Uproot and Block the Source

CORE DEFINITION

The idiom pairs two actions: pulling up the root and stopping the spring, so that the harm cannot grow back. Wang Yangming used the image to argue that moral disorder must be corrected at its origin in the mind rather than patched in behavior. As a problem-solving principle it holds that any intervention which leaves the generative condition intact will face the same problem again, and that a durable fix must remove or seal that condition. The qualification is that roots can be entangled with legitimate functions, so the causal chain needs tracing before removal.