平民哲学家王艮及其泰州学派

王艮是明代著名的平民哲学家和教育家。他灶丁出身,立志成圣,一心向学,终成一代平民儒学大师。王艮终身不仕,致力讲学,大胆进行理论创新,他以自然为宗提出了以身为本、百姓日用是道等著名的新的理论观念,独创了中国封建社会后期第一个极具启蒙性质的平民哲学学派——泰州学派。王艮的弟子们继承和发展了王艮的思想,并将泰州学派思想推广至全国大部分地区,在海内外均产生了广泛而深刻的影响。

Popular Philosopher WANG Gen and the Taizhou School of Philosophy

WANG Gen was a famous popular philosopher and educator in the Ming Dynasty.Although he was born into a salt-field worker’s family,he was determined to learn philosophy to be a philosopher,and finally achieved his goal of being a master of Confucianism.He never desired to become an official,but dedicated his whole life to giving lectures and to making theoretical innovations.He proposed the idea that every individual has the same access to truth and that self-cultivation is the prerequisite for gaining enlightenment.He founded in the later period of Chinese feudal society the philosophical school-the Taizhou School,which took on a strong flavor of populism and enlightenment.WANG Gen’s disciples inherited and developed his thinking and spread it throughout China,thus,the Taizhou School of philosophy exerts great influence home and abroad.