Taoist Dimension In Liang Shuming's Thought And Practice

Liang Shuming has worked on Confucianism,Taoism and Buddhism,but his Taoist thought has not received enough attention.Liang's understanding of Taoism is based on his view of life.He believes that human life is connected with the life of the universe,and both have the essence of upward endeavor.Human life has two sides,individual life and social life.Individual life is based on the body and pursues the flexibility and freedom of physical function.Social life is built on the human mind,and is developing forward together with the human mind.The human mind carries the nature of life,and its salient feature is self-consciousness.Self-consciousness is divided into internal and external sides.People can recognize their physiology and psychology to the inner body,but also can feel and think outward.People rely on self-consciousness to guide both internal and external transformation activities.All the achievements come from the self-consciousness of the human mind.From the view of the natural structure of psychology,the division of mind and body in the process of biological evolution makes rationality and intelligence free from instinct and reveals itself,which has become the characteristic of human mind.In Liang's view,Taoism is featured by self-cultivation,which focuses on recognizing their physiology to the inner body,Liang Shuming therefore calls it as "Learning of Body" and "Learning of Health Care".Taoist cultivation firstly aims to remove the brain interference and calm down the mind to restore the normal operation of internal physiology.Secondly,restore the self-consciousness of the body in order to be free.The characteristics of recognition of life to the inner body in Taoism has derived some special learning and sports,such as Chinese medicine,Qigong and Taijiquan.As far as the comparison between Taoism and other traditions is concerned,the method used by Taoism is internal view,and the western learning adopts outward view.Taoism recognizes physiology to the inner body and pays attention to individual life,while Confucianism recognize psychology to the inner body and focuses on group life.Taoism has a tendency to go out of the society,but does not go beyond life and death,Buddhism is free from life directly.Liang Shuming believes that Taoism will prevail in the transition of the second and third phases of world cultural development.Chinese medicine will be discovered and accepted when Western medicine moves forward to no-way.As far as Liang Shuming's Taoist cultivation is concerned,he went to Beidaihe Qigong Sanatorium in 1956 to study Qigong for two months,and made a detailed record of his practice.According to his overall health care cultivation in his later years,Liang Shuming mainly took "eat less and move more" as the principle of body cultivation,with "plain mind" as the goal of spiritual cultivation.