Liang Shuming

He was the son of a famous intellectual who committed suicide apparently in despair at the state of the Chinese nation.

At the age of sixteen, he refused to allow his mother to discuss marriage on his behalf and at nineteen he became a vegetarian, remaining so for the rest of his life.

Although Liang had abandoned his determination to become a monk in 1920 and his celibacy in 1921, Buddhism influenced him for the rest of his life.

[6] Liang believed that while China had stressed the importance of family, the West focused on the relationship of the individual to the community.

The West, due to their emphasis on mutual rights, proceeded down a path revolving around class distinction, economic independence and laws.

The Chinese, however, had a society of professional divisions due to greater social mobility, mutual responsibility and personal bonds to maintain order.

[8] Between the years of 1931 and 1937 Liang was instructing the rural reconstruction in Zouping County of the Shandong Province.

[8] His main emphases in rural reconstruction were the cultivation of group unity, development of science and technology, and the elimination of outdated traditions.

Between 1931 and 1933 Liang trained 800 people to run schools all over Shandong and in 1932 the Guomindang said that every province should have one of these rural research reconstruction institutions.

The final department, called the Rural Reconstruction District, was implemented to integrate local governance into the university.

[9] He had been interested in Buddhism since his youth, which he often attributed to his feelings that many of the mistakes of the past had been made due to a focus on the external world for answers that come from within.

[9] Liang wrote an "Introduction to Indian Philosophy" where he explored many of the key concepts in Buddhism to reveal what he saw as its foundations.

[9] In "CONC", he explored the history of consciousness in Buddhism and attributed the Consciousness-Only school to Asanga.

He also maintained that people only get an illusory image through observations and opposed the idea of logical inference on the basis that it only explains conceptual questions.

[9] He felt that Confucianism was China's answer to religion as it provided a way to harmonize with the cosmos instead of being isolated from that which you worship.