On the Notion of “Unifying Ren 仁” in Wang Yangming’s Thoughts on Ren

Abstract

Two or three years before his death, Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472-1529) started to emphasize the “unity of all things” (wanwu yiti 萬物一體). In scholarly discussions of Wang’s notion of “ren which unifies all things in the universe” (tiandi wanwu yiti zhi ren 天地萬物一體之仁), the character ren 仁 (benevolence/humaneness) is often overlooked. In fact, unifying ren (yiti zhi ren 一體之仁) is the central notion that Wang deploys to formulate his doctrine of the unity of all things. This notion is different from other traditional Chinese ideas about ren and unity, including Cheng Hao’s 程顥 (1032-1085) teaching that emphasizes “knowing ren” (shiren 識仁) in the beginning and then progresses to “completely being as one with all things” (hunran yuwu tongti 渾然與物同體). In a word, Wang’s doctrine of the unity of all things is both ontological and practical and reveals the humanistic spirit of World-ism (tianxia zhuyi 天下主義). On the basis of a belief in unifying ren, a harmonious world where “all things in the universe are originally as one with me” (tiandi wanwu ben wu yiti zhe 天地萬物本吾一體者) can be created.