Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker's Studio: Essays on China and the World

by Liang Qichao, Peter Zarrow (Editor)

'China's first iconic modern intellectual. His lucid and prolific writings, touching on all major concerns in his own time and anticipating many in the future, inspired several generations of thinkers' Pankaj Mishra'A country does not become corrupt and weak overnight. Rather, we are now reaping the evil harvest of what previous generations sowed.'The power, anger and fluency of Liang Qichao's writings make him one of the towering figures in modern Chinese literature. He saw his great, almost unmanageable task as an attempt to write China into the new era - to provide an ancient country, devastated by civil war and foreign predators, with the intellectual equipment to renew itself.Liang said that he wrote from an 'ice-drinker's studio', implying that underneath his dispassionate, disabused and rational tone lay an ardour and passion which only ice could cool. China could only recover through a clear-sighted, informed understanding of its enemies - and by engaging in a thorough-going self-critique. Liang did not propose aping the West but taking only what China needed to 'renew the people' and create 'new citizens'. Then China would be able to expel its invaders, reform its society and become a great power once more.This selection of pieces shows Liang's extraordinary range and the burning sense of mission which drove him on, attempting to galvanize and refresh an entire nation. Blending together Confucianism, Buddhism and the Western Enlightenment, Liang's ideas about nation, democracy, and morality had a profound impact on Chinese visions of the political order, though the China that eventually emerged from the further disasters of the 1930s and 1940s would be a very different one.

Genres: China, Philosophy, Asia, Nonfiction, Essays

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Brent Pinkall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating glimpse at one of the most influential Chinese thinkers of the modern period. Liang was a trained Confucian scholar who criticized Confucian culture in his day, and especially the Qing court, and was consequently banished to Japan before eventually returning. He was instrumental in many of the reforms that led to modern China. He appreciated both Western culture and ancient Chinese culture and argued for a new synthesis of the two. Many characterize the West as "individualistic" and China as "collectivistic," but interestingly Liang's primary praise of Western people centers on their ability to effectively organize in groups. He says Chinese people are terrible at this. I found his critiques of modern Chinese people fascinating, and having spent much time around Chinese people I resonated with many of his observations. While I don't agree with many of his views (he was a social Darwinist), and I bemoan his introduction of Marxism to China (Liang was the first Chinese to promote Marx), I admire much about his project of reform. This book focuses mainly on his political critiques, but I wish it contained more of his writings on education.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would you believe it that the 'father of Chinese liberalism' had a propensity for race science? Leaving that and a few other things aside this is interesting and problematique in equal measure, an essentially conservative intelligence wrestling with how to escape from European imperialism either with, or without, becoming like the imperialist enemy, with an engaging 'thinking aloud' style.

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Thoughts from an ice drinker’s studio” introduces Liang Qichao as one of the most influential intellectuals, political activists and Chinese patriots of his time. His essays on the spirit of China weave together an undeniable passion, vision and intellectual capacity towards the question of china’s development and trajectory to becoming a global super power.

I did not expect the breadth of ideas about politics, economics, ethics and morality that Liang covers over this sample of 20 years of writing. They made me think about democracy, public education, morality, nationalism and various cultural values and their role in sociopolitical development across different societies (though his racial thesis can be discomforting).

His “thinking out loud” style as another reviewer puts it, is incredibly effective at arousing a sense of self-reflection in the reader and his passion is truly inspiring. In his writing about personal morality, Liang demonstrates a refreshing reflexivity and self cultivation. In his search for timeless principles, he offers many of his own.