Abstract: LIU Zongzhou won his reputation as one of the most important thinkers of Yangming School by most contemporary scholars, and however, there lacks reflective thinking on whether LIU interpreted WANG's thoughts correctly. LIU is seen as not only a successor of WANG Yangming, but also a reformer in the general view. In this paper, the author criticizes this view by studying LIU's work, Collection and Notes on WANG Yangming's Selected Works, and the author states that LIU's criticism on WANG could only be proved to be misunderstanding,after comparing his comments and WANG's own understanding on “Four Sentences Teaching”, “liangzhi”, The Great Learning and etc. As a matter of fact, LIU was influenced by ZHAN Ruorui's thoughts, and interpreted “liangzhi” as a kind of “knowledge”, which covered WANG's true understanding of “liangzhi” as the natural state/tendency of man's heart-mind. For this reason, LIU's misunderstanding of WANG's thoughts can be considered as a backward step of theory in Yangming School. Therefore, the viewpoint may inspire a new angle for further study on LIU Zongzhou's thoughts and the history of Neo-Confucianism.

Key words: liangzhi, WANG Yangming, LIU Zongzhou, The Great Learning