The Universal Scheme of Wang Longxi's Doctrine of the Spirit of the Intuitive Mind and Its Significance on Literary and Artistic Studies

Author: Mei-Chuan Chang(Graduate School of Chinese Studies, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 58, No. 1
Date：March 2013
Pages：83-105
DOI：10.3966/207451922013035801004

Abstract：

“Qi” (energy flow) is an issue of considerable debate in Chinese academic research. Using Wang Longxi, an ideologist of the mid and late Ming Dynasty, as an example, modern scholars mostly focus on the use of “moral subjectivity” to interpret Wang’s “doctrine of innate moral sense” because related literature shows that Wang was an advocate of Qi theory, “Spirit of Intuitive Mind,” during the Ming Dynasty. However, related studies mostly fail to sufficiently address this issue. This study examines the clues of discourse from literature regarding Wang’s concept of “Spirit of Intuitive Mind” to redeem this flaw. The universal scheme forms the relationships between it, and “object” and “Dao” are the spirit of the intuitive mind, which not only create the vast world of things but also experience the myriad things. However, all things experience the stages of “from nothing to being” and “from being to nothing,” and only the spirit of the intuitive mind incessantly follows the mystery known only to heaven to circulate silently. The mystery known only to heaven has the connotative meaning of infinite profundity, and our body is the aspect of silent circulation that we can verify with the spirit of an intuitive mind. If we can continuously maintain the spirit of the intuitive mind for our body with a cautious and watchful attitude over fear and make it communicate closely with the innate spirit of the intuitive mind of the cosmos, we are able to feel mystery known only to heaven in things at all times, naturally showing the text of “insipidity of the ultimate Dao.” Furthermore, this study suggests that an interpretation of the association between the concepts of “innate moral sense” and “Dao” in such a formation facilitates the realization and thinking over the aesthetic aptitude of relations between “Dao” and “Arts” by Wang.

Keywords：spirit of intuitive mind, connection with characters, elf of the nature, follow the mystery known only to heaven, Dao and Arts

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