Liang Qichao's Research On Ideal Personality

All through his life,Liang Qi-chao had been deeply involved and made significant impact in the modern history of China.In order to assist the country to get rid of poverty and the situation of underdevelopment,Liang Qi-chao invested his entire life to inspire subject awareness of the people,and to improve their moral quality,which has also been known as "renew the people".While his main approach was to reshape the character of the nation from top down during his political career;Liang Qi-chao started to focus on the establishment of ideal personality in each individual,in turn to change the spirit of the whole society aggregately.The Europe trip after the First World War not only inspired him to think deeply and critically through the material civilization of modern western world,but also recovered his cultural confidence from native heritage of traditional ideas,which directly influenced his views on "ideal personality".At that moment,Instead of following the mainstream intellectuals in China who were in favor of absolute denial,giving up or even thoroughly abandon of the entire existing tradition,Liang Qi-chao turned to native Confucianism,Taoism,Mohism as well as Buddhism to form the foundation of his theory associated with the concept he fully absorbed from the west,including freedom,rationality etc.He defined his philosophy of life as personalism,and believed the philosophies established by ancient philosophers in pre-Qin period,Confucianism which represented by Confucius in particular,is the core spirit of Chinese tradition;Confucian theory,further,is the right philosophy to educate people to form their personalities.Liang Qi-chao took the concept of Benevolence as the core of ideal personality,and considered the personality of JUNZI as the specification of metaphysical Benevolence.The personality of JUNZI is further explained by the idea of "unremitting self-improvement and social commitment" from "I Ching",which can be extended as optimism,freedom,and fulfilling one's nature in modern context.The concept of study,as the means to build up the personality,according to Liang Qi-chao,goes beyond the acquisition and research of knowledge,to the extent of practice of morality including loyalty and forgiveness through lifetime.Liang Qi-chao also absorbed multiple ideas,such as the spirit of “action through inaction” and “action without occupation” from Taoism,view of “universal love” and “mutual benefit” advocated by Mohism,the state of “selflessness” and “breakthrough of persistent in ego” encouraged by Buddhism to enrich his theory of ideal personality,and interpreted the three great traditional virtues Benevolence,Wisdom,and Bravery in the western psychological framework,which defines personality in the dimension of recognition,emotion,and volition.He argued that a modern citizen shall not only present scientific comprehension of the world,but also noble interest,rich emotion,and persistent will.Meanwhile,Liang Qi-chao pointed out appropriate approaches to cultivate such personality.Firstly,family plays a primary role in the process,and parents should try to create a positive environment and act as what they preach;secondly,school as the most important educational institution,must focus as much on the establishment of practical ability,virtue and volition as on knowledge enrichment;thirdly,government and society are obliged to mature the awareness and abilities of politics of the public;and last but not least,for each individual,constantly self-examination,awakening of self-awareness and self-discipline are necessary and critical to resist against irrational appetency.In conclusion,Liang Qi-chao's theory of ideal personality can be summarized as following: 1.The opinions on ideal personality,included in Liang Qi-chao's philosophy of life,are based on absorbing the essence of ancient Chinese ideological resources---such as the philosophy of Confucianism,Taoism,Mohism,and Buddhism---and supplemented with the achievement of science,freedom,and democracy from modern western civilization.By its comprehensiveness,the theory which synchronizes characters of both eastern and western culture,is of modernity as well as moderation.2.Considering the significant negative effects of unlimited expansion of instrumental rationality and scientism in western society,Liang Qi-chao in his theory payed more attention to moral education,emphasized the spiritual aspects of life in terms of emotion and volition,and places the maturity of personality before acquisition of knowledge and skills.Such theory not only protectively succeeded the essence of traditional culture,but also positively absorbed the beneficial elements from the west in the collision between the eastern and the western culture.Unquestionably,it is an evolutional formulation in comparison with traditional personality and value system.