Acceptance and Disagreement: An Analysis of Two Different Attitudes towards WANG Yang-ming's Doctrine of “Unity between Knowing and Doing”

After his sudden enlightenment in Longchang, WANG Yang-ming actively preached his own philosophical ideas to the world. However, his doctrine aroused different response in different people: accepted by ordinary people, but rejected by scholar-bureaucrats. The two completely different attitudes toward WANG's philosophy is a phenomenon with rich literary connotation. This reflects affability and directness of his philosophy which has the great moral attraction as well as the difference from ZHU Xi's learning in either research ways or specific theories. The scholar-bureaucrats' contradictory attitudes toward WANG's theories show the consciousness and diversity of their spiritual life.