Liang Shuming

Liang Shuming (1893–1988) was renowned in multiple roles in modern Chinese history: forefather of New Confucianism ( xin rujia ), scholarly man of action, philosopher, Confucian cultural revivalist, rural reform leader, political actor, and “private” devout Buddhist. His public life as an activist ended in 1953, when he confronted and was publicly criticized by his former friend, Mao Zedong. However, he remained involved intellectually behind the scenes into the mid‐1980s, producing his final book The Human Mind–Heart and Human Life . Liang is often remembered as the sole defender of traditional Chinese culture and Confucianism to emerge during the New Culture–May Fourth era (1915–1927) with his book Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (1921). In the 1930s, he was the philosophical leader of the nationwide Rural Reconstruction movement, which was meant to create a modernized China that retained the core of its traditional culture. Because he was publicly known as a champion of Confucianism and an advocate of a popular revival of Confucian morality, the first biography of him was titled “The Last Confucian.” Yet he privately retained his commitment to Buddhism, especially in his later years.