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32-619: Yen's Ting Hsien (Ding Xian) Experiment in Dingzhou, Hebei and Liang 's school at Zouping , Shandong, were only the earliest and most prominent of hundreds of village projects, educational foundations, and government zones which aimed to change the Chinese countryside. After 1931, the Nanking government offered qualified support but placed restrictions on the expansion of its work. American Christian missionaries gave their enthusiastic support. The movement

64-701: A New Rural Reconstruction Movement , with stations at Ding County and Zouping. Ding Xian Experiment The Ding Xian Experiment ( simplified Chinese : 定县实验 ; traditional Chinese : 定縣實驗 ; pinyin : Dìng Xiàn shíyàn ; Wade–Giles : Ting Hsien shih-yan ) during the Republican period of Chinese history was a project in Rural Reconstruction sponsored by James Yen's Mass Education Movement (MEM) 中华平民教育促进会 in Ding Xian (Ding County), Hebei , some 200 miles south of Beijing. The project

96-414: 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. Finally, Liang brings up his three cultures theory and China's position in it. He states that although China was in the second stage, it had skipped the first, and consequently lacked

128-408: A progression. He says that since knowledge starts with applying reason to your surroundings the first orientation is the most formative. This leads to an imbalance, where one must start to use intuition to relate morally to the world. Finally, as intuition develops, it leads to hardship instead of relieving it. This leads to direct perception , which is the third orientation. Liang maintained that

160-401: Is heavily influenced by cultural viewpoint, which in turn is defined by the social foundation of the society (its means of existence). Liang believed society had three forms: communities, families and individuals. A cultural viewpoint that heavily emphasizes one combination of these will differ greatly from a viewpoint that emphasizes different ones. Liang believed that while China had stressed

192-801: Is just as empty as my illiterate neighbor's." Yen realized that literacy, in fact, no one approach, could address the village's problems. He then identified the "Four Weaknesses" of China as "poverty, ignorance, disease, and misgovernment," and invited Chinese experts to come to live in Ding Xian and design experimental program to address each one of them: The work at Ding Xian attracted nationwide attention and developed many new techniques for rural development which did not depend on central government control, violent revolution, or large infusions of foreign money. The National Rural Reconstruction Movement held three national conferences involving several hundred government and private projects. James Yen and Liang Shuming were

224-692: The 1950s, the JCRR was key in laying the rural foundation for the quick economic growth of the 1960s and the 1970s. The rural reconstruction movement started by Dr. Yen continues to be active in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) had headquarters in the Philippines and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. In the 1990s, several academics and social reformers in China started

256-901: The Rural Reconstruction Party, at first an important part of the China Democratic League but then rendered politically irrelevant in the emerging war between the Chinese Communists and the Chinese Nationalists . In 1948, however, James Yen persuaded the US Congress to fund the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction . Before moving to Taiwan, the JCRR carried out the largest land reform project carried out in mainland China before 1949, as well as health and education projects. On Taiwan in

288-478: The West held the first orientation, while China held the second and India held the third. In his book "The Substance of Chinese Culture", Liang contrasted Chinese culture with that of Western culture. He did this by exploring the relationship between the social structures in the two regions. Social structure, he asserted, created the cultural factors determining everything about the two cultures. He said Social structure

320-595: The cancellation of government coordination and subsidies in the mid-to-late 1930s due to rampant wars and the lack of resources. The rural reconstructive activists advocated a “third way” between the communist violent land reform and the reformism of the Nationalist Government based on the respect of human rights and individual liberties for educational doctrine. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , Rural Reconstruction activists formed

352-429: The development of profit and power. Rather than suggesting China go back to the first cultural stage, Liang suggests the introduction of Western science and democracy into Chinese society to promote development in those areas. Liang Shuming believed that the rural village was the most important aspect of Chinese society and that for the last hundred years Chinese history had been characterized by its destruction. Between

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384-488: The doctrines of a modern Confucianism . He also displayed the influence of Henri Bergson , then popular in China, as well as Buddhist Yogachara philosophy. 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. Regarding Western civilization as doomed to eventual failure, Liang did not advocate complete reform and adoption of Western institutions. He nonetheless believed that reform

416-461: The formation of distinct cultures. In Liang's book he states: "What is culture? It is the life-style of a people. What is life? It is the expression of inexhaustible will—something quite close to the will in Schopenhauer—always being satisfied and yet not fully satisfied". According to Liang, will decides life and life decides culture, so cultures are different when the wills and desires of

448-430: The idea of logical inference on the basis that it only explains conceptual questions. Liang, like many intellectuals of the time was very critical of Chinese folk religion . He believed that it was too primitive to allow society to reach a high level of socialization, while at the same time promoting conservatism that impeded social development and promoted low moral standards and selfishness. He felt that Confucianism

480-411: The importance of family, the West focused on the relationship of the individual to the community. He said this led China down a path dedicated to an ethics-based society, while the West produced an individual-based society instead. China was led down its path because of feelings of kinship and emotional bonds, which dominated their society. The West, due to their emphasis on mutual rights, proceeded down

512-754: The most prominent leaders. Most of the rural reconstruction work was halted by the Japanese invasion of Hebei and North China in 1937. But even though reformers left the Ding Xian Experiment, villagers in Ding Xian kept up local government, schools, public health work, and agricultural work as had been intended when MEM programs were designed to be self-sustainable. Liang Shuming Liang Shuming ( Chinese : 梁漱溟 ; pinyin : Liáng Shùmíng , Wade-Giles Liang Shu-ming ; sometimes Liang Sou-ming , October 18, 1893 – June 23, 1988), born Liang Huanding ( 梁焕鼎 ), courtesy name Shouming ( 壽銘 ),

544-571: The nation, mainly in cities, James Yen and the Mass Education Movement (MEM) decided to start programs in the countryside. The village of Zhaicheng , in Ding Xian (Ding County) in central Hebei, had started a program of local self-government nearly a decade before, and was chosen because of the welcome offered by village elders. The MEM started programs of literacy education, but in spite of original success, one villager explained to Yen, "Dr. Yen, I am grateful to know how to read, but my stomach

576-427: The people who populate them differ. Liang saw three orientations of the will: the desire 1) to change and affect your surroundings to bend to your will 2) to change your will so you do not desire to change your surroundings 3) to eliminate will entirely so one no longer desires anything because of his understanding that much of the world is an illusion. To Liang, the three orientations of will were not unconnected but

608-625: The same family (particularly the large patriarchal lineages found in many regions) would commonly have some members among the "haves" and others among the "have-nots". The class struggle advocated by the Maoists would necessitate kinsmen attacking each other. After the Sino-Japanese War , he mediated disputes between the Communist and Nationalist parties. After the victory of the Communists in 1949, he

640-483: The university. ’ At the age of 89 in an interview with Guy Alitto , Liang proclaimed himself a Buddhist . 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. In his article "DOUBT", Liang expounded on the theory of ether in physics to maintain that much of

672-501: The village. They hoped to show that the causes of the extremely low standard of living in the Chinese countryside could be addressed by co-operation without class warfare and that violent revolution was not necessary to change village life. Through their work the reformers attempted to produce a way of modernizing the countryside based on local conditions rather than by importing prevailing methods and concepts of Western origins. In 1926, after developing successful literacy campaigns across

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704-554: The world is illusory and one must simply be conscious of this fact in order to see the world as it truly is and attain freedom. 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. 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

736-628: The years of 1931 and 1937 Liang was instructing the rural reconstruction in Zouping County of the Shandong Province. Many people assert that he was the reason for the great improvements witnessed there. His main emphases in rural reconstruction were the cultivation of group unity, development of science and technology, and the elimination of outdated traditions. Liang, appointed by Han Fuju to engage in rural reconstruction in Zouping County,

768-421: 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. In contrasting Confucianism with religions he came to two conclusions. First that unlike western religion everyone is thought to have innate moral reason, which means they must not all have uniform morals dictated by an institution like the church. And, Second, in his "Treatise on

800-575: Was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer in the Rural Reconstruction Movement during the late Qing dynasty and early Republican eras of Chinese history . Liang was born in Beijing. His family were ethnic Mongolians of Guilin and Guangxi origin. He was the son of a famous intellectual who committed suicide apparently in despair at the state of the Chinese nation. He had a modern education and exposure to Western writings. Liang

832-518: Was always fascinated by Buddhism , but never joined a monastery due to the opposition of his father. 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. In 1917 he was recruited by Cai Yuanpei to the philosophy department of Beijing University , where he produced an influential book based on his lectures entitled Eastern and Western Cultures and their Philosophies , which expounded some of

864-456: Was convinced the most effective method would be to integrate county and village schools and the local government. 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. Liang's Rural Research Reconstruction Institution had three departments. The first

896-673: Was needed to make China equal to the rest of the world. It was his view that the required prerequisites for these institutions did not exist in China, so they would not succeed if introduced. Instead, he pushed for change to socialism starting at the grassroots level. To this end, he founded the Shandong Rural Reconstruction Institute and helped to found the China Democratic League . Liang was famous for his critique of Marxist class theory, stating that, despite obvious disparities of wealth, Chinese rural society could not be unambiguously classified along class lines. One and

928-457: Was occasionally persecuted in ideological campaigns, but refused to admit any error. He died in Beijing. Released in 1921, "Eastern and Western Cultures and their Philosophies" put forth Liang's theory of three cultures. This was one of four main Neo-Confucian responses to Scientism . His theory stemmed from Yogachara Buddhism's three natures . His theory was based in his definition of

960-530: Was prominent in building Chinese resistance to Japan during the latter's invasions by strengthening the village economy, culture, and political structure, including pioneering work in village health. Many social activists who participated in this movement were graduated as professors of the United States. They made tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economic, cultural, and educational equipment and mechanisms of rural regions until

992-627: Was started in 1926 and lasted until the Japanese invasion of 1937. The county was to be a social laboratory in which to develop and demonstrate ways to raise the standard of living, health, political responsibility, and culture of the Chinese village. Although the program received financial aid from the Rockefeller and other American foundations, Yen and his team of experts aimed to develop affordable techniques and prototypes which could then be made productive all across China using mainly resources from within

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1024-560: Was the Research Department on Rural Reconstruction, headed by Liang Himself. This department trained students who already had a university education to become science advisors. The Training Department of Service personnel took students with a middle-school education to become the villages’ service personnel. The final department, called the Rural Reconstruction District, was implemented to integrate local governance into

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