Question 1

What is the best book to start with?

Accepted Answer

Instructions for Practical Living, Part I, sections 1–5, tr. Chan. The knowing-acting dialogue is here.

Question 2

What is the most famous quote?

Accepted Answer

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Wang Yangming that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Knowledge is the beginning of action and action the completion of knowledge.” (Instructions for Practical Living, Part I, sec. 5, tr. Wing-tsit Chan, Paraphrase or translation).

Question 3

What is the most misquoted line?

Accepted Answer

None of the lines this library files for Wang Yangming is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

Question 4

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Accepted Answer

Unity of knowing and acting: Real knowledge already moves you. Knowing without doing is not yet knowing.