Two Approaches to Self-Understanding in the Mind-Nature Gongfu Theory of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism

Abstract Human self-understanding constitutes a perennial theme in philosophy. As the ontological reality of human moral life, “Mind-Nature” ( Xin-Xing ) represents the specific understanding of the human self within Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism. However, this dimension of self-understanding has rarely been adopted as an evaluative perspective in the study of Neo-Confucian Gongfu theory. The Neo-Confucian theory of cultivation encompasses two distinct approaches to self-understanding: the School of Mind, particularly the Later Wang Yangming School, developed three “direct” approaches – temporal directness, substantive directness, and empirical directness. In contrast, the practice of Exhausting Principle found in Zhu Xi’s philosophy presents a mediated, “detour-style” of self-understanding. These two approaches reflect a divergence in the conception of Mind-Nature: the direct approach to self-understanding attributes “Mind” – that is, the “self” – to a priori , abstract forms. Conversely, the detour-style approach strives to grasp the content accumulated through social history within the self, which transcends individual functional application – namely, “Nature”. The continuous accumulation of human knowledge is a process of moving from direct self-understanding toward indirect, detour-style self-understanding. Evaluating the Mind-Nature Gongfu theory of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism from the dimension of human self-understanding reveals that the Gongfu theory of Zhu Xi’s philosophy, which embodies the indirect, detour-style approach, carries greater epistemic weight within the modern system of human knowledge.