Q0171

Wang Yangming

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action is the effort of knowledge. Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowledge.
Thinker Wang Yangming
School Neo-Confucianism (School of Mind)
Source Instructions for Practical Living, Juan Shang
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Instructions for Practical Living, Juan Shang, within the tradition of Neo-Confucianism (School of Mind). The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Wang Yangming's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Wang Yangming. (n.d.). Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action is the effort of knowledge. Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowledge. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0171

MLA: Wang Yangming. “Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0171.

Chicago: Wang Yangming. “Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0171.

Same thinker

More from Wang Yangming

  1. There has never been one who truly knows and yet does not act. If one knows but does not act, that is simply not yet knowing.
  2. Extend the innate good knowing.
  3. Mind is principle. Are there affairs or principles outside the mind?
  4. That little bit of innate knowing of yours is your own criterion.
  5. Knowing is the beginning of acting; acting is the completion of knowing.

All quotations by Wang Yangming

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme