A commonly-accessible reverse-deductive ethics of everyday life in Wang Gen’s “Interpretations”

This article presents the first Russian translation and a philosophical analysis of two key works by Wang Gen 王艮 (1483–1541): “Interpretation of the Return to Primordiality” (Fu-chu shuo 復初說) and “Interpretation of the Heavenly Principles and Good Know­ledge” (Tian-li liang-zhi shuo 天理良知說). These texts articulate Wang Gen’s under­standing of tian-li 天理 («heavenly principles») and liang-zhi 良知 («good knowledge»), while also reflecting the intellectual debates of his time and key events in his life and scholarly circle. The first one was written as an instructional text for Wang Gen’s friend Zou Shouyi, who had established the Fu-chu shu-yuan 復初書院 (Book Yard / Academy of the Return to the Primordiality). The second one, meanwhile, engages with the fa­mous dispute between Wang Gen’s teacher, Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529), and the philosopher Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水 (1466–1560) concerning the latter’s thesis state­ment sui-chu ti-ren tian-li 隨處體認天理 (“[in] any place, essentially recognize heavenly principles”). Through these works, Wang Gen advances his distinctive philosophical fo­cus on the shen 身 (“corporeal self” or “individual”) and a practice-oriented ethics rooted in innate moral knowledge. He argues that liang-zhi – accessible to all through deductive reasoning – can be “illuminated” (ming 明) by returning to one’s original state prior to actions which are not good. Beyond textual analysis, this study situates the “Interpreta­tions” within their biographical and intellectual context, identifying and explicating their numerous allusions to classical Neo-Confucian sources

Everyday life · Normative ethics · Chinese history and philosophy · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Space Technology and Applications