Chapter 27 The Last Confucianism——"Consistent Reactionary" Liang Shuming

"Tell you, I'm not generous!" Mao Zedong snapped at the people on the podium. The air in Zhongnanhai Huairen Hall suddenly froze, and the hearts of hundreds of people in the venue seemed to stop at the same time, and it was eerily quiet.All eyes were fixed on the short man on the speaking table, and those who had closed their eyes to listen suddenly opened their eyes wide.The man's gown looked even more abrupt in the uniform Chinese tunic suit.The words of this person just now echoed in everyone’s ears: “At the same time, I also want to test the leadership of the party and see if Chairman Mao is magnanimous. Chairman Mao can nod his head and say: 'Okay, you didn't mean anything malicious, I misunderstood.' This is the magnanimity I want from Chairman Mao—”

After being interrupted by Mao Zedong, the man was stunned for a moment, but he continued stubbornly: "Chairman, if you have this generosity, I will respect you even more; if you really don't have this generosity, I will lose my respect for you—" Mao Zedong said coldly: "There is still some 'magnanimity' in this point, that is, you can still be a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference." "It doesn't really matter." Mao Zedong's face began to turn blue: "Irrelevant? If you think it is not important, that is another matter; if it is important, I will nominate you as a member of the CPPCC when the second CPPCC meeting is held. As for your ideas , that must be wrong."

"Whether to be a member of the CPPCC is a matter for the future, and we can talk about it slowly. What I mean now is to test the leading party. Because the leading party often tells us to criticize ourselves, I want to see whether self-criticism is true or not. " Mao Zedong got a little excited: "There are two kinds of criticism, one is self-criticism, and the other is criticism. Which one do you implement? Is it self-criticism? No, it is criticism!" "I mean, does the chairman have the tolerance for self-criticism..." Everyone has come to their senses: How dare someone dare to contradict the great leader like this!There was an immediate uproar in the venue:

"Democratic rights are not given to reactionaries!" "Don't listen to Liang Shuming's nonsense!" "Liang Shuming get off the stage!" ... The person on the podium, Liang Shuming, was pale, but he didn't step down from the stage, holding the speech script tightly with both hands, and staring directly at Mao Zedong behind the round glasses-until he was bombarded off. It was the afternoon of September 18, 1953, and Liang Shuming's 60th birthday would be 29 days later. The cause of this famous conflict was Liang Shuming's speech at the 19th enlarged meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference a few days ago.In his speech, Liang Shuming mentioned the current gap between workers and peasants. He believed that after the founding of New China, the focus of work shifted to the cities, and the countryside was inevitably empty. Nine days, farmers live in nine places, there is a difference of 'nine days and nine places'", and mentioned that the success of the Communist Party mainly relied on peasants, but now it is suspected of being "abandoned". Suffering the tyranny of the Kuomintang reactionaries, and being as close as a family with the Communist Party, this situation no longer exists in recent days." Although the words are a bit harsh, they are out of the kindness of loving the Communist Party.Generally speaking, it should be these words reminding the Communist Party not to forget its roots and not to betray the peasants, which greatly hurt the self-esteem of Mao Zedong, who had the most affection for the peasants. On the 18th, Liang Shuming spoke again to defend himself, and the fuse that had been lit long ago was finally burned to the end.

Thus, Liang Shuming, an old friend of Mao Zedong's for decades, whom he had known at Peking University, and who had spent many nights in Yan'an discussing the general situation of the world, became the object of criticism and a living target overnight. Mao Zedong personally participated in the criticism of Liang Shuming.Laughing and cursing during the conversation, the incomparably powerful and lively style was brought into full play: "There are two kinds of murder. One is to kill with the barrel of a gun, and the other is to kill with the barrel of a pen. The most ingenious disguise, killing without blood, is to kill with a pen. You are such a murderer..."

"But you describe yourself as the most beautiful woman in the world, more beautiful than Xi Shi, more beautiful than Wang Zhaojun, and even more beautiful than Yang Guifei..." In the end, with a swipe of the pen, he easily determined Liang Shuming's character: "Liang Shuming cannot be trusted;" "Liang Shuming is an ambitious man and a hypocrite"; "Liang Shuming is thoroughly reactionary"... Among the overwhelming number of critical articles, there is a word that is used very frequently: "consistently reactionary".Of course people at the time had this opinion. Liang Shuming was undoubtedly a person who has always been—if we relate his whole life, it can be said to be forever—outside the trend.

It can even be said that Liang Shuming stepped onto the stage of history with his back to the trend. After the Revolution of 1911, the political situation could not get on the right track, but became more and more unbearable. More and more people began to think about what the country and the nation should do.Marked by the founding of "New Youth" in 1915, and surrounding the issue of China's way out, a cultural debate between the East and the West broke out in the Chinese intellectual circles - the New Culture Movement.There were hundreds of participants and dozens of monographs. The scale, depth of issues involved and long duration are unprecedented in modern history.A large number of giants emerged in the movement, such as Lu Xun, who pointed their finger at feudal ethics and morality, and fiercely criticized Confucius and Mencius.The results are brilliant. Western learning is of course victorious, and the development momentum of the new culture can be described as destructive. Although there are still some old people who are desperately holding on, the "Confucian shop" is on the verge of complete collapse. Although Confucianism, which has been popular for thousands of years, is still He has not been reduced to a street mouse, but in the eyes of most people, especially young people, he has become a rancid zombie and a ridiculous clown.

In October 1917, Liang Shuming officially came to Peking University to give lectures.On his first day at Peking University, he went to the principal's office and asked the principal, Cai Yuanpei, what his attitude towards Confucius was in front of Chen Duxiu, who was present at the time.Cai Yuanpei was surprised and hesitated for a while before replying that they were not against Confucius, Confucianism is worth studying as a science, and the influence and status of Confucius in history can be discussed.Liang Shuming said sternly: "I'm not just not against it - this time I come to Peking University, I won't do other things except to play for Sakyamuni and Confucius." Four years later, his "Eastern and Eastern Cultures and Their Philosophy" came out , simply put Sakyamuni aside, fully exerted Confucianism, and carried out a comprehensive liquidation of the May Fourth New Culture Movement from the perspective of cultural origin and philosophy of life.

When he came to Peking University, he was only 24 years old, definitely a young man. Not only academically, but his anti-popularity even went to how to deal with traitors, which is a major issue of right and wrong.On May 4th, the crowd was furious, Cao Rulin's house was burned, and Zhang Zongxiang was severely beaten.However, in Liang Shuming's only public comment at the time, he emphasized that Cao and Zhang should also enjoy citizenship. In fact, as early as a child, Liang Shuming had already formed this kind of character that had his own unique understanding of the mainstream consciousness and was never willing to go along with it casually.He likes to reverse the verdict in his composition, and his husband's comment is "the words are not shocking and endless"-but there is another sentence: "likes and dislikes are in the nature of people, and disasters will catch the husband."

This character should come from his inheritance from his father Liang Ji.Liang Ji was always an outlier all his life.When the court was conservative, it was already obsessed with Western learning, advocating reform and constitutionalism, and criticizing traditional culture; after the success of Xinhai, the Qing court finally abdicated, and the New Deal came to power, but determined to be a martyr for the Qing Dynasty; However, he sent a letter to Zhang Xun to encourage each other at the end of the day——Zhang Xun was not impatient, and ran to the Dutch embassy to seek refuge. So he threw himself into the lake.The suicide note reads: "Liang Ji's death is the death of the Qing Dynasty."

Or, the suicide of Liang Ji, who was contradictory throughout his life, was not martyrdom for the Qing Dynasty, because he said many times that he supported the republic; it was a kind of despair, despair over the current situation, political views, old and new learning—despair in life; , but still can't see the despair of the road.At that time, many people had already seen the greater significance behind the martyrdom, including Chen Duxiu and Xu Zhimo of the new sect, who lamented that he was martyrdom for the sake of lost morality, to be precise, martyrdom. Liang Ji should think that the seemingly bustling road is actually a dead end; but he couldn't find the right direction.So, cast into the lake. What Liang Shuming inherited from his father was not only an unconventional character, but also a sense of responsibility for world affairs.Liang Ji has never been on the cusp of history in his life, except for the suicide that attracted a little attention, it can be said to be very ordinary.For most of his life, he just worked as a school teacher and aide, and he was only able to become an official at the age of forty, and he was just a middle- and lower-level official.This kind of person, generally speaking, as long as he is willing, let the situation change, his life can be guaranteed, and he can enjoy the world as much as he wants, but he chose to commit suicide because of his despair of the world.This kind of tragic and noble mentality is clearly stated in the suicide note: "If the national character does not exist, what is the use of my life? Whether the national character survives is not my responsibility alone, but since I see that the national character does not exist, the country will not be the country. I must sacrifice myself first, and then arouse the people of the country to know that the national nature is necessary for the establishment of the country." This fully shows that he has been deeply branded in his bones as a Confucian man who should "contribute to the world". His father's personality undoubtedly had the most profound influence on Liang Shuming: he was determined to be a great man since he was a child, and to save all people from suffering.Later, Liang Shuming recalled his childhood and wrote: Under the inspiration of his father, "my childish mind was secretly sprouting a sense of responsibility to the society and the country, and I despised the worldly pursuit of food and clothing for profit and self-sufficiency." This sense of responsibility strengthened day by day as Liang Shuming grew up, filling his little head with big propositions that were not commensurate with his age. He wrote: "Since I entered middle school at the age of fourteen, I have had an upward heart. It drives me to pursue two issues: one is the problem of life, that is, what is the purpose of human life; the other is the social problem, that is, the problem of China, where is China going... In general, the main energy and scheming of my life for more than 80 years , nothing more than being used on these two issues.” The father and son are so similar that Liang Shuming once thought about committing suicide. At the end of June 1912, Liang Shuming's mother, who had been ill for many years, was finally relieved. The death of a close relative once again triggered the demonic obstacle that had been hidden in Liang Shuming's heart for a long time—he began to secretly plan to leave this world.Years later he referred to this period of insanity more than once, but each time the account was different.But there is a record that can explain the problem the most. He said that the reason why he wanted to commit suicide at that time was that "the desire to be strong was too high, and he looked down on others, and it was easy to hate himself; the reason was that he wanted to be strong while he had many problems." He had already made it very clear that he had the idea of ​​suicide because he realized that his strength was too small to use even the slightest bit of strength in the face of this suffering world. This is actually the stage of disillusionment experienced by every young person who has just stepped into society. However, compared with ordinary people, this blow is particularly heavy on Liang Shuming, who aspired to be a sage since he was a child.At the same time, his first job as a reporter magnified this disillusionment many times, clearly displaying the ugliness of the whole world in front of his eyes.He recalled: During his work as a reporter, “due to frequent contact with society, I gradually realized that the facts were far from ideal, and I had no more than this feeling about ‘revolution’, ‘politics’, and ‘great figures’... all of which were obscene and vulgar. Psychology, as well as sharp, vicious, and violent things, which were not encountered at home or school before, but now I see them, which makes me feel tired and disgusted with life.” At the most depressing time, a Sanskrit chant sounded above his head, and the Buddhist scriptures he dabbled in when he was a teenager to explore life problems shone brightly in the dark. Twenty-year-old Liang Shuming knelt down at the feet of Sakyamuni.Soon Liang Shuming thought that he had achieved great enlightenment, that life is suffering, and that only the great compassion and magic power of the Buddha can save him.So he "decided to make a vow to become a monk" and at the same time began to be a vegetarian-a habit that he kept for life. However, the sense of social responsibility formed since childhood still stings this young man from time to time, and he can't be as calm as water and insulated from the world of mortals—that kind of "self-made man" is what he has always despised the most.In the meditation room, there are not only Buddhist scriptures, but also works of hundreds of schools of thought piled up on the floor—Shu Ming still couldn’t forget the worldly affairs, and still devoted all his energy to finding a prescription for this sloppy world.It can even be said that this feeling is becoming more and more urgent, especially when the trip to Hunan in 1917 was at the time of the war, the people were shocked along the way, and the people were miserable. boil up.In the article, he wrote: "There is no one as powerful as my Cao in the universe today. The cardinal who controls the country is not in the authority of Bingjun, but in my Cao!" It seems that he has adjusted his mentality and is ready to win the battle. Sleeves saved lives. In 1917, Liang Shuming finally opened the Zen door that had been closed for many years and returned to the human world.In the eyes of the world, Liang Shuming, after a few years, is still the stern and haughty little man. It seems that nothing has changed from a few years ago; however, Liang Shuming knows that he is no longer the desperate man at this time. The young and immature young man has become a giant with infinite strength.He firmly believes that he has found a panacea for this miserable land—oh, it should be the whole world, all people, enough to turn all hells into heavens.As he said in the postscript of "Juyuan Causationism": "Be troubled by the doubts in the world." Now he no longer has any doubts in his heart, thinking that he has obtained the Dao—he is already a grand master of a generation. The way Liang Shuming pondered for many years was precisely the Confucianism that was attacked to the brink of death. His conversion to Confucianism seems absurd.Because Liang Jiya loves Western learning and believes that traditional culture is not beneficial or harmful to China, the education given to Shuming when he was young was Western style.When he was enlightened at the age of six, the first textbook Shuming studied was not "Four Books", but "Earth Rhymes", an enlightenment book introducing world history and geography. Later, he entered a new-style school and received Westernized education; He "has never read" traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucian classics.For a long time, he didn't pay much attention to Confucianism. He said: "When Shu Ming first entered into the thought of transcending the world, he looked down on Confucius very much. Later, he proved the importance of Confucius from this problem. He is the most perfect person of the thought of living in the world. There is no more than Confucius, and its perfection is so perfect that it cannot be added..." It is difficult for outsiders to analyze why a young man who had been educated in the West for many years suddenly turned back to the road of Confucianism. Even Liang Shuming himself said it was a bit mysterious.It is said that one day when composing an essay, the writing was always unsatisfactory, and the thinking was unprecedentedly chaotic.He couldn't help being surprised, and sighed.In order to clear his mind, he casually flipped through the "Ming Confucianism Cases" on the desk, and suddenly saw the words "Hundred worries imprison the blood and qi, and calm down", and he was startled and sweated from his scalp. Later, when Liang Shuming recalled his life, he even found it funny: "I never read the books of Confucius at school, and ended up talking about Confucian philosophy." Is this a coincidence or a mockery of fate?Hu Shi, who grew up shaking his head by reciting the Four Books and Five Classics, and Liang Shuming, who read the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and ABC from a young age, why did they end up tuning each other? Or is it that Hu, Liang, etc. all have the limitation of being in this mountain, but the true meaning of a theory needs to be observed from a long distance or even from the opposite direction to truly understand it? In fact, Liang Shuming’s deduction process is basically the same as that of Chen Duxiu and other trendsetters in the era. They all saw such a problem from a series of painful lessons from the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898 to the chaos after the Revolution of 1911: “These things in the West did not come out of thin air. But they have their origins ("Eastern and Eastern Cultures and Their Philosophy", the same below)." The heroes saw the same thing, and they all found that not only iron armor, artillery, sound and light are superficial, but even the democratic republican political system is also a branch; After touching the vines all the way, they all touched the ultimate root: "Their source is the fundamental culture of the West." So they all believed that the various failures in China were "not at all the fault of one person, not at all piecemeal. "problem", but "the problem that the whole culture is different", "the most fundamental thing is ethical thought-philosophy of life", "if this fundamental point cannot be reformed, all reforms will be useless".Therefore, "the most important thing now is the reform of thought - cultural movement - not a political issue". In Liang Shuming's view, there are three solutions to this problem: abandoning and reconciling traditional culture, or transforming it to make it stand up again.At that time, the mainstream lay in the first two methods: the more radical ones said that the crux of China's "self-improvement", "even the morals are wrong", should be uprooted, and the fertile soil should be cultivated to cultivate advanced Western ethics; the calmer ones tried to reconcile Chinese and Western ethics , in order to accommodate; but Liang Shuming put forward a unique point of view. He believes that human beings have three major cultural paths: "request forward", "change one's own meaning and reconcile with the middle", and "reflexively demand backward", represented by Western, Chinese and Indian cultures respectively.To use an analogy, someone got a small house with a leaky rain, and Western culture tried every means to fix the leak; China adjusted its mentality, turned the leak into a poetic feeling, and made it easy to be content with the situation; India is more straightforward. , digging your head into the sand like an ostrich, canceling the question: do you have this house, do you want this house? He does not think that the cultures of China and India lag behind Western culture, but believes that the current "Western culture's victory lies in its adaptation to the current problems of mankind, and the failure of Chinese culture and Indian culture today is not because of its own good or bad. It can be said that it is just out of date. At the beginning of human civilization, people had to take the first road, and the Chinese are also like this, but they turn halfway to the second road before finishing this road; What you want to go has gone ahead of time, and you have become a precocious human culture, but you are still under the first problem, and you have to go the first way. How can you go smoothly to the second way? So you can only be entrusted. Consequentially reveals an ambiguous culture—not as clear as Westernization; and delays the journey of the first road, and the world under the first problem shows a great failure.” Although he has said many times Originally, there was no distinction between Eastern and Western cultures, but there was a vague implication that Eastern culture was superior to Western culture: powerlessness was only due to prematurity. In his view, despite the great achievements of Western culture, it is full of crises: "the universe and life are separated, contradictions and conflicts are relentless, boring, and exhausted", so that "there are many diseases, and the world wants to abandon it"—— Didn't even the western philosophers Dewey and Russell dislike their own culture and have a sincere yearning for the distant oriental culture?However, Indian culture, because it sees too clearly, faces the ultimate unsolvable problem of life, old age, sickness and death that human beings can never solve, and it is not suitable for today's society. "It is still very early, and it is very obvious." Therefore, Liang Shuming believes that although oriental culture is currently under unprecedented oppression and is almost in danger of being cut off, this is temporary. Chinese culture not only should not be cut off, nor will it be cut off; Wealth and strength will lead to the world—"The future culture of the world is the revival of Chinese culture!" Just like the fate of ancient Greek culture in the modern West. On this basis, he proposed his own way of life: First, the attitude of rejecting India cannot be tolerated at all; Second, to accept Western culture in its entirety, and to change fundamentally means to change your attitude towards it.This reform is by no means a reconciliation, because these cultures are not interlinked: "The Chinese do not take the same route as the Westerners, because they walk tens of miles slower than others. If they take the same route and travel less, then If you walk slowly, you will be able to catch up one day; if you each go on a different route, in a different direction, then no matter how long you walk, you will not reach the point where the Westerners have reached." Third, the critics bring back China's original attitude. He believed that Confucius was undoubtedly the representative of the so-called oriental culture—so Liang Shuming set a career for himself: to develop Confucius' theory and promote oriental culture. Liang Ji should be gratified: his son, less than thirty years old, has found the right path he had dreamed of. As soon as this statement came out, Liang Shuming "gained a great reputation", becoming a well-known figure in the academic circle and the founder of New Confucianism from a mere lecturer.Of course, at the time when Western thought was booming, people in the world naturally depreciated this countercurrent theory more than praised it.Liang Shuming seldom responded to articles that commented on him, no matter whether he praised or criticized him. He did not write a letter to protest until Hu Shi wrote the article that he considered "nearly harsh"; Besides, don't "read it in five minutes like you read Beijing's "Morning News""-he thinks that Hu Shi didn't really understand his theory. But no matter what others think of his theory, Liang Shuming is calm in his heart, he believes that he has grasped the truth. Liang Shuming, who considers himself enlightened, now firmly believes that he is the one who revived Confucianism at a time of crisis 2,500 years later.This kind of self-confidence was clearly expressed in the letter he wrote to his son after fleeing from the Japanese army from Hong Kong to Guangxi in 1942: "Confucianism and Mencius are now obscure", and the task of promoting light is "except for me, there is no one in this world." Humans can do it", "'To inherit the knowledge of the past, and to create peace for the afterlife', this is exactly the mission of my life".Even on the way to escape, he faced gunfire and bandits all over the place safely and calmly, and never believed that he would be in danger. Before Hongdao's career was completed, God would not let him die: "I can't die now. In the future, the overall situation of China and the work of founding the country, It also needs me; I cannot die. If I die, the world will change color and history will change, that is unimaginable, it will never happen!" Maybe it was God's arrangement. Liang Shuming escaped smoothly all the way. He had friends to help him everywhere, and everyone respected him. It is said that he was the first cultural person to escape after the fall of Hong Kong. Naturally, this letter caused a lot of ridicule, saying that he was too arrogant.But Liang Shuming ignored it, and just followed his own ideals step by step. In his opinion, ideas that cannot be implemented on paper are by no means the truth.Based on the "new understanding" and "new ideas" of Confucian culture, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to transforming society down-to-earth: running schools and rural construction; Huh, earnestly want to promote peace and eliminate the flames of war... In the middle and late period of the Republic of China, no matter from which point of view, Liang Shuming was a person that could not be ignored.Of course, in the eyes of many people, he is very pedantic.This kind of pedantry can be seen when running a school in Caozhou: in order to advocate the concept of public ownership of property, he implemented a system for students to pay tuition voluntarily, which led to the paralysis of the whole school in three months, and students complained that the food was not good even though they did not pay. Had to resign.Later, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party tried to bridge the gap, they often got angry at both ends. While worrying about the country and the people, this kind of naivety also appeared to some extent.The most inconceivable thing is that in 1949, when the Kuomintang was in a desperate situation, he made such a proposal: All high-ranking members of the Kuomintang, who admit that they have failed and are sorry for the people of the country, will all go down with Chiang Kai-shek and "think behind closed doors." Said: "A good man should be a good man when he does things. If you, Sun Ke, have the courage, you should ask the people of the country to bear all the sins alone, and commit suicide to thank the world!" Suffering, also have to feel guilty! Perhaps Liang Shuming is not ignorant of the weakness of morality in troubled times, and his own efforts are of no avail, but in his opinion, this is the true Confucian spirit: sincerity.The root of this kind of spirit should be what Confucius said, everyone has a good nature in their hearts - he thought that almost no one in later generations could understand the original spirit of Confucius, and most of them were based on Xunzi's theory of evil nature, and at most exerted force from the outside to restrain Restrict suspicion and precautions, and lose the most precious "truth".This is what he said: "Criticize and bring back China's original attitude." He doesn't think this is pedantic, but just like Confucius, who knows what he can't do and does it tragically. In April of the same year, after a million troops crossed the river, Mao Zedong wrote a famous poem, one of which reads: "It is better to pursue the poor with the remaining bravery, and not to learn to be the overlord." This is the answer to his proposal. Finally, he came face to face with Mao Zedong. It can be said that, similar to the New Culture Movement, Liang Shuming and Mao Zedong also arrived at different answers through the same deduction process.Both put their hope of rebuilding China in the countryside, and both felt that China must be built from the bottom up.Liang Shuming’s point of view closest to Mao Zedong is that he also believes that the cause of rural construction must rely on the masses themselves: “The organization of rural construction must rely on the people themselves, not an organization that relies on external forces to maintain.” The theoretical basis of Liang Shuming's rural construction is that China's predicament lies in "the east cannot be established, the west cannot be established", "the old track has been lost, and the new track has not been established", and cultural imbalance.Cities, however, have too many Western habits, and it is much more difficult to transform them by "combining the disadvantages of China and the West." It has also been fully proved that it is only a fantasy—the warlords and the powerful can only separate and destroy.So his plan was to start rebuilding the country in the countryside where some Confucian morality remained.It is precisely this that makes Liang Shuming see it as a mistake for the Communist Party to shift the focus of work to the cities in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China: Have you done a good job in the countryside?Are politics and culture coordinated?The foundation is not stable, how can we advance rashly? The fundamental difference is that Liang Shuming hopes that after the peasants are awakened, what they will eventually obtain is the fundamental Confucian thought of harmony, benevolence and love, while Mao Zedong handed over the swords and guns to the people.In a deeper sense, what the two of them are looking at is not the thirty or fifty years ahead, but to find an eternal road that can go on forever for the common people. .It’s just that the method Liang Shuming adopted was to teach people to coordinate their minds inwards to achieve harmony in the whole world; while Mao Zedong used force outwards to liberate the people’s minds, let the people understand their own abilities and always grasp the power, so that they can supervise and resist at any time. It is up to the people themselves to prevent corruption at the top—the Cultural Revolution, in my opinion, may be a bold attempt of Mao Zedong's idea.Mao Zedong tried to transform the people into soldiers and revolutionaries; but Liang Shuming hoped that they could all become gentlemen. Since the 1930s, the two have debated many times, but neither can convince the other.Fortunately, the urgent task at that time was anti-Japanese and unification, and the overall construction plan was just a fantasy; but when this task was really placed in front of Mao Zedong, he could no longer tolerate Liang Shuming, who was ignorant of current affairs and pointed fingers at the political situation. It may also be that Liang Shuming's uncompromising temper, his refusal to be an official many times, and his solemn and serious "sage appearance" have already planted hostility in Mao Zedong's heart.What's more, he actually uttered nonsense on the rural issue-the Communist Party's housekeeping. No matter how magnanimous Mao Zedong was, he felt that he couldn't bear it. These few words at that time clearly reflected his annoyance: "Say that Mr. Liang's views on the peasant issue Who would believe that the views are more brilliant than the Communist Party? They are more clever than the Communist Party. For example, "Mao Zedong is better at acting than Mr. Mei Lanfang, digging tunnels better than the Volunteer Army, or better than the Air Force hero Zhao Baotong". Are you ashamed to the extreme?" It was only the fourth year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and Liang Shuming became an "untrustworthy" "hypocrite". The red tide has passed, and most of the right and wrong have been distinguished; Mao Zedong's merits and demerits have been judged to be divided into sevens and threes, but Liang Shuming's views are still open to debate. But despite the contradictions in his thinking, everyone has acknowledged the fact that he raised a key question - how do we view our own traditional culture. Of course, as mentioned above, the importance of culture to the nation has been said too much by the sages, so we don’t need to doubt it anymore.We have also made it clear that national pride and self-esteem are all secondary, and there is only one focus of all: survival and development. It seems that Liang Shuming's theory has been verified, and our country is indeed in crisis under the glory.Chinese people have never had religious beliefs in the true sense. After three or five mountains that had been suppressed for thousands of years collapsed suddenly, they were relaxed but at a loss.As a result, the real and loose inferiority of the Chinese people is fully displayed. Many of them only have money and power as their goals, and even lose most of their moral constraints. The Chinese have become the most realistic, direct and most A nation that knows how to drill camps. This is exactly the evil result of losing culture. This is only a Chinese problem.Another phenomenon seems to prove that Western culture is also in crisis and needs relief: worldwide, mental illness is getting more and more serious, and almost everyone has mental illness to varying degrees. These problems are so big that even Liang Shuming seems to be unable to express them clearly in his entire life.Perhaps he thought his theories were well-rounded, but his doctrines were found to have so much ambiguity and ambiguity. Perhaps it is true that no one can truly understand Liang Shuming's theory, but there are several issues that must be raised. Many people have seen that his theory has at least two major flaws: one is that Confucius' thought represents the entire Confucianism, and the other is Confucianism. To use Confucianism to represent the thinking of the entire Chinese people is too general; second, he concluded that the West will eventually follow the path of Chinese culture, which violates his own argument that the paths of the East and the West cannot be connected. Some people also questioned his view of "accepting Western culture in its entirety and changing it fundamentally", saying that this is fundamentally contradictory.Others said that he still couldn't get through Zhang Zhidong's barrier of "Chinese learning for the body and Western learning for application". This series of questions is left to experts to study.I just think that what he means by "accepting Western culture in its entirety and changing it fundamentally" may be similar to a basic principle of Chinese medicine: as long as the medicine is used under the guidance of Chinese medicine theory, it is Chinese medicine—whether it is penicillin Or vitamins.This should be the real overall tolerance and absorption. What we are facing is still the same problem that Liang Shuming, Chen Duxiu, and Mao Zedong all saw in the past: what should we do about traditional culture?Abandon, reconcile, or transform to make it stand up again? ——If it is reformed, how should the law be reformed? History will verify Liang Shuming's theory sooner or later, what is most needed now is thinking. Liang Shuming didn't stop thinking for a moment.Decades after he was kicked out of the political arena, he returned to his study and started "learning in the study".Outside the window, red flags were flying all over the sky, and slogans were resounding. He buried his head under the lamp and wrote his life-summarizing works "People's Heart and Life" and "Overview of Oriental Academics".Of course, in that catastrophe, there was no place for a study in China, and he would certainly not escape being raided and ransacked, but he was as calm as ever, observing this absurd movement calmly and sternly.He dismissed the big-character posters flying all over the sky to attack him, and at most said: If you want to criticize me, you must first understand my article before you speak.As long as conditions permit, I will still do his studies. "On the Similarities and Differences of Confucianism and Buddhism" was conceived while cleaning the toilet during the day and written in the grocery room at night. When studying the Cultural Revolution in groups, when everyone spoke enthusiastically and rushed to express their "firm support", he carefully read newspapers and documents, but never said a word... When he ransacked the house, he watched the ancestral collection of books, calligraphy and paintings being thrown into the fire by the angry Red Guards, and saw his wife being punished to kneel beside him. He didn't say a word, and watched the precious books turn into ashes coldly... During the break in the meeting criticizing him, he practiced Tai Chi in the auditorium of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference like no one else... In 1970, Liang Shuming was notified to participate in the discussion of the "Draft Amendment to the Constitution". He saw the absurdity of the draft at a glance: Lin Biao was actually stipulated as Mao Zedong's successor.At that time, most people's courage had already been frightened, and no one dared to speak. He stepped forward: "In this draft, not only the name of the individual is listed, but it is also stipulated that this person is the successor. This approach is It's inappropriate." The shock made the meeting hall silent, everyone looked at each other, and I don't know how many people were covered in cold sweat. In 1974, the "Movement of Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucianism" was gaining momentum. As a well-known researcher of oriental culture, the organization ordered Liang Shuming to come out and express his views. On February 24, Liang Shuming walked into the auditorium neatly dressed and carrying a leather bag.After standing firmly on the podium, he said: "I only criticize Lin, not Confucius. How should we comment on Confucius today?" He didn't care what happened below, and spent two and a half days for everyone. I took a big class on a comprehensive interpretation of Confucius culture, saying that Confucius’s achievements in human history outweighed his mistakes.The theme of the meeting immediately changed from "criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius" to "criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius incidentally criticizing Liang". From February to September, there were a total of more than 100 large and small criticism meetings. At the end of September, the Liang Criticism Movement was considered to be a retreat. At the final conclusive and concentrated criticism meeting, the organizers felt that Liang Shuming should confess his guilt honestly, and asked him if he thought about it. Don’t take away your will!” The host ordered him to explain, and he said: “‘Pifu’ is alone, with no power or power, and his last move is to firmly believe in his own ‘will’. Anything can take him away, But this 'zhi' cannot be taken away, even if he is eliminated!" 历史还记载了，他是在“两个凡是”氛围中发表公开讲话否定文革的第一人。 正是这种骨气，深深折服了大洋彼岸的美国学者艾恺，他由衷地赞叹：“在近代中国，只有他一个人保持了儒者的传统和骨气。”所以他把自己研究梁漱溟的著作命名为《最后的儒家》。1980年，他终于见到了这位研究对象。那时正值暑天，而梁漱溟依然穿着一袭长袍。 但一见面，梁漱溟就声明他是一个佛教徒，并且说有个多年的心愿：“隐居山寺过一个僧人的生活”。 艾恺指出，他曾经在1921年公开宣布抛弃佛家而转向儒家。梁漱溟和蔼地说：“这没关系，我抛弃了佛家，但又没有抛弃它。” 这禅宗机锋一般的话头，不知艾恺是否能理解。或者，那个著名的佛教典故能解释这句话。当年地藏王证得菩提，原本可以成佛，但见众生苦难，便生大慈悲心，发下大愿：“地狱不空，誓不成佛；众生度尽，方证菩提”。 梁漱溟心里，佛儒原是一样，都是救世的手段，不过目前需要的只是儒学罢了。在他看来，众生皆是悲哀，他说过：“我并不以人类生活有什么好，……我很晓得人类是无论如何不能得救的，除非他自己解破了根本二执——我执、法执。”他眼中，众生皆苦，农民苦、工人苦、军阀苦、政客苦、文人苦、陈独秀苦、胡适苦、国民党苦、共产党苦、红卫兵苦，甚至毛泽东也苦，当然他自己一样的苦。但他已经找到了能救济这苦世的法门——孔子的儒学，这法门正如观世音菩萨净瓶里的甘霖；而这净瓶，梁漱溟看来，如今正在自己手中。 他看着面前高鼻凹眼的艾恺，有没有想起当年说过的话呢： “我又看着西洋人可怜，他们当此物质的疲敝，要想得精神的恢复，而他们所谓精神又不过是希伯来那点东西，左冲右突不出此圈，真是所谓未闻大道，我不应当导他们于孔子这一条路来吗？” 圈椅上，八十七高龄的梁漱溟正襟危坐，鼻梁高耸，嘴唇紧抿、目光深邃中带着些冷冷的傲气。 八年后，梁漱溟的人生大幕垂下，最后一句话是：“我太疲倦了，我要休息。” 除了等身的著作，他为我们留下一个问题：他真是最后的儒家吗？ 或者应该问：儒家，真的到了最后吗？