So, he believes that the Western system is not feasible in China. To move towards modernization in Chinese society, it is necessary to cultivate a new political habit, which must start from the grassroots level. So, he began rural construction, research, and experimentation.
During this period, from 1924 to the time before the Anti Japanese War, Liang Shuming went to Chaozhou in Shandong, including Guangdong and Henan, to establish some schools, workshops or village governance colleges. At the same time, he also ran some magazines, such as editing a monthly village magazine. Combining these practices, he published a series of works, such as the final consciousness of the Chinese national self rescue movement, rural construction theory, rural construction righteousness, etc., becoming a representative figure of the rural movement at that time.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mr. Liang actively participated in the activities and worked hard for the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. He visited Yan'an several times and had long talks with Mao Zedong all night, so his relationship with Mao Zedong was very good.
So, in 1997, Tsinghua University held a meeting to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the National Academy of Sciences. At the meeting, many people criticized Mr. Feng Youlan and praised Mr. Liang Shuming. People from overseas said that Mr. Feng's bones were too soft. Mr. Liang has very hard bones, which I can't quite see. I said you were standing outside talking and didn't know about the back pain. You didn't know about the situation at that time. In fact, on the one hand, Mr. Liang certainly has backbone, which needs to be affirmed. On the other hand, the reason why he was able to openly criticize some things from the upper echelons in the situation at that time was because he had a very good relationship with Mao Zedong, which may also be related to this.
For example, the relationship between Chiang Kai shek and Zhang Xueliang is different from that of Yang Hucheng. Therefore, if the two of them do the same thing, their final situation and outcome will be different. Of course, I am not denying Mr. Liang's integrity. Mr. Liang did have integrity, but he was able to do so. For example, he often criticized the rulers at that time and faced the debate with Mao Zedong directly. This is related to his good relationship with Mao Zedong.
So at that time, he participated in and formed the Chinese Democratic Political League, which later became the Democratic League. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he devoted himself to domestic peace. As the Secretary General of the Democratic League, he participated in the Republic of China talks as the chief representative of the Democratic League. After the failure of the talks, he resigned from his position as Secretary General of the Democratic League and devoted himself to the study of cultural theory. He wrote the book "Essentials of Chinese Culture", which was published in 1949. After the liberation, Mr. Liang served as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the 1950s, he was criticized for a long time, but he was able to adhere to his own ideological concepts and was known overseas as the most courageous person in mainland.
Mr. Liang pursued the Tao throughout his life, not only as a philosopher but also as a practitioner, embodying a spirit of unity between learning and action. This spirit is rarely seen in people today. After the 1980s, Mr. Liang gave speeches at the Chinese Traditional Culture Workshop held by the Chinese Culture Academy and the Comparative Study Class of Chinese and Western Cultures last year, and finally published works such as "The Heart and Life" and "Introduction to Eastern Studies".
In terms of philosophy, there are mainly three books, one is "East West Culture and Philosophy", one is "Essentials of Chinese Culture", and the other is "The Heart and Life" published in later years.
Philosophy of life, here we will discuss three issues.
The first question is about the characteristics and positioning of Liang Shuming's philosophical thought. The second question is about intention and life, and the third question is about the nature of life. His philosophy of life discusses these three aspects of issues.
Firstly, let's talk about the characteristics and positioning of Liang Congping's philosophical thought.
So Mr. Liang is one of the pioneers and representatives of modern Neo Confucianism, and there is no problem with this. However, some scholars believe that Mr. Liang's advocacy of Confucianism was a rational choice, but not a religious belief.
Therefore, some scholars believe that Mr. Liang's Neo Confucianism is not thorough, that is to say, his Neo Confucianism is only limited to the ethical and social levels, and has not been implemented at the level of the mind and metaphysics. So on a transcendent level, it still believes in Buddhism, Buddhist doctrine.
In this way, Mr. Liang's new Confucianism is only a half cut, not a complete one. That means it's just a temporary solution. This is a set of Confucian things discussed at the ethical and social levels, but it is not Confucian at the level of mind and metaphysics. So we can't say for sure if it's New Confucianism. Is a novice still called New Confucianism?
This is a question, so it requires a discussion on the positioning of Mr. Liang Shuming's ideas. Liang Shuming did say in many places that the life path opened up by Confucianism for humans is not the ultimate existence of life. He said that the ultimate salvation of humanity must follow the path of Buddhism. Following the path of Buddhism, we need to break through the two types of stagnation taught by Buddhism. One is stagnation in me, because I am not originally real, and I am just an existence made up of karmic conditions. The other has no substance and sees me as a reality. The world around me is also like this. Originally, it was born of karmic conditions, and color is emptiness, without self nature.
Therefore, he has a saying that I don't think that human life is any good, it must be done by the Chinese. I don't believe that human culture has any value, but I must ask the Chinese people to achieve it. I just look at the world like China now, and imagine it for the Chinese people. I know very well that humans cannot be saved no matter what, unless they themselves break through the fundamental binary obsession, I will enforce the law.
These are some of his statements. But I have an idea here, which is for Liang Shuming to distinguish his own declared belief from his philosophical system. According to Liang Shuming's view, the current cultural construction in China must follow the path of the Confucian school, which is Confucianism. There is no other way but to follow the path of the Confucian school. What does the Kong family's road look like?
Mr. Liang theoretically established a metaphysical system for such a path, which is Confucian rather than Buddhist, or rather worldly rather than Buddhist. So, from this perspective, Mr. Liang's thought can be said to be a complete Confucianism, rather than a half cut Confucianism.
Mr. Liang's philosophy can generally be understood as a cultural philosophy. The foundation of cultural philosophy
This foundation is his philosophy of life. Mr. Liang said that my efforts and reflections are a memory and commentary on the past. He is self-taught and studied until middle school. As I mentioned earlier, he studied at Shuntian Middle School for five and a half years, and his formal and formal education ended here. He did not attend university. According to today's search for the first degree, he cannot be evaluated as a professor.
He said that true self-learning is driven by an upward mindset, which drives me to pursue two issues relentlessly: one is life issues. The second is social issues, which can also be referred to as Chinese issues. As I mentioned earlier, the core of China's problems lies in cultural issues. So, overall, Mr. Liang's philosophy can be understood as a cultural philosophy.
However, from a metaphysical perspective, the foundation of cultural philosophy is the philosophy of life. The expression of the philosophy of life has changed from the early to the later stages, but when it comes to the issue of the nature of the mind, the early emphasis was on intuition, while the later emphasis was on rationality; In terms of ontological issues, it initially talked about intention, while later it talked about the mind. The term 'intention' has undergone some differences and changes in the early and later stages.
But basically it is consistent. The consistent content is the Confucian philosophy of mind and nature, which has provided new interpretations and constructed a new system. The current philosophy of life in the West is often influenced by irrationalism, which is manifested as a mystical philosophy of life.
For example, Mr. Liang attaches great importance to Berkson's philosophy of life, which is an irrational philosophy of life. Mr. Liang, although his philosophy of life has been influenced by Western philosophy of life, he has always had a fundamental difference from Western philosophy of life. It is not mystical or rationalist. It is the philosophy of life of the Middle Way rationality.
His understanding of the nature of rational life is that consciousness is the heart, and the heart is a reason. Reason is a selfless emotion, manifested as a universality, and it is rational in terms of emotions. This is different from the rationality that Westerners refer to as corresponding to irrationalism. It is a selfless emotion, and when we care for the world around us, we use emotions to care for it. However, this emotion is not an irrational thing that is completely devoid of rationality, rational content, and conscious regulation. It is an open and universal emotion with conscious regulations within it.
So, when he talks about rationality, he explains it with selfless emotions, a universal rationality that is neither irrational nor mysterious. So, it is the middle way rationality. This is still very obvious, influenced by primitive Confucianism and pre Qin Confucianism, as Song Ming Neo Confucianism was also influenced by primitive Confucianism.
Mr. Liang represents the nature of cosmic life through the self-awareness of human hearts. For example, he talked about the human heart and life, constantly striving for freedom and showcasing the potential through social interaction. So the human heart discussed in 'The Human Heart and Life' is not a psychologian human heart. The human heart he talks about is a traditional Confucian issue of conscience and nature.
The cosmic life mentioned by Mr. Liang needs to be manifested and expressed in the human heart in order to be revealed. Generally, it cannot be fully manifested on lower level entities. In this cosmic life, it is more fully manifested. In the early stage of the human heart, Liang Shuming talked about intention, while in the later stage it was called rationality. It is not the rationality commonly referred to in Western philosophy, which is selfless emotion or the universality of the universe.
