In the “Campaign of Advocating Charity” in the late Ming Dynasty, Wang Yangming focused his concern on reconstruction of order in lower society. He emphasized a double action of “advocating charity and punishing the evil” by means of “notices to the commons” and tried to transform folk styles by means of moral handbooks “recording defects” and “prizing merits”. In contrast to his mentalist idea stressing conscience and selfcontrol, Wang emphasized the presence of karma behind moral conduct. In order to realize his mentalist “ultimate” ideal of correcting the mind and arranging order, such forms of popular culture as “dramas” could be utilized to inspire “conscience” in people, for such ideas of karma as “the effect serves the cause and nothing is to be obtained for no reason” in popular culture were most likely to impress people. The combination of mentalism with advocating charity showed evidently that the relationship between religion and morality had appeared on the agenda.

Wang Yangming’s mentalism； campaign of advocating charity in the Ming Dynasty； karma； agreement between morality and happiness