Another Kind of May 4^th New Culture——Liang Shuming's responses to New Youth

When the New Culture Movement was surging, Liang Shuming was teaching in Peking University, but he was very depressed, so he tried to make a weak voice by studying Confucius and establishing the Confucian philosophy research institute. His The Oriental and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies responded to New Youth, pointing out that the westernization assertion of Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi and some other scholars set the eastern and western cultures against each other thoroughly, erroneously equate Confucius with their criticism of Chinese culture, failed to thoroughly understand the spirit of Confucius for Chinese ethics of social significance, and found no cure for the ethical breakdown caused by cultural destruction. From the reflection of Russell, Bergson and Eucken on western culture, Liang Shuming found that the eastern and western cultures were not dualistic opposite, instead, they may somehow be reconciled and integrate with each other, so that the new culture can be revised, with the Confucian sentient "just" move attitude towards life accommodating the scientific and democratic spirit, making the new culture being localized and rooted, and getting rid of the dualism. Thus, the eastern and western cultures can connect with each other, penetrate into each other, take in old and new elements, and then form another kind of May 4^th New Culture, so as to promote the Renaissance of China. It can be seen that Liang Shuming is not the so-called anti-new culture conservative in the academic circle, but reflects the richness and multi-dimensional nature of the May 4^th new culture.