Musings about ways to act for a better world
- By Wang Yong
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, February 6, 2015
But one question bugged me: Did she really understand Zhi Xing He Yi?
On second thought, I knew what was wrong with the sales lady and her own teacher. Like many other Chinese people, they mistook Zhi Xing He Yi as meaning this: If you know what you want, act upon it! (Zhi means know, Xing means act, He Yi means combine.)
But what Wang Yangming meant was not "do whatever you know you want to do." Wang meant that you should know your good conscience (to serve others) and then wholeheartedly act upon it.
Misunderstanding
In Wang's own time, there was already such misunderstanding. A disciple asked Wang: If he wholeheartedly did one thing, like reading a book or receiving a guest, did it mean that he acted upon his conscience?
Wang replied: "If you wholeheartedly pursue pretty women or fancy goods, does this wholeheartedness mean conscience? No. It only means you are chasing after things outside your conscience. You should wholeheartedly look for the heavenly way (your conscience) and act upon it."
In the sales lady's case, she knew she wanted my WeChat, so she acted upon her desire. She thought this was Zhi Xing He Yi, but she acted from her desire to sell stuff, not from her conscience to do me good. Wang Yangming's teachings about acting on one's conscience, later suppressed in the Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911), are being rediscovered in today's China as a tour de force against popular indulgence in material accumulation at the expense of conscience.
But, like Wang had warned in his own time, there was a risk in paying lip service to his teachings, because it was easier for most people to know what they want than for them to know that everyone was born to have good conscience.
"Being wholehearted in doing good to others" is the essence of Zhi Xing He Yi, not "being wholehearted in doing what you know you want to do."
This moral wisdom is meant for society as well as for individuals.
In Wednesday's Shanghai Daily, Simon Zadek noticed that China's latest embrace of sustainable development was driven by China's own interests, that is,
The need to protect its own land, water and air from pollution. Zadek is codirector of the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and a visiting scholar at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management. Does China act on its own interests? Certainly.
But is it just about interests? Is there a place for conscience? There should be. If we apply the theory of acting upon conscience, instead of upon interests, to all national and international affairs, wouldn't we live in a much simpler and better world? Why do we often act upon an impulse to sell our stuff?
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