Wang Ji (1498 – 1583), courtesy name Longxi, was a Chinese philosopher and writer during the Ming dynasty. He is commonly regarded as one of the most important Neo-Confucian thinkers in the school of Wang Yangming, along with Wang Gen. Life Wang Ji hailed from Shanyin (山陰) County in Shaoxing (紹興) Prefecture, Zhejiang. He became a student of Wang Yangming fairly early in his life, eventually numbering among his most important disciples, contributing important parts to their collective posthumous records of Yangming's life and thought. After Yangming's death, Wang Ji tended associate himself with the nascent members of the Taizhou school, rather than the quietist and orthodox interpretations of his master's thought. Philosophy Beyond Good and Evil Wang Longxi interpreted his teacher's summarization of his own teachings into the "Four Sentences" into his own form, the "Four Nothings" (四無), which stated that "If we realize that the mind is the mind which is neither good nor evil, that intention is intention which is neither good nor evil, that knowledge is knowledge which is neither good nor evil, and that things are things which are neither good nor evil, then the mindless mind is concealed in the secret, the intentionless intention responds perfectly, knowledgeless knowledge is embodied in quiescence, and thingless things function spiritually." (若悟得心是無善無惡之心﹐意即是無善無惡之意﹐知即是無善無惡之知﹐物即是無善無惡之物。蓋無心之心則藏密﹐無意之意則應圓﹐無知之知則體寂﹐無物之物則用神。) This teaching is intended to obliterate the difference between subject and object, entering the mind of no-mind. Longxi assumed that if, according to Wang Yangming, the mind is without good or evil, then all thoughts, volition, and intuitive knowing should be likewise. According to Wang Longxi, Wang Yangming said that "If one can realize the original substance in which there is neither good nor evil, one will know what absolute Nothing is. And then all will, knowledge, and things will emerge from Nothing. Once this is done, it settles everything. Effort is substance. This truth is simple and direct. It is neither too much nor too little. This is the secret to be passed from one mind to another." Intuitive Knowledge Wang developed his teacher's concept of intuitive knowing (良知, liangzhi) into three essential aspects: solitary knowledge (獨知, duzhi), primal knowledge (乾知, qianzhi), and knowledge free or thought and action (無思無為, wusi wuwei). Longxi believed that in solitary knowledge, "nothing is not original. It is invisible and inaudible, and is the foundation of liang chih. It is through this foundation that appearance and invisibility (reality), substance