still maintaining an organic view of the mind at the lower level (Qiong Zhang “Hybridizing Scholastic Psychology,” 343).

111. See Charlton “Hybridizing Scholastic Psychology.” Risto Saarinen (Weakness of Will), inquiring on the debate on akrasia during the Renaissance and Reformation, deals with the topic of inner struggle (pugna, lucta) between reason and carnal desires, and the “wrestling virtue” (virtus luctans).

112. See Shiji, 23: 1159. See also Huainanzi 淮南子, Yuandaoxun 原道訓, 17; quoted in the Jingji Leibian 經濟類編, juan 44 and 94 (in Siku Quanshu, Zibu, Leishulei 類書類); Taiping Yulan 太平御覽, juan 468 (in Siku Quanshu, Zibu, Leishulei); and Hua Zhen’s 华镇 Yunxi Jushi Ji 雲溪居士集, 21 (Jibu 集部, Biejilei 別集類, Beisong Jianlong zhi Jingkang 北宋建隆至靖康). On the idea of choices among different alternatives and freedom from external and internal constraints in the agent’s choice in the Lunyu, Mencius and Xunzi, see Myeong-seok Kim, “Choice, Freedom, and Responsibility,” 17–38.

113. See Yangming Quanshu, 3: 14; and Chan Wing-tsit’s translation in Instructions for Practical Living, 222–223. Wang Yangming notes that when faced with conflicting values, choices are made based on level of importance: “We love both parents and strangers. But suppose here are a small basket of rice and a platter of soup. With them one will survive and without them one will die. Since not both of our parents and the stranger can be saved by this meager food, we will prefer to save our parents instead of the stranger. This we can tolerate. We can tolerate these because by principle these should be done. As to the relationship between ourselves and our parents there cannot be any distinction of this or that or of greater or lesser importance. For being humane to all people and feeling love for all comes from this affection toward parents. If in this relationship we can tolerate any relative importance, then anything can be tolerated.” (Chan Wing-tsit, Instructions for Practical Living, 222–223). On the question of the choice in Wang Yangming, A.S. Cua (The Unity of Knowledge and Action, 37–40) underlines that for Wang, any choice implies an alternative exclusion that provokes a profound feeling of regret, that however, unlike the sense of guilt, reminds the agent that a value lost on one occasion may be restored on other occasions.

114. Chuanxilu, 2: 163, 165.

115. Martin Huang, Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China, 10.