Instructions for Practical Living

Argues that knowledge without action is incomplete. For Wang Yangming, moral understanding is not something you simply think about or possess internally. It becomes real only when it is enacted in the way you live, respond, and move through the world.

Also known as A Record for Practice (Chuanxilu), compiled from Wang’s conversations and letters. The standard English edition is Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings, translated with notes by Wing-tsit Chan.

Wang Yangming (1472–1529) was a Ming dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher, statesman, and general, best known for the doctrine of the unity of knowledge and action.