Liang Shuming Research Articles

Early Modern Imaginations of the Nation and Their Insights: An Examination Centered on Liang Qichao and Liang Shuming

Chinese people have formed a rich vision of the “nation,” with Liang Qichao and Liang Shuming serving as representative figures, throughout the process of moving from “all under heaven” to “nation.” The two Liangs’ imaginations show different traits as well as consistency. The two Liangs’ modern national imaginations stand out for their interaction between “people” and “country” in terms of imaginative features. Regarding continuity, Liang Shuming’s rural building movement may be understood as the application of Liang Qichao’s theoretical vision. Nonetheless, the opposition faced by the rural building movement highlights the challenges this imagination has in attempting to come to pass. In light of the ‘national’ imagination and associated practices of early modern Chinese society, what becomes clear is that, against the backdrop of historical transitions, an idealistic national imagination can, in fact, serve as a conceptual basis for national construction as well as an uplifting and guiding force. However, the challenge and secret to creating a modern nation is understanding how to organize the “people” to forge a concrete bond with the “country.” Examining and considering these ideas and actual initiatives is still very significant for nation-building in the modern day.

Viewing “Pratyaksa” in Liang Shuming’s Cultural Philosophy by Sensuous-Certainty

Viewing “Pratyaksa” in Liang Shuming’s Cultural Philosophy by Sensuous-Certainty

Grassroots Initiatives for Ecological Transition in China

In light of ecological disasters in China and social alienation among the Chinese people, this article argues that ecology must take precedence over economy, agriculture over industry and finance, and life over money and profit. The article focuses on the New Rural Reconstruction Movement and the Loving Home Village campaigns and identifies several grassroots initiatives in search for pathways to social and ecological transition. It presents in detail the trajectories of Little Donkey Farm, Liang Shuming Rural Reconstruction Center, Yun Jianli, and Yang Zhengxi, which are examples of how to mobilize both urban and rural communities to participate in social and ecolo- gical transformation.

Modern Significance of Liang Shuming’s Rural Education Theory and Practice

As an innovative form of rural education, Liang Shuming’s theory and practice of rural education has far-reaching significance for the modernization of Chinese rural education and the improvement of the comprehensive quality of rural students. However, current education is facing the problem of utilitarianization of education. This paper first introduces Liang Shuming’s life background and ideological system and the framework of the core ideas of the rural education theory proposed by Liang Shuming, and then discusses Liang Shuming’s rural education theory and practice, i.e., vitalized education. At present, the rate of compulsory education in rural areas is only 79.1% and the rate of high school education is only 32.5%, so the level and quality of education need to be improved. The modern significance of Liang Shuming’s rural education theory and practice in rural education not only lies in the enrichment of educational contents and methods, but also in the promotion of rural economic, social and cultural development and the improvement of rural education quality and level. To this end, we should learn from Liang Shuming’s theory of rural education to enhance the level of rural education and to realize the "life-giving" educational practice of promoting students’ human growth, moral development and spiritual ascension. This paper argues that in the current rural education, the school level should face the growth of students’ lives, consciously care for their lives, and guide them to deepen their own lives; in the practice of education and teaching, it should respect students’ individual lives, build a platform for students’ independent innovation, and nurture students’ spiritual lives with classical Chinese traditional culture, so as to promote the progress of rural education.

Life as Art: John Dewey’s Visit to China (1919–1921) and Its Relevance to China’s Art Education

Abstract Based on historical reviews, John Dewey’s visit to China from 1919 to 1921 had little impact on China’s art education. However, a careful examination of the works of art scholars and educators in the 1920s and 1930s reveals a more complex picture of Dewey’s influence. In this study, I analyze the works of the influential art educators and scholars Jing Hengyi (经亨颐, 1877–1938), Lyu Cheng(吕瀓, 1896–1989), Bingxian (冰弦), and Liang Shuming (梁漱溟, 1893–1988). The results show that these scholars overcame the dualism of art and science, which was a prominent discourse in the New Culture Movement. They considered life growth as the goal of art education through the cultivation of a creative, inclusive personality that released the potential life energy. These scholars developed their ideas regarding aesthetics and art education based on their interpretation of some aspects of Dewey’s philosophy of education and came up with a Chinese version of Dewey’s theory of aesthetics even before the publication of his work Art as Experience in 1934. Their interpretation is consistent with Dewey’s ideas of aesthetic experience, and art education as the means of developing the potential of the individual. The goal of art education that these Chinese scholars proposed 100 hundred years ago remains valid today.

The Place and Role of Sino-Confucian Culture and Confucianism in World History according to Liang Shuming’s Thought on Life and Culture

Liang Shuming’s understanding of Chinese culture, which he conceived of as Sino-Confucian culture, and his understanding of Confucianism differ from the common and familiar understandings in the sinological academic world. It seems that the best way to understand Liang Shuming and his thoughts is in terms of his search for an authentic existence. In his scheme of three modes of world cultures (Western-pragmatic culture, Sino-(Taizhou 泰州-)Confucian culture, and Indo-(weishi-)Buddhist culture) and their historical succession (as given above), the conviction of Liang Shuming was that the imminent future mode of world culture would be that of the Sino-Confucian cultural attitude. He even prophesied that in the nearest future the emotion of love in its particular form as love between a man and a woman would be the greatest and the most formidable problem of this period, i.e. the period of the second domain of a conditional availability or non-availability of the object of desire, that is, of another mind or the will of another person. This domain is called by Liang Shuming the realm of human relationships, or a social problem for the solution of which Sino-(Taizhou-)Confucian culture is responsible. The author concentrates on the place and role of Liang Shuming’s understanding of Confucianism in his scheme of world history.

Rethinking China's Rise: A Liberal Critique

Rethinking China's Rise: A Liberal Critique

Liang Shuming’s Confucian Reconstruction of Russell’s Philosophy

Reading Bertrand Russell’s Principles of Social Reconstruction, Liang Shuming began a process of interpreting Russell’s philosophy in a Confucian way. The first stage in this process was seeing Russell as a fellow Confucian. Its second stage was absorbing Russell’s theory of impulse, seeing this as sharing aspects of the Confucian doctrine of benevolence (ren). The third stage was reconstructing Russell’s theory of spirit as a Confucian theory of “reason” as impersonal feeling. Under Liang Shuming’s critical assimilation of Russell’s philosophy, Russell’s theories of impulse and spirit came to constitute an intrinsic component of modern New Confucianism and was incorporated into the discourse of modern Chinese philosophy. To a certain extent, this shifts our view of Russell as merely a passing figure in the history of modern Chinese philosophy.

Liang Shuming’s China: the Country of Reason (1967–1970): revolution, religion, and ethnicity in the reinvention of the Confucian tradition

Liang Shuming’s 梁漱溟 (1893–1988) China: the Country of Reason (Zhongguo: lixing zhi guo 中国:理性之国) is a little-known, posthumously published manuscript composed between 1967 and 1970 during the Cultural Revolution. It offers a unique perspective on Liang’s philosophical attempt to reconcile the Communist revolutionary legacy with the Confucian tradition that he continued to uphold in mainland China after the founding of the People’s Republic. By presenting and analyzing the main themes and concepts of this book, I try to cast some light on Liang’s idiosyncratic repurposing of historical materialist concepts in reinterpreting what he takes to be “early enlightenment” accomplished through the Confucian celebration of “reason” (lixing 理性) and its “replacement of religion by morality.” In doing so, I explore the complex relations between revolutionary, religious, and ethnic identity in his late philosophy.

The dialectics of “iron hook” and “tofu”: the shifts in Liang Shuming’s thinking in the 1950s and the “duality” of Chinese socialist practices

ABSTRACT Starting with the metaphor “iron hook and tofu” proposed by Liang Shuming, the Chinese thinker and leader of the rural reconstruction movement in the twentieth century, this article retraces the debate between Liang and Mao Zedong in 1953 under the historical context of the early 1950s and the shifts in Liang’s thinking from the 1920s to the 1950s. The dialectical relationship between “iron hook” and “tofu” was an important issue throughout Liang’s lifelong thinking. Centering on this metaphor, the article presents a deeper understanding of the dynamics and tensions in Liang’s thoughts, the ideaistic shifts that resulted in his similarity to and divergence from Mao, and the inherent “duality” of Chinese socialist practices. The metaphor “iron hook and tofu” will also provide a reference for rethinking the complex relationship between rural revolution and rural reconstruction, and between radicalism and reformism.

New Confucian Liang Shuming’s Transformation of John Dewey’s Philosophy in Chinese Rural Education

During the May Fourth period, the clash of ideas of democracy and science with Confucian tradition had a great impact on the Chinese intellectual community, consisting of modern intellectuals and traditional scholars. In response to the prevailing anti-traditionalism during the May Fourth period, Liang made great efforts to retain and reform Confucianism. This paper highlights the effects of Confucian tradition and John Dewey’s pragmatism on Chinese rural education during the Republican period by studying Liang Shuming’s educational thought and practice. By exploring a philosophical ‘dialogue’ between Liang Shuming and John Dewey, this paper demonstrates how the intersection of traditional and modern aspects shaped Chinese rural educational reform during the 1930s.

Ali Baba, Genghis Khan, and Jimmy, who are they!? The transnational and trans-regional production of modernity in 1980s’ Chinese disco

This article aims to examine the significance of modernity in Chinese disco back to the 1980s. The open-door policy allowed disco to quickly become a remarkable symbol of modernity related to the United States, where the popular culture and modern lifestyle appealed to millions of Chinese people. The Disco Fever 1985–1989 demonstrated their enthusiasm to reintegrate into the global society by consuming the “same” popular music and culture. Being drawn into the debates between tradition and fashion, communism and capitalism, and arts and commerce, the modernity of Chinese disco was not a forward or sideways or backward process theorized by Liang Shuming, but an attitude toward all directions to cope with the dilemma of materialism, exoticism, and desire triggered by the economic reform. This modernity was an imagination coproduced by global agents, each offering distinctive capitals to transform China’s society throughout the 1980s.

Some Dialogue Not Yet Happened

Michael Peters’ article “100 Years of Dewey in China, 1919–1921: A Reassessment” mainly focused on the political and ideological position of Dewey and concluded that Dewey did little to Chinese modern transition. To respond to Peters’ article, I pointed out that Dewey’s religious and aesthetic aspects of experience in his later works were largely ignored and how this idea of experience could have possible dialogue with the rich heritage of Chinese Confucianism tradition. I further made an example from the Chinese Confucian scholar Liang Shuming’s review article on Dewey’s book Democracy and Education, to indicate these two schools of thoughts could more contribution to thinking about the modern challenge from each society.

Polarities and the May Fourth Polemical Culture: Provenance of the "Conservative" Category

This essay argues that conservative/radical polarity by which we classify May Fourth intellectuals originated in Youth group's polemical stratagem of depicting intellectual landscape in terms of a New Culturalists vs. rest divide. In this stratagem, those who later became the conservatives were lumped together for dissenting from Culture movement and largely defined by who they were not. Historiographically, establishment of this polarity scheme sidelined alternative mappings of intellectual scene. Drawing on case of Critical Review (1922–1933)—a journal of cultural conservatism—and its polemics against Culture, this essay explores one such alternative mapping that grouped conservative thinker Liang Shuming (1893–1988) with Culturalists. Taking this paradigm as one of many that existed before mid-1920s, essay discusses juxtaposition of multiple schemes of grouping as a strategy for superseding polarity mode of classification.

Tradition and Modernity in Liang Shuming's Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies

This article argues that Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies adopts an ambiguous attitude vis-a-vis the relation between tradition and modernity, incorporating both traditionalist and anti-traditionalist attitudes with an at-times reconciliatory approach to tradition and modernity. This ambiguity, it is argued, can be seen as representative of historical tensions the text set out to resolve.

Land, Family, and Chinese-Ness: The Influence of Chinese Values on the Study of Tourism

China has become a major world destination and tourist-generating country. Despite flourishing literature on Chinese tourism, the analysis of China's society and value has not become an integral part of the research body. By reviewing the works of Liang Shuming and Fei Xiaotong, two great Chinese intellectuals, on the origin and constitution of the Chinese value system, this article aims to provide implications for Chinese tourism research based on their insights. The article posits that applying the indigenous culture in understanding a tourist population or destination is essential in pushing the boundaries of tourism research, particularly in this globalized environment with the diffusion of values in multilateral directions. In connecting the case of China to the study of tourists from emerging regions, the article questions the complete appropriation of the "emerging market" concept into tourism research. It argues that the term suggests a comparative notion that demeans the nature of a civilization that is non-Western. It calls for research approaches that are indiscriminate and true to the community of interest.

Individuality beyond the Dichotomy of “Small Self and Big Self” in Contemporary Chinese Education: Lessons from Hu Shi and Liang Shuming

This article identifies the problem that an instrumentalist mode of thinking dominates China’s contemporary education practice and suggests that the dichotomy between the “small self and big self,” a notion that has been present throughout modern Chinese history, exacerbates this instrumentalism. It parallels the loss of China’s tradition of self-cultivation in the modern education system. This paper proposes that cultivating the inner self by releasing talent unique to each individual as well as energy for creatively making meaningful connections with others may represent a new means of moving past the dichotomy of the “small self and big self.” The paper examines this issue through a comparative analysis of Hu Shi and Liang Shuming’s thoughts on individuality.

Textual Authority and Its Naturalization in Liang Shuming's Dong–Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue

This article discusses how Liang Shuming's Dong–Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue (Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies) adopted a genealogical mode of textual authorization which took shape in its depiction of Chinese history as a failure to live up to an ideal way of life imagined by Confucius. Implied in this discourse was the idea that Liang himself had been the first Confucian to understand what Confucius had truly meant. This genealogical discourse authorizing Liang and his text by linking them directly to Confucius was further strengthened by a rhetoric which naturalized the discourse passed down from Confucius to Liang, distinguishing it from other forms of discourse seen as artificial. Finally, the text's genealogical discourse also managed to incorporate the May Fourth critique of Confucianism by rejecting the historical manifestations of Confucianism before salvaging an ideal imagined by Confucius which was presented as uncontaminated by history and Confucianism's enmeshment in state power.

Rethinking the temporalization of space in early Republican China: Liang Shuming’s Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies

This article discusses the temporalization of space central to the mainstream discourse of European modernity: a discourse which hierarchized all cultural spaces into a temporal narrative enabling Europe’s self-portrayal as the emancipatory future of humanity. This discourse created a gap between the perceived particularism of non-European cultures (seen as traditional) and the universalism of a modernity associated with the contemporary cultures of Europe and North America, while portraying modernization as a passage from the former to the latter. Chinese intellectuals who adopted this metanarrative therefore faced the following challenge: how can Chinese particularism be adapted to a culture of modernity regarded as universal? While May Fourth iconoclasts answered this question by simply rejecting the idea that an accommodation between Chinese particularism and modern universalism was possible, other intellectuals attempted to argue that at least some aspects of Chinese culture could still be of value within the context of modern universalism. This article discusses an interesting instance of such an attempt at negotiating the perceived tension between the modern discourse of universalism and the particularism of Chinese culture, as provided by Liang Shuming in Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies. This work attempted to show that Chinese culture could still be of value within the context of modernity by providing a new metanarrative which peripherized the role of Western culture in the process of modernization. This article suggests, however, that by adopting a portrayal of modernization as a passage from particularism to universalism, Chinese culture could be reauthorized, within Liang’s metanarrative, only at the cost of being de-complexified, homogenized, and de-historicized; only at the cost of being no longer Chinese.

량수밍(梁漱溟)의 구원결의론(究元決疑論)과 초창기 불교 이해

량수밍(梁漱溟)의 구원결의론(究元決疑論)과 초창기 불교 이해