Abstract

In this chapter we look at Liang Shuming as a philosopher of culture. Liang is the first Chinese thinker who through a comparison of Chinese culture with Western and Indian cultures attempted to find for Chinese culture its place and meaning in the system of world cultures. Liang’s cultural thought, which will be explored by means of four of his works, i.e., Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (Dong-Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue 東西文化及其哲學; 1921), “The Final Awakening of the Self-Saving Movement of Chinese Nation” (Zhongguo minzu zijiu yundong zhi zuihou juewu 中國民族自救運動之最後覺; 1930), A General Idea of Rural Reconstruction (Xiangcun jianshe dayi 鄉村建設大意; 1936) and The Essential Meaning of Chinese Culture (Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi 中國文化要義; 1949), echoes the tremendous predicament of Chinese culture which started its new unprecedented phase with the foreign intrusion in China after the unequal treaty in Nanjing of 1842 in the wake of the First Opium War (1839–1842). All in all, Liang’s cultural thought turns out to be—as understood here—a manifestation of “Sinodicy”, i.e., a philosophical theory of the justification of Chinese culture. This cultural theory is a kind of apology and argumentation for the greatness of Chinese culture in the face of its many shortcomings which are actually part of each human culture. Liang’s key theorem describing Chinese culture was its premature character, which was eventually concretized in his understanding of it as the early manifestation of human reason. According to him, reason displayed within Chinese culture a function of substitution, i.e., (1) morality substituted for religion, (2) familial-ethical human relations substituted for feudalism, (3) ceremonies (customs) substituted for law, (4) feelings substituted for force, (5) diversity in occupations substituted for social classes, etc.