On The Relationship Between Marxism And Confucianism Of Liang Shuming From China:The Country Of Reason

Liang Shuming,as one of the representative figures of modern neo-Confucianism,tried to solve the practical problems of Chinese society with traditional Confucian culture.He has long been concerned about the relationship between Confucian,Marxism and Wsetern philosophy.Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China,Liang Shuming witnessed the great victory of Marxism guiding China’s revolution and practice,so he began to think deeply about the relationship between Marxism and Confucianism.In his book China:The Country of Reason,he takes "Reason" as the basis and believes that there are many similarities between Marxism and Chinese traditional Confucianism on the level of reason.For Marxist view of history,Liang Shuming made a Confucian explanation with his mind-body relationship theory.He explained the essence of social and historical development through the "mind-body relationship".He believed that the essence of social development is human’s own development,and the history of human society is a historical process in which human’s mind gradually plays a role and human’s individual life constantly manifests.In his writings,the Marxist exposition of consciousness and spontaneity is transformed into the characteristics of the human body and the human mind.The human body and the human mind become the main driving force of social development,and the law of social development is the manifestation of physical and mental development.He explained and supplemented Marxist theory of social development and viewpoint of the masses with the theory of Confucianism.He not only sought rationality for Marxist view of history through Confucianism,but also improved the thought of Confucianism with the help of Marxist theory,so as to explain the common points of Marxism and Confucianism.However,Liang Shuming’s discussion of the relationship between Marxism and Confucianism has obvious limitations.On the one hand,Liang Shuming lacks a deep understanding of Marxism,so his discussion of the relationship between Marxism and Confucianism lacks objectivity.This is because Liang Shuming questioned or even opposed the materialist view of history and class theory of Marxism in his early years,and only under the influence of the change of realistic conditions and personal reflection did he have a new view of Marxism,so his understanding of Marxism was not deep enough.On the other hand,he had a wrong understanding of the essence of Marxist view of history,and his understanding of the development of social history had a tendency of Historical Idealism.Combining Marxist view of history with Confucianism also had the intention of finding a reasonable basis for Confucian culture.Although Liang Shuming’s discussion of the relationship between Marxism and Confucianism has many limitations,his understanding of the perspective of Marxism and his affirmation of the value of Chinese traditional Confucianism are helpful to explore the common points between Marxism and Confucianism.Up to now,Liang Shuming’s research can provide useful reference for adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.