Human Nature and Desire in Wang Fuzhi′s Philosophy and Modern Values

Human nature and desire are two major issues being explored in Chinese ethical tradition. While criticizing parts of the predecessors′ biased ideas, Wang Fuzhi favorably adopted other modes of thinking. He proposed to integrate human nature and desire and insisted that the latter always being subsumed under the former. He defied sharply the suppression of sensual enjoyment embraced by Buddhists, Taoists, and Confucian scholars of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties. He asserted the necessity and rationality of material pursuit of human desire. What man needs to do is to rein in the desire about to run wild against rationality. He discussed the essence of human nature and its relevance to the development of character. His ideas and philosophy should be placed in the proper historical and modern perspective.