Like many major thinkers in the contemporary world, Liang Shuming (1893-1988) was opposed to the view that all differences caused by the particularities of culture, tradition, language, and history, must be transcended by way of directly engaging universal truths unmediated by particulars. By reviewing the work and life experience of Liang, this article suggests that Liang's understanding of three issues-he beginning and end of history, the ability of mankind, and the ultimate cause of all problems and the dynamics of solving them for mankind-was based on his epistemology of the following three central ideas: the nature of being, human mind (xin), and self. This understanding led to his unique perspectives on human civilizations, social changes in general, and the cultural as well as social development of China in particular.