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1. Among the best sources forWang’s life are theNianpu, written by Wang’s disciple QianDehong (1496–1574), found in theWang Wencheng GongQuanshu, and theWang Wencheng Chuanben, by Mao Qiling(1623–1716). Useful English–language accounts may befound in Chan 1963, Chang 1939, and Tu 1976.

2. “This mind” isan expression taken fromMengzi 1A7. Neo–Confuciansuse the term to refer to our innate moral sense. Consequently, Wang’sdying words were not bragging about the quality of his own individualmind, but rather were a call for everyone to recognize the capacitythey have within them.

3. Zhu Xi states explicitlythat all virtues are ultimately manifestations of benevolence(Collected Commentaries,Mengzi 2A7). See Van Norden2008, 47–48.

4. This entry follows theconvention of referring to the philosopher as “Mencius,”and his collected sayings and dialogues as the“Mengzi.” Neo–Confucians often interpretedMencius and other ancient Confucians in the light of the concepts theyhad absorbed from Buddhism. As a result, their readings are sometimesskewed. The situation is analogous to the way in which Augustine’sinterpretation of the Bible was influenced by Platonism. See Ivanhoe2002.

5. For more on Zhu Xi’smetaphysics and ethics, see Gardner 1990, Kim 2000, Van Norden 2004,Shun 2010, and Van Norden 2013.

6. Kwong-loi Shun (2011)explains part of what is at issue in the claim that “the mind isPattern”: “For Zhu…the heart/mind has knowledge ofpattern, where such knowledge is akin to a form of perceptualrelation.” In contrast, for Wang “…there is nopattern for the heart/mind to relate to independently of theheart/mind’s responses; instead, pattern resides in the responses ofthe heart/mind in its original state.”

7.Analects 9.18 isone of a number of passages that use the termse to refer tosexual attractiveness, and in the commentary on this passage in hisSishu jizhu Zhu Xi explicitly links this usage to that in theGreat Learning. See Slingerland 2003, 92–93.

8. For Zhu Xi’s explanationof the phrase “ge wu,” see his commentary onGreat Learning, Classic 4–5, in Tiwald and Van Norden2014, 189. For Wang’s interpretation, see his “Questions on theGreat Learning,” in Tiwald and Van Norden 2014, 249.Unfortunately, the key word “ge” is highlyambiguous, so both interpretations of this phrase (and others besides)are completely defensible. David S. Nivison (1996a, 225) describedthe phrase as “a philologist’s delight,” because of theendless speculation it could provoke, and argued that “[n]o onewill ever know what it really meant in itslocusclassicus.”

9. The phrases Wang quotesare fromMengzi 2A6 and 7A15.

10. For an interestingpopular discussion, see Fallon 2013.

11. For selections fromJapanese followers of Wang Yangming, see de Bary 2005. For furtherdiscussion of Wang’s influence in China, see Nivison 1967.

12. On the EvidentialResearch movement, see Elman 2001. Ironically, the preference of theEvidential Research scholars for concrete particulars over abstracttheorizing can be seen as an outgrowth of Wang’s own critique of theCheng–Zhu School. See Nivison 1996b.

13. For representative NewConfucian views of Wang, see Chang 1955, and Tang 1988. On NewConfucianism in general, see Makeham 2003.