Political Thoughts Of Master Wang's Doctrine In Four Meaning

“Instructions for practical living, and other Neo-Confucian writings” is a philosophical work by a Chinese polymath from the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming. The work was originally written in his late life that is after his military exploits of peasants’ revolts and the settlement of Prince Ning. The major events happened shows the complexity of political parties and divergence of beliefs in the Ming Dynasty. This work reveals Master Wang’s philosophical thinking and development of thoughts that presented in the way of dialogues he had with others.
One of the famous thinking he presented was the 'Doctrine in Four Axioms'. In the discussion of the 'Doctrine in Four Axioms,' he references some Buddhist expressions as supplements for his focus on
His argument divided into four statements and the first one as mentioned in the book, "Your innate knowledge is your own standard" (Wang 42). It starts with a definition and shows the existence of innate knowledge that Master Wang define to explain that everyone since birth knows the difference between good and evil. The word ‘standard’ means the level that someone has achieved and from the quote, it is shown that individuals have principles in mind of how good and bad behaviors should be. Then in the second axiom, he said "When you direct your thought your innate knowledge knows that it is right if it is right and wrong if it is wrong. You cannot keep anything from it in whatever you do" (Wang 42) which Master Wang in here further expand the ability of ‘standard’ in human minds. The standard justification of innate knowledge is unchangeable that’s made in birth and continued in life which alludes his belief in dualism where body actions are separated from mental movements. The innate knowledge as defined by Master Wang is belonged to the mind and he claimed from above that physical influences wouldn’t impact on the justification of innate knowledge. Lastly in the third and fourth axioms, "This is the true secret of the investigation of things and the real effort of the extension of knowledge" (Wang 42). Master Wang concludes that’s how the innate knowledge should be defined and it is the right way to clearly understand about innate knowledge from the previous first and second axioms. Overall, Master Wang’s Doctrine in Four Axioms have been argued wisely in people because it’s form lacks of proofs from epistemology that form different views to question whether it is