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

Abstract

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.