A Study Of Liang Shuming's Ethical Thought

Liang Shuming, whose distinctive ethic concept is full of value as a example, is an important figure in China's modern and contemporary history.The essence of ethics by Liang Shuming refers to the relationship among people where affections generate faith. In other word, people should value each other first in the relationship. This kind of relation and feeling is also applicable to the sixth ethics between groups and individuals. Those who can be rated as ethical thoughts should have evidence for identification. The first unique feature of this paper focuses on three identification evidences of ethic concepts based on the thoughts of Liang Shuming, namely, a basically stable metaphysical foundation; a relatively systematic ethic proposition and a fairly extensive tangible influence. In conclusion, the ethic concept by Liang Shuming is a systematic proposition motivated by both Oriental and Western cultures and philosophy, based on metaphysical foundation of monistic world view, taking individuals and the society as its object, relationship as its standard, idealized Chinese traditional ethics as the paradigm, the sixth ethics as a new emphasis and ethic feelings and upwardly life as its main contents.The second unique feature of this paper rests on the analysis of Liang Shuming's concept evolution scenes or stages. Three distinct scenes or stages accordingly are:scene of all rivers——vacillating early stage (1906-1919); scene of the river——persistent middle stage (1920-1949); scene of the sea——reflective late stage (1950-1988). There are two clues to perceive his thorough understanding of Confucianism and Buddhism. One is "connection with difference and difference with connection" which straightens the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism; the other is "out and not out, not out and out" which realizes the life bound up with Confucianism and Buddhism. Therefore, it can be concluded that the life of Liang Shuming is of Confucianism, yet he is not only "pure Confucian" in ideology but "mellow Confucian" both in ideology and practice.The third distinct feature of this paper lies in the effort to present a clear architecture "one body with two sides" of Liang Shuming's ethic concept. "One body" refers to the main theory of Oriental and Western cultures and philosophy. Namely, life is considered as the body of the universe. Specifically, psychology is the foundation of ethics, which gradually generates such three core concepts as conation, reason and heart. It aims to eliminate blindness of conation through sense of direction of reason, combine immense strength of will with idea of progress of reason, and fully realize this combination in human heart. In terms of two sides, one side is outward, with the Oriental and Western cultures and philosophy and the society of ethic as standard. It is manifested in his social ethic concepts, covering his ideas of social construction, group and organization, democratic constitutionalism, marriage and family, social morality, etiquette and custom, and also his ideas of education. One side is inward, namely, the Oriental and Western cultures and philosophy and life with strong upward mobility. It is illustrated in his individual moral concepts, including theory of human nature, essence of life, morality focus, moral cultivation and idealized personality. Liang Shuming's entire personality is based on the dream of sage. He is obsessed with two issues in his whole life:the essence of morality is "internal sage",while that of ethnics aims to "external king". According to his ethic concept, social ethic concept should fall into "external king" while individual moral concepts should fall into "internal sage". Only if we start from life itself, analyze the two sides of internal sage and external king separately and then integrate them, can we grasp the clear architecture "one body with two sides" of Liang Shuming's ethic concept.Based on generalization and analysis of Liang Shuming's ethic concept, we can form an overall impression of his ethic concept:firstly, it echoes the themes of the times, originally adopting culture's three ways; secondly, it inherits Confucian tradition, tracing life and initiating reason dorminating; thirdly, it rejects and contains contemporary thoughts, introducing Western thoughts into Confucianism to activate Confucian doctrine; fourthly, it supports real practice and fulfillment, following our bliss to attain Confucian state. "Hope without assurance" is the value orientation of his ethic concepts. Just because of "hope without assurance", we should be very cautious in dealing with ethic concept, like treading on thin ice and standing upon edge of abyss; just because of "inassurance yet with hope", we should advance unremittingly and move upward unboundedly.