So, he himself has a spirit of 'taking the world as his own responsibility'.
So, Mr. Liang Shuming evaluated his father, saying that his father's personality is called extraordinary, chivalrous, and heroic. This is his evaluation of his father's personality.
So Mr. Liang's personality was greatly influenced by his father, and Liang Ji later committed suicide in Jishuitan. He was 60 years old, and of course, suicide caused a great sensation at that time.
Liang Ji used to have little fame, but after committing suicide, he became a big name and received a lot of comments at the time. According to his own statement, his death was not a sacrifice for the Qing dynasty, but rather for the responsibility he consciously felt towards the world (which seems to be somewhat similar to Wang Guowei's psychology).
That is to say, his death was a choice to realize a moral responsibility. In essence, there is a conflict of values expressed here. He believes that in the past, talking about the elderly and the young is now a derogatory term.
However, according to Mr. Chen Yinke, these people who are "old and young" are essentially "transformed" by the culture of that era, that is to say, they have completely assimilated the culture of that era.
When he faced a new social situation, he would feel a collapse in his values. Perhaps Liang Ji's suicide had a lot to do with it. His suicide was still very calm, and before he decided to commit suicide, he even went to appreciate a play he had created himself. He had originally owed 20 yuan to repay it, so his death was still very calm, showing a spirit of "a gentleman holding his own".
In death, one can also see his way of dying, as well as a traditional moral spirit of "martyrdom" or the spirit of dying for ideals. Therefore, in Mr. Liang Ji's ideological personality, this wonderful combination of traditional moral core ideas has had a great influence on Mr. Liang Shuming.
We should also mention that Mr. Liang's ideological personality is also reflected in the educational methods of his children, including Liang Shuming.
Mr. Liang was born into a family that was known for its literary influence. The education he received in his early years was not based on the Four Books and Five Classics, but on a new set of teachings.
Liang Shuming started studying at home when he was six years old. His father asked his uncle to teach him not the Four Books and Five Classics, but books like Earth Fables. The Earth Fable is an introductory book that introduces world geography. At the age of seven, he enrolled in the first Western style elementary school in Beijing, called the Sino Western Elementary School.
In elementary school, he learned both Chinese and English, while also receiving education in Western scientific knowledge. At the age of 14, he entered Shuntian Middle School, where he studied for five and a half years and received the same education as he does now.
So, Mr. Liang did not receive a complete education from Confucian classics like his contemporaries did back then. His education was mainly Western style.
So, Mr. Liang sometimes said, and later said, 'It's a pity that I haven't read the Four Books and Five Classics.' It's not that he hasn't learned these things, it's just that he hasn't read them in the traditional way. He said that reading these books is similar to reading novels. Reading them like that is different from the traditional way of memorizing them at the beginning and then explaining them.
So in his family, Mr. Liang Ji is also very open-minded about the education of his children. Therefore, Mr. Liang said that from childhood to adulthood, his father basically didn't care, and he did whatever he wanted. He said that after his ideological experience, he chose a set of Buddhist things, and his father didn't interfere with him when choosing these things. This is a sad story.
When Liang Shuming was nine years old, he lost a small string of money he had saved, and because he couldn't find it, he made noise to his family. When Liang Ji was cleaning the house, he saw this string of money on a peach tree in front of the courtyard. He knew that Liang Shuming had forgotten it himself, but he didn't scold him. He wrote a paragraph for Shuming to read, which roughly meant that a child hung a small string of money on a tree and forgot it. He asked people for help and made a lot of noise. His wife cleaned the courtyard and saw the money hanging on the tree. Liang Shuming read the note written by his father and immediately realized that he had found the money.
Although this story is a small one, we can see from it that Mr. Liang received education from the novel, and Liang Ji's education of Liang Shuming and his children was still very free, respecting their own wishes, which is very special. At that time, this type of education was very distinctive.
Mr. Liang's unique personality throughout his life, his sense of mission and responsibility towards society and culture, and his upright and dedicated Confucian demeanor and backbone may be related to his early family education.
So, Mr. Liang, he strongly opposes others seeing him as a scholar and philosopher. He hopes that others will see him as a thoughtful person, someone who acts according to his ideas, or someone who sees him as a thinker and a social reformer. This is his most self-evaluation of himself.
So, his knowledge is not specifically for the sake of learning, so once when Mr. Liang Qichao invited him to give a lecture at Tsinghua University's School of Chinese Studies, he introduced Liang Shuming and said that Mr. Liang had a family background. He immediately interrupted him and said, 'I don't have any family background.'.
Mr. Liang himself said that the two problems he cares about and strives to solve throughout his life are called the life problem, which is the question of why people live; The second issue is the social problem, which is the Chinese problem.
The resolution of these two issues not only formed his own philosophical system, but also determined his lifelong behavior and practice. So, Mr. Liang, he is both a philosopher and a theorist, as well as a practitioner of his own philosophical theory.
So, as I mentioned earlier, his unity of knowledge and action, his pursuit of his own ideals, and his refusal to submit to any external force, embodies a traditional Confucian spirit.
So, this American scholar wrote a biography of him, calling it the last Confucianism. Of course, the final Confucianism is a very good and high evaluation. Will there be such a Confucianism in the future? I think so. Many people in our society are doing this now.
In the future development of Chinese thought and culture, we still look forward to the emergence of scholars and thinkers like Mr. Liang Shuming who integrate knowledge and action. Mr. Liang Shuming's self statement that he established the above two issues as his lifelong goals began when he was in middle school, which also set the rules for his learning and behavior throughout his life. This can also be seen from his life experiences.
From 1906 to 1911, he studied at Shuntian Middle School. In addition to learning knowledge in the classroom, Mr. Liang is very interested in social and factual issues in the middle. At that time, he often read reading materials such as the Xinmin Congbao edited by Liang Qichao. At the same time, he began to study Buddhism and Wang Yangming's residence under the influence of his friend Guo Ruilin.
He himself said that he was greatly influenced by Guo Ruilin. Guo Ruilin was two years older than him. At the beginning, Mr. Liang Shuming attached great importance to practicality. That is to say, when I mentioned earlier that he first valued pragmatism in his thinking, Guo Ruilin told him that if you want to do great things, you must first be prepared. On the one hand, you need to have a broad vision, and on the other hand, you need to have good character cultivation.
He admired this person very much. He once referred to Guo Ruilin as Guo Shi and recorded all his quotes. He was greatly influenced, and in the middle, he began to study Buddhism and the works of Wang Yangming. Politically, since he agreed with Liang Qichao's constitutionalism, he later turned to the revolutionaries and joined the Beijing Tianjin Chinese Revolutionary League to participate in some activities. After the Revolution of 1911, Liang Shuming took part in the work of the Republic of China Daily, which was then the Chinese Revolutionary League, and worked as a field reporter. Later, because he was tired of political transactions and dark background, he left the Republic of China and lived in seclusion at home.
At this time, he began to study Buddhism and Buddhist scriptures, and he was determined to live a Buddhist life. Therefore, he was determined to become a monk. His father really wanted him to get married and have children, but never forced him. He admired Buddhism and was also left unattended. For several years, he studied Buddhist scriptures at home without leaving home.
In 1917, Liang Shuming accepted the invitation of Peking University President Cai Yuanpei to teach Indian philosophy at Peking University. During his seven years of teaching at Peking University, his thoughts underwent significant changes, and at this time, there was a shift from the Buddhist worldview to the Confucian worldview.
So, there is a key point to this transformation, which is that he went to Shandong and Jinan in 1921 to give speeches on Eastern and Western cultures and philosophy. This book was published in October 1921 and reprinted in 2022. After its publication, it had a great impact and established his position as a representative figure of modern Neo Confucianism.
This book actually marks a shift in his thinking. Liang Shuming was not only a theoretical Confucian, but also put his theories into practice, which of course reflects his Confucian spirit and personality traits.
In order to put his ideas into practice, he resigned from his teaching position at Peking University as a Confucian in 1924 and began researching and experimenting with rural construction. As I mentioned earlier, he believed that the important content of a cultural tradition is the formation of a habit in social life. He believed that traditional Chinese habits were incompatible with the Western political system. However, this traditional Chinese habit has formed a philosophical and cultural spirit that is higher than that of the West. You cannot go back from a higher level to a lower level.
