致良知和成圣工夫

基于致良知学说,王阳明阐发了人的道德本性,赋予人以道德实践的自觉性、自律性以及道德完善的自足性。他指出:人是一个本性自足的存在者,其本身就具有自我存在的价值之源(良知),不需要任何其它的外在权威来规定自己的存在价值,人本质上就是自由的。他还改造了儒家的传统圣人观,剔除了其中关于圣人标准的才力(知识技能)因素,认为道德性乃是衡量圣人之为圣人的惟一标准,由此解决了“满街都是圣人”的理论可能,并指出:致良知就是为圣之功。这对以知识态度来审视一切以致把人类自己物化的危险倾向不无现实的警醒意义。

On the Extension of Innate Knowledge and the Effort for Being a Sage

On the basis of the theory of the extension of knowledge,Wang Yangming illuminates the morality of human nature that humans are characterized by self-consciousness,self-discipline and self-sufficiency of their moral consummation in their moral practice.He points out that the human nature is self-sufficient and it is the source of value for itself(innate knowledge),so human is free naturally.Moreover,Wang Yangming also reconstructs the traditional Confucian idea about sage,that is to say,the criterion about sage is in morality and the ability(knowledge and skill) is not involved in the criterion.Thus he solves the probability that everyone is a sage.He further indicates that the extension of innate knowledge is just the effort for being a sage.Today,Wang Yangming's thought as mentioned above can help us to realize that we should not take an attitude of knowledge to see everything,because the attitude probably moves us in a dangerous tendency that Man would be just a substance.