In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi, that is, in 1500, Yangming was twenty-nine years old.
This year, several things happened. The first is that Mr. Chen Xianzhang passed away. When Chen Xianzhang died, Yang Ming was serving in Beijing, he knew that Chen Xianzhang was because of a person, this person was Wu Shizhong, he was a Jinshi of Hongzhi for three years, nine years earlier than Yang Mingzhong Jinshi, time is not a problem, age is not a problem, Yang Ming and Wu Shizhong have become friends for the year, and they have also become true friends. And Wu Shizhong strongly recommended Chen Xianzhang to come out as an official, so that Yang Ming knew Chen Xianzhang as a person. Later, Yang Ming began to pay attention to Chen Xianzhang and began to read his works.
Chen Xianzhang is a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, and he himself gave himself the nickname "Baishazi", so the world also called him "Mr. Baisha". Why is this person so great, because his own ideas have already established a sect, called the "Lingnan School" in the history of Chinese philosophy, also known as the "Jiangmen School", and he himself is also the only Confucian in the Lingnan area to enter the Confucian Temple.
The "Lingnan School" founded by Chen Xianzhang is very different from Cheng Zhu's science since the Song and Ming dynasties. He advocated that "heaven and earth stand up, ten thousand things come out of me, and the universe is in me", and his self-created self-cultivation method is "to cultivate clues in silence". These ideas and methods became the founder of the Ming Dynasty's psychology, and he also became the founder of the Ming Dynasty's psychology. This time, I understand, it is precisely because of reading his works that Yang Ming really returned from the "study of dictionaries" to the "study of sages".
Yang Ming was deeply impressed by Chen Xianzhang's mental thoughts, and sincerely recognized his mental thoughts. It can be said that it is precisely because of reading Chen Xianzhang's works that Yang Ming really embarked on the road of mental learning, and Chen Xianzhang is the leader of Yang Ming. It can even be said that although Yang Ming is not the founder of Xinxue, he has added his own unique experience in the process of understanding Xinxue, and he has integrated useful things in Xinxue, Taoism, and Buddhism into it, forming a set of his own theoretical system. In essence, Yang Ming Psychology is not a pure theory, but a practice-oriented method of thought and practice. Therefore, there is still a certain difference between Yangming Xinxue and the "Lingnan School" created by Chen Xianzhang, and even Lu Jiuyuan's Lu School of Mind.
Of course, at this time, Yang Ming Mind had not yet taken shape. When his mind was still being explored, his job position changed. In June of this year, Yang Ming was transferred to the Criminal Department as an intern in the Ministry of Works, and was awarded the director of the Yunnan Qing Officials Division of the Criminal Department, with an official rank of six grades.
Under the Criminal Department of the Ming Dynasty, there were thirteen Qing Officials Division, which were mainly responsible for reviewing the litigation cases reported by the provinces. The Yunnan Qing Officials Division is the largest of the thirteen Qing Officials Division, with the largest number of personnel and the largest workload. The reason is that there are many criminal cases in Yunnan. These criminal cases are also very complicated, and when the local judicial organs decide these cases, they are often mixed with personal likes and dislikes or entanglements of interests, so they often make some very easy cases particularly complicated. At this time, Yang Ming, who wanted to become a saint, was also physically and mentally exhausted.
In addition to the 13 Clearance Divisions, there is also an important job in the Criminal Department, which is to be in charge of the largest prison in the country. The specific institution in charge of the prison is called the Prison Department, which has no director, and is in charge of the thirteen chief officials in turn. At this time, Yang Ming's health was not very good, he fell off his horse once when he went to the northern border to inspect last year, and contracted lung disease again when he was in charge of prison, and often coughed. Even so, he was not affected by these diseases in the slightest, on the contrary, he did a very good job in his post in the Yunnan Qing Bureau, correcting many unjust, false and wrongful cases. Moreover, he also formulated or re-regulated the rules and regulations in prisons, some of which are still in use today.
Once, when he visited the prison, he found that the guards were feeding the prisoners pig food and feeding the pigs. When Yang Ming saw this, he was very angry in his heart, and immediately called the jailers to give a lecture. He said that the imperial court had the virtue of a good life, and even if these people committed crimes, the imperial court also allocated rice and cloth to prevent them from starving and cold. But you treat them like pigs and dogs, taking food to feed the pigs, you are complaining for the court, you people are really not as good as pigs and dogs!
Yang Ming saw the evil of human nature in such a human purgatory. He wrote in an article entitled "The Inscription on the Wall of the Prison Hall", "Although each is under the command of the six prisons, and the person who carries the prison does not know about it, it will be evil. The law enforcers were able to negotiate the following, and the world was the most obscene". Although the various departments of the Criminal Department have stationed officials in the prison, as long as the officials of the prison hall do not come to inquire for a day, all kinds of fraud and bad things will appear here, and the law enforcers can do something else behind their backs, so this is the darkest place in the world.
In this way, in the second year, that is, in the fourteenth year of Hongzhi, in 1501, Yang Ming was thirty years old. He was still in the Criminal Department, and in August of that year, he was given the assignment of being sent to Nanzhili, that is, in Nanking and Huai'an, to review the cases of heavy prisoners with the local inspectors. This work continued until the following year, and he was the first time he came to Huai'an, a historic city located at the confluence of the Huai River and the Grand Canal.
Here he retried the prisoners and opened his eyes to the evil of the other side of human nature. When he re-examined the files of the felons, he saw that some of the felons, although they were really heinous, confessed their guilt because of the heavy sentences. There are also felons who have committed serious crimes such as homicide, but they bribe the officials who try the case with money so that they can avoid the law. After careful examination, Yang Ming rehabilitated some unjust cases.
After seeing this practice, those local officials were very puzzled. But Yang Ming knew in his heart that he was doing this from his own conscience, and only by doing so could he have a clear conscience. If you don't, your conscience will be condemned, and you won't be at ease. And Yang Ming knows in his heart that the law is the last bottom line of a society, and if even this bottom line is broken, the whole society will lose the greatest fairness and justice, and this society will be a dark society and a society with no future. He did this to maintain the greatest and final fairness and justice in society.
Because Yang Ming saw the dark side of society, and because he handled official duties during the day, he still read the "Five Classics" and the classics of the Qin and Han dynasties at night, so that his body was in a bad condition, so that he was physically and mentally exhausted. At this time, after dealing with official business, Yang Ming had time to visit the local famous mountain Jiuhua Mountain and visit a famous Taoist priest "Cai Pengtou" in the mountain. At this time, the idea of quitting officialdom and cultivating to become an immortal already appeared in Yang Ming's heart.
He came to Jiuhua Mountain and stayed in Huacheng Temple at night. When he learned that a very famous Taoist priest "Cai Pengtou" was practicing here, Yang Ming approached him to learn Taoist health preservation techniques from him. Yang Ming asked, "Do you think I can learn the way of immortal health?"
"Cai Pengtou" shook his head and said, not yet. Yang Ming felt that the Taoist chief felt that his heart was not sincere enough, so he withdrew his entourage and invited the Taoist chief to the back pavilion. Then he asked himself if he could learn the way of immortal health. "Cai Pengtou" still shook his "unkempt head" and said, not yet.
Yang Ming was not discouraged, and asked again reverently. "Cai Pengtou" said slowly, you invited me to the back hall to the back pavilion, and gave me such a big gift, but I saw that you had an official face, and I couldn't ask for a fairy. With that, he laughed and walked away. In fact, the phrase "Cai Pengtou" broke Yang Ming's inner world. Yang Ming has a worldly heart to make achievements, he wants to be like a military strategist like Wang Yue, serve the country, and want to become a saint, so that he can stay for a hundred generations.
Once the idea of Yangming's cultivation and becoming an immortal is born, how can there be a reason to give up when encountering failure and setbacks. He also inquired that there was still an old road in the Jizang Cave of Jiuhua Mountain that was higher than the "Cai Pengtou" Taoist. So, Yang Ming followed the dangerous mountain road to the Jizo Cave. In the cave, I saw an old Dao, who was sleeping there, his feet were exposed, and Yang Ming was there to massage Lao Dao's toes. Lao Dao opened his eyes and said, "Oh, the mountain road is so dangerous, how did you come up?" Then, Lao Dao and Yang Ming talked about Confucianism from Taoism and Buddhism. In the end, Lao Dao said that Zhou Lianxi and Cheng Mingdao are two good Confucian talents, while Zhu Kaoting is just a lecturer and has not reached the top.
Zhou Lianxi is Zhou Dunyi, and Cheng Mingdao is Cheng Hao, both of whom are masters of thought with mental tendencies. The meaning of the old way, Yang Ming understands, if you want to become a sage, you must learn Zhou Cheng's heart science, not Zhu Kaoting's science, Zhu Kaoting is the famous Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty. Yang Ming also understood a truth by asking the old Taoist for advice, whether it is Taoism, Buddhism or Confucianism, in the end, we must comprehend and realize from our own heart, so in this sense, the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the same, that is, to cultivate from one's own heart first, the heart is dirty, and no matter what way you practice, it will be useless.
And what "Cai Pengtou" said also benefited a lot in Yang Ming's view. The desire of the heart can finally be reflected in the external appearance, which may be "born from the heart". If you want to make your appearance more beautiful, you can only change your heart and make your heart more clear and transparent, so that it will be reflected in your appearance, and people will have a sense of closeness and a pleasant charm after seeing it. "Cai Pengtou" saw Yang Ming's official face, which showed that he was not vulgar, and it was obviously impossible to become a leisurely immortal.
Jiuhua Mountain, Yangming is harvested. A lot of confusion in his heart opened up a lot by talking to the masters. If you want to truly solve the confusion in your heart, it is nothing more than these forms, reading thousands of books, it is better to travel thousands of miles, travel thousands of miles, it is better to read countless people, read countless people, it is better to guide the way, and the master guides the way, and the master has to rely on his own understanding in the end.