Gewu
格物 (géwù)
*"The Investigation of Things"*: the first of the eight steps in the moral program of the *Great Learning* (*Daxue*). The text makes the sincerity of intention depend on the extension of knowledge, and the extension of knowledge on *gewu*—"the extension of knowledge consists in the investigation of things." From this starting point rises the entire chain leading from the rectified heart to the peace of the world. The term would become the focus of a major disagreement: Zhu Xi reads it as the exhaustive examination of the *principle* (*li*) present in each thing; Wang Yangming, for his part, understands *ge* as "to rectify"—to rectify things, that is, the affairs of the heart, rather than amassing external knowledge.
Those who wished to make their wills sincere would first extend their knowledge. The extension of knowledge consists in the investigation of things. When things are investigated, knowledge is extended.
« The expansion of knowledge lies in the investigation of things. »
The expansion of knowledge consists in the investigation of things. This line from the Great Learning (大學, Dàxué)—a mere handful of words in a short text—has become one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds of Chinese thought.
Gewu (格物) opens the sequence of the “eight steps”: investigating things, expanding knowledge, making the intention sincere (cheng), rectifying the heart (xīn), cultivating the self, regulating the family, ordering the state, pacifying the world. The text presents it as the root: “From the Son of Heaven to the common people, all must take the cultivation of the person as the foundation.” The governance of the world begins with a gaze turned toward things.
But what does “investigate” mean? Zhu Xi interprets ge as “to reach, to probe”: it is to examine things one by one to uncover their principle, until one day, with accumulated knowledge, everything suddenly becomes clear. Wang Yangming recounts how, as a young man, he tried to “investigate” the bamboo in the garden for seven days straight, only to fall ill without understanding anything. He concluded that ge means “to rectify”: the “things” are the affairs in which intention is engaged, and to investigate them is to rectify the heart by applying the innate knowledge of the good, liangzhi. Knowledge is no longer prior to action but one with it—this is the unity of knowledge and action.
Gewu, then, is not bookish study that piles up knowledge for its own sake: the Great Learning subordinates it entirely to the sincerity of intention and to conduct. Nor is it passive contemplation: it is an active examination—of the world for Zhu Xi, of the heart for Wang Yangming—always directed toward self-transformation.