Abstract

As a well-known philosopher in Chinese history，Wang Yangming’s Xin-Xue（心学）exerts far-reaching influence in the development history of Confucianism.In his lifetime，Wang-Xue（王学）or Yangming-Xue（阳明学），which is named after his surname or given name，has been widely concerned and gradually formed.For a long time，scholars have studied Wang-Xue（王学）or Yangming-Xue from the perspective of the Xin-Xue in most cases，while the LunYU-XUE—the study of the Analects of Confucius（论语学）of Wang Yangming has not attracted sufficient attention，which has some relevance with the fact that Wang Yangming himself has not annotated the Analects of Confucius.

This dissertation holds that following the thought of Confucius’passing on the ancient culture without adding anything new to it in his whole life，there are large amount of annotations of the Analects of Confucius in the collected works of Wang Yangming.Through the interpretation of the above mentioned annotation，it could be concluded that Wang Yangming’s thought of the Xin-Xue is obtained from the ancient books like the Analects of Confucius.Wang Yangming’s LunYU-XUE shows the characteristic of unified the Sheng-Xue（圣学），the Xin-Xue（心学）and the Shi-Xue（实学），which is the quintessence of Wang-Xue.Therefore，Wang Yangming’s LunYU-XUE could be regarded as the specified and detailed Yangming-Xue，and it occupies an important place in the development history of the LunYU-XUE.Being different from the predecessors’emphasis on text interpretation and following Confucius’tradition of passing on the ancient culture without adding anything new to it，Wang Yangming’s annotation of the Analects of Confucius by using his unique way，which changed the domination of the LunYU-XUE of Zhu Xi，exerts influences on the LunYU-XUE in the middle and late Ming Dynasty together with his Xin-Xue.

The dissertation is divided into two parts，the first part of which is themain body，while the second part is the appendix.Since there is no annotation works of the Analects of Confucius by Wang Yangming and the study of his LunYU-XUE requires certain text interpretation，therefore，before the main body of the dissertation，his annotation of the Analects of Confucius are collected from Wang Yangming’s works and are compiled as the Annotation of the Analects of Confucius by Wang Yangming following the order of the chapters in the Analects of Confucius.Existing as the appendix of the main body，objectively speaking，the significance and value of the Annotation of the Analects of Confucius by Wang Yangmingequals and even surpasses that of the main body.

Using figures as the clue，the specific analysis and study of Wang Yangming’s LunYU-XUE in the main body consists of five chapters and additional introduction and conclusion.The part of introduction mainly expounds the origin of the dissertation，research status and research technique.Using history as the clue，Chapter One briefly reviews the development history of the LunYU-XUE before Wang Yangming，which could be divided into four periods.The first period is the formation period of the LunYU-XUE.The second period is the LunYU-XUE in the period of the study of Confucian Classics.The third period is the LunYU-XUE in the period of metaphysics.The fourth period is the LunYU-XUE in the period of Neo-Confucianism.Undertaking the LunYU-XUE in the period of Neo-Confucianism，Wang Yangming’s LunYU-XUE is different from that of Zhu Xi’s LunYU-XUE.

Chapter Two mainly explains the textual foundation of Wang Yangming’s Lun Yu-Xue.From the three parts of Wang Yangming’s academic background，Wang’s esteem for the Analects of Confucius and his interpretation of the Analects of Confucius，the important status of the Analects of Confucius in Wang Yangming’s entire academic idea system is presented respectively.Wang Yangming’s esteem for the Analects of Confucius could be explained from the following sections—the scholar-gentry family background，his well-read of books in Confucian classics in his early years，and his experiences in studying of Buddhism and Taoism.The most important embodiment of Wang Yangming’s esteem for the Analects of Confucius is his following Confucius’passing on the ancient culture without adding anything new to it—he did not annotate the Analects of Confucius.In spite of this，it could still be found in his works that he annotated the Analects of Confucius from the ideology of Xin-Xue in three ways—answering and explaining，elucidating forwardly and expressing with feelings.

Chapter Three focuses the methodological characteristics of Wang Yangming’s LunYu-Xue.In the times of Neo-Confucianism，Wang Yangming’s annotation of the Analects of Confucius differs from others in the methodological characteristics，which are represented in the following four aspects.Firstly，not emphasize exegetics.Although Wang Yangming himself did not focus on exegetics，his annotations of the Analects of Confucius have the element of exegetics.Secondly，not confine to the determinate interpretation.Wang Yangming’s annotation of the Analects of Confucius embodies the multi-interpretation of one chapter，one-interpretation of several chapters and not determinate chapter of one certain interpretation.Thirdly，treatthe Four Books as a whole.The Four Books are the Great Learning，the Doctrine of the Mean，the Mencius and the Analects of Confucius which are regarded as Chinese classics.Wang Yangming usually used the Mencius，the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean as the evidence in the annotation of the Analects of Confucius.Fourthly，surpass authority.The characteristic of no focusing on exegetics and not confining to determinate interpretation determines that Wang Yangming’s annotation of the Analects of Confucius could surpass authority，which is represented as the denial of Zhu Xi and the surpass of Confucius.

Chapter four expounds the main content of Wang Yangming’sLun Yu-Xue.Through textual analysis，the main content could be concluded from the four aspects of the Ti-Yong category，the Sheng-Si category，the Li-Yu category and the Zhi-Xing category.Wang Yangming adopted the thought of Ti and Yong having the same originby Cheng-Zhu and used it to interpret the relationship between benevolence and etiquette，advocating the benevolence is Ti and the etiquette is Yong.On the basis of the Confucius’concept that life and death are decreed by fate，Wang Yangming further developed Confucius’view of life-and-death，believing that life and death has certain rules and put forward the viewpoint of Dao beyond life-and-deathto confront the view of life-and-death of Buddhist and Taoism.Carrying on Cheng-Zhu’s proposition of upholding justice and destroying human desires and incorporating with his own interpretation of the Xin-Xue，Wang Yangming believed that the study is upholding justice and controlling human desires.Combining with the“restrain oneself and promote etiquette”in the Analects of Confucius，Wang Yangming put forward“restrain oneself andresist unreasonable human desires”.On the basis of predecessors’the Zhi-Xing category，Wang Yangming presented the unity of Zhi-Xing.Zhi means conscience，Xing means doing what conscience tells oneself to do.

Chapter five briefly summarizes the basic characteristics of Wang Yangming’s LunYu-Xue，which consists of three aspects.The first is the Sheng-Xue，the second is the Xin-Xue，and the third is the Shi-Xue.Sheng-Xue，Xin-Xue and Shi-Xue are the three characteristics of Wang Yangming’s philosophy，which are interrelated with each other and unified.In the first place，Wang Yangming’s philosophy is the Sheng-Xue，which differs from the Buddhism and the Taoism.In the second place，it is the Xin-Xue，which differs from the Neo-Confucianism.In the last place，it is the Shi-Xue，which makes itself applicable to practice and accepted by others.

The part of conclusion briefly introduces the historical status of Wang Yangming’s LunYu-Xue and its influence on the later ages.The historical status of Wang’s study is mainly reflected on two aspects：the first deals with its status in the history of the studies on the Analects of Confucius，which is mainly shown in the way of Wang’s interpretation for the Analects of Confucius.The second deals with its status in the Yangming-Xue，which is represented as the unified thoughts of the Sheng-Xue，the Xin-Xue and the Shi-Xue.Lastly，taking Sun Ying’ao’s Annotation of the Four Books as an example，the dissertation analyses the influence of Wang Yangming’s LunYu-Xue on the studies of the Analects of Confucius in middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Keywords：Wang Yangming，LunYu-Xue，Sheng-Xue，Xin-Xue，Shi-Xue