Lee Shui chuen

Abstract

Through detailed analysis, this paper establishes that Wang Yangming’s moral philosophy is an internalism. First, I explain why the major issue of the division of internalism and externalism is whether practical reason or liang-chi have the motivational force in moral action. Because Wang Yangming’s philosophy is a “teaching of moral person” with a moral cultivation or kung-fu approach, I make a fairly detail analysis of his difficulties in practicing Zhu Xi‘s method of moral cultivation which takes the heart-mind （xin） and Reason （li） as two different ontological entities.  With the help of Cheng Mingdao and Li Yanping’s ideas of moral cultivation, Wang Yangming finally establishes his kung-fu approach with the heart-mind and Reason as one and that there is “no Reason outside the Heart-mind”, “nothing outside the heart-mind”. Wang Yangming developed the moral cultivation method of “knowing and practicing is one body”, “transcendental meditation” and finally the ultimate method of moral practice of “zhi liang-chi”. I show in details how Wang Yangming’s method of “knowing and practicing is one body” and “zhi liang-chi” are both a kind of simple and pure moral internalism.

Keywords: internalism, Wang Yangming, zhi liang-chi, knowing and practicing is one body, kung-fu approach （moral cultivation approach）