Research On Wang Yangming’s Biographical Literature

Wang Yangming is known as a thinker with his philosophy of the mind.Today,his “heart is rational”,“the unity of knowledge and action” and “to the conscience”are still widely mentioned,and the Yangming’s biography is constantly being rewritten.This master’s thesis takes the biographies of Wang Yangming as the research object.Collecting and reorganizing epitaph,biographical sketch,chronicle written by Wang Yangming’s friends and disciples.Other Wang Yangming’s biographiers in official and private historical records in Ming and Qing Dynasties are also included.Analyzing the writing problems of biographies from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty,testing Yangming’s political stories and lecture activities,exploring how Wang Yangming is understood and accepted,provide reference for the writing of the biography of Yangming and other historical figuresat the moment.The first chapter of the thesis discusses the writing of the Yangming’s biographies in three stages: Jiajing,Longqing to Chongzhen and Qing Dynasty.From the eighth years of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty,as a result of Wang Yangming’s peerage losing and returning,biographical writers were confronted with different problems.Writers in Jiajing still discussed whether Yangming flattered Wangqiong and colluded with Zhu Chenhao or not,but until the years of Longqing to Chongzhen,writers were confronted with problems which biography was the most valuable,should Wang Yangming be classified as earls,representatives of Mind School or Neo-Confucians? Zhang Tingyu’s the History of Ming Dynasty answer these questions.Yangming didn’t flatter Wangqiong or colluded with Zhu Chenhao,the biography of Yang Ming should be classified as “famous minister biography”.Yangming’s biography is basically composed of two parts: the work and the doctrine,showing the official career and lecture activity of Yangming’s life.The second and third parts of the thesis explore Yangming’s official career and lecture activity.He has made great contributions to the dynasty because of putting down rebellions in Jiangxi and Liangguang.However,he had suffered severe political oppression during his lifetime.Since he died,he was also robbed of court ceremony for a deceased official and peerage.By examining the events of Wang Yangming impeaching Liu Jin,the incident of offering prisoners,the relationship between WangYangming,Wangqiong and Yang Tinghe.We can explore the reason for Yangming’s rough political experience.what’s more,Wang Yangming’s disciples could be found all over the world.His lectures and deeds spread in Guizhou,Jiangxi,Zhejiang and so on.But Yangming’s lectures in biographies vary from place to place,and the lecture objects are not clear.Chapter three tries to make a textual research on them,reproduces the occurrence and development of Yangming’s philosophy.Mr.Wang Yangming’s biography with pictures is a biographical biography which is based on Yangming’s Chronicle.Chapter four explores the image source,text source and the relationship between pictures and texts in Mr.Wang Yangming’s biography with pictures.Expressive images,concise pictures,and refined text satisfied the aesthetic needs of the citizens’ well-being.It would help expand the social influence of Yangming and its learning,and improve the situation of Yangming and Yangmingism’s official cold reception during Jiajing period.