Liang the Moral and Social Philosopher

Abstract

This chapter examines Liang Shuming’s work The Fundamentals of Chinese Culture (Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi 中國文化要義), analyzing his major conceptions about Chinese society and investigating his intellectual relations to Western thinkers. Inspired by Bertrand Russel’s discussion of the psychological sources for human activities, Liang distinguished three components of the human heart: instinct, intellect, and reason. He coined a new term, “the operation of mind” (xinsi zuoyong 心思作用), to denote an integral unity composed of intellect and reason. Meanwhile, he reiterated his old idea about the difference between Western and Chinese cultures, arguing that the Westerner was strong in intellect, but weak in reason, while the Chinese was strong in reason, but weak in intellect. Liang holds that traditional Chinese society was an “ethic-based society” and a “profession-differentiated one.” Due to the effort of Confucius and other sages, China completed its effort of replacing religion with morality in an early time. Marx-Engels’ doctrines of class struggle and classification of history were right for Western society but could not be applied to Chinese reality. In China, the four ranks of scholar, peasant, artisan, and merchant represented four social professions, instead of four social classes. Since the Qin-Han period, Chinese history had undertaken a cyclical development without substantial alteration in economy and politics.