SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Liang Shih-ch'iu is a contradictory figure: a student-patriot who then advocated a thorough-going western orientation of Chinese literature; a somewhat reactionary member of a coterie led by a man dedicated to evolutionism; a staunch advocate of western classicism who associated closely with poets whose inspiration was largely drawn from western romanticism. I have developed this dissertation in three stages. In the first three chapters I have examined Liang's background. In Chapters 4 - 7 I have looked at what he had to say during the period 1927-34 about literature in general terms, modern Chinese literature as a whole, and certain specific ideas (and presentations of those ideas) in particular. In the last three chapters I have endeavoured to answer three slightly difficult, but interesting, questions which immediately arise from a reading of Liang's commentaries: that of his true identity; that of his motives; and that of his significance. My secondary purpose has been at intervals to try to trace the source of Liang's thinking, and then, in establishing his identity, also to uncover the closest association that I can find. A third, and also subsidiary, purpose has been to comment briefly on the impression that Liang Shih-ch'iu makes on the reader, both as an advocate and as a person. Approached in this way the contradictions outlined above do not disappear, nor are they wholly explained. They do however become easier to understand.