Work · East Asian Philosophy
Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies
Lectures that compare three basic orientations of the will to live – forward striving in the West, harmony and balance in China, turning back in India – and predict that the world will turn to the Chinese, Confucian attitude.
Introduction
The book grew out of lectures that Liang Shuming gave in Beijing and Jinan in 1920 and 1921, at the height of the New Culture Movement, when many intellectuals called for wholesale Westernisation. Liang compared Western, Chinese and Indian culture as expressions of three basic orientations of the will: forward striving, balance and turning back. He concluded that China should accept science and democracy but keep the Confucian attitude to life, which the world would come to need. The book drew on Bergson, Yogācāra Buddhism and the school of Wang Yangming. It went through many editions, provoked a public critique by Hu Shih in 1923 and became a founding text of modern Confucian thought.
Connections
Builds on
- Instructions for Practical Living (Chuanxi lu)1518 · Wang Yangming
- Creative Evolution1907 · Henri Bergson
Taken up in
- The Essential Meaning of Chinese Culture1949 · Liang Shuming
More works by Liang Shuming
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