Abstract

This is a study of the moral philosphy of Wang Yang-ming in light of its relation to the moral philosophy of Mencius . Particular attention is paid to identifying and examining the metaphors each thinker used to express his thought and showing how these, taken together, describe two related but distinct variations on traditional Confucianism. ;Five issues, held in common and central to both thinker's moral teachings, are examined: The Nature of Morality, Human Nature, The Origin of Evil, Self-Cultivation and Sagehood. Comparing their respective views on these issues reveals the breadth of Wang's Mencian heritage. But it also reveals the profound transformation that heritage had undergone. There was great philosophical as well as temporal distance between Mencius and Wang. Buddhism had entered China about four centuries after Mencius' death and had fundamentally changed the way Chinese thinkers thought about themselves and their world. There had been a dramatic shift, in moral philosophy, from moralities based on claims about human nature to moralities grounded in metaphysical theories. In this transition, both the range and form of moral thinking changed. Wang looked back to Mencius, but he saw him through a Buddhist filter. He transformed Mencius' moral philosophy as he sought to understand it, refracted by this filter. ;This study describes both Mencius' original vision and Wang's later view of it. Comparing the views of these two thinkers reveals the range and richness of thought to be found within the Confucian tradition