晚明一代大儒耿定向，與向被視為異端的前衛思想家李卓吾，二人曾有曠日持久的學術論爭，晚年卻終能復合，肯定彼此「同為聖賢」，故其論爭之內涵與意義究竟何在，值得加以深思探討。實則二人對「名教」與「真機」之論辯，一方面皆能掌握陽明「心（意志自由，真機）即理（道德自律，名教）」的精神，另一方面亦凸顯了「自由」與「自律」落在現實層面確有難解之衝突。耿定向申言「名教」之本旨，實充分掌握儒者道德自律之精神，且更強調為善去惡之工夫實踐，其學術可謂合本體與工夫之一貫；而李卓吾對「真機」高於「名教」的堅持，則在強調一純粹的「意志自律」、並絕對尊重他人之「意志自由」，故重在為道學家申言「萬物一體」之境界，以及破除所有外律盲從、名利妄念之「無工夫之工夫」。二人學術之精微處，皆不愧為透悟「心即理」之陽明嫡傳，時人未能恰當理解之而不免於流弊，以致其宗旨亦湮沒而不彰，故本文特為申明之。

There had been a protracted academic controversy between the late- Ming Dynasty's scholar Keng Ting-hsiang and the one who was deemed as the heretical edgy thinker Li Zhuo-wu, but they ended up seeing each other eye to eye and had mutual respect and affirmation for each other in their late years, therefore what exactly is the meaning and significance of its contestation, truly worth ponder exploration. In fact, both of their debation regarding ”Confucian Ethical Codes” (名教) and ”True Mind” (真機), encompassed the true idea of Yang Ming's ”Xin Freewill (意志自由), True Mind) is Li(ethical self-discipline (道德自律), Confucian Ethical Codes)” spirit, moreover they stressed that there's unsolvable conflict among ”freedom” and ”self-discipline” while carrying it out on the practical level. Keng Ting-hsiang's learning can be seen as the combination of noumenon and endeavor (本體與工夫), he states that ”Confucian Ethical Codes” is to master the spirit of Confucianism's ethical self-discipline and emphasized the practice of ”do the goods, banish the evils” (為善去惡). On the other hand, Li Zhuo-wu had a higher persistence on ”True Mind” than ”Confucian Ethical Codes”, he insisted on pure ”will of self-discipline” (意志自律) and absolute respect for ”freewill” of the others, forasmuch he focused on stating the realm of ”Achieving Oneness with the Myriad Things” (萬物一體) and the practice of eradicating all blindfold obedience and greed. Both Keng Ting-hsiang and Li Zhuo-wu's learning is indeed the heir of Yang Ming that had thorough understanding of the ”Xin is Li”, yet people failed to understand it properly and eventually it leads to annihilation, therefore this paper tried to clarified.