What are the specific aspects of the contradictions in the May 4th Movement?

the may 4th movement (including ideological movement and political movement, which started with the publication of Chen Duxiu youth magazine and ended with the dispute between science and metaphysics) was an important event that took place at the turning point of China's history and had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's modern history. From this point of view, it seems that it is not difficult to grasp the May 4th Movement. However, the connotation of the May 4th Movement, whether political or ideological, is full of diversity and contradiction. Because of this, the May Fourth Movement is different in the minds of researchers, and everyone has different opinions. How to understand the May 4th Movement historically? How to treat the influence of the May 4th Movement on the historical development of China?

The May 4th Movement and the historical trend of the world

The May 4th Movement took place against the background that China's contact with the world was much stronger than before, and people paid more attention to the world. If we compare the May 4th period with the history of the same period or around the world, we can find that it is almost consistent with the First World War and the establishment of the Versailles-Washington system.

What did World War I mean to China or the May 4th Movement? First of all, the ideological shock. In the words of Du Yaquan, a scholar who was not radical at that time, "We can't help but have a new awareness of the current situation, that is, after this great duel and sacrifice, there will be a great reform in both material and spiritual aspects. Anyone who is founded on the earth must not be affected by this great reform. " (Selected by Tian Jianye and others: Collected Works of Du Yaquan) It is precisely because of this that there were many discussions on the influence of World War I on the development of world civilization and China civilization during the May 4th period, which had a great influence on young students' thoughts. This correlation deserves attention.

Secondly, the socialist ideas popular in Europe around the outbreak of the First World War had a great influence on the May 4th Movement. Before the May 4th Movement, anarchism was popular in China. A few people also paid attention to Marxism and paid less attention to social democracy. Socialist thought is one of the most important ideological nourishment of the May 4th Movement. In his article The French and Modern Civilization, Chen Duxiu regards human rights theory, biological evolution theory and socialism as "the characteristics of modern civilization" and calls them "the best way to change the past". The youth of the May 4th Movement are eager for socialist ideas. Such as freedom, labor, mutual assistance, contempt for authority, etc., are mostly developed under the popularity of this idea. Its influence is lasting and far-reaching.

Thirdly, the transformation of the international system and the influence of the concept of national self-determination on the May 4th Movement. The First World War was the result of the development of internal contradictions in the old world system. As a part of the old world system, China was closely related to the rise and fall of its interests and even its survival. At the same time, Wilson doctrine, which calls for changing the old system, has been put forward. This change is quite attractive to semi-colonial China. Among them, the most attractive is national self-determination. The social discussion about China's participation in the war during the May 4th Movement, as well as the fanaticism of Wilsonism and the slogan that justice triumphs over power during the Paris Peace Conference, all illustrate this point very typically. The above three aspects influenced each other, which made the pioneers of ideological movement suddenly take a strong interest in Soviet Russia after the October Revolution. It shows that the May 4th Movement is directly related to the mainstream changes in the world.

Basic ideological tendency of the May 4th Movement

Usually, researchers summarize the basic connotation of the May 4th Movement as human rights, democracy, science, vernacular movement, anti-ethics, anti-superstition, anti-tradition and so on. These connotations did exist in the thoughts of the May 4th Movement, but their ideological depth was limited. Although questions were raised, they were not clarified theoretically. Therefore, while attaching importance to the connotation of the May 4th Movement, we should pay more attention to grasping the basic ideological tendencies during the May 4th Movement and their profound influence on historical development.

to be sure, different ideas reflect some roughly the same value orientation. They mainly include: emancipating consciousness, populism (or populist tendency) and socialist tendency, scientism tendency, and the consciousness of pursuing the first. Emancipation consciousness holds that individuals, societies, nations and countries should break through fetters, restrictions and oppression and carry out complete liberation. This sense of liberation has some liberal tendencies. Opposing traditional ethical codes and family systems that suppress human nature and opposing international power all belong to this category. Populism tends to be mass-oriented, civilian-oriented, and universal. Labor, caring for the lower class, and despising the powerful belong to this category. Scientism-only tendency, that is, keen to spread science to some fields unrelated to science itself (Guo Yingying: Scientism in China's Modern Thought), tries to explain everything with science, including all kinds of problems in society and life. The consciousness of pursuing the first is to pursue the latest and most thorough, and to pursue the most advanced culture and system in social transformation, and also to explore the most full and powerful social forces.

these ideological trends are noteworthy in two aspects: first, they have great correlation with the world trend at that time; second, various trends coexist and cannot be agreed. Therefore, Hu Shi and Jiang Menglin pointed out at that time that new ideas were just an attitude. Hu Shi said: "The fundamental significance of the new ideological trend is only a new attitude." Jiang Menglin said: "A new idea is an attitude, and this attitude is to go in the direction of evolution." That is to say, the content is not important, what is important is to get rid of the old and create the new, move forward, catch up with the trend of world change, and even stand at the forefront of the world trend. Of course, there were some conservative ideologies during the May 4th Movement, but they were much weaker than the strong ideological trend of eliminating the old and creating the new. It was this that made China's ideological circle full of vitality during the May 4th Movement.

the historical factors of the may 4th movement and the development of modern history

according to the historical observation method, the determination of the status of a large-scale social movement depends on what it created in the historical process and what role it played in the subsequent historical development. The ideological tendency in the May 4th Movement, roughly observed, shows that the consciousness of liberation, the tendency of populism, the tendency of scientism, and the consciousness of pursuing the first run through the subsequent historical development. Their interaction with the specific historical development since then is quite complicated, which deserves researchers' attention and efforts. Roughly observed, the following clues are worth thinking about:

1. The combination of emancipation consciousness, populism tendency, pursuit of the first consciousness and scientism tendency has raised national consciousness and popular consciousness, promoted the development of China's national independence and people's revolutionary movement, and thus made profound changes in China's politics, military affairs, diplomacy, culture and social structure. The historical development showed a completely different qualitative change after the May 4th Movement. This should be entirely attributed to the ideological emancipation movement of the May 4th Movement and the social movement gradually developed under the influence of the ideological movement.

2. The combination of emancipating consciousness, populism, pursuing first consciousness and scientism has also brought some tangled problems. For example, on the issue of enlightenment, pure enlightenment was not the main goal of the May 4th Movement. In the view of the initiators of the May 4th Movement, "saving the country and the new people" (in Chen Duxiu), saving the country was the first, and "new people" was subordinate to saving the country, and the liberation of the nation and the people was given priority. Since then, although some people have brought up the topic of making up for the shortcomings of the May 4th Enlightenment, it is difficult to form a universal recognition because of the constraints of the world situation and the overall characteristics of China's historical development. This situation seems to determine that it is difficult for China to produce a complete form of the Enlightenment in the field of ideas. Another example is the issue of constitutionalism and democracy in the Republic of China. There were many constitutional movements, but they never formed a good constitutional foundation. The expression of ruling legitimacy is mainly composed of national representation, theoretical advancement and mass representation. "Advanced" and "science" are also intertwined and come down to practical values.

3. The combination of liberation consciousness and populist tendency determines that liberation must be the liberation of groups. This indirectly gave birth to a lot of group movement patterns of social action. This model has been introduced into almost all fields of social transformation. With the in-depth development of group movements, their advantages and disadvantages are fully expressed in China, which has left a very deep imprint on many major events.

To sum up, the May 4th Movement was a concentrated reflection (in practice and discourse) of China's response to the changes of world trends before and after the First World War on the premise of the accumulation of internal contradictions. This movement holds high the consciousness of emancipating, popularizing and catching up with the first, and at the same time has the tendency of scientism and socialism. It has a profound influence on the whole modern history of China and some deep-seated aspects in the historical development of China.