"Chuan Xi Lu" is a compilation of question-and-answer records and letters of Wang Shouren (styled Yangming), a thinker in the Ming Dynasty, compiled by his disciples such as Xu Ai, Xue Kan, and Qian Dehong. The whole book is divided into three volumes: The upper volume was personally reviewed by Wang Shouren, systematically expounding ideas such as "the unity of knowledge and action" and "the mind is the principle"; the middle volume contains his personal letters written in his later years, focusing on the theory of "extending innate knowledge"; the lower volume, although not finalized, records the essence of his later thoughts such as the "Four-Sentence Teaching". As the core literature of the School of Mind, this book criticizes the tendency of seeking truth externally in Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism and establishes a practical philosophical system of "the unity of noumenon and effort". It is included in "The Complete Works of Duke Wencheng Wang" and has been published separately many times.

In the seventh year of the Zhengde reign (1512), Xu Ai, a disciple of Wang Shouren, began to record the conversations between the teacher and students. In the thirteenth year of the Zhengde reign, Xue Kan compiled and first published the upper volume of "Chuan Xi Lu". In the third year of the Jiajing reign (1524), Nan Daji added and published the letters on learning as the middle volume. After Wang Shouren's death, Qian Dehong compiled and completed the lower volume. In the sixth year of the Longqing reign (1572), Xie Tingjie incorporated the three volumes into "The Complete Works of Duke Wencheng Wang" and appended "On Zhu Xi's Late Thoughts" to form the final version. The title of the book is derived from the saying "Is there any practice in what is passed on to you?" in "The Analects of Confucius", meaning that one must personally practice what one has learned.

The work takes "the mind is the principle" as the logical starting point, advocating that the Heavenly Principle exists within the mind rather than being sought externally. Through the classic metaphor of "this flower does not exist outside the mind", it reveals the fundamental connection between the cognitive subject and the objective world. The theory of "the unity of knowledge and action" breaks the separation between cognition and practice, emphasizing the dialectical relationship of "knowledge is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowledge". The "extending innate knowledge" theory proposed in his later years unifies the moral noumenon and self - cultivation efforts, forming a practical philosophy of "noumenon is effort and effort is noumenon".