This concept was proposed by Wang Gen (1483-1541), a student of Wang Yangming (1472-1529) and founder of the Taizhou School of the Mind, and is derived from Wang Yangming’s idea of “joy being original of man’s heart.” For Wang Gen, all humans are born joyful. The reason why many are not happy is that their true and innate joy is blinded by their selfish desires. To break away from this constraint, they must use their inner conscience to detect their selfish desires. By the innate knowledge of good, these selfish desires can be eliminated, thus allowing the return of true and innate joy and the acquisition of a joyful disposition. In fact, the concept that “joy is original of man’s heart and mind” is a combination of “the innate knowledge of good” and “the joyous essence of the heart” and is thus a development of Wang Yangming’s philosophy of the mind.

Joy is original of man’s heart and mind and becomes blinded only by one’s selfish desires. When these selfish desires emerge, one’s inner conscience can still detect them by itself and use its conscientious reflection to uproot them, thus retaining a joyous heart. (Wang Gen: A Song of the Joy of Learning)

Joy is original of man’s heart. The heart of a benevolent person is integrated with everything in the world, in total harmony without gaps. (Wang Yangming: A letter to Huang Mianzhi)