The School of Mind, or the School of Heart (Chinese: 心學; pinyin: xīn xué), or Yangmingism (Chinese: 陽明學; pinyin: yángmíng xué; Japanese: 陽明学, romanized: yōmeigaku), is one of the major philosophical schools of Neo-Confucianism, based on the ideas of the idealist Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Shouren (whose pseudonym was Yangming Zi and thus is often referred as Wang Yangming). Throughout the whole Yuan dynasty, as well as in the beginning of the Ming dynasty, the magistral philosophy in China was the Rationalistic School, another school of Neo-Confucianism emphasizing the importance of observational science built by Cheng Yi and especially Zhu Xi. Wang Yangming, on the other hand, developed his philosophy as the main intellectual opposition to the Cheng-Zhu School. Yangmingism is considered to be part of the School of Mind established by Lu Jiuyuan, upon whom Yangming drew inspirations. Yangming argued that one can learn the supreme principle (理, pinyin: Li) from their minds, objecting to Cheng and Zhu's belief that one can only seek the supreme principle in the objective world. Furthermore, Yangmingism posits a oneness of action and knowledge in relation to one's concepts of morality. This idea, "regard the inner knowledge and the exterior action as one" (知行合一) is the main tenet in Yangmingism.

It is sometimes called the Lu-Wang school by people who wish to emphasize the influence of Lu Jiuyuan. The Lu-Wang school (or Xinxue) was seen as a rival to the Cheng–Zhu school (or Lixue) school named after its leading philosophers, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi.

Yangming's philosophy was inherited and spread by his disciples. Eventually, Yangmingism overtook the dominance of the Cheng-Zhu School and started to have followers outside China. Yangmingism became an influence on the incipient anti-foreigner movement in 19th century Japan. In the 20th century, Japanese author and nationalist Yukio Mishima examined Yangmingism as an integral part of the ideologies behind the Meiji Restoration as well as further samurai resistance, in particular the Shinpūren rebellion.

Some have described it as influential as the Cultural Revolution for its idea of internal transformation.

In 1472, Yangming was born in a rich household in Yuyao, Zhejiang. Yangming's father ranked first place in the imperial examination in 1481, thus he had been expecting his children to inherit his knowledge and start their career by participating in the imperial examination.

When Yangming was 12 years old, Yangming's father sent him to a private school to prepare for the exam. At the age of eighteen, Yangming had a talk with Lou Liang [zh], who was one of the representative figures of Cheng-Zhu School at that time. Lou's teachings had significantly enhanced Yangming's interest in Cheng-Zhu School. After their conversations, Yangming managed to read through all of Zhu’s work, reflecting on Cheng-Zhu School’s principle that “to acquire knowledge one must study things” (格物致知). To practice this principle, Yangming spent seven days doing nothing except staring at, or so to say, studying the bamboos planted in the garden.

Not surprisingly, not only did he not learn anything from the bamboos, but Yangming also fell seriously ill after sitting in the garden for seven days. Therefore, Yangming had given up on most of the Cheng-Zhu literature, as well as the idea of taking the imperial examination. Instead, he began to read texts written by other Chinese philosophers, and eventually narrowed his focus on Taoism and Lu Jiuyuan, whose work had been a major opponent to the Cheng-Zhu's Rationalistic School.

Though Yangming had lost his faith in the imperial examination, he still signed up for the exam for the sake of his father. He passed the exam and was later assigned to work in the construction department in the central government. In 1506, Yangming was caught in political conflicts, and soon was demoted to Guizhou, the most deserted place in China at that time. Yangming soon recovered from the setback. While working on improving the living situations of people in Guizhou, Yangming developed his own philosophical principles, which were then called Yangminism, based on The Great Learning and Lu's work.