On Liang Shuming’s Thought Of New Etiquette And Customs

Liang Shuming put forward the concept of "new etiquette and customs",defined it as a new organizational structure and regarded it as an "organizational principle" as a way to solve the national self-help after the collapse of China’s old social structure.Although this was not a successful national self-help path in the 1920 s and 1930 s,the ethical spirit contained in the new etiquette is still of theoretical and practical significance for exploring the modern transformation of rural China and the construction of rural ethics.Firstly,new etiquette and customs is intended to call for a new ethical relationship and promote the progress of social civilization through a new moral practice full of practical rationality.Under the condition of the new ethical relationship between group organizations and elements that "attach importance to each other",the new rites and customs is not only an ethical friendship organization with ethical friendship as its origin and life upward as its purpose,but also a new institutional norm to give full play to Confucian benevolence and transform rural rites and conventions.At the same time,it is also a human rational spirit that can reflect Chinese sentiment compatible with Western rationality.The essence of the new ethical relationship is not only to inject the concept of "justice" with modern significance into the previous "Five Ethics" relationship,but also to stimulate mutual respect between groups and elements and mobilize the enthusiasm of both sides in the new "six ethics".This new ethical relationship is a progress from "Chinese rationality" to "human rationality".It has the moral practical value of "practical rationality" in the general sense,that is,"learning from the times".Secondly,new etiquette and customs has the "Chinese foundation" and "human rationality" at the spiritual core level.new etiquette and customs absorbed and brought into play the spiritual core of rites and customs and traditional local conventions,which is also called "ethical friendship" of "Chinese spirit" by Liang Shuming.This spiritual core has become increasingly evident from the rites of Confucius in Zhou Dynasty to Neo Confucianism in song and Ming Dynasty,which constitutes the cultural background of Liang Shuming’s new etiquette and customs thought.On the basis of this background,integrate and absorb the internal elements of Western organizations and science and technology,that is,the "rational" side of Western life,and form a new ethical spirit called "human rationality" by Liang Shuming.Chinese rationality is good at "precocious" rationality.Human rationality is the combination of Chinese "rationality" and Western "physics",and the combination of Chinese ethical spirit and Western democratic science.The product of this combination constitutes the new ethical spirit contained in the new etiquette and customs,that is,Liang Shuming’s so-called "relativistic ethics".This is the implementation and exertion of the Chinese ethical spirit of "focusing on each other" in the "six ethics" relationship of the modern community.The main purpose is to give play to "group cohesion" and "personality expansion" in the relationship between groups and elements.Thirdly,the internal spirit of the new etiquette and customs is cultivated and developed at the level of system and norms,with ethical quality in the cultivation of new etiquette and customs,and moral cultivation in "learning" and away from "preaching".This is a "notice" culture combining theory and practice,and a kind of etiquette and customs starting from "notice"."All kinds of notice are etiquette".The notice culture advocates the atmosphere of consultation and conference culture,focusing on the friendly and educational cultivation of ethical relations or organizational ethics.The new etiquette and customs governs organizational ethics and achieves organizational goals with the new principle of "unity of politics and religion".The unity of politics and religion governs politics,economy and culture with virtue education.Village school and township school are not only the political organization of villagers’ and villagers’ autonomy and the economic organization of collective cooperation,but also a large school,which runs through and leads the economy and politics through education.Finally,the activity of the new etiquette and customs under the organizational structure is the rural movement.The rural movement and the rural movement consortium continued to promote the "ethical" conventions and customs in the countryside and grass-roots level,and completed the construction of a new society under the rule of etiquette and law in a gradual way.Liang Shuming’s design guides us to trace the historical premise of the new etiquette and customs and explore the rich ideas of the new etiquette and customs from the internal spirit of Chinese culture and western ideological resources.It also has an important enlightenment value for promoting the Current Rural Revitalization Strategy.