Wang Yangming 王陽明 (born Wang Shouren 王守仁, 1472-1529) is one of the most famous pre-modern Chinese intellectuals and the founder of the School of Mind (心學) of Neo-Confucianism, which was hugely influential in the later half of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to being philosopher, he was also an accomplished statesman, military leader, and calligrapher. In this episode, we speak with Professor George L. Israel, an expert on the study of Wang Yangming, who will introduce us to Wang's life and career, his thoughts and tenants, and his reception in the Ming and the Qing, as well as in neighboring Korea and Japan, and how Wang is viewed in China today.
We apologize for some audio issues with this recording.
Contributors
Professor George L. Israel
Professor George L. Israel is a Professor of History at Middle Georgia State University. His research is primarily on Ming intellectual history and Neo-Confucianism, with a particular focus on the famous Ming Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming, and he has published extensively about that subject in both English and Chinese.
Yiming Ha
Yiming Ha is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current research is on military mobilization and state-building in China between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on how military institutions changed over time, how the state responded to these changes, the disconnect between the center and localities, and the broader implications that the military had on the state. His project highlights in particular the role of the Mongol Yuan in introducing an alternative form of military mobilization that radically transformed the Chinese state. He is also interested in military history, nomadic history, comparative Eurasian state-building, and the history of maritime interactions in early modern East Asia. He received his BA from UCLA and his MPhil from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Credits
Episode no. 11
Release date: May 1, 2022
Recording location: Los Angeles, CA/Macon, GA
Transcript
Bibliography courtesy of Professor Israel
Images
Cover Image: An official portrait of Wang Yangming (Image Source)
Grand Hall of Wang Yangming's former residence in Shaoxing (Image Source)
Wang Yangming's tomb at Shaoxing (Image Source)
A copy of Wang Yangming's calligraphy, currently held at Princeton University (Image Source)
References
Bresciani, Umberto. Reinventing Confucianism: The New Confucian Movement. Taipei: Taipei Ricci Institute, 2001.
Ching, Julia. The Records of Ming Scholars. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.
Chow, Kai-wing. The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, Classics, and Lineage Discourse. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Chung, So-yi. “Korean Yangming Learning.” In Dao Companion to Korean Confucian Philosophy, 253-284. Edited by Young-chan Ro. Springer, 2019.
Israel, George L. Studying Wang Yangming: History of a Sinological Field. Kindle Direct Publishing, 2022.
____. “The Renaissance of Wang Yangming Studies in the People’s Republic of China.” Philosophy East and West 66, no. 3 (Jul. 2019): 1001-1019.
Jiao Kun 焦堃. Yangming xinxue yu Mingdai neige zhengzhi 陽明心學與明代内閣政治 (The Yangming school of mind and the politics of the grand secretariat during the Ming dynasty). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2021.
Ogyū Shigehiro 荻生茂博. “The Construction of ‘Modern Yōmeigaku’ in Meiji Japan and Its Impact on China.” Translated, with an introduction, by Barry D. Steben. East Asian History no. 20 (December 2000): 83–120.
Qian Ming 錢明. Wang Yangming ji qi xuepai lun kao 王陽明及其學派論考 (Verification of theories of Wang Yangming and his school of thought). Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 2009.
Zhang Kunjiang 張崑將. Yangmingxue zai dongya: quanshi, jiaoliu yu xingdong 陽明學在東亞:詮釋, 交流與行動 (Yangming learning in East Asia: interpretation, exchange, and action). Taipei: Guoli Taiwan Daxue Chuban Zhongxin, 2011.
Cultural Production during the Ming-Qing Transition: A Conversation with Professor Lynn Struve
Professor Pamela Crossley on History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology
The Maritime Kingdom of the Zheng Family: An Interview with Professor Xing Hang
Professor Maura Dykstra on Her New Book ”Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State” (Governing China, Part 2)
The Ming Bureaucracy and its Practices: A Conversation with Professor Chelsea Wang (Governing China, Part 1)
The Ming in the Southwest: Conquest, Rule, and Legacy
Professor Joanna Waley-Cohen on New Qing History
Diplomacy, War, and Interstate Order in the Late 13th century East Asia: A Reconsideration of the Mongol Invasions of Japan
Rediscovering and Reconnecting: The Intellectual Exchange of Hui Muslims in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Sino-Japanese Diplomatic Encounters from the 1st to the 9th Century
New Narratives on the Late Ming Military: An Interview with Professor Kenneth Swope
Feeding and Supplying the World’s Largest City: The Environmental Impact of Northern Song Kaifeng
The Mongol-Yuan Conquest of the Southern Song
The Tributary System and Chosŏn-Ming Relations: A Conversation with Professor Sixiang Wang
King Kwong Wong on Koryŏ Korea Under Mongol-Yuan Domination
New Perspectives on the Zheng He Voyages: A Conversation with Sean Cronan
The Rise of Merchants: Maritime Sea Trade in East Asia in the 10th to 12th centuries
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