Star News Editor Jillo Kadida
Hundreds of years ago, the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming developed a school of thought centred on the relationship between knowledge, conscience and action.
His philosophy is often associated with the idea that genuine knowledge is not merely intellectual understanding but must be expressed through action.
This emphasis on moral conviction and purposeful conduct provides an interesting lens through which to examine some of the ideas expressed by President Xi Jinping in his remarks on BRICS cooperation.
When Xi Jinping called on BRICS countries to “firmly stand on the right side of history” and become pioneers of their times, his language can be understood as placing responsibility on nations to translate their convictions into practical action.
This parallels, at a broader political level, Wang Yangming’s emphasis on the unity of knowing and doing. For Wang, possessing knowledge without acting upon it was incomplete; similarly, Xi’s vision of BRICS suggests that developing countries should not simply recognise the inequalities of the existing international system but should actively work together to reshape it.
The connection becomes even clearer in Xi’s description of the twenty years of BRICS cooperation as a period of “self-reliance and self-strengthening.”
Wang Yangming’s philosophy placed considerable importance on cultivating strength and moral clarity from within rather than depending entirely on external authority.
Xi’s emphasis on countries pursuing development paths suited to their own national conditions reflects a comparable principle at the level of national development: strength comes from understanding one’s circumstances, building internal capacity and acting collectively.
However, the two thinkers operate in fundamentally different contexts.
Wang Yangming was primarily concerned with the moral development of the individual and the cultivation of conscience, while Xi’s ideas concern states, international cooperation and global governance.
The relationship between them should therefore be viewed as philosophical rather than as a direct equivalence.
Nevertheless, Wang’s emphasis on conscience, self-cultivation and action provides a useful intellectual framework for understanding Xi’s language of self-strengthening and collective responsibility.
In this sense, the two schools of thought complement each other: Wang provides the philosophical principle that conviction must lead to action, while Xi applies a similar logic to the collective aspirations of developing countries seeking greater agency in the international order.
