Liang Shuming has been proclaimed the forerunner of Contemporary Neo-Confucianism. However, assessing Liang’s identity appears a much more complicated task. Taking a closer look at his copious writings on religion, this paper shows how Liang conceived the role of religion at the different steps of humanity’s quest. Applying this frame of understanding to twentieth century China, Liang saw a discrepancy between the task required in our present time and what the future was holding. Therefore, while he engaged the world in a certain way, he was still holding privately another belief. This “secret” of Liang reshuffles traditional boundaries between the secular and transcendence.
目次
1 Introduction 131 2 The Ambivalence of the Christian Path 132 2.1 Christianity as a Social Religion 132 2.2 Drawbacks of a Social Religion 134 3 Ultimate Liberation of Buddhism 135 3.1 Buddhism as a Transcendental Religion 135 3.2 Moral Feelings of Shame Toward Oneself and Compassion Toward Other’s Suffering 136 3.3 A Buddhist Liberation Spurred by Confucian Moral Feelings 137 3.4 Buddhism as the Religion of Radical Transcendence 138 3.5 Transcendence with Ontology 139 3.6 Buddhist Awakening Waiting for the End of History 140 4 The Confucian Path Toward Buddhist Liberation 142 4.1 Confucianism as a Moral Religion 142 4.2 Confucian Ethics Justified by a Buddhist Epistemology 143 4.3 The Attachment to the Self as Creativity 144 4.4 Confucianism as the Quasi-religion we Need in the Present Time 144 5 Conclusion 145 References 146
