梁启超新民思想再论

On Liang Qi-chao's Thoughts of Xin Min (New People)

梁启超是近代中国系统、完整地提出新民思想的第一人。他杂采中西道德,强调教育新民,意欲塑造一代资产阶级新型国民。但由于他没有把变革封建经济基础及其政治制度与新民结合起来,因此未能造就中国之新民,并最终向旧传统复归。

Liang Qi-chao was the first in modern China to systematically put forward the idea of Xin Min (remodeling the national character of Chinese people, hence a New People). He combined the moralities of the western world with those of Chinese, aiming at building a new type of Chinese people. Yet he failed in the combination of reforming the feudal economic basis and political system with the Xin Min theory. He finally found it impossible to build the new people but returned to the traditional.