A Tentative Study On Liang Shuming's Law Thoughts

Liang Shuming is not a legist , and he has never written any juristic work . But his law wisdom is always seen in his discussion of culture. His idea of"law is, and is only, a meaningful life style which enwraps us"accords implicitly with humanistic solicitude in modern law. A great love bred from extreme historical tribulation flops in law thoughts. Liang Shuming illuminates the environment, status quo and features of traditional Chinese law culture in terms of philosophy, history, economy and politics and tries to alter, maintain and develop it. He hopes to construct a new law culture which fit in with the direction of modern civilization developing, on the basis of Chinese tradition and under the support of Chinese ethos, and thus find a national successful way of governing. To interpret Liang's law thoughts, one should first get rid off the conventionality of ideas and logic in law thoughts, for example, to interpret from historical and cultural point of view, or to destruct at the level of life and feelings. After all, it is only an apperception of a sage on law practice with Chinese characteristics, an apperception of no law logic but inspiration.Encouraging family education cultivated his attention in current affairs and a knowledge about western law thoughts at a young age; his father's education and support on freedom-pursuing gave him the freedom to participate the constitutional movement and revolution of the time according to his own wish. The society trained him to be distinctive, oracle-like, Confucius-admiring and practical. Looking at his whole life, from indulging in constitutionality to devoting into revolution, from seeing through the chronicity and difficulty to realize democracy and nomocracy in China to rationally exploring Chinese constitutional government and unfolding the movement of constructing countryside, till expressly calling for the establishment of democracy, legal system and constitutional government, we can peck the pathos of"carrying over lost knowledge for sages, opening peace and tranquility for future generations"and the lofty sentiments of"My life is limit but with unlimited wishes, and my expectations can fill seas, my power can move mountains."The pathos and lofty sentiments power him with enthusiasm on the ideal of constitutional government in all his life, no matter how the world changes.It is the fittest sum-up of his law thoughts that he used to summarize Chinese culture—"The culture is precocious, and the reason is pre-unsealed."Hesternal anachronism is today's very opportunity. In the time of globalism, what people ponder...