Why is Wang Yangming the spiritual leader of China's business community?

Pu Yao Xue Palace

Five hundred years ago, Wang Yangming made a judgment that transcended the times. His "New Four People's Theory" has expanded the space of business culture and set up a moral benchmark for businessmen. This is enough to explain why Wang Yangming, who has not been involved in business all his life, will become the spiritual leader of a large number of businessmen in five hundred years.

"The four peoples of the soldiers, peasants, industry, commerce, and commerce, and the stone people of the country, must not make miscellaneous places." In the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong, a thinker and politician of the State of Qi, put forward the "Theory of the Four Peoples". The "Theory of the Four Peoples," which embodies the idea of heavy agriculture and suppressing business, ranks merchants at the bottom of the four people.

The "Theory of the Four Peoples" and the suppression of merchants continued for thousands of years. Zhu Yuanzhang even stipulated that only cloth and peasants were allowed to wear cloth in the house of shangjia, but if one person was a merchant, he was not allowed to wear fine yarn.

By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, rhetoric to justify the names of merchants began to appear. One of the most representative is Wang Yangming's "New Four People's Theory." He put the traditional industry and commerce, which had always been regarded as "lowly business", to the same level as the scholars. In the "Collected Writings of Transmission and Practice", Wang Yangming wrote: "Although he trades and trades every day, he will not harm him as a saint or a sage." ”

Collect the "salt boss" as an apprentice

In the first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, a Taizhou merchant Wang Geng came to Wang Yangming's home. After Wang Geng saw Wang Yangming, he acted very uninhibited and sat directly on the main seat where Wang Yangming was supposed to sit. After some conversation, Wang Geng was impressed by Wang Yangming and changed his disrespect just now. The history books record the first acquaintance of the two men: "Speaking of conscience, it is said: simple and straightforward, and it is not enough." Bow down and sit down. ”

But the next day, Wang Geng repented, believing that yesterday he was deceived by Wang Yangming's momentum and words, and today he debated again, and if he lost, he would truly worship. The two debated for a long time, and Wang Geng was completely impressed by Wang Yangming. Wang Yangming also spoke highly of this arrogant new disciple: "I captured Chenhao (King Ning), who did not move at all, but now I am moving for Si (Wang Gong). This true learner of the saints. Later, Wang Geng became one of Wang Yangming's best students and founded the Taizhou School.

The story of Wang Yangming and Wang Geng has always been talked about, but when people admired the pair of masters and apprentices, they ignored Wang Geng's identity when he worshiped the master or challenged Wang Yangming. For Wang Geng's lineage, the historical data explains: "When he was eleven years old, his family dropped out of school in poverty, he followed his father and brother to pour salt, and at the age of nineteen, he followed his father Wang Shou'an to shandong to do business..." Translated into vernacular, Wang Geng dropped out of school at the age of 11, followed his family to do salt business, and went to Shandong with his father to do business at the age of 19.

Wang Geng threw himself into Wang Yangming's door at the age of 38, and his previous experience may have been "inspirational" enough, a teenager dropped out of school, a young man in business, and became a well-known "salt boss" by virtue of his personal struggle to get rid of poverty and become a well-known "salt boss". It must be emphasized that this is the vision of people today, just like successful businessmen entering elite universities to study EMBA, there will be no sense of violation. But back five hundred years ago, the public consciousness was not like this, many people discussed, the famous Confucian Wang Yangming actually accepted a salt merchant as an apprentice?

This is Wang Yangming! Such a Wang Yangming has achieved Wang Geng!

Accepting a rich businessman at the end of the Four Peoples as a student is Wang Yangming practicing his own doctrine. "Although they do business every day, they will not be harmed as saints."

Looking at the sages of all generations, all of them are peach and plum all over the world, but there are few merchant disciples. Among the seventy-two sages of Confucius, there was only one merchant, Zigong, and he should have been doing business after worshiping the master. A businessman like Wang Geng, who originally had a wealthy family, probably Wang Yangming dared to accept it.

"Big money" is something that Confucian believers, especially Confucians, are not ashamed to do, but Wang Yangming did it with dignity. He accepted the wealthy merchant Wang Geng as an apprentice, and also gladly wrote an epitaph for a rich merchant in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, "Jie'an Fang Cemetery Table". It is in this epitaph that Wang Yangming shockingly put forward: "The four peoples of the ancients are different and the same, and their dedication is also one." This is the future "New Four People's Theory."

The first fans of the business world

Between the human spirit and the earth spirit, there was originally an interaction. Among the sages and great Confucians of the past, Wang Yangming became a rare drummer and trumpeter for merchants, and should be closely related to the region in which he lived.

Wang Yangming is a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang, who grew up in Jiangnan since childhood, experienced ups and downs in his career and military career, and returned to his hometown in his middle and late years to write books and lectures. Jiangnan's smoke and rain terraces, poetry and painting collections, are deeply imprinted in Wang Yangming's personality. Jiangnan has been rich since ancient times, and Wang Yangming lived in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, coinciding with the emergence of the embryonic capitalism in the Jiangnan region of China. These scenes that I have heard and witnessed in my daily life will continue to enter the heart of Wang Yangming, a master of mind studies. Qian Ming, director of the Zhejiang International Yangming Studies Research Center, believes that although the society at that time generally emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, the regional business atmosphere in eastern Zhejiang also provided Wang Yangming with the soil for ideological innovation to a certain extent.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the budding and development of the commodity economy, there was a trend of "the convergence of scholars and merchants" in society. At that time, the population increased sharply, and the number of places in the imperial examination did not increase accordingly, resulting in a large number of fallen scholars. Because of the hopelessness of their careers, these readers have gone to the sea to do business. The term "Confucian shang" also originated from this.

The readers in the shopping mall retain the style and preferences of the scholars. At the same time, "Confucian businessmen" paid more attention to training their children to study with the income from business. The children of these merchants then entered the scholar class by the imperial examination, and the clan relationship formed by marriage and so on. The boundaries of the original "scholars" and "merchants" were further integrated.

According to the analysis of historians, the folk lecture movement was already very developed in the Song Dynasty, and it reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. The lectures of the Song Dynasty were represented by Zhu Xi and were mainly aimed at scholars, while the lectures of the Ming Dynasty, represented by Wang Yangming, were extended to the entire society, especially the handicrafts and merchant groups that accompanied the development of the commodity economy.

After the birth of the "New Four People's Theory", the local worship of businessmen and heavy jia was even stronger. By the time of the Five Ports of Commerce in the Qing Dynasty, the "Ningbo Gang" was already the most important commercial force in Shanghai Beach.

In the Ningbo business community, a large number of believers in Yangming Xinxue have emerged for hundreds of years. Under the influence of the doctrine of "to the conscience", these adherents grew into a very special commercial force—both the innovative and adventurous spirit of the merchants and the pursuit of Confucian moral ideals. And this is also the key to being known as the Ningbo Shanggang for continuing for three hundred years. China's first suit, the first Chinese bank, the first world ship king, all from the Ningbo Shangbang.

"Wang Yangming can be said to be the spiritual leader of the Ningbo Gang." Wang Yaocheng, a scholar of Ningbo Shanggang, has visited the ancestral halls of several major Shanggang families in Ningbo, and traces of Mr. Yang Ming can be found in the ancestral halls. A pair of yang links in one of the ancestral halls directly excerpts the words from the "Table of Jie'an Fang Cemetery".

It is obvious that the Ningbo Shanggang in his hometown was Wang Yangming's first fans in the merchant class, and the great success of the fans in the business field in turn made Wang Yangming's influence in the entire business community increase day by day.

A researcher believes that people have a herd mentality, and when they see that so many big business figures are Yangming Xinxue believers, they will naturally want to know more. Under this interaction, "Yang Ming Fever" is logical.

Entrepreneur's "To the Conscience"

In recent years, "YangMing Fever" has heated up into a prominent school in the business world. Among them, there is naturally an element of vassalage and elegance. Compared with the well-known Kong Meng, Yang is obviously niche and elite, and compared to the seemingly boring and jerky Cheng Zhu Lixue, Yang Ming Xinxue is more grounded. Successful people say that their study of YangMing Mind is definitely a very good thing.

At the same time, Wang Yangming is not only the most friendly to commercial civilization among the ancient Confucians, but also a successful person and activist. All of this is too much for the appetite of modern entrepreneurs. Since the beginning of reform and opening up, China's entrepreneurial class has always been an image of daring to think, dare to try, dare to take risks, which is a natural fit with the "unity of knowledge and action" advocated by Wang Yangming.

Wang Yangming is a thinker and an activist. This dual identity is rare among ancient Chinese thinkers. Entrepreneurs are particularly willing to learn from Wang Yangming rather than zhu Xi and other traditional Confucians, because Wang Yangming's life of "making meritorious contributions" rather than "writing books and making speeches" like Zhu Xi is more attractive to entrepreneurs. Throughout his life, he was difficult to suppress chaos, and he repeatedly performed miraculous feats: appeasing the thieves in Gannan Province, quelling the rebellion of the King of Ning, and striving to ensure the tranquility of Guangxi. Without Wang Yangming, the history of the Ming Dynasty would have been rewritten.

Wang Yangming is a saint, but unlike Kong Mengcheng Zhu, he will show his "cunning" and "cold" side from time to time. For example, when he led the army to suppress bandits, he attacked his heart and knew the reason, hoping that the great thief of Jiangyang would be able to turn back to the shore. But when the other party does not eat this set, Wang Yangming will immediately use the means of killing. By means of thunderbolts and showing the heart of a bodhisattva, Wang Yangming is one of the few people in Chinese history who has achieved "inner saint and outer king".

According to records, after Wang Yangming put down the chaos, he set up a banquet among the soldiers to invite the students to dinner and thanked the students, and the students were very surprised. Wang Yangming said that zhujun actually made a great contribution to me, because every time I judge a case or make a decision to hurt people's lives, I must ask myself, can I come back to the jun to give a lecture after I make a decision, if I think it is not possible, I will not do it, so you are actually equivalent to making a reference, which is equivalent to the side of my conscience.

For many entrepreneurs who have worked hard, "both inside and outside" is just a luxury, and what they diligently seek is the "inner saint and foreign king".

With the development of the times to today, China's entrepreneurial class has gone through the stage of primitive accumulation. When seeking the answer of the evergreen foundation, the "to the conscience" in Yang Ming Xinxue gave his own answer.

It should be noted that many people regard the "unity of knowledge and action" as cognition and action, but in fact, "knowledge" is the "conscience" in Wang Yangming's mouth, not the cognition of the conventional meaning, and understanding this is the key to understanding Yangming's mind. It can also be seen from this that "to the conscience" plays a pivotal role in the Yangming mind system.

Wang Yangming emphasizes "to conscience" and recognizes conscience through the subject's self-moral cultivation. For entrepreneurs, it is not only necessary to exert the corporate instincts of innovation, profitability, and taxation, but also to have a conscience. Conscience makes me not to be deceived when I do business, to not pollute the environment when I am engaged in production, and so on. This kind of conscience probably has a lot of intersection with the corporate social responsibility that people often say now, and it is also the creed that must be followed to make a bigger and better enterprise.

Kazuo Inamori, a Japanese entrepreneur who has great admiration for Wang Yangming, said that from the appearance of a company, it is a profit-seeking business entity, but in essence it is a practice dojo. Kazuo Inamori's order to save JAL is a successful application of Yang MingXinxue in business management. Kazuo Inamori requires managers to work with conscience every day and summarize them in the evening; the next day, on the basis of improvement, continue to work with conscience and summarize them in the evening. Kazuo Inamori believes that blind expansion is the most important thing, it is a manifestation of selfish desires, it does not conform to heavenly reason, and naturally it is impossible to win people's hearts.

In today's society, there are many enterprises that have expanded wildly and attacked the city and plundered the land, although it is a merit, the question is whether your own strength can support the expanded business. As Wang Yangming said, a person with a heart of defiance, if he has to do Yao Shun's business, he can only be bored with himself.

Of course, in today's increasingly fierce "Yang Ming fever", there are also entrepreneurs who are vigilant - do not deify him and make people worship. If you put it to this day, Wang Yangming must be a model of innovation, never think that the sage Buddha's path of the predecessors ended the truth, but maintain an open mind, otherwise there would be no Yangming mind.