International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2020

 

Congruence: on the key knacks of

Neo-Confucianism in Reflections on Things at Hand

(Abstract)

 

YIN, Xiaoning

 

Reflections on Things at Hand (jin si lu) is an important work in the history of Chinese thought, and it had been regarded as “the beginning of Neo-Confucianism.” Its essence is the skill to reach the “sageliness within” (nei sheng), and contains the key knacks of the “congruence” (shen xin heyi, or mind and body alignment) doctrine in the Neo-Confucianism: mind is body,  and vice versa; mind and body connect and mirror each other; to cultivate body is also to cultivate mind, and vice versa. Neo-Confucianism advocates the following order of skills: to reach tranquility; to uphold a respect attitude; to cultivate oneself; to be self-restraint; and finally, to have an image and style of sage. All the skills have been incorporated in the knacks. They are not only running through the whole process of cultivation, but also a test of the degree to which you have cultivated yourself and its authenticity.  The principle of the “unity of knowledge and practice” (zhi xing heyi) advocated by Wang Yangming in his Philosophy of the Mind also echoed the knacks.