Chapter 3 Ma Yong: Liang Shuming's dictation in his later years

At the beginning of the new year, a friend sent me the newly published "Will the World Be Okay: Oral Accounts by Liang Shuming in His Later Years".After reading it, I have a lot of emotions.I believe this book should be one of the brightest publications of 2006. Ai Kai is a professor at the University of Chicago and an expert on Liang Shuming. In August 1980, he came to China to interview Mr. Liang Shuming, and had more than ten long talks. "Liang Shuming's Oral Statements in His Later Years" (hereinafter referred to as "Oral Statements") is based on the audio recordings of the series of interviews that year.In fact, as early as more than ten years ago, I participated in the editing of "The Complete Works of Liang Shuming", and read the "excerpts" of Ai Kai's interview; Speeches on ideology and culture, and many other contents have been discarded.Six months ago, the unit library purchased all the recordings of that interview, and kindly notified the author that I could borrow them; however, considering that the interview took dozens of hours, it took too much effort, so it was delayed.Unexpectedly, after only half a year, I received the book compiled and published by Yidan Academy, and I was naturally very happy.

According to the publisher's introduction, the "full version" compiled this time is basically a copy of "word by word according to the recording", except for some places where the recording is blurred and unclear, so that we can fully understand Liang Shuming's true thoughts in his later years, and His self-assessment of his lifetime performance. Before visiting Liang Shuming, Ai Kai wrote a monograph on Liang Shuming - "The Last Confucianism-Liang Shuming and the Dilemma of Chinese Modernization"; in that book, Ai Kai interpreted Liang Shuming's thoughts and activities based entirely on literature. The series of interviews he conducted with Liang Shuming in 1980 was mainly to verify the accuracy of his judgments in his own works, and asked Liang Shuming to answer some questions directly.Therefore, this "dictation" is actually a question-and-answer session led by Ai Kai.After careful reading, you will understand that an expert is an expert, and his effective guidance has indeed enabled Liang Shuming to provide us with many stories that people did not know before, and it also helps us to explore the trajectory of Liang Shuming's ideological changes in a deeper way.

In the first half of the 20th century, Liang Shuming was once one of the most active figures in China’s ideological, cultural and political fields; in the second half of the 20th century, especially after the conflict with Mao Zedong in the 1950s, Liang Shuming had actually withdrawn from the ideological and cultural field , especially in the political arena.However, due to Liang Shuming's longevity, he saw the historical situation in the early stage of reform and opening up, which also gave him the opportunity to calmly reflect on his life's achievements.Here, there is inevitably a difference in the evaluation between the researcher and the researched.

According to the general opinion of researchers, Liang Shuming's greatest contribution in the field of ideology and culture is undoubtedly his important work "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy" published in the late period of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, as well as his publication at the time of the fierce conflict between the KMT and the Communist Party. "The Essentials of Chinese Culture".The former criticized the New Culture Movement's wrongness of "going west" with great courage, publicly declared that he wanted to "go east", and declared that the future of the world depended on the revival of Chinese culture; the latter was based on his observation and research on the reality of Chinese society , put forward that the basic characteristics of Chinese society are "ethics standard, career separation", in order to deny the theory of class struggle, and publicize the rural construction that he has carried out for many years is the only way out for China.Even until the mid-1950s, Liang Shuming's belief did not seem to waver.

However, we have seen that after decades of “thought reform,” when Liang Shuming talked with Ai Kai in 1980, his interpretation of his own ideological texts was no longer based on previous beliefs, and was also quite different from the observations of researchers.He no longer insists on "going east" and no longer opposes "going west". On the contrary, even he himself has expressed his intention to go to Europe and the United States.When evaluating his previous works, Liang Shuming is no longer as conceited as before.What is particularly intriguing is that he recommended his unpublished new book "Heart and Life" to Ai Kai more than once, thinking that this book can truly represent the essence of his thoughts, and its significance is far greater than any previous work.However, from the later formally published texts, it seems that the researchers did not find the values ​​mentioned by Liang Shuming.This book spends a lot of space explaining dialectics and materialism, initiative and initiative, planning and reason, etc., but it is actually just repeating the most popular philosophy of that era.

As for Liang Shuming's review and commentary on his own political history and history of social activities, there is also such inner tension.Although he did not publicly announce his abandonment of his unique research conclusion, that is, the "ethical standard and career separation" of the Chinese social structure, in fact, due to historical conditions, he has largely agreed with what he previously opposed. Political views, and even self-deprecatingly stated that his previous ideals have been realized in China.The Liang Shuming whom Mao Zedong "slammed" can no longer be seen here. On the contrary, the image of a gentle and moderate elder emerges vividly on the paper.

Through "Oral", we see a brand new Liang Shuming.In his later years, Liang Shuming had indeed reached the realm of a "sage". Perhaps, as he himself said, he had taken everything lightly, had no major problems, and always put his mood in a calm state.Looking back at his assessment of his own political and social performance, the self-deprecation of a loser has become the main tone of his narrative. In addition, more than one-third of the book is dedicated to Liang Shuming's comments on important figures in modern history who had direct contact with him, such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Cheng, Wu Zhihui, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Feng Yuxiang, Han Fuju, Gu Hongming, Zhang Dongsun, Zhang Junmai, etc., and his friends engaged in rural construction work with him such as Yan Yangchu, Wang Hongyi, Liang Zhonghua, etc.The reason why these comments are interesting is that his views are obviously his true feelings, and there is no trace of cover-up and modification.For example, the comparison and evaluation of Zhang Dongsun and Zhang Junmai in the book is very different from our previous cognition.He said that Zhang Junmai is more of a person who specializes in academics and is not keen on real politics; while Zhang Dongsun is not only keen on real politics, but also "not loyal and honest enough, a little tricky, and wants to take advantage of himself".Liang Shuming also provided many examples, so that we have to re-evaluate some important figures and important events in modern history.

Even in terms of personal life, Liang Shuming's dictation has corrected many false statements in the past.The most notable thing is that regarding the relationship between him and his two wives, it was said in the past that he didn't have a deep relationship with the first wife, and seemed to be a good match with the second wife; Says almost the exact opposite of what was said above.Is this a passing opinion of Liang Shuming in his later years, or is it a historical fact?Probably still needs research. No one is perfect, and no book is perfect. "Dictation" is a good book, but due to the knowledge background of the recording organizers or other reasons, there are still many problems in the book.The main reason is that some people's names or titles of books and periodicals were mistaken. For example, "Shi Zhaoji" on page 196 should be "Shi Zhaoji", "Xue Heng" on page 273 should be the name of the magazine "Xueheng", and "Liang Qichao, Liang Rengong ", "Yan Yuan, Yan Hui", "Wang Gen, Wang Xinzhai", etc., the names and font sizes are used together, making readers who are not familiar with these characters feel that they are two people.It is hoped that the publisher will correct these problems as much as possible when reprinting.

(Ma Yong, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, whose research direction is the history of Chinese academic culture, has published monographs on Liang Shuming's research on "Liang Shuming's Cultural Theory", "Liang Shuming's Commentary", "Liang Shuming's Educational Thought Research")