What to Do When Facing Difficulties? Wang Yangming Prescribed a "Remedy" of the Philosophy of Mind Based on I Ching Principles at Longchang

In the third year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, in a cave in Longchang, Guizhou, lived a demoted official bearing a criminal charge. This man was Wang Yangming, who had just crawled out of the imperial prison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and drifted all the way to the southwestern frontier. He lived in a stone cave, ate wild vegetables, and had no one around to chat with. Ordinary people would have been depressed long ago, but Wang Yangming was not like them. He spread a straw mat in the cave, sat upright every day pondering the *Book of Changes*, and even gave the stone cave an elegant name: "Wanyi Wo" (the Nest for Delighting in the Changes).

When he first arrived in Longchang, Wang Yangming did have moments of wanting to give up. Frustrated in officialdom and with an uncertain future, anyone would mutter about "how to adjust when things go wrong." He flipped through the *Book of Changes* to cast a hexagram for himself, and upon seeing the hexagram image and line statements, he suddenly slapped his thigh: "So I've been understanding it wrong all along! This hexagram doesn't teach you how to avoid disasters; it clearly tells you how to stand upright and be a person in different situations."

As clearly written in *Notes on Wanyi Wo*, during that period he "observed the images and delighted in the statements" and "observed the changes and delighted in the divinations." The more he pondered, the more enlightened he became: Escaping reality is essentially gambling on luck. If you win, it's a lucky break; if you lose, it's a bottomless abyss. On the contrary, abiding by one's innate conscience and virtue may seem slow, but in reality, every step is taken on solid ground. Having figured this out, he simply used the stone pier in the cave as a desk and devoted himself to studying the principle of "investigating things to attain knowledge."

One midnight, he was dozing off when he suddenly felt as if someone had struck him on the head. He sat up with a jolt, muttering to himself: "The way of the sage is inherently complete in my own nature. Those who sought principle in external things before were mistaken!" The servant guarding the cave was startled, thinking this gentleman had gone mad from exhaustion, little knowing that this was the later-famous "Longchang Enlightenment."

Some people might ask, what does this have to do with what we often call "how to see the situation clearly"? It has a great deal to do with it. Before, Wang Yangming was just like everyone else: when encountering problems, he always wanted to find answers from outside. Why doesn't the emperor favor me? Why do my colleagues oppose me? Why is the environment so bad? Only after attaining enlightenment did he realize that the answer is not outside at all, but right in one's own heart.

Just like the story of Shun that Mencius discussed with Wan Zhang: Xiang always wanted to kill Shun, but when Shun became the Son of Heaven, he enfeoffed Xiang at Youbi. Others thought Shun was magnanimous, but in fact, Shun was very clear in his heart: What I uphold is the original heart of filial piety and fraternal duty; as for how Xiang causes trouble, that is his business. You see, isn't this the same idea as Wang Yangming's "the way is inherently complete in my own nature"?

Later, the common people near Longchang heard that a learned gentleman lived in the cave, and they all came to ask him to give lectures. Wang Yangming did not put on airs. He moved a stone and started speaking, teaching down-to-earth principles: What to do when encountering difficulties? Don't panic. First, consult your own conscience: should this be done or not? If it should be done, you must go even if it means climbing a mountain of swords or plunging into a sea of fire; if it should not be done, don't touch it even if it's paved with gold.

He also specially wrote *Notes on Wanyi Wo* to record this mental journey. The core meaning is just one: the *Book of Changes* is never a manual for escaping reality, but a life guide that teaches people how to stand firm and walk upright in困境. Those who always think of avoiding trouble through divination essentially lose their original heart, and naturally their path becomes narrower and narrower.

Nowadays, many people feel anxious when encountering problems and always want to find shortcuts or backers. In fact, compared with Wang Yangming when he was demoted, our situation is many times better. If you really feel you can't hold on any longer, you might as well learn from Mr. Yangming: first calm your mind and do well what you should do. After all, as the old saying goes, "A gentleman fulfills his will even at the cost of his life." As long as your original heart is established, no matter how difficult the obstacle is, there will always be a day when you get through it.