The attitude of the new culture movement towards traditional culture

The attitude of the New Culture Movement towards traditional culture is extreme, but in essence, the New Culture Movement opposes the decadent feudal thoughts in China's traditional culture, not the traditional culture itself. Both Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao made it clear that they did not completely deny Confucius, but fully recognized his historical position. They just pointed out that Confucius' way was "incompatible with modern life".

The True Attitude of the New Culture Movement to Traditional Culture Gong Shuduo pointed out in the article "Correctly Evaluating the May 4th New Culture Movement" (People's Daily, 1999-05-06) that the May 4th New Culture Movement opposed the old ideas, and the main content of the old tradition was to oppose Confucianism, but it did not completely deny the tradition. Therefore, the New Culture Movement was triggered by the social reality of respecting Confucius.

In the New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others criticized the old ideas. They concentrated on opposing the designation of Confucianism as the state religion, pointing out that Confucianism maintains the autocratic system, which runs counter to the concepts of civil rights and equality. However, the advocates of the New Culture Movement did not completely deny Confucius and his theory. For example, Chen Duxiu affirmed the historical position and value of Confucius, saying that "opposing Confucianism is not against Confucius personally, nor does it mean that he is worthless in ancient society."

Li Dazhao also clearly pointed out in the article "Natural Ethics and Confucius": "To beat Confucius is not to beat Confucius itself, but the authority has turned Confucius into an idol of monarchs' sculptures in past dynasties; Not to smoke Confucius, but to smoke the soul of authoritarian politics. " In this way, we can also "see that the New Culture Movement did not completely internalize the tradition, nor did it regard the traditional culture of China as dross, which cannot be said to be completely anti-tradition. The New Culture Movement did not and could not interrupt the traditional culture. If there is "interruption", it will only break the orthodox position of Confucianism.