A Case Study Of Literati’s Political Participation Under The Background Of The Second KMT Communist Cooperation

Liang Shuming is a famous thinker,philosopher,educator,social activist,patriot and Democrat in modern Chinese history.His career and works cover almost all the major historical events in China in the first half of the 20 th century.’Social issue’ is the focus of his life’s thinking and practice.In the early research of Liang’s related content,Liang’s identity and works as a philosopher and educator are widely known,but his identity and political activities as a social activist are often ignored.This paper will start from the perspective of modern scholars’ participation in politics,and focus on Liang Shuming’s literary character,political theory and practice,and try to restore Liang Shuming’s political activities and the source of political ideas behind him during the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.There are four parts in the text,including Liang Shuming’s literati temperament,Liang Shuming’s political ideas,Liang Shuming’s participation in the establishment of China Democratic Alliance,and Liang Shuming’s political activities between the two parties during the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.The cultivation of Liang Shuming’s literati character was influenced by both family education and social environment.In his youth,Liang Shuming developed a conceited and independent literati character,and under the influence of his father,he established a life creed of seeking truth and pragmatism.Driven by his personality and pursuit,Liang Shuming paid close attention to social problems.He successively inspected the constitutionalists,revolutionaries and socialist salvation plans in modern China,and gradually formed his unique views on the " Social issue ".Liang Shuming searched for a good solution to the " Social issue ",and his political ideas were gradually established in the process of practice.He firmly believed that the rural construction movement was the only way to solve the "China problem".His understanding of democracy and constitutionalism is also based on rural construction.He believed that the lack of democratic habits in Chinese society made it difficult to implement constitutionalism.His political idea is to cultivate people’s democratic habits through education and training,and then guide people to actively seek the implementation of constitutionalism.The class limitation of Liang Shuming as a traditional literati makes his political ideas conservative.Liang Shuming participated in the establishment of China Democratic Alliance.After the outbreak of the all-round Anti Japanese War,the national government convened the leaders of all parties and factions to discuss the national policy,and Liang Shuming participated in it as the leader of the rural construction group.In the face of the KMT’s blatant destruction of the unity and anti Japanese War,Liang Shuming took the lead in proposing the alliance of the third party.In order to seek the living space of the middle forces,the leaders of the middle parties headed by Liang Shuming established the comrades’ Association for the unification of the people’s Republic of China,and later jointly established the China Democratic Political League.In order to announce the establishment of China’s Democratic League at home and abroad,Liang Shuming went to Hong Kong to establish Guangming Daily,which contributed to the establishment of China Democratic League.During the second cooperation between KMT and CPC,Liang Shuming mediated between KMT and CPC.During the Anti Japanese War,Liang Shuming,as a representative of the middle party,ran between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party for several times in order to achieve unity in the Anti Japanese War and promote the settlement of disputes between the two parties.After the victory of the Anti Japanese War,as a representative of the Democratic League,he actively mediated between the KMT and the Communist Party in order to achieve domestic peace;in order to achieve democratic constitutionalism,he protested the KMT’s one party dictatorship and a series of assassination activities several times.During this period,because of the class limitations of Liang Shuming,his political position was biased towards the KMT.However,it is also admirable to realize that he had a sense of mission to run for the state affairs in times of crisis.As a famous leader of the middle school in 1940 s,Liang Shuming’s participation in politics during the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is a miniature of modern literati’s participation in politics.He made contributions to the coalition of the middle parties and the establishment of the Democratic League.Because of his own limitations,his political views and positions are always conservative and backward.Therefore,most of his political activities during the second cooperation between the KMT and the CPC ended in failure,but this is not enough to deny the value of his independent thinking and Practice on the " Social issue ".His failure is due to his lack of real understanding of Chinese society,and his lack of knowledge of the real politics with power as the core.Therefore,his failure can also be seen as the imbalance of the role of modern literati in the ruling class.