Abstract
This chapter provides a short history of the reception of Liang Shuming’s thought in European-language scholarship since 1922. By reviewing a significant number of monographs, edited volumes, and articles published in academic and missionary journals in English, French, and German during the last one hundred years, the chapter aims to provide a historical typology of the multifaceted reception of Liang’s thought through time. In the scholarship reviewed, Liang is variously portrayed as a philosopher, a social reformer or activist, a religious thinker, an educator, a legal thinker, and a political figure. Throughout the years, Liang has been described as a conservative, a restorationist, a fundamentalist, and a modern thinker, and has been labeled a Confucian, a Buddhist, and a populist. The many faces of Liang Shuming laid bare by this short history are revealing of the complexity and tensions of the man and his thought, but also of the interpreters’ gaze and the historical evolution of the academic field in the Euro-American region. The end result is a genealogy of sort—one that challenges some deep-seated assumptions about Liang by tracing them back to a particular and contingent historical moment and by situating them within a broad spectrum of alternative positions vying for attention in the small but diverse discursive space allotted to the thought of Liang Shuming in European-language scholarship.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We could not find any publication specifically dedicated to the study of Liang Shuming in Italian. Further research would be needed to assess the extent of the reception of Liang’s thought in other European languages. We exclude from our study works published in European languages that were translated from non-European languages (most often Chinese). It is also worth noting that the translation of Liang’s works in English has only recently begun with the publication by Amsterdam University Press of Fundamentals of Chinese Culture (Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi 中國文化要義; 1949; hereafter ZGWH) (Liang 2021), translated by Li Ming (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies). A short section of Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (Dongxi wenhua jiqi zhexue 東西文化及其哲學; 1921; hereafter: DXWH) and Alitto’s 1980 interviews with Liang are also available in English (Liang 2001; Liang and Alitto 2013). Two of Liang’s books have also been translated in French: ZGWH was translated by Michel Masson (Liang 2010) and DXWH by Luo Shenyi 羅慎儀 (Liang 2000), the daughter of linguist Luo Changpei 羅常培 (1899–1958), whose notes taken during the 1921 lectures given by Liang in Jinan 濟南 formed the basis of the text of DXWH we now have. German translations of long excerpts from DXWH are also available in Wesołowski 1997.
- 2.
Since Alitto’s work had a lasting impact in the field, this category includes articles that build on Alitto’s scholarship and provide new interpretations of Liang’s work on themes as diverse as Liang’s relation to Mao, his rural reconstruction movement, his views on democracy, his redefinition of zhijue (直覺) and lixing (理性), and his conservative outlook.
- 3.
Feng remains open, however, to the idea that another type of Confucianism could be compatible with it; which opens up a window into Feng’s later elaboration of his own xin lixue 新理學.
- 4.
All references are to the English translation, as we could not find the original French article.
- 5.
This might explain why Roy does not reference Brière’s article or its English translation.
- 6.
Intriguingly, although this interpretation is contradicted by a number of statements made in DXWH, it adequately depicts the rationale Liang appeals to in explaining his own “conversion” to Confucianism.
- 7.
Chan seems to have read Brière’s article as he references the original French-language version twice (32, 93).
- 8.
It should be noted that van Slyke did not have access to ZGWH at the time of publication of his article (see 462n22).
- 9.
On this episode, see also Lynch 2018: 202–203.
- 10.
Liang’s role in the formation and activities of the United National Construction League is also discussed in van Slyke 1967: 170–177.
- 11.
The first article written on the Democratic League in European languages (to our knowledge) does not mention Liang Shuming’s involvement (see Tseng 1946). In his 1950 monograph The Government and Politics of China, Ch’ien Tuan-sheng mentions Liang in passing, describing him as “a Chinese scholar of ascetic habits and mystic temperament” (Ch’ien 1950: 358). Ch’ien however maintains that Liang was not interested in politics “as the term is commonly understood” (358).
- 12.
Chi would later revisit the same topic in his monograph (Chi 1986).
- 13.
All references are to the second edition (Alitto 1986), which includes an epilogue describing Alitto’s interviews with Liang in 1980 and 1984.
- 14.
Alitto understands modernization along the lines of Max Weber’s notion of rationalization. He had previously presented this view in Alitto 1976.
- 15.
Alitto also suggests that Mao’s sinicization of Marxism might have been the result of his 1938 Yan’an talks with Liang (290–291).
- 16.
Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar understands “alternative modernities” as site-based. This entails that although similar “cultural forms, social practices, and institutional arrangements do surface in most places in the wake of modernity,” “at each national and cultural site, those elements are put together (reticulated) in a unique and contingent formation in response to local culture and politics” (Gaonkar 2001: 16).
- 17.
Alitto emphasizes this point in his introduction to the Chinese translation of his monograph (Ai 1995: 4). In a 2015 article, in which he argues Liang was first and foremost an activist, Alitto also makes the point that “alone among the twentieth-century New Confucians, Liang seems to have seamlessly joined his thought and his life, his theory with his practice. This one integrating aspect […] is based upon a decidedly ‘Confucian” conscience and conscientiousness in performing the role of the Confucian intellectual as moral leader and example” (Alitto 2015: 111).
- 18.
Twenty-nine years later, Masson’s translation of Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi into French was published by Institut Ricci – Cerf (Liang 2010). In his introduction (Masson 2010), Masson presents the work as particularly relevant in the context of a China that no longer sees modernity and tradition as antithetical, and is looking for new ways to reconcile the two. Of interest is that Masson distances Liang from the New Confucians who left the mainland in 1949, arguing that unlike them, in the ZGWH, “Liang does not attempt to philosophically salvage Confucianism” (20). See also Masson 1981a for a comparison of Liang’s take on Chinese culture and modernity with those of Feng Youlan, Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (1909–1978), and Yin Haiguang 殷海光 (1919–1969).
- 19.
This was in fact precisely the point of Alitto in calling him a revolutionary: because his Confucianism had not been manifested in history, to implement it in practice amounted to a revolutionary break from the past.
- 20.
The Rural reconstruction movement, and Liang’s role in it, is also approached in other sources such as, for example, Merkel-Hess 2016.
- 21.
A similar critique of the elitism and paternalism of Liang’s rural reconstruction model is made in Lin 1990: 36–37.
- 22.
Thøgersen expands on these ideas in Chap. 6 of his monograph on the village schools of Zouping (Thøgersen 2002). He also revisits the topic of the relationship between state, intellectual, and peasants in Liang’s thought in Thøgersen 2009. See also Thøgersen 1995 for an interesting discussion of the importance for Liang of the Danish folk high school model, which in its self-conception “coincided almost exactly with what Liang Shuming was looking for: a Third Way to modernity born out of rural society and delivered by a spiritual genius rooted in traditional culture” (283).
- 23.
Ip highlights the undemocratic dimension of Liang’s one-party rule, but she also shows how Liang retained his commitment to both “democracy’s individual-oriented utilitarian and autonomous values” (Ip 1991: 491) during this period.
- 24.
Joseph Ciaudo extends this argument to the reception of Bergson’s notion of intuition in early Republican China in general in Ciaudo 2016.
- 25.
An builds on this interpretation in an article that introduces Liang’s thought from 1921 to 1949 in An 2002.
- 26.
Fung also discusses Liang’s thought in his 2000 book In Search of Chinese Democracy, in which he suggests (independently of Lynch, it appears) that the ideas underpinning Liang’s rural reconstruction movement share “a striking resemblance to Mao Zedong’s populism” (152).
- 27.
On the topic, see also Lynch 2011, in which Lynch argues that both Liang’s and Mao’s thought were “utopian” in the sense decried by Marx, meaning that they downplayed the significance of historical materialism. It is their rejection of historical materialism that enabled them to argue capitalism was not a necessary step in their respective quest to reach the end of history, while at the same time relocating the social foundations of history’s drive in the peasantry, pace Marx. This allowed them both to turn China’s “backwardness” into an advantage rather than a deficit.
- 28.
It is important to note that Russian populism differs in important ways from the received meaning of populism in the American setting, where anti-elitism and anti-intellectualism remain central components of the populist stance. Lynch links Liang’s populism to its Russian, and not American, counterpart.
- 29.
On the retrospective creation of New Confucianism, see Makeham 2003b.
- 30.
Jiang in fact adopts Chang Hao’s terminology of “crisis of meaning” (5), although without referencing Chang’s article.
- 31.
The monograph was subsequently published in Italian (Bresciani 2009).
- 32.
The influence of Taiwanese scholarship on Bresciani is explicit when he claims that “Liang Shuming is unanimously considered the forerunner, the initiator of the New Confucian Movement” (56). While this was certainly true of Taiwan, his Euro-American readers might not have unanimously agreed on this point. On the role played by Mou Zongsan on the formation of the New Confucian genealogy of the way, see Makeham 2003a.
- 33.
In Chinese, see also Wesołowski’s monograph on Liang’s conception of culture in DXWH and ZGWH (Wei [Wesołowski] 2003).
- 34.
In a 2012 article, Meynard reflects further on Liang’s relation with philosophy. He compares Liang’s attempt at inserting Buddhism within the framework of the newly emerged field of philosophy with similar attempts made by Xiong Shili and Tang Yongtong 湯用彤 (1893–1964). His conclusion is that Liang adopted a cultural stance which made of Buddhism “a foreign culture and philosophy” (Meynard 2012: 210). Yet Meynard also emphasizes that Liang was “given the label of ‘philosopher’ by an academic institution [Peking University] eager to attract bright minds. Without Cai [Yuanpei]‘s [蔡元培] [intervention], Liang would most probably never have started his career as a ‘philosopher’ and would likely have become a Buddhist monk” (189).
- 35.
Meynard had previously made this argument in Meynard 2007a.
- 36.
In Meynard 2014, Meynard further comments that in DXWH, Liang reworked Yogācāra theories to make room for Confucianism. He did so first by introducing a third mode of knowledge, intuition, which allowed for the possibility of morality, contrasted to the immorality of Western reasoning (biliang 比量)—based on its being “stained with selfishness” (Meynard 2014: 231)—and the amorality of Buddhism’s direct perception (xianliang 現量). Second, Liang also deployed an evolutionary scheme in which intuition functioned as a mediating stage between reasoning and direct perception. Meynard concludes that Liang’s DXWH does not amount to intellectual syncretism, however, as “it can be rightly claimed that his thought is ultimately not syncretic but Buddhist” (241).
- 37.
See Meynard 2015 for a further discussion of how Liang’s thought differs both from mainland New Confucians and from New Confucians who left the mainland in 1949.
- 38.
Meynard had made the argument that Liang’s rural reconstruction movement was aimed at bringing about a harmonious form of society that could make the religious fusion between human beings and universe more readily accessible in Meynard 2007b. This article is partially reproduced in Chap. 10 of the monograph. Meynard also edited a volume of Contemporary Chinese Thought on Liang, for which he wrote an introduction (Meynard 2009).
- 39.
In a 2018 article, Major develops on this point to argue that the fact Liang has been perceived as a modern and a conservative thinker can be related to the tension between the manifestations of Confucianism in history—which he rejects—and the spirit of Confucianism which he adheres to. Liang is modern in rejecting the historical traditions of China, but traditionalist or more properly “revivalist” in attempting to salvage a pure spirit from the dustbin of history.
- 40.
Zhang borrows from two aspects of Liang’s thought in particular. First, she builds on Liang’s discussion of the “inner self” (shenxin 深心) to supplement Dewey’s emphasis on self-transformation as the product of interaction with the external realm. Second, she stresses the importance of Liang’s selfless self—the self that “moves beyond [its] own unique feelings” (Zhang 2013b: 106) and avoids both the extremes of individualism and collectivism.
- 41.
- 42.
Liang is also approached as a philosophical source of inspiration by Liu Lulu in her German-language doctoral dissertation of 2015. She analyzes Liang’s notion of culture and his involvement in the rural reconstruction movement as resources from which to draw in order to work toward an ideal modern Chinese culture.
- 43.
An article written by Liang’s son Liang Peishu 梁培恕 (2015) shares a similar goal of introducing RXYRS to the Euro-American public. It is less religious than humanistic in approach, however.
- 44.
Xu is more known for his trenchant critique of the abolition of term limits by Xi Jinping 習近平 and later of the CCP’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, which led to his detention in 2020 and his losing his post at Tsinghua University. On these topics, see Geremie R. Barmé’s discussion at http://chinaheritage.net/xu-zhangrun-許章潤/.
References
Ai, Kai 艾愷 [Guy Alitto]. 1995. The Last Confucian: Liang Shuming and the Dilemma of Chinese Modernization 最後的儒家:梁漱溟與中國現代化的兩難. Trans. Wang Zongyu 王宗昱 and Ji Jianzhong 冀建中. Nanjing: Jiangsu remin chubanshe.
Alitto, Guy. 1976. The Conservative as Sage: Liang Shu-ming. In The Limits of Change: Essays on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China, ed. Charlotte Furth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 1986. The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———. 2015. Liang Shuming: A Lifelong Activist. In Contemporary Confucianism in Thought and Action, ed. Guy Alitto. Heidelberg: Springer.
An, Yanming. 1997. Liang Shuming and Henri Bergson on Intuition: Cultural Context and the Evolution of Terms. Philosophy East & West 47 (3): 337–362.
———. 2002. Liang Shuming: Eastern and Western Cultures and Confucianism. In Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, ed. Chung-Ying Cheng. Boston: Blackwell Publishers.
Bresciani, Umberto. 2001. Reinventing Confucianism: The New Confucian Movement. Taipei: Ricci Institute.
———. 2009. La filosofia cinese nel ventesimo secolo: I nuovi confuciani. Rome: Urbaniana University Press.
Brière, O. S. J. 1949. Les courants philosophiques en Chine depuis 50 ans (1898–1950). Bulletin de L’Université L’Aurore 3.X.50.
———. 1956. Fifty Years of Chinese Philosophy, 1898–1950. Trans. Lawrence G. Thompson. New York: Macmillan.
Ch’ien, Tuan-sheng. 1950. The Government and Politics of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chan, Wing-tsit. 1953. Religious Trends in Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chang, Hao. 1976. New Confucianism and the Intellectual Crisis of Contemporary China. In The Limits of Change: Essays on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China, ed. Charlotte Furth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chang, Carsun [Zhang Junmai]. 1952. The Third Force in China. New York: Bookman Associates.
Chi, Wen-Shun. 1970. Liang Shu-ming and Chinese Communism. The China Quarterly 41: 64–82.
———. 1986. Ideological Conflicts in Modern China: Democracy and Authoritarianism. New Brunswick: Transaction.
Chou, Ching-wen. 1960. Ten Years of Storm: The True Story of the Communist Regime in China. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Chow, Tse-tsung. 1960. The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ciaudo, Joseph. 2016. Bergson’s ‘Intuition’ in China and Its Confucian Fate (1915–1923): Some Remarks on Zhijue in Modern Chinese Philosophy. Problemos 2016: 35–50.
Forke, Alfred. 1942. Moderne chinesische Denker. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 96 (2): 208–260.
Fung, Edmund S.K. 2000. In Search of Chinese Democracy: Civil Opposition in Nationalist China, 1929–1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2009. Nationalism and Modernity: The Politics of Cultural Conservatism in Republican China. Modern Asian Studies 43 (3): 777–813.
Fung, Yu-lan [Feng Youlan]. 1922. Review of Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies. Journal of Philosophy 19 (22): 611–614.
Gao, Lin, and Zangzhou Lee. 1996. Mind, Heart and Life: Some Reflections from Liang Shuming’s Thoughts. Journal of Human Values 2 (1): 59–66.
Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar. 2001. On Alternative Modernities. In Aternative Modernities, ed. Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Gransow, Bettina. 1994. Ein Wegbereiter ‘Konfuzianischer Modernisierung.’ Liang Shuming und die ländliche Aufbaubewegung der dreißiger Jahre. Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 18: 1–20.
Gu, Hongliang. 2015. Liang Shuming’s Conception of Democracy. In Contemporary Confucianism in Thought and Action, ed. Guy Alitto. Heidelberg: Springer.
Hanafin, John J. 2003. The ‘Last Buddhist’: The Philosophy of Liang Shuming. In New Confucianism: A Critical Examination, ed. John Makeham. New York: Palgrave.
Ip, Hung-Yok. 1991. Liang Shuming and the Idea of Democracy in Modern China. Modern China 17 (4): 469–508.
Jiang, Jin. 1993. Liang Shuming and the Emergence of 20th-Century New Confucianism. Chinese Historians 6 (2): 1–26.
Kennedy, M., Jr. 1953. The Chinese Democratic League. Papers on China 7: 136–175.
Lamley, Harry J. 1969. Liang Shu-ming, Rural Reconstruction and the Rural Work Discussion Society, 1933–1935. Chung Chi Journal 8 (2): 50–61.
———. 1975. Review of Chung-kuo wen-hua yao-i. Journal of Asian Studies 24 (4): 682–684.
Liang, Shuming. 2000. Les cultures d’Orient et d’Occident et leurs philosophies. Trans. Luo Shenyi. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
———. 2001. The Cultures of the East and West and Their Philosophies. Trans. Andrew Covlin and Yuan Jinmei. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 1(1): 107–127.
———. 2010. Les idées maîtresses de la culture chinoise. Trans. Michel Masson. Paris: Institut Ricci – Cerf.
Liang, Peishu. 2015. Humankind Must Know Itself. In Contemporary Confucianism in Thought and Action, ed. Guy Alitto. Heidelberg: Springer.
Liang, Shuming. 2021. Fundamentals of Chinese Culture. Trans. Li Ming. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Liang, Shu Ming, and Guy S. Alitto. 2013. Has Man a Future? Dialogues with the Last Confucian. Heidelberg: Springer.
Lin, Alfred H.Y. 1990. Confucianism in Action: A Study of Liang Shuming’s Theory and Practice of Rural Reconstruction in the 1930s. Journal of Oriental Studies 28 (1): 21–43.
Liu, Lulu. 2015. Die Konstruktion der modernen nationalen Gesellschaft Chinas am Beispiel des nationalen Ordnungsverständnisses der kulturkonservativen Intellektuellen Chinas. Doct. diss. from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover.
Lynch, Catherine. 2011. Radical visions of time in modern China: The utopianism of Mao Zedong and Liang Shuming. In Radicalism, Revolution and Reform in modern China, ed. Catherine Lynch, Robert B. Marks, and Paul G. Pickowicz. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
———. 2018. Liang Shuming and the Populist Alternative in China. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Major, Philippe. 2017a. Rethinking the Temporalization of Space in Early Republican China: Liang Shuming’s Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies. International Communication of Chinese Culture 4 (2): 171–185.
———. 2017b. Textual Authority and Its Naturalization in Liang Shuming’s Dong-Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue. Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies 65 (1): 127–149.
———. 2018. Tradition and Modernity in Liang Shuming’s Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies. Philosophy East & West 68 (2): 460–476.
Makeham, John. 2003a. The New Daotong. In New Confucianism: A Critical Examination, ed. John Makeham. New York: Palgrave.
———. 2003b. The Retrospective Creation of New Confucianism. In New Confucianism: A Critical Examination, ed. John Makeham. New York: Palgrave.
Masson, Michel. 1981a. Culture chinoise et modernité: quatre témoins. Études 354 (1): 33–49.
———. 1981b. Dilemmes de la modernisation en Chine : les pensées de Liang Shuming. Project 155: 579–592.
———. 2010. Avant-propos du traducteur. In Les idées maîtresses de la culture chinoise. Ed. Liang Shuming. Trans. Michel Masson. Paris: Institut Ricci – Cerf.
Merkel-Hess, Kate. 2016. The Rural Modern: Reconstructing the Self and State in Republican China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Meynard, Thierry. 2007a. Is Liang Shuming Ultimately a Confucian or Buddhist? Dao 6: 131–147.
———. 2007b. Intellectuels chinois contemporains en débat avec les esprits : Le cas de Liang Shuming (1893–1988). Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident 29: 55–69.
———. 2009. Liang Shuming’s Thought and Its Reception. Contemporary Chinese Thought 40 (3): 3–15.
———. 2011. The Religious Philosophy of Liang Shuming: The Hidden Buddhist. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
———. 2012. Introducing Buddhism as Philosophy: The cases of Liang Shuming, Xiong Shili and Tang Yongtong. In Learning to Emulate the Wise: The Genesis of Chinese Philosophy as an Academic discipline in Twentieth-century China, ed. John Makeham. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
———. 2014. Liang Shuming and his Confucianized Version of Yogācāra. In Transforming Consciousness: Yogacara Thought in Modern China, ed. John Makeham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2015. Confucianism as the Religion for Our Present Time: The Religious Dimension of Confucianism in Liang Shuming’s Thought. In Contemporary Confucianism in Thought and Action, ed. Guy Alitto. Heidelberg: Springer.
Millican, Frank R. 1926. Liang Shou Ming (梁漱溟) Sees It Though. The Chinese Recorder: 698–705.
Nathan, Andrew J. 1986. Chinese Democracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
O’Bryant, A.H. 1953. Liang Sou-ming: His Response to the West. Harvard Papers on China 7: 1–33.
Poetzelberger, Bernardo. 1993. Tianxia und guojia bei Liang Shuming (1893–1988): Konsens und Konflikt im chinesischen Beitrag zur traditionellen Ordnungsvorstellung. Doct. diss. from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn.
Roy, A.T. 1962. Liang Shu-ming and Hu Shih on the Intuitional Interpretation of Confucianism. Chung Chi Journal 1 (2): 139–157.
Scharping, Thomas. 1972. Der Demokratische Bund und seine Vorläufer 1939–1949: chinesische Intelligenz zwischen Kuomintang und kommunistischer Partei. Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde.
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1976. Notes on Conservatism in General and in China in Particular. In The Limits of Change: Essays on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China, ed. Charlotte Furth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Stuart, John Leighton. 1923. The Christian Dynamics for China. The Chinese Recorder: 71–77.
Tai, Bingham P.H. 1925. A New Educational Enterprise. The China Weekly Review: 219–221.
The China Critic. 1940. Chungking Rural School. October 24, 1940.
The China Weekly Review. 1933. Three Research Conferences Hold Meetings in North China. September 2, 1933.
———. 1947. Gov. Reorganization Held Up by Differences of Viewpoint. April 5, 1947.
———. 1949. Masses Weekly. March 12, 1949.
The Chinese Recorder. 1936. Peasant Schools. March 1, 1936.
The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette. 1932. Local Autonomy in Three Provinces. September 28, 1932.
———. 1934. Reform Movements in Shantung. February 13, 1934.
Thøgersen, Stig. 1995. Liang Shuming and the Danish Model. In Cultural Encounters: China, Japan and the West: Essays Commemorating 25 Years of East Asian Studies at the University of Aarhus, ed. Søren Clausen, Roy Starrs, and Anne Wedell-Wedellsborg. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
———. 1998. Reconstructing Society: Liang Shuming and the Rural Reconstruction Movement in Shandong. In Reconstructing Twentieth-Century China: State Control, Civil Society, and National Identity, ed. Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard and David Strand. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
———. 2002. A County of Culture: Twentieth Century China Seen from the Village Schools of Zouping, Shandong. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
———. 2009. Revisiting a Dramatic Triangle: The State, Villagers, and Social Activists in Chinese Rural Reconstruction Projects. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 38 (4): 9–33.
Thoraval, Joël. 1989. Liang Shu Ming: Qu’était devenu le ‘dernier Confucéen’ sous le régime communiste? Bulletin de Sinologie 52: 22–26 and 53: 22–29.
Tseng, Chao-lun. 1946. The Chinese Democratic League. Current History 11 (59): 31–37.
Van Slyke, Lyman P. 1959. Liang Sou-ming and the Rural Reconstruction Movement. The Journal of Asian Studies 18 (4): 457–474.
———. 1967. Enemies and Friends: The United Front in Chinese Communist History. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Vandermeersch, Léon. 1991. Le nouveau confucianisme. Le Débat 66: 5–15.
———. 2000. Préface. In Les cultures d’Orient et d’Occident et leurs philosophies. Ed. Liang Shuming. Trans. Luo Shenyi. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Webb, Adam K. 2008. The Countermodern Moment: A World-Historical Perspective on the Thought of Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Iqbal, and Liang Shuming. Journal of World History 19 (2): 189–212.
Wei, Siqi 魏思齊 [Zbigniew Wesołowski]. 2003. Liang Shuming’s (1893–1988) Conception of Culture: An Explanation Based on Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies and Fundamentals of Chinese Culture 梁漱溟(1893–1988)的文化觀:根據《東西文化及其哲學》與《中國文化要義》解說. Xinzhuang: Fu Jen Catholic University Press.
Wesołowski, Zbigniew. 1996. Liang Shumings (1893–1988) Religionsbegriff. In ‘Fallbeispiel’ China – Ökumenische Beiträge zu Religion, Theologie und Kirche im chinesischen Kontext, ed. Roman Malek. Steyler Verlag: Nettetal.
———. 1997. Lebens und Kulturbegriff von Liang Shuming (1893–1988): dargestellt anhand seines Werkes “Dong-Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue.” Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica.
———. 2005. Understanding the Foreign (the West) as a Remedy for Regaining One’s Own Cultural Identity (China): Liang Shuming’s (1893–1988) Cultural Thought. Monumenta Serica 53: 361–399.
Xu, Zhangrun. 2017. The Confucian Misgivings: LIANG Shu-ming’s Narrative About Law. Singapore: Springer.
Zhang, Huajun. 2013a. Individuality Beyond the Dichotomy of ‘Small Self and Big Self’ in Contemporary Chinese Education: Lessons from Hu Shi and Liang Shuming. Frontiers of Education in China 8 (4): 540–558.
———. 2013b. John Dewey, Liang Shuming, and China’s Education Reform: Cultivating Individuality. Lanham: Lexington Books.
———. 2015. A Vision for One’s Own Life: Lessons from Hu Shi and Liang Shuming on Education in China. In Re-envisioning Chinese Education: The Meaning of Person-Making in a New Age, ed. Zhao Guoping and Zongyi Deng. New York: Routledge.
Acknowledgement
This publication was supported by funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation for the project “The Exterior of Philosophy: On the Practice of New Confucianism.”
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Major, P., Matthiesen, M. (2023). The Many Faces of Liang Shuming: One Hundred Years in the Reception of Liang’s Thought in European Languages (1922–2022). In: Meynard, T., Major, P. (eds) Dao Companion to Liang Shuming’s Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18002-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18002-6_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18001-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18002-6
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)