Zhejiang province, China—died 1529, Nanen, Jiangxi) Chinese scholar and official whose idealistic interpretation of Neo-Confucianism influenced philosophical thinking in East Asia for centuries. The son of a high government official, he was both a secretary to the Ministry of War and a lecturer on Confucianism by 1505. The next year, he was banished to a post in remote Guizhou, where hardship and solitude led him to focus on philosophy. He concluded that investigation of the principles of things should occur within the mind rather than through actual objects and that knowledge and action are codependent. Named governor of southern Jiangxi in 1516, he suppressed several rebellions and implemented governmental, social, and educational reform. By the time he was appointed war minister (1521), his followers numbered in the hundreds. His philosophy spread across China for 150 years and greatly influenced Japanese thought during that time. From 1584 he was offered sacrifice in the Confucian temple under the title Wencheng (“Completion of Culture”).