Liangzhi

Liangzhi, “good knowing” or “innate knowledge of the good”, comes from a passage of Mencius: what people know without learning is their innate knowing, and what they can do without study is their innate ability; every child knows to love its parents and to respect its elders. Mencius cited it as evidence that human nature is good.

Wang Yangming made liangzhi the centre of his philosophy. Every person, he taught, has within the heart-mind an innate knowing of right and wrong, which is the principle of heaven itself, clear and complete, though it may be clouded by selfish desire. The task of learning is not to acquire principles from outside, but to “extend” this innate knowing (zhi liangzhi), clearing away what obscures it and acting on it in every situation.

From this followed his teaching of the unity of knowledge and action: true knowing already includes acting, as seeing a beautiful colour already includes liking it. One who claims to know filial piety but does not act filially does not yet know it.