Because Wang Yang-Ming came up in discussions, I googled about and searched for the writings in translation. Here is a particularly obtuse and convoluted translation of parts of his work. There is also another page with an abstracted bullet point compilation of salient points which is even more austere and weird. Beyond that you have the repeated one paragraph bio in quotes:
"Wang Yang-Ming (wÃng yÃng-ming) (KEY) , 1472–1529, Chinese philosopher. He developed an idealist interpretation of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Chu Hsi. Wang believed that universal moral law is innate in man and discoverable through self-cultivation. In contrast to the orthodox Confucian reliance on classical studies (see Chinese literature) as a means to self-cultivation, Wang stressed self-awareness and the unity of knowledge and action. One school of his followers emphasized achievement of mystical enlightenment in a manner strikingly similar to Zen Buddhism."
Scholars of Wang in history tend towards radical action. They are of the school, "If it is damned if you do and damned if you don't, then it is better to be damned by doing." Heihachiro Oshio was a magistrate under the Tokugawa shogunate, but one day committed to rebellion because he felt the government was corrupt and something had to be done. The real historic importance of Wang Yang-Ming in Japan arises out of Choshu rebels who brought about the Meiji Restoration were heavily influenced by the writings of Wang Yang-Ming through Shoin Matsuda, who influenced the likes of Shinsaku Takasugi, Hirobumi Itou, Takayoshi Kido, and Kaoru Inoue; men who brought about the restoration wars and the Meiji government. Unfortunately nothing comes up when you google these names in English. :(
- Art Neuro