From the "Settlement of Life" to "Social Shaping": Rethinking "Adulthood" Education of Neo-Confucianism Based on Liang Shuming's Educational Thought

The way that Liang Shuming and his comrades lead to the transformation of Chinese society through education is of great representative significance in the modern transformation of "adulthood" education. Liang's educational path stems from "life question" and revolves around his "two major questions". Therefore, he takes "adulthood" as the fundamental goal of education, and the core of his educational thoughts can be summarized as: using "emotional education" to shape the positive and enterprising life attitudes and using social subject to lead to the overall reconstruction of social culture, which contains two key points: first, developing the "outward" and aggressive side of the "adulthood" education, even though it initially focuses on the "inside"; secondly, transforming the way of "cultivating one's moral character" and "nurturing one's nature" into the power of "being able to work together" and "serving the public". From this, Liang Shuming, based on the Taizhou School's theory of "awakening the people and practicing the Tao", developed the connotation of the two classic Confucian propositions "Confucius and Yan's joy" and "accomplishing oneself and achieving things", and transformed "desire" into "hardness" and "created" life. The two interrelated aspects construct its educational path that leads to the overall reshaping of life and society through "adult" education. That is to say, the education that stems from human ethics and daily life can inspire people's self-consciousness and connect body and mind together and can further achieve simultaneous self-creation and social creation. Also, what it hides in this educational path from "soul" to "society" is his modern transformation of the Confucian philosophy of "inner sage and outer king" - the isomorphism of spiritual and social undertakings.