The Mongols were already using true cannon in their sieges.
In 1519, the first Portuguese were presented to the Chinese emperor in
Nanking, where they were entertained for about a year in a hostel, a
certain Lin Hsuen learned about their rifles and copied them for Wang
Yang-ming. In general, however, the Chinese had no respect for the
Europeans, whom they described as "bandits" who had expelled the lawful
king of Malacca and had now come to China as its representatives. Later
they were regarded as a sort of Japanese, because they, too, practised
piracy.

12 _Machiavellism_

All main schools of Chinese philosophy were still based on Confucius.
Wang Yang-ming's philosophy also followed Confucius, but he liberated
himself from the Neo-Confucian tendency as represented by Chu Hsi, which
started in the Sung epoch and continued to rule in China in his time and
after him; he introduced into Confucian philosophy the conception of
"intuition". He regarded intuition as the decisive philosophic
experience; only through intuition could man come to true knowledge.
This idea shows an element of meditative Buddhism along lines which the
philosopher Lu Hsiang-shan (1139-1192) had first developed, while
classical Neo-Confucianism was more an integration of monastic Buddhism
into Confucianism. Lu had felt himself close to Wang An-shih
(1021-1086), and this whole school, representing the small gentry of the
Yangtze area, was called the Southern or the Lin-ch'uan school,
Lin-ch'uan in Kiangsi being Wang An-shih's home. During the Mongol
period, a Taoist group, the _Cheng-i-chiao_ (Correct Unity Sect) had
developed in Lin-ch'uan and had accepted some of the Lin-ch'uan
school's ideas. Originally, this group was a continuation of Chang
Ling's church Taosim. Through the _Cheng-i_ adherents, the Southern
school had gained political influence on the despotic Mongol rulers. The
despotic Yung-lo emperor had favoured the monk Tao-yen (_c_. 1338-1418)
who had also Taoist training and proposed a philosophy which also
stressed intuition. He was, incidentally, in charge of the compilation
of the largest encyclopaedia ever written, the _Yung-lo ta-tien_,
commissioned by the Yung-lo emperor.

Wang Yang-ming followed the Lin-ch'uan tradition. The introduction of
the conception of intuition, a highly subjective conception, into the
system of a practical state philosophy like Confucianism could not but
lead in the practice of the statesman to machiave