Classical Literature and Modern Language

It is well known that modern Chinese literature started from the vernacular literature movement, which is the literature of modern Chinese language, and the difference of language form is an important feature distinguishing modern literature from ancient literature, therefore, studying the May Fourth Movement from the perspective of linguistics and philosophy of language becomes a new possibility for the study of modern Chinese literature. Gao Yu's doctoral dissertation, Modern Chinese Language and Modern Chinese Literature (published by China Social Science Press in June 2003), is precisely a reassessment of the historical achievements of the May Fourth New Culture Movement from the perspectives of linguistics and philosophy of language, and it represents a relatively new achievement in the study of modern Chinese literature, which reflects the "linguistic turn" in the study of modern Chinese literature. "

The Five-Fourths Movement is the most recent achievement in the study of modern Chinese literature.

The May Fourth Literary Movement began with language change, and Hu Shih's "Ruminations on the Improvement of Literature" put forward in the "eight things" are "five things" is purely linguistic, advocating the use of vernacular instead of vernacular, and advocating that "what is said, what is said; what is said, how is it said? This was the unanimous literary revolution strategy of the pioneers of the May Fourth Movement. Therefore, the May Fourth Literary Movement has gathered too many linguistic problems, for example, why the vernacular should be used to replace the literary language, what is the nature of the literary language, what is the nature of the May Fourth Vernacular, what is the relationship between the modern vernacular and the ancient vernacular, what is the intrinsic connection between the May Fourth Vernacular Movement and the New Literary Movement or even the New Culture Movement, and why the New Culture Movement has achieved a great success by starting from the angle of linguistic change? Why did the New Culture Movement achieve great success by starting from the perspective of language change? Based on the modern view of language, Gao Yu explains all these issues. He analyzes in this treatise that the vernacular language advocated by Hu Shi and others during the May Fourth period is a new language system, which is different from both the ancient Chinese vernacular and the spoken folk language of that time, and it is y influenced by the Western language in terms of the ideological aspect of language. The difference between it and the ancient Chinese vernacular and the modern spoken folk language was not in the text but in the language system. The May Fourth Vernacular is the later "national language", i.e. modern Chinese nowadays, which is the same writing system as ancient Chinese, but two language systems. On the level of language tools, there is no fundamental difference between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, but the fundamental difference between them lies in the level of language as ideological thinking and worldview. The ancient Chinese language system determines the antiquity substance of ancient culture and literature, and the modern Chinese language system determines the modernity qualities of modern culture and literature. In the ancient Chinese language system, in which literary language is the basic form of language, the ancient vernacular exists as a tool language, while in the modern Chinese language system, the modern vernacular exists more as a language of thought. The reason why the May Fourth Vernacular Movement, which started from language change, achieved great success is that the substitution of the vernacular for the literary language was not only a replacement of language tools, but also a profound revolution in thought. "Language is the deepest thing of a nation, and this foundation is very difficult to be shaken if it does not involve the survival of the nation and if it is not a matter of necessity." (page 29) "In a sense, the stereotyping of culture is precisely the stereotyping of language, and the transformation of culture is precisely the transformation of language." (page 34) So "in terms of genesis, when modern Chinese language is formed, modern Chinese culture is formed, and the modernity of modern culture can be fundamentally reduced to the modernity of modern language." (p. 56)

In reexamining the theory of the May Fourth Vernacular Language and Hu Shi's view of vernacular literature, Gao Yu has a keen insight into the fact that, although the linguistic change strongly advocated by the May Fourth Vernacular Movement was a major ideological revolution, the pioneers of the May Fourth ideology did not explicitly realize this and did not explicate it clearly in theory. They stemmed from the traditional view of the nature of language as a mere tool, a material shell that could be independent of thought, and thus did not and could not make clear the relationship between the literary movement and linguistic change. Hu Shih's reasons for why the new literature should be in the vernacular and not in the literary language are very inadequate and questionable in many ways. For example, he said, "Since the Three Hundred Psalms to the present day, all Chinese literature that has some value and some life is in the vernacular, or nearly so." This conclusion is very problematic and does not quite fit the facts of literary history. In the history of Chinese literature, there is certainly a lot of excellent vernacular literature, but there are even more excellent works in the vernacular language. For example, Hu Shi repeatedly emphasized that "today's literary language is a half-dead script" and "today's vernacular is a living language", which are also general and biased. The "dead" of the literary language and the vernacular language are not differentiated by "words" at all. Whether a language is dead or alive depends fundamentally on whether it is used, and whether it is used depends fundamentally on whether its ideas are up to date. Before the New Culture Movement, the written language was an orthodox language and was still widely used, so it could not be said that it was a "dead" language at all. It can be said that the New Literary Movement was on the right track to start with language change, and it was right to launch the vernacular language movement, but the reasoning of Hu Shi and others was not crucial, and could even be said to be incorrect. A change in literary concepts requires a profound ideological revolution, and linguistic change is an ideological revolution, "The ideological revolution is absolutely important to the May Fourth New Literary Movement, and the ideological revolution is not a movement that can theoretically operate independently of language, as the May Fourth pioneers understood, but it is tightly integrated with the linguistic movement, and there is no ideological revolution outside of language. " (p. 153) It is clear that the May Fourth New Culture Movement was not a theoretical success, but a de facto victory. The rationale for the May Fourth Vernacular Language Movement can only be made clear from the perspective of modern linguistics and philosophy of language, only that it is a pity that the May Fourth pioneers were constrained by the state of linguistic development at that time and could not make it clear, and that for a long time academics, influenced by the traditional linguistic view about the instrumental view of language, have failed to reveal the rationale for it. Gao Yu's new interpretation of the May Fourth Vernacular Literature Movement from the viewpoint of modern linguistics and philosophy of language highlights the great significance of the May Fourth New Culture and New Literature Movement for the modernization of Chinese culture and literature, and deepens our understanding and awareness of the form and essential features of modern Chinese literature.

The relationship between literature in translation and modern Chinese literature is extremely close, and literature in translation has directly influenced the occurrence and development of modern Chinese literature from the language system to the thinking. Gao Yu understands the translation activity from the perspective of modern linguistics and philosophy of language, and puts forward the theoretical view of "two levels" of the essence of translation, i.e., the technical level and the cultural level. On the level of language as a tool, translation is a technical issue; on the level of language as an essence of thought, translation is a cultural issue. He pointed out that on the one hand, with the help of translation, Western literature appeared on the stage of Chinese literature in the form of translated literature, which influenced the formation and development of modern Chinese literature in terms of literary concepts, and not only imported the logical and clear expressions (grammar or syntax) of the West, but also imported new concepts, new terminology, and new categories, which is in fact the importation of new ideas. The influence of translation on modern Chinese language is not only the increase of "metaphysical" material vocabulary, but also the increase of "metaphysical" ideological vocabulary. On the other hand, when Western literature is translated into Chinese, it is constrained by the Chinese language and its culture, and thus Chineseized, or what Lu Xun called "naturalization". Translation is fundamentally an external force, but after all, external force is external, and its role is mainly limited to shaking the traditional Chinese culture, which imported a lot of new qualities into ancient Chinese literature. When and how the ideological achievements of Western culture and literature will be absorbed by China also depend on the reality of Chinese culture and literature, and on the environment and conditions of Chinese literature from the outside to the inside. By revealing the interaction between translated literature and modern Chinese literature, Gao Yu in fact also clarifies the relationship between modern Chinese literature and traditional and Western literature. Modern Chinese literature has been profoundly influenced by Western literature, but it is not a "wholly Westernized" literature, and it has also been subjected to traditional culture and literature, but it is not literature in the traditional sense. It is also subject to the constraints of traditional culture and literature, but it is no longer literature in the traditional sense, but a third kind of literature that belongs to modern China with the characteristics of modernity.

The Xueheng school appeared on the stage of Chinese history as an opponent of the New Culture Movement, and the great victory of the New Culture Movement in fact pronounced the failure of the Xueheng school and the collapse of their theories. For a long time, our understanding of the Xueheng school has been very wrong, to the extent of being incomprehensible. Reassessing the Xueheng School and giving it an appropriate historical position is a case worth discussing. According to Gao Yu, the Xueheng school is essentially modern conservatism, but with a modern character, and is an important part of modern Chinese culture. There is a qualitative difference between the Xueheng school and the feudal hardliners represented by Lin Shu, who stood for the preservation of traditional culture in opposition to the whole of modern Chinese culture and modern literature, while the Xueheng school was only an opposition to the New Culture and New Literature schools represented by Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu and others, who were not an opposition to the whole of modern Chinese culture and modern literature. Theoretically speaking, the Xueheng School's idea of "promoting the national essence and melting new knowledge" seems to be more reasonable and fair than the radical ideas of the New Culture School, but why were their theories not understood and accepted by the people? One important reason was their inappropriate understanding of language and the literary expressions used to convey Western ideas. Because of their adherence to the literary language, the Xueheng school of thought returned to tradition rather than transcending it, thus leading to their own cultural tragedy.

The significance of Lu Xun's creative concepts and literary practices for modern Chinese literature is quite important. To talk about the occurrence of modern Chinese literature and the formation of modern literary concepts, it is impossible to analyze Lu Xun's literary ideas and literary practices in any way. In analyzing the relationship between Lu Xun's concept of language and his literary creation, Gao Yu realizes that although Lu Xun did not systematically study and research linguistics and philosophy of language, he realized the intrinsic connection between language and thought by virtue of his genius in understanding and using language. Lu Xun had a deep knowledge of classical literature, but he opposed the idea that "without reading ancient books, the vernacular is not good enough", and advocated that young people should read fewer or even no ancient books. In his literary creation, Lu Xun mainly borrowed from the ancient language as a tool, that is to say, he was mainly influenced by the way of expression, the art of rhetoric, and the skill of writing in the literary language, while on the ideological level, he mainly borrowed from the Western thought, which was based on the idea of "fetishism", the study and transplantation of modern Western culture. Lu Xun's early works were also written in the Chinese language. Lu Xun's works in the Chinese language show the transitional character of Chinese literature in the period of cultural transition, that is, on the one hand, he tries to destroy and rebel against the tradition with the help of the Western thought and spirit, on the other hand, because he uses the ancient Chinese way of expression, the constraints of the language make it impossible for him to get out of the Chinese tradition which he wants to transcend, and therefore, his works in the Chinese language are full of contradictions and tensions of conflict. conflict tension. It was not until he wrote Diary of a Madman that Lu Xun completely broke away from these contradictions and conflicts and completed his transformation into modernity. Lu Xun's transformation represents the modern transformation of modern Chinese literature, in which language plays an important role. The replacement of ancient Chinese by modern Chinese is not only a replacement of language form, but also a renewal of thinking. When modern Chinese language happened, modern Chinese literature happened decisively, and the modernity of Chinese literature was formally established.

Modern literature is modern Chinese literature. To study modern literature from the perspective of linguistics and philosophy of language is a new direction for the study of modern Chinese literature. Starting from such a perspective, we can reveal more profoundly the hidden relationship between modern Chinese literature and traditional literature, and with Western literature, and we can also re-recognize the gains and losses, strengths and shortcomings, experiences and lessons of Chinese literature in the 20th century in the construction of literary theories and the practice of literary creation, as well as provide useful insights for the creation of contemporary Chinese literature in how to absorb the tradition, how to learn from the West, and how to perfect the modernity of Chinese literature. It also provides useful insights into how to absorb tradition, how to borrow from the West, and how to perfect the modernity of Chinese literature.