Building an organization that regards the nation as being central, in order to solve the deep crisis facing modern era China, was the main concern at the center of Liang Shuming's rural construction movement. In dealing with thisproblem, Liang rejected China's traditional Confucian Ceremonial culture. The establishment of the organization was to be based on the spirit of rationality and the cultivation of customary habits. The most fundamental method of linking customary habits with organization was thought to be education. Education inspires an awareness of one's rationality, which leads to cooperation, and this was the chosen method in the setting up of Liang Shuming's rural construction movement. How to fill the gap between the goals of a developing modern country and the inner tradition of Ceremonial Culture that tended toward being liberal, was a key problem facing Liang Shuming’s rural construction movement. However, Liang could not solve this problem through his words and actions. In other words, the question of how an awareness of one's rationality developed through education would lead to unity and cooperation was not successfully answered by Liang's arguments.
展开▼
