Liang Shuming
Liang Shuming 梁漱溟 | |
---|---|
Guangdong Guangya Middle School | |
Term | 1928-1929 |
Political party | China Democratic League |
Opponents |
Liang Shuming (
Life
Liang was born in Beijing. His family were ethnic Mongolians of
In 1917 he was recruited by
Regarding Western civilization as doomed to eventual failure, Liang did not advocate complete reform and adoption of Western institutions. He nonetheless believed that reform was needed to make China equal to the rest of the world. It was his view that the required prerequisites for these institutions did not exist in China, so they would not succeed if introduced. Instead, he pushed for change to socialism starting at the grassroots level. To this end, he founded the Shandong Rural Reconstruction Institute and helped to found the China Democratic League.
Liang was famous for his critique of
After the Sino-Japanese War, he mediated disputes between the Communist and Nationalist parties. After the victory of the Communists in 1949, he was occasionally persecuted in ideological campaigns, but refused to admit any error. He died in Beijing.
Eastern and Western cultures and their philosophies
Released in 1921, "Eastern and Western Cultures and their Philosophies" put forth Liang's theory of three cultures.
According to Liang, will decides life and life decides culture, so cultures are different when the wills and desires of the people who populate them differ.[3] Liang saw three orientations of the will: the desire 1) to change and affect your surroundings to bend to your will 2) to change your will so you do not desire to change your surroundings 3) to eliminate will entirely so one no longer desires anything because of his understanding that much of the world is an illusion.[5] To Liang, the three orientations of will were not unconnected but a progression.[3] He says that since knowledge starts with applying reason to your surroundings the first orientation is the most formative. This leads to an imbalance, where one must start to use intuition to relate morally to the world. Finally, as intuition develops, it leads to hardship instead of relieving it. This leads to direct perception, which is the third orientation. Liang maintained that the West held the first orientation, while China held the second and India held the third.[3]
The substance of Chinese culture
In his book "The Substance of Chinese Culture", Liang contrasted Chinese culture with that of Western culture. He did this by exploring the relationship between the social structures in the two regions. Social structure, he asserted, created the cultural factors determining everything about the two cultures.[6] He said Social structure is heavily influenced by cultural viewpoint, which in turn is defined by the social foundation of the society (its means of existence). Liang believed society had three forms: communities, families and individuals. A cultural viewpoint that heavily emphasizes one combination of these will differ greatly from a viewpoint that emphasizes different ones.[6]
Liang believed that while China had stressed the importance of family, the West focused on the relationship of the individual to the community.[6] He said this led China down a path dedicated to an ethics-based society, while the West produced an individual-based society instead. China was led down its path because of feelings of kinship and emotional bonds, which dominated their society. The West, due to their emphasis on mutual rights, proceeded down a path revolving around class distinction, economic independence and laws. The Chinese, however, had a society of professional divisions due to greater social mobility, mutual responsibility and personal bonds to maintain order.[6] Finally, Liang brings up his three cultures theory and China's position in it. He states that although China was in the second stage, it had skipped the first, and consequently lacked the development of profit and power. Rather than suggesting China go back to the first cultural stage, Liang suggests the introduction of Western science and democracy into Chinese society to promote development in those areas.[7]
Works in rural reconstruction
Liang Shuming believed that the rural village was the most important aspect of Chinese society and that for the last hundred years Chinese history had been characterized by its destruction. His main emphases in rural reconstruction were the cultivation of group unity, development of science and technology, and the elimination of outdated traditions.
Liang, appointed by Han Fuju to engage in rural reconstruction in Zouping County, was convinced the most effective method would be to integrate county and village schools and the local government. Between 1931 and 1933 Liang trained 800 people to run schools all over Shandong and in 1932 the Guomindang said that every province should have one of these rural research reconstruction institutions.[8]
Liang's Rural Research Reconstruction Institution had three departments. The first was the Research Department on Rural Reconstruction, headed by Liang Himself. This department trained students who already had a university education to become science advisors. The Training Department of Service personnel took students with a middle-school education to become the villages’ service personnel. The final department, called the Rural Reconstruction District, was implemented to integrate local governance into the university.[8]’
Liang and religion
At the age of 89 in an interview with
Liang, like many intellectuals of the time was very critical of Chinese folk religion. He believed that it was too primitive to allow society to reach a high level of socialization, while at the same time promoting conservatism that impeded social development and promoted low moral standards and selfishness.[9] He felt that Confucianism was China’s answer to religion as it provided a way to harmonize with the cosmos instead of being isolated from that which you worship.[10]
In contrasting Confucianism with religions he came to two conclusions. First that unlike western religion everyone is thought to have innate moral reason, which means they must not all have uniform morals dictated by an institution like the church.[11] And, Second, in his "Treatise on the Differences and Similarities between Confucianism and Buddhism" that the two were not unrelated, but while Confucianism is based on the person and talks about moral character, that Buddhism transcends the person to talk about a final understanding.[9] When ordered in 1974 to criticize Confucius and Lin Biao, he refused and instead wrote Human mind and Human Life. He was often considered a beacon of intellectual freedom as well as China's conscience.[12]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9004363289. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
- ^ An Yanming, Liang Shuming and Henri Bergson on Intuition:Cultural Context and the Evolution of Terms. "Philosophy of East and West, Vol 47, No. 3", July 1997
- ^ a b c d Lin Anwu, Liang Shuming and His Theory of the Reappearance of Three Cultures. "Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol 40 No. 3", 2009
- ^ Thierry Meynard, The Religious Philosophy of Liang Shuming The Hidden Buddhist. "Koninklijke Brill NV", 2011
- ^ Guy Alitto, The Last Confucian Liang Shuming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity.
- ^ a b c d Lu Weiming and Zhao Xiaoyu, Liang Shuming's Viewpoint of Chinese and Western Cultures in the Substance of Chinese Culture. "Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3", 2009
- ^ Lu Weiming and Zhao Xiaoyu, Liang Shuming’s Viewpoint of Chinese and Western Cultures in the Substance of Chinese Culture. "Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3", 2009
- ^ a b c d Wu Shugang and Tong Binchang, Liang Shuming’s Rural Reconstruction Experiment and Its Relevance for Building the New Socialist Countryside. “Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3”, 2009
- ^ a b c d e f g Zhang Wenru, Liang Shuming and Buddhist Studies. “Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3”, 2009
- ^ Thierry Meynard, The Religious Philosophy of Liang Shuming The Hidden Buddhist. “Koninklijke Brill NV”, 2011
- ^ Lu Weiming and Zhao Xiaoyu, Liang Shuming’s Viewpoint of Chinese and Western Cultures in the Substance of Chinese Culture. “Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3”, 2009
- ^ Thierry Meynard, Liang Shuming’s Thought and Its Reception. “Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol. 40 No. 3”, 2009
Bibliography
- Alitto, Guy. The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity 2nd ed. 1986, University of California Press.
- de Bary, Wm. Theodore, (ed.) Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume II (Second Edition) New York: Columbia, 2000.