Compared with Beijing, most positions in Nanjing were merely nominal sinecures. One day, Wang Yangming was touring Kuaiji Mountain in Shaoxing with a friend when they discussed the philosophy of mind. His friend pointed at a flowering tree growing from the rocks and said:
"You say there is nothing outside the mind in All Under Heaven. This flowering tree blooms and falls on its own in the deep mountains. What does it have to do with my mind?"
Wang Yangming said, "Before you saw this flower, it and your mind both returned to silence. When you come to see it, its color suddenly becomes vivid. From this, one can see that the flower is not outside your mind."
An old monk instructed a young monk that the women at the foot of the mountain were tigers, and he should avoid them when he encountered them. The young monk went down the mountain to beg for alms. Compared to men, women were more likely to give charity. If the young monk listened to the old monk and avoided them, what alms would he beg for?
He found these female benefactors not only unfrightening, but rather lovely. Thus, these "tigers" entered his heart.
When people saw flowers, they gave them value—vibrant beauty. When donkeys saw fresh flowers, they gave them value too—tasty food. The flowers were still flowers, but their value differed according to who looked at them. People appreciated them; donkeys only ate them. After Gansu Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Danwang became Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner, he neither wrote poetry like Su Dongpo nor built great dikes... No, he did build them, but not entirely, because he embezzled the money meant for waterworks.
When his property was confiscated, more than three million taels of silver and over 3,300 taels of gold