A Study Of Liang Shuming 's Religious Thought

Religion, as an important part of the culture, has significant impact on the ideology and customs, even on the economy and politics. In the modern times, for a variety of reasons, people had strong interesting in the religious issue. A lot of scholars, for example, Zhang Te-yi, Liang Qi-chao, Liang Shu-ming, Xiong Shi-li, and so on, participated in the discussion about the religion. At the same time, they all paid attention to the Buddhism and the BuddhaDhamma. Some of them thought that the BuddhaDhamma could be used to save our country, in the meantime, it could be remould. But others didn’t think so. They studied the BuddhaDhamma as a cultural phenomenon. In a word, the series of thoughts were researches for our country’s development in the transitional period.Liang Shu-ming,as a famous modern philosopher and thinker of China, is so prolific. He has indepth research for Chinese, India, and Western culture and puts forward the theory of "the third phase of culture", which has caused great waves in modern China. Because strongly publicizes the Confucianism, he is identified as a representative of modern new Confucian. But he thinks himself as a Buddhist and has original ideas of religious issues. My article mainly explores the religious thought of him. He thinks that the religion is the combination of "chaojue" and "xumian" and has significant impact on the economy, politics, customs, culture of society and so on. So we human beings can’t ignore it. Considering from the perspective of the depths of the human emotions, he thinks the religion is necessary. The necessary lies in the matter of aging, illness, death and the impermanent life that people always meet with. He thinks that religion and science have the same source, the source is that human mind is always used to research the outside world. When it comes to the relationship of religion and moral, he thinks that the morality is born of religion, however, real morality excludes religion and will replace religion. But, the spiritual demand will be the unique and extremely urgent demand when our world develops to a certain stage. At that time, the matter of aging, illness, death and the impermanent life will be the only issue for human beings. The "Nirvana" of Buddhism will be the only way to solve the problem. So, religion will be developed in the future. Li Shu-ming pays special attention to the Buddhism. The Buddhism occupies important position in his whole thoughts, especially Vijbana-vada. Li Shu-ming has his own understanding and discussion about epistemology, ontology and anattan of Vijbana-vada. If knowing about his religious thoughts, we will have a better grasp of his whole ideological system and the whole ideological circle of the modem China.In this thesis, Li Shu-ming’s religious thought is the main line, meanwhile, other scholars’ thoughts about the religion will be discussed, In a word, we can know about the condition of ideological circle at that time.In the Chapter one, aimed at understanding briefly of Liang Shu-ming’s life, I introduce his life and work and expound the connection of his life and Buddhism.In the Chapter two, I expound Liang Shu-ming’s religious views indetail. Among them, in order to have a fully grasp the discussion of religious issues in modern China, the first section expounds his understanding and evaluation of religion and other scholars’view of religion. The second section expounds his attitude to Buddhism and BuddhaDhamma, aiming at having a comprehensive understanding of his thought of Buddhism.In the Chapter three, I expound Li Shu-ming’s thought of Vijbana-vana. The first section discusses his understanding and evaluation of Vijbana-vana, the second section expounds his reformation about the epistemology, ontology and anattan of Vijbana-vana.In the Chapter four, I will evaluate his religious thought and explain the position of religious thought in his whole ideological system. Otherwise, I will expound the core of his religious thoughts. At the same time, Chang Te-yi’s religious thoughts will be discussed. I will have some comparison about Chang and Liang’s views to state that it is normal phenomenon in transition period.In the last part, I will indicate my thoughts about the development of Chinese Culture.