Will this world get better (Liang Shuming's oral testimony in his later years)

Author: (American) AI KAI
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Professor AI KAI of the University of Chicago wrote the book The Last Confucian: Liang Shuming and the Dilemmas of Chinese Modernization. To verify facts and correct the incomplete and inadequate aspects of the book, AI visited China in August 1980 for exclusive interviews with Mr. Liang Shuming, engaging in over ten lengthy conversations. During these talks, Liang discussed the cultural characteristics and representative figures of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, covering numerous political and cultural luminaries (Li Daqiao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chiang Kai-shek, Kang Youwei, Zhang Taiyan, Hu Shih, Feng Youlan). He also reviewed the important activities in Mr. Liang's life (teaching at Peking University, participating in the rural reconstruction movement, founding the Democratic League), making the content rich and substantial. Thus, it serves as a significant reference for understanding and researching Mr. Liang Shuming's thoughts, activities, and the social life of modern Chinese society. Liang Shuming said: Humanity is not small, but tragic; the tragedy lies in being constrained by oneself (constraining and being constrained are one). Smallness is a false notion. When you transcend selfishness, you transcend smallness. Who is invincible? Life. What is defeated? Matter. Life is the mind, the mind manifesting itself in the material world, the struggle between mind and matter. History (cosmic history) has always been a struggle between mind and matter, time and time again, step by step, conquering matter, relying on matter, utilizing matter, and performing it. Only by deeply understanding oneself and having control over oneself can one avoid and transcend folly and inferiority. – This is the deepest knowledge, the cleverest and greatest ability or skill. Yet it is not known by Western scientists who chase after external things. Economic life divides the mind while uniting the body. Politics forms groups and conflicts, drawing boundaries. The problems of the world today stem from Western culture. To avoid the destruction of humanity, one must turn to Chinese culture. The current state of Chinese affairs is the result of blindly imitating the West. To break the deadlock and achieve harmony and unity, one must correct the two errors of drawing boundaries and using force, and transcend the two major global barriers as the starting point. Impatience and greed manifest humanity's smallness; envy and saliva reveal humanity's ugliness; inability to endure leads to frustration and sorrow, showing humanity's uselessness. Knowledge is to solve problems, and true knowledge is to solve one's own problems. The text of this book is compiled based on the audio tapes (a total of 30 boxes) preserved by Mr. Liang Shuming's family and stored by Professor AI KAI. It was directly transcribed from sound to text, word by word, without any modification or addition, strictly following the recordings. To help readers understand Mr. Liang Shuming's thoughts, relevant excerpts from Collected Works of Liang Shuming: Notes and Realizations (Volume 8, 1993) are quoted at the beginning of the corresponding sections of the main text for comparison. Additionally, evaluations of people and events discussed in the main text and important viewpoints of the author are extracted and placed on the corresponding flyleaf pages for emphasis. During the editing process, annotations added by the compiler are marked in italics; inconsistent translations of names and places in the preface by Professor AI KAI were standardized; and dates, times, and numbers in the text were uniformly formatted, such as writing the Anno Domini era in Arabic numerals and retaining Chinese numerals for Chinese historical dates (e.g., "Minguo 17th Year"). The content of this book is published in full for the first time, providing a complete supplement to the content of Collected Works of Liang Shuming, Volume 8.