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“Break the family” and “build the family”: A comparison of Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming’s family view
Author: Wu Genyou Fu Jiayi
Source: “Confucius Research” Issue 5, 2024
Abstract: Since the 20th century, due to the urgent need of Chinese society to change new data on the field of thinking civilization, family problems once became one of the concentrated concerns in the academic community. The Chinese intellectual community once set off a “family reaction”, which included the battle between Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming from the late modern neo-Confucianism. The two of them have their own unique understanding of the new civilized movement, and their thinking on the new Confucianism after the initiation, their unique understanding of the family’s position, the family’s meaning for individuals, and the family’s meaning for society: Xiong Shili emphasizes “breaking the family” and “reforming the family”, and Liang Shuming advocates “establishing the family” and “raising the family”. The causes of the incompatibility of the two people’s family are important, including academic level, political management idea and personal growth environment. The re-discussion on the family view of Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming can, on the one hand, attract our attention to the needs of modern neo-Confucian family thinking, and on the other hand, it can bring new thoughts to the family civilization and family philosophy issues that are more excited today, especially family ethics issues.
Keywords: Xiong Shili Liang Shuming Modern Neo-Confucianism Family View Family Ethics
Author Introduction: Wu Genyou, Ph.D. in Philosophy, professor and doctoral supervisor of Wuhan University of Philosophy. The purpose of the important research and development is the philosophy of the Ming and Qing dynasties, comparative philosophy, Chinese political philosophy, etc. Fu Jiayi is a doctoral student at the Wuhan University of Philosophy. The purpose of the important discussion is Chinese philosophy and civilization.
Introduction
Since the 20th century, due to the urgent changes in the order of society in China and the deepening of Western learning, the benevolent and ambitious people of Chinese society, especially those in the civilized world, have conducted a very dramatic discussion on the preservation or reform of the family. During the New Civilization Movement, the dispute over families was particularly protruding. In this regard, for the most fundamental question of “can the family be preserved”, the radical faction and unrestrained theories have formed a clear confrontation between the old school and the modern neo-Confucianism. The radical faction is generally guided by the idea of ”breaking the family” and “going home”; the old faction maintains the position of traditional civilization and maintains the concept of “building a family” and “raising a family”. However, after preliminary research, we have found that even within the old-fashioned modern neo-Confucianism, there is a conflict between “destroying the family” and “establishing the family”. For example, between Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming, the late modern neo-Confucianism, developed a revisionist discussion of “competition for family merits” and formed a kind of academic power in the long-term problems of family issues within the modern neo-Confucianism.
As everyone knows, Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming are both scholars of modern neo-Confucianism, and have a serious impact on the history of modern Chinese philosophy.. Moreover, the two are still old friends who have been here for nearly forty years and have worked as colleagues in Peking University. Xiong Shili was called “honored friends” by Liang Shuming[1]. However, one of the main cores of Confucianism’s thinking, namely, the understanding and understanding of the family, has a huge difference. Xiong Shili once pointed out with great pride that family is the “source of evil and the foundation of ruling and barbarians”. Family is a drag that people cannot be relieved, which leads to people being more private and unfair, and produces a “evil heart” of humbleness and tolerance and depravity. He criticized Liang Shuming’s family ethics for being just “avoiding the ugly family-oriented” and even over-the-top fans of the Chinese family. [2] Liang Shuming was divided and thought that Xiong Shili had a hot spot for family negative performance. He believed that in traditional Chinese society, the family is not only a source of moral character that embraces virtue, but also has the religious effect of living a peaceful life. When responding to Xiong Shili’s criticism of family and related thoughts, he publicly pointed out that Xiong Shili’s thoughts were mostly “high discussions”, “willfulness and empty conversations”, and when he was not doing anything, he was mostly concerned about people’s subjective thoughts or actions, and did not go beyond the scope of “subjective theory” and “idealism” [4].
From the academic account in the early 20th century, Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming are both part of the modern new Confucianism, and they are also very harmonious in terms of their personal affairs, but the two have a clear and clear standpoint in terms of their efforts and past, solving and establishing problems. What is the reason for this? This is a fun question. At present, the Chinese academic community is exploring the issue of “Material Philosophy” to discuss. [5] This article will review the history of modern academics and compare and analyze the family disagreements and causes of Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming, and participate in the current “Family Skills” questions and fifty participants. Everything is discussed according to her dream description. At the same time, a comparative discussion on the family view of the two can also provide a modern academic thinking resource for family problems in contemporary China and the social order extended by family problems.
1. The disagreement between Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming’s family and the structure of two stages
According to the information available today, Xiong Shili and Liang Shuming had a dispute over the issue of the courts more clearly and concentratedly in the 50s of the 20th century. Their related discussions focus on the following three aspects: overall evaluation of the family’s position, judgment of the family’s personal meaning, and judgment of the family’s social meaning. Xiong Shili in many letters sent to Liang Shuming and other friends, publicly expresses his strong denial of the family, and points out the many mistakes in Liang Shuming’s thinking. His powerful words at the top of the letter made people hardly trust that this was a scientific dispute between the two old friends.
Xiong Shili rejects the important content of family thinking. Now he wrote many letters to Liang Shuming and other friends (concentrated in the five years from 1950 to 1955). Regarding the first letter he wrote to Liang Shuming (“Puyue 22, 1950”), Xiong Shili expressed his opinion on the content of Liang Shuming’s book “The Essentials of Chinese Civilization” about China, and [6] In particular, he expressed opposition to Liang Shuming’s content on the discussion on the “original meaning of Chinese civilization” and the content of the family. In terms of the generalization, Xiong Shili’s opposition can be concluded as follows:
First, Xiong Shili believes that the family is the source of evil. As he said:
In fact, the family is the source of evil and the foundation of the ruling and the barbarians. Anyone with a little head can know and speak, and even if he says it indefinitely, it is impossible to say anything. There is no national view, no ethnic view, no public view, all of which are from this. This is even the case with all academic thinking. [7]
Xiong Shili not only regards the family as the source of various ills in China from academic to political aspects, but even believes that the family is the basic “foundation” and “source” of evil. In this discussion, Xiong Shili’s very aggressive anti-family and “destroying family” thinking stands.
Secondly, Xiong Shili came out from the philosophical standpoint of modern society to value individuals, and believed that the family restrained the people in the family and formed human suffering and trauma, especially the persecution of the teachers’ court in these aspects became more and more serious. He described the negative content of an old-style family in this way:
After a person was born, his parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives, and the masters were in a tight relationship. Those who are weak in talent are responsible for those with a little talent; or those who are more talented must be burdened with the public, so the person who sacrifices his life for his family and has no way to solve it. How much do you think about it or ask? If you have personal but not private, you will see near but not know far away, and you will not say anything bad. Hundreds of indulgences regard themselves as their homes, and they become traumas of masters, and they become cover-ups, and immeasurable sins arise from this. [8]
The “Master’s Court” not only contains parents, TC:
