Chapter Six. Liang Shuming’s Early View Of Oriental And Western Culture

Abstract

This chapter is an attempt to understand the original face of Liang Shuming's complex view of culture. It concentrates on Liang's comparison of oriental and western culture and not discuss what he has to say about Indian culture. The chapter also discusses psychological background that shaped Liang Shuming's early view of culture. By Looking at the case of Liang Shuming as a way of looking back at the decade of the New Culture Movement, we can understand that the debate over Chinese and western culture was in fact not one that found opposing views with respect to science and democracy, but was a thorough-going anti-traditionalism and the anti-anti-traditionalism it gave rise to. It can be said that the shift in Chinese society and culture of the twentieth century is not only a process of modernisation, it can also be seen as a process of continuity and change for Chinese culture. Keywords: Chinese culture; Liang Shuming; New Culture Movement; western culture