Liang Qichao

Liáng Qǐchāo (梁啟超 Courtesy Zhuoru 卓如; Pseudonym: Rengong 任公) (February 23 1873 - January 19 1929) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements. He died of illness in Beijing at the age of 55.

Literary Career

Liang Qichao was both a traditional Confucian scholar and a reformist. Liang Qichao contributed to the reform in late Qing by writing various articles interpreting non-Chinese ideas of history and government, with the intent of stimulating Chinese citizens' minds to build a new China. In his writings, he argued that China should protect the ancient teachings of Confucianism, but also learn from the successes of Western political life and not just Western technology. Therefore, he was regarded as the pioneer of political friction.

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Liang shaped the ideas of democracy in China, using his writings as a medium to combine Western scientific methods with traditional Chinese historical studies. Liang's works were strongly influenced by the Japanese political scholar Katō Hiroyuki (加藤弘之, 1836-1916), who used methods of social Darwinism to promote the statist ideology in Japanese society. Liang drew from much of his work and subsequently influenced Korean nationalists in the 1900s.

Related Topics:
Democracy - China - Japan - Katō Hiroyuki - Social Darwinism - Statist - Korea - 1900s

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Historiographical Thought

Liang Qichao?s historiographical thought represents the beginning of modern Chinese historiography and reveals some important directions of Chinese historiography in the twentieth century.

Related Topics:
Historiographical - Chinese historiography

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For Liang, the major flaw of "old historians" (舊史家) was their failure to foster the national awareness necessary for a strong and modern nation. Liang's call for new history not only pointed to a new orientation for historical writing in China, but also indicated the rise of modern historical consciousness among Chinese intellectuals.

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During this period of Japan's challenge in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), Liang was involved in protests in Beijing pushing for an increased participation in the governnance by the Chinese people. It was the first protest of its kind in modern Chinese history. This changing outlook on tradition was shown in the historiographical revolution (史學革命) launched by Liang Qichao in the early twentieth century. Frustrated by his failure at political reform, Liang embarked upon cultural reform. In 1902, while in exile in Japan, Liang wrote New History (新史學), launching attacks on traditional historiography.

Related Topics:
Sino-Japanese War - Historiographical revolution

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Translator

Liang was head of the Translation Bureau and oversaw the training of students who were learning to translate Western works into Chinese. He believed that this task was "the most essential of all essential undertakings to accomplish" because he believed Westerners were successful - politically, technologically and economically.

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Philosophical Works: After having escaped Beijing and the government crackdown on anti-Qing protesters, Liang studied the works of Western philosophers of the Enlightenment period, namely Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Hume and Bentham, translating them and introducing his own interpretation of their works. His essays were published in a number of journals, drawing interest among Chinese intellects who had been taken aback by the dismemberment of China's formidable empire at the hands of foreign powers.

Related Topics:
Enlightenment - Hobbes - Rousseau - Locke - Hume - Bentham

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Western Social and Political Theories: In the early 20th century, Liang Qichao played a significant role in introducing Western social and political theories in Korea such as Social Darwinism and international law. Liang wrote in his well-known manifesto, New People (新民說):

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:?Freedom means Freedom for the Group, not Freedom for the Individual. (?) Men must not be slaves to other men, but they must be slaves to their group. For, if they are not slaves to their own group, they will assuredly become slaves to some other.?

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Poet and Novelist

Liang advocated reform in both the genres of poem and novel. Collected Works of Yinbingshi 《飲冰室合集》 are his representative works in literature which were collected and compiled into 148 volumes.

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Liang gained his idea of calling his work as Collected Works of Yinbingshi from a sentence of a passage written by Zhuangzi (《莊子?人間世》). In the sentence, it stated that ?Although I am suffering from the worry and coldness caused by my involvement in the politic, my heart is still warm and eager to continue my work.?

Related Topics:
Zhuangzi - (《莊子?人間世》)

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(?吾朝受命而夕飲冰，我其內熱與?). As a result, Liang called his workplace as Yinbingshi and addressed himself as Yinbingshi Zhuren (飲冰室主人), which literally means Host of Yinbing Room in order to present his idea that he was worrying about all the policial matters, so he would still try his best to reform the society by the effort of writtings.

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Liang also wrote fiction, which included Fleeing to Japan after failure of Hundred Days' Reform (1898) and On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Government of the People (論小說與群治之關係,1902). These novels emphasized modernization in the West and the call for reform.

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Educator

In the late 1920s, Liang retired from politics and taught at the Tung-nan University in Shanghai and the Tsinghua Research Institute in Peking as a tutor. He founded Chiang-hsüeh she (Chinese Lecture Association) and brought many intellectual figures to China, including Driesch and Tagore. Academically he was a renowned scholar of his time, introducing Western learning and ideology, and making extensive studies of ancient Chinese culture.

Related Topics:
1920s - Shanghai - Tsinghua - Peking - Tagore

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During this last decade of his life, he also wrote many books documenting Chinese cultural history, Chinese literary history and historiography. He also had a strong interest in Buddhism and wrote numerous historical and political articles on its influence in China. While adding to his own collection of articles, Liang influenced many of his students in producing their own literary works. His students have included Xu Zhimo, renowned modern poet, and Wang Li, an accomplished poet and founder of Chinese linguistics as a modern discipline.

Related Topics:
Buddhism - Xu Zhimo - Wang Li

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Publications

• Introduction to the Learning of the Qing Dynasty (清代學術概論,1920)
• The Learning of Mohism (墨子學案,1921)
• Chinese Academic History of the Recent 300 Years (中國近三百年學術史,1924)
• History of Chinese Culture (中國文化史,1927)
• The Construction of New China
• The Philosophy of Laozi (老子哲學)
• The History of Buddhism in China (中國佛教史)
• Collected Works of Yinbingshi, Zhong Hwa Book Co, Shanghai 1936.
• Collected Works of Yinbingshi 饮冰室合集（全十二册）, Zhong Hwa Book Co,Beijing, 2003, 4th printing ISBN 7-101-00475-X/K.210

Essays collection Book 1 to 5

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• Book 1:-- original vol 1-9
• Book 2: vol 10-19
• Book 3: vol 20-26
• Book 4: vol 27-37
• Book 5: vol 38-45

Monographs collection Book 6-12

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• Book 6: vol 1-21
• Book 7: vol 22-29
• Book 8: vol 30-45
• Book 9: vol 46-72
• Book 10: vol 73-87
• Book 11: vol 88-95
• Book 12: vol 96-104