Work · East Asian Philosophy
The Essential Meaning of Chinese Culture
Chinese society is built neither on the individual nor on classes but on ethical relationships, with the family as model; reason in the sense of mutual moral understanding replaces religion.
Introduction
Liang Shuming wrote this book during the 1940s and published it in 1949, on the eve of the Communist victory. It is his most systematic account of Chinese society, drawing on his experience of rural reconstruction. China, he argued, is neither an individualist nor a class society but an “ethics-based” one, in which relationships modelled on the family structure social life, and in which occupations rather than classes divide society. Moral reason (lixing), the capacity for mutual understanding, takes the place that religion has in other cultures. The book explains his rejection of class struggle and has been read as a classic of the sociology of Chinese culture.
Connections
Builds on
- Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies1921 · Liang Shuming
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