On Liang Ch'i-ch'ao's Misunderstanding Of Western Humanism And Its Influence

Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, as the scholar bridging the intellectuals of two generations and leaping over two centuries, not only exerted great influence on the new youth, but also initiated the transition of Chinese literature in the 20th century. This thesis aims at discussing Liang's misunderstanding of western humanism and its influence in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and thus deeply excavates the western spiritual sources of the new literature in the May Fourth Movement.The first part gives an overall introduction to the present situation of research into Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, and a detailed introduction to the latest research results of the subject. The main idea of this thesis is also dealt with in this part.The second part, as the main part, probes into Liang's acceptance of and resistance to the western humanism on three levels. Firstly, it reviews the whole course of Liang's acceptance and transmission of western humanism. Secondly, it sets forth Liang's explanation and practice of western humanism from three angles: construction of literary theory; attitudes towards traditional culture and criticism of the national character. Finally, it gives charts of all the names of the western people mentioned in Liang's works during 1898-1903, and makes a clear picture of his misunderstanding of western humanism by means of statistics.The third part mainly discusses how Liang's understanding of western humanism influenced the main members of the new literature camp, and puts forth query about the judgment of Chinese "Renaissance"From the foreign names mentioned in the works of Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Hu Shi, Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, we can retrospect the influence of western humanism over the modern intellectuals of China. It examines the vision of western world in the eyes of such enlightening pioneers of the May Fourth Movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In this particular way, this is not only the historic...