Q0463

Wang Yangming

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Before you looked at this flower, it and your mind alike were still; when you come to look, its colors suddenly become clear.
Thinker Wang Yangming
School School of Mind
Source Instructions for Practical Living
Theme Mind
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Instructions for Practical Living, within the tradition of 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 mind, 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.). Before you looked at this flower, it and your mind alike were still; when you come to look, its colors suddenly become clear. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0463

MLA: Wang Yangming. “Before you looked at this flower, it and….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0463.

Chicago: Wang Yangming. “Before you looked at this flower, it and….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0463.

Same thinker

More from Wang Yangming

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Extend the innate good knowing.
  4. Mind is principle. Are there affairs or principles outside the mind?
  5. That little bit of innate knowing of yours is your own criterion.

All quotations by Wang Yangming

Same theme

More on mind

  1. Reading means thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own.
  2. Envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness.
  3. Mind precedes all mental states; mind is their chief; they are mind-made.
  4. Give rise to a mind that abides nowhere.
  5. Mind is principle. Are there affairs or principles outside the mind?

Browse the mind theme