The May Fourth Literary Revolution

The content of the May Fourth Literary Revolution is as follows:

Section 1: The New Youth and the May Fourth New Culture

The May Fourth New Culture Movement

The May Fourth New Culture Movement was an "anti-traditional, anti-confessional, and anti-literary" ideological and cultural innovation and literary revolution initiated by some Western-educated people, such as Hu Shih, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, and Li Dazhao, around the time of the May Fourth Movement in 1919.

Advocating democracy and science, opposing old morality and advocating new morality, opposing old literature and advocating new literature, the movement focused on "reforming the minds of young people and counseling their cultivation. This movement dealt a heavy blow to the traditional rituals that had ruled China for more than 2000 years, inspired people's democratic consciousness, promoted the development of modern science in China, and laid the ideological foundation for the outbreak of the May Fourth Patriotic Movement.

1. In September 1915, Chen Duxiu founded New Youth in Shanghai, marking the beginning of the New Culture Movement.

2. New Youth, with its contribution to and influence on the renewal of Chinese culture and social revolution, became the first modern Chinese publication.

3. The main new ideas and cultures spread in New Youth:

(1) Democracy and science.

(2) Criticizing the old morality, thought and culture.

(3) "Fetishization" of world culture, extensive introduction and absorption of Western culture.

Section II: Vernacular Literature and "Literature of Man"

Modern Chinese literature, marked by the "May Fourth Literary Revolution," stepped fully into the course of literary modernization.

The May Fourth Literary Revolution

The literary change against the old literature and advocating the new literature that took place in the period after the May Fourth Movement from early 1917 to 1919. The new literature born in the May Fourth Literary Revolution brought about comprehensive and profound changes in Chinese literature from language and writing, literary genres, methods of expression to ideological content, and began the process of modernizing and transforming Chinese literature, which is of epoch-making significance in the history of Chinese literature.

1. In January 1917, Hu Shi published Ruminations on Literary Improvement in New Youth, putting forward eight propositions for literary improvement, which marked the beginning of the May Fourth Literary Revolution

2. In February 1917, Chen Duxiu published Literary Revolution in New Youth, Volume 2, No. 6, clearly putting forward the "three major doctrines". ".

3. Zhou Zuoren published "The Literature of Man" in December 1918, which defined "new literature" qualitatively, and argued that new literature should be "the literature of man". At the same time, he also wrote Literature of the Common People, putting forward the idea of building a "literature of the common people" on the basis of Chen Duxiu's "literature of the nation" and "literature of society".

Section III: The May Fourth Literary Controversy

The May Fourth Literary Revolution had a great impact on the conception of Chinese literature and literary trends, and all kinds of intellectuals had to make adjustments in the face of this revolution, which led to ideological exchanges and academic debates.

The ideological confrontation was the debate between the new literature and the old literature of the Restoration School, the Xueheng School, the A-yin School, and the Mandarin Ducks and Butterfly School.

During the Literary Revolution, Lin Shu was fiercely opposed to the replacement of the vernacular language by the vernacular language, and wrote articles such as "On the Dissolution of the Advisor's Vernacular Language," and "To Cai Hecheng, a Letter of the Imperial Historian," in which he criticized the vernacular language movement.

The Xueheng School

In January 1922, Mei Guangdi, a professor at Southeast University in Nanjing, Wu Mi and others founded the magazine Xueheng, which was called the Xueheng School for its opposition to new literature and its defense of old feudal literature. They attacked the New Literature Movement under the signboard of "promoting the national essence and melting new knowledge", and were criticized by Lu Xun and others.

The academic controversy was mainly within the New Literature. The Literature Research Association pursued the "art of life" and advocated realist literature. The Society for the Study of Literature pursued "art for the sake of life" and advocated realistic literature, while the Society for Creativity, influenced by Western aestheticism, pursued "art for the sake of art" in pursuit of the aesthetic sense of literature. Both of these ideas are indispensable to the construction of a new literature.

Section IV: The Achievements and Historical Significance of the May Fourth Literary Revolution

The Literary Research Society

was founded in Beijing in January 1921, with Zhou Zuoren, Zheng Zhenduo, Shen Yanbing, Ye Shaojun, and 12 others as its initiators.

"Creation Society"

In July 1921, it was founded in Tokyo, Japan, with Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping, Yu Dafu, Cheng Fuguo, Tian Han and other students studying in Japan as its earliest members. This is the earliest literary society with the greatest influence and contribution in the history of modern Chinese literature

"Crescent Society"

The Crescent Society was founded in April 1924 in Beijing, with poets such as Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, and Zhu Xiang as its main members.

The actual achievements of the May Fourth Literary Revolution

1. The first was the comprehensive promotion of the vernacular language

After May Fourth, patriotic student groups from all over the world followed the example of New Youth, the Weekly Review, and the Weekly Review. In 1920, even the most important magazines such as Oriental Magazine and Novel Monthly adopted the vernacular language, and the Ministry of Education stipulated that Chinese textbooks for the lower grades should be in the vernacular. The Literary Revolution led to the "National Language Movement", which rapidly expanded the influence of new literature.

2. The widespread influx of foreign literary ideas and the rise of new literary societies led to an unprecedented emancipation of ideas.

The initiators of the Literary Revolution introduced foreign literary trends through the translation of their works. Starting from the first volume of the New Youth, they successively translated the works of foreign writers such as Turgenev, Wilde, Chekhov, Ibsen, etc.; and the works of Realism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Psychoanalysis, Imagism, and Marxism began to be popularized and believed in.

The creative tendencies of writers influenced by different currents of thought also varied, and new literary societies sprang up. There were the Literary Research Society for the promotion of real life, the Creation Society for the study of Romanticism, and the Crescent Society, the Whispering Silk Society, and so on.

The construction of literary theory achieved initial results

Hu Shi published "Ruminations on the Improvement of Literature," which put forward the "Eight Essays," initially elucidating the idea of vernacular language; Chen Duxiu's "Essay on Literary Revolution" put forward the "Three Great Chen Duxiu's "Literary Revolution" put forward the "three major doctrines", criticizing the old literature from content to form: Zhou Zuoren's "Human Literature" demanded that the new literature should be based on humanitarianism, and that it should observe and study the problems of the society and life, especially the life of the lower class people. His "Beautiful Writings" theoretically established the status of literary prose, placing it on an equal footing with novels, poems and plays. Lu Xun, Qian Xuan-tong, and Cheng Fengyu also made theoretical contributions.

Literary creation has made remarkable achievements

In 1918, Lu Xun published his first vernacular novel, Diary of a Madman, followed by a succession of novels such as Medicine and Kung Yi Ji, all of which showed deep thought and complete modern novel characteristics. In addition to Lu Xun, a number of new literary writers and their works were successively published in magazines such as New Youth and New Tide.

Bingxin's "Siren", Xu Dishan's "Birds of Destiny", Yu Dafu's "Sinking", Hu Shih's "Trying to Collect", and Guo Moruo's "The Goddess", etc., though they seem to be not rounded enough from the artistic point of view, they overflowed with the spirit of individuality emancipation and national liberation, and possessed the character of the quest for modernity.