Abstract
Liang Shuming is credited to be one of the founders of contemporary Neo-Confucianism, but he never envisionned Confucianism in isolation from other cultural and religious traditions. He was opposed to make Confucianism a national ideology, and we shall show how he set Confucianism within a broad cultural and social pluralism. We shall also show that Liang practiced his ideals in own’s life, through personal introspection and through his engagement within concrete communities.
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Notes
- 1.
Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies, in Complete Works, Vol. 1, 352. Schopenhauer’s idea of the will was introduced into China by Wang Guowei 王国维 in Human Words and Language (Renjian cihua 人间词话, 1910). While Wang Guowei translated it from English as yizhi 意志, Liang Shuming adopted yiyu.
- 2.
What is negated here is not life itself, but the “continuum of life” made of temporary moments. The mind discovers then that the true life is not made of this succession of temporary and unstable stages, but rather a tranquil and permanent reality, accessible to the one who discards the wrong idea of a permanent and independent self.
- 3.
Treatise on Finding the Foundation and Resolving the Doubt (Jiuyuan jueyilun 究元决疑论, 1916), in Complete Works, Vol. 1, p. 18
- 4.
Jiang Qing (蒋庆), a former researcher at Shenzhen Administrative College 深圳行政学院, has opened his own Confucian Academy, Yangmingjingshi 阳明精舍, near Guiyang 贵阳. He advocates replacing Marxism with Confucianism as the ruling ideology, making it a national doctrine 国教. Yet he sees Confucianism as above the state, since it exercises the function of criticizing the moral failures of the state. Confucianism should be based on the Gongyang learning (剬羊学) and become political, seeking to uphold social justice through institutional reforms. Jiang openly dismisses pluralism of values as leading to secularization and relativization. To remedy the flaws of the social contract in Western democratic systems, Confucianism should be established as a quasi-religion expressing the relationship between people and heaven. Recitation of canonical texts should be incorporated at all levels of education; academies and Confucian temples should be opened all across the country; Confucian newspapers, radio, and TV should be established; etc. See Makeham, Lost Soul, 261–276. As extreme and simplistic these ideas are, they have received some attention outside the academic world and have fostered some practical realizations in the education and the business world. Concerning Kang Xiaoguang, see David Ownby (2009).
- 5.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 108
- 6.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 95
- 7.
Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies, in Complete Works, Vol. 1, 417
- 8.
Human Mind and Human Life, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 660
- 9.
Like many intellectuals at this time, Liang considered the terms “religion” and “morality” to be mutually exclusive, and he was himself quite opposed to conventional religions. Even though he clearly understood the positive role of Christianity in the historical genesis of Western societies and in promoting good morals, yet, he wanted people to focus on their true interiority, instead of relying on religious beliefs. Probably Liang’s thought was a bit constrained in this dichotomy between religion and morality, which was so influential then.
- 10.
Manifesto, quoted by Bresciani, Reinventing Confucianism, 54
- 11.
- 12.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 131
- 13.
See Anne Cheng (1997). As he acknowledged, Liang got some inspiration from an article of Feng Youlan, “The Confucian theory on the rituals of wedding, funerals and sacrifices” (Rujia duiyu hunsangjili zhi lilun 儒家对于婚丧祭礼之理论), published in 1928; see Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3.
- 14.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 113; Xunzi, “Tianlunpian 天论篇 [Chapter on Heaven]”: “故君子以为文,而百姓以为神”
- 15.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 113; Xunzi, “Lilunpian 礼论篇 [Chapter on Rite]”: “祭者,志意思慕之情也”
- 16.
In fact, we can easily trace Liang’s idea back to Zhang Taiyan. In his first essay, “Treatise on Finding the Foundation and Resolving the Doubt,” Liang quoted from Zhang Taiyan’s Establishing a Religion, which stated that the mind should overcome “existence and nothingness, self and other, subject and object, essence and function, one and two, presence and absence, birth and death, discontinuity and continuity, coming and leaving, cause and effect, and all other illusory differences.” Treatise on Finding the Foundation and Resolving the Doubt, in Complete Works, Vol. 1, 9
- 17.
Treatise on Differences and Similarities, in Complete Works, Vol. 7, 159
- 18.
Confucius, Analects, 9.4
- 19.
Short Story of My Self-Learning, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 699
- 20.
This episode itself is not mentioned in the diary, but narrated by Liang in a letter, written much later, in 1984. Letters, Vol. 8, in Complete Works, 307–308
- 21.
Diary, Vol. 8, in Complete Works, 423–424
- 22.
Confucius, Analects, 9.26
- 23.
See Morning Talks, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 51
- 24.
Ma Yong, Liang Shuming, an Extraordinary Thinker, 119
- 25.
Ma Yong, Liang Shuming, an Extraordinary Thinker, 127–128
- 26.
Wang Ling, Liang Shuming, 8
- 27.
Morning Talks, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 36–140
- 28.
Morning Talks, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 41
- 29.
Morning Talks, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 40
- 30.
Morning Talks, in Complete Works, Vol. 2, 42–44
- 31.
Substance of Chinese Culture, in Complete Works, Vol. 3, 111
- 32.
For a comparison with the kibbutz, see Gu Hongliang 顾红亮 (2008).
- 33.
For a detailed account of the experiment at the Lujiang Center for traditional culture and education and this category of “collective subjectivation,” see Guillaume Dutournier and Ji Zhe (2009).
References
Thierry Meynard, The Religious Philosophy of Liang Shuming (Brill: Boston, 2011)
Umberto Bresciani, Reinventing Confucianism (Taipei: Ricci Institute, 2001), 83
Tu Weiming and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds., Confucian Spirituality (New York: Crossroads, 2003-2004), 2 vols.
Marcel Gauchet, Le désenchantement du monde (Paris: Gallimard, 1985). Concerning the application of Gauchet’s model to China, see Benoît Vermander, L'Empire sans milieu, Essai sur la “sortie de la religion” en Chine (Paris: DDB, 2010).
Sébastien Billioud, Joël Thoraval, “Lijiao: le retour en Chine continentale de cérémonies en l’honneur de Confucius,” in Perspectives Chinoises 2009/4: 87-1007
Yu Yingshi 余英时, Xiandai ruxue de huigu yu zhanwang 现代儒学的回顾与展望 (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2004), 53-58.
John Makeham, Lost Soul, “Confucianism” in Contemporary Chinese Academic Discourse, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008).
David Ownby, “Kang Xiaoguang: Social Science, Civil Society, and Confucian Religion,” in China Perspectives 2009/4: 101–111
Yu Yingshi余英时, Cong jiazhixitong kan Zhongguo wenhua de xiandai yiyi 从价值系统看中国文化的现代意义 [Looking at the modern meaning of Chinese tradition from the system of values] (Taipei: Shibao wenhua chubangongsi 时报文化出版剬司, 1984)
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Guillaume Dutournier, Ji Zhe, “Expérimentation sociale et Confucianisme populaire,” in Perspectives Chinoises 2009/4: 71–86
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Meynard, T. (2015). Confucianism as the Religion for Our Present Time: The Religious Dimension of Confucianism in Liang Shuming’s Thought. In: Alitto, G. (eds) Contemporary Confucianism in Thought and Action. China Academic Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47750-2_8
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