从“诚意格物”到“致良知”:王阳明工夫论的困境与突破

From “Sincerity of Thought and Investigation of Things” to “Extension of Intuitive Knowledge”: The Dilemma and Breakthrough of Wang Yangming’s Gongfu Theory

在"致良知"提出前,王阳明以"诚意格物"为学问宗旨。"诚意格物"是针对意念的工夫,而对意念用功必须先分清意念的善恶,否则便无法存善念去恶(私)念;要分清善恶,就要先体认天理,否则善恶就失去了绝对性;要体认天理,还须先去除私欲,否则就可能认欲为理。要去除私欲,又须先分清意念的善恶,否则便无法去恶(私)。这样的话,阳明的工夫论就陷入了一个死循环。正德十五年,王阳明所揭示的"致良知"学说通过严格区分良知与意念,才解决了这个困境。

Before the "extension of intuitive knowledge" was put forward, Wang Yangming took sincerity of thought and investigation of things as his learning aim. Make will sincere and investigation of things is a work aiming at will. To work on will, we must distinguish the good and evil of the will, otherwise we can’t keep good will and eliminate evil will. To distinguish good from evil, we must first recognize the principles of heaven, or the good and evil will lose their absoluteness. To recognize the principles of heaven, we must first remove the selfish desires, or we may recognize the selfish desires as the principles. In order to get rid of selfish desires, we must first distinguish the good and evil in our will, otherwise we cannot get rid of the evil. In this way, Yangming’s thought has fallen into a dead cycle. In the 15 th year of Zhengde, Wang Yangming’s theory of "extension of intuitive knowledge" solved this dilemma by strictly distinguishing knowledge and will.