Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t8.6

v2.c15.s2.t8.6

Convinced that the epoch of western materialism is over, Liang Shuming between 1931 and 1937 actively strove to revive the Confucian culture through the reconstruction of the Chinese countryside – the repository of Confucian values. His Rural Reconstruction Research Institute in Zouping County of Shandong province functioned well and proved to be a role model for the Guomindang Government until the outbreak of Sino Japanese War in 1937. During this period, he devoted his energy to make the Communists and Nationalists forge an alliance for a common cause. He also united small liberal parties to form the Democratic League as the third political force in China. The failure to bring about unity or alliance between the Communists and Nationalists however dejected him to abandon politics in 1946. After the Communist’s victory in 1949, he remained in China. Both a friend and critique of Mao Zedong, he was persecuted for his political views by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, he was restored to the mainstream by Deng Xiaoping. In 1980, he was appointed to the national committees for revision of the Chinese Constitution as well to Presidium of the Chinese’s Political Consultative Conference. He however, devoted most of his time in writing and published two books before his death in 1993 at the age of 96. The essence of his ideology, as captured by Guy Alitto, remained till last ‘an eclectic blend of Neo-Confucian idealism and Yogacara Buddhism with elements of European vitalism’.