왕수인(王守仁)의 사구교(四句敎)에 관한 연구

Abstract

The first sentence of ‘the teachings of four sentences’ of Shou-Ren Wang is “It is neither good nor bad that is the mind itself”, it means the transcendental moral subject. While it means neither good nor bad in existential standard, it means ‘the highest good’ in essential standard. However, it is a transcendental origin that can not be expressed in words. It is a logical transcendental or super-experienced stage and nirvana transcended between goodness and badness. Words can express the good and bad of an empirical existence. This is a moral and practical world in which the moral subject can define as good and bad, and begins with the ‘thought’ of the present existence of the moral subject. So, it is expressed “It is either good or bad that is motivation of thought”. It is logically the second stage of the mind itself, but it is the existence before the essence in the moral world. In this existence, man as a moral being experiences conflicts in life. This existential human being aims at a transcendental state to be ‘neither good nor bad’. It is ‘intuitive knowledge’ that is the main subject that connects the mind itself to be neither good nor bad, in the existential world. This ‘intuitive knowledge’ is the moral subject itself, which is the subject to have the ability to judge what is good and bad in reality, and to want to return to the mind itself. So, it says that “Knowing good and bad is ‘intuitive knowledge’”. However, returning to the mind itself is accomplished through efforts to do good and remove bad in the presence of reality. It is called a ‘rectification of affairs’, so it says that “Doing good and removing bad is ‘rectification of affairs’”.