The most ridiculous thing is that Zhu Xi's preface to the Zhongyong chapters and sentences says: "The heart of Tao must always be the master of one's body, and the human heart always obeys it." The master is to the servant, the heart of Tao is the master, and the human heart is the servant. The heart of Tao is the heart of being a saint and a virtuous person, and the human heart is the heart of loving goods and lust. The servant who obeys orders is the servant who is driven by the master and only obeys the master's orders. If we carefully interpret Zhu Xi's meaning, it is equivalent to saying that if I want to be a saint and a virtuous person, the human heart will hide the goods and lust. If I want to eat, or if I want "the relationship between men and women, the great human relationship", the human heart will offer the goods and lust. Only in this way can it be said: "The heart of Tao is always the master of one's body, and the human heart always obeys it." In short, the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty had the theory of human nature in their hearts, and they did not want to deny the facts, so the theories they created were all tortuous and difficult to understand. This is why "Houhe Conghua" had to be written. Do I like to talk about thick black? I have no choice.
Fear and compassion are the same thing, and so are the principles of heaven and human desires. Just as fire is used to cook rice, and fire is used to burn houses. The Confucian scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties did not understand this principle, and regarded the principles of heaven and human desires as two completely different things. They created the theory of eliminating human desires, which often led to harming the principles of heaven. Wang Yangming's Instructions for Learning says: "When there is nothing to do, search out the selfish desires of lust, money, and fame one by one, and remove the root causes of the disease so that they will never arise again. Only then will you feel happy. It is like a cat catching a mouse. Watch it with one eye and listen with one ear. As soon as a thought arises, you should suppress it immediately. Do not tolerate it, give it convenience, do not harbor it, and do not let it go. Only then can you really work hard and clear it up." This statement is like: seeing a fire will burn the house, so people should put out a spark of fire immediately and cut off the fire source in the future. Only then will they feel happy. The Record of Learning also records: "A friend asked: When I sit in meditation, I want to search out the roots of my desire for fame, S3x, and money one by one, and clear them out. Isn't it like cutting out flesh and causing sores? The teacher said sternly: This is my prescription for curing people. It really removes the root of people's illness. Even more capable people can still use it after more than ten years. If you don't need it, just put it aside and don't ruin my method. The friend was ashamed and thanked him. After a while, he said, this is not your business. It must be one of my disciples who knows a little bit about the meaning. I said this to mislead you. Everyone present was shocked." Let's think about it: Wang Yangming is a very cultured person. When he lectured, no matter how difficult the questions were, he always spoke diligently and never got angry. Why did he get angry when his disciple asked this question? Why didn't he point out the disciple's mistake? Why did he admit that the person who said this was someone who knew a little bit about the meaning? Because Yangming could combine knowledge and action into one, could combine the two of enlightening virtue and loving the people into one, could regard the five things of investigating things, seeking knowledge, sincerity, rectifying the mind, and cultivating the self as one thing, but he could not regard the principles of heaven and human desires as one thing. This was the shortcoming of his doctrine. His disciple's question hit the point of his point, so he got angry. What does the four words "cutting flesh to make sores" mean? Flesh refers to the principles of heaven. Sores refer to human desires. Cutting flesh to make sores means that the principles of heaven are regarded as human desires. If we get rid of human desires, we will inevitably hurt the principles of heaven. The disciple meant: "If we see a spark of fire and put it out, there will naturally be no burning of the house. May I ask what we use to cook rice? In other words, if we get rid of the desire for goods, people will not eat, won't they starve to death? If we get rid of the desire for S3x, there will be no S3x in the house, won't the human race be extinct?" What a sharp question! So Yangming had nothing to say and could only get angry. The Confucian scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties advocated eliminating human desires and preserving the principles of heaven, but what they did was to cut flesh and heal a wound. This is why their doctrines could not satisfy people's hearts.
The above paragraph is from the third chapter of my book "Discussion on Social Issues" "Study on the Good and Evil of Human Nature". At that time, I deeply suspected that Yangming's teachings were very flexible and integrated everywhere. Why would he separate the principles of heaven and human desires? Recently, I read "Tianquan Enlightenment Record" in "Longxi Quotations". Qian Xushan said that "the heart is neither good nor evil, but has good and evil intentions. Knowing good and evil is conscience, and doing good and eliminating evil is the study of things" is the standard of the school. Wang Longxi said: "If you realize that the heart is neither good nor evil, the intention is the intention of neither good nor evil, the knowledge is the knowledge of neither good nor evil, and the things are the things of neither good nor evil." At that time, Yangming went to Guangxi for an expedition. He sat on Tianquan Bridge in the evening, and the two of them questioned him. Yangming said: "I have long wanted to reveal what Ruzhong (Longxi's name) saw, but I was afraid that people would not believe it, which would only increase the disadvantages of skipping ranks, so I have kept it to myself until now. This is a secret of the heart, which Yan Ziming did not dare to say. Now that it has been revealed, it is also the time for the secret to be revealed. How can it be kept secret again?" When Yangming arrived in Hongdu, more than 300 disciples came to ask for advice. Yangming said: "I have a secret for improvement, but I have not dared to reveal it for a long time, waiting for you to realize it. Recently, Wang Ruzhong pointed it out, and it is also the time for the secret to be revealed." The next year, Guangxi was pacified, and Yangming returned, but died on the way. What Longxi said was to combine the principles of heaven and human desires. Yangming did not reveal it until his later years. From this, we know that when his disciples asked about cutting flesh to make a wound, Yangming was furious, just because he was afraid that his disciples would skip ranks. The Record of Transmission of Learning was recorded by Yangming's early disciples, so his teaching method was like this.
Qian Dehong is very similar to Shenxiu, a disciple of the Fifth Patriarch, while Wang Longxi is very similar to Huineng. What Dehong said is to wipe it out diligently from time to time, which is called gradual. What Longxi said is that there is nothing originally, which is called sudden. Yangming said: "You must use Dehong's efforts, and Dehong must understand the original purpose of you. The views of the two can only be compared, but not criticized." This is the theory of sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation. The principles in "Longxi's Sayings" are almost the same as those in the Sixth Patriarch's Altar Sutra. They have reached the same destination in different ways. Why? As long as the truth of the universe is studied thoroughly, what we see is the same.
In terms of the real truth, if we combine Mencius' theory of good human nature and Xunzi's theory of evil human nature, the theory will be complete. The combination of the two theories will become Gaozi's theory that human nature is neither good nor bad. Someone asked: How does Mencius's theory match Xunzi's theory? I said: Mencius said: "When people are young, they admire their parents. If they know how to be lustful, they admire young girls." Xunzi said: "When a wife and children are complete, filial piety declines towards parents." May I ask, aren't the two people's theories the same? Mencius said: "The most filial person admires his parents all his life. If he admires his parents at the age of fifty, I will see him as Shun." According to Mencius, if a person is over 50 and still admires his parents, he only sees Shun. May I ask, what is the truth of human nature? Can't Mencius and Xunzi's theories be combined?
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