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

taught by his master.¹¹² Stories that present the choice of the lesser evil and transgression for virtue have precedents in the pre-Qin period. Much later, during the Ming dynasty, Wang Yangming’s argument is based on the same principle. Wang teaches that making a choice involves a comparative judgement between several values and consequent opting for the better. He refers to the “principle of the Way” (Daoli 道理). In the three possible situations being explored, he expounds how the love for all living beings in the universe has to be limited because of fixed priorities, according to the gradual benevolence of this love. We love both plants and animals, yet tolerate the latter feeding themselves with the former. We love both animals and human beings, yet tolerate the butchering of the former so that they be served up on the table, or be used to celebrate sacrifices. We love both our parents and strangers, but in time of famine, we prefer to appease the hunger of the former, even at the cost of letting the latter die.¹¹³ Thus the moral dilemma and inner conflict of a person as foreseen by Wang was supposed to resolve eventually due to the priority given to one good at the sacrifice of another, even if this meant making a supreme sacrifice like giving up one’s life. Although Wang’s unity of knowledge and action seems to have softened such conflict, his constant warning that selfish desires are as dangerous as bandits and must, therefore, be exterminated confirms that he was aware of the vices and bad habits of men. This is all the more evident when he explains that what obscures a person’s good/moral nature are selfish desires and passions caused by external goods (私欲、客氣，性之蔽也).¹¹⁴

As Martin Huang notes, obsession and apprehension toward desires existed simultaneously in the Ming dynasty.¹¹⁵ The playwright Tu Long 屠隆 (1543–1605) complains:

I have been trying to rid myself of desire (zhiyu 治慾) for three years. The result is like] using large numbers of troops to attack a well-defended city. Every means of attack […] has been tried but failed to bring about a victory. It is also like using a huge piece of rock to stamp down grass: once the rock runs over the grass, it will start to grow again. Or it is like using cold spring water to quench