Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

of Wang Yangming’s school took place during the mid- to late Ming period in a climate of great social and intellectual changes.⁸ Wang’s thought challenged Zhu Xi’s orthodoxy for the theorizations of “innate conscience” (liangzhi 良知) and opened up new paths toward self-perfection based on a new ladder of values. In a few words, the strength of Wang’s theory comes from the assumption that wisdom is innate in each person of any status and the Way is not the private property of Zhu Xi or other thinkers; thus, it was no more necessary to rely on external standards and orthodox exegesis. Wang’s critical enquiry into the human mind did not stop even in front of Confucius whose words thus started being questioned.⁹ Wang’s “spiritual revolution” was grounded in an individual-based ethic which reformulated self-identity, enlarged the space for expressions of the self, and ultimately freed the unique potentials of personal autonomy.¹⁰ From his point of view, liangzhi is not the reflection of a transcendent ontological or moral order; rather, it is the individual’s participation in the spontaneous evolution of the universe because every human being who adheres to the principles of Heaven and Earth is believed capable of responding to the variable circumstances of life and thereby of creating new values. It is throughout the sense of humaneness, coming from the “inability to bear” others’ suffering or collapse, that the consciousness of cosmic unity is achieved:

This is why when they see a child [about] to fall into a well, they cannot avoid having a sense of alarm and concern for the child. This is because their benevolence forms one body with the child. Someone might object that this response is because the child belongs to the same species. But when they hear the anguished cries or see the frightened appearance of birds or beasts, they cannot avoid a sense of being unable to bear it. This is because their benevolence forms one body with birds and beasts. Someone might object that this response is because birds and beasts are sentient creatures. But when they see grass or trees uprooted and torn apart, they cannot avoid feeling a sense of sympathy and distress. This is because their benevolence forms one body with grass and trees. Someone might object that this response is