How to evaluate the New Culture Movement?

The May Fourth New Culture Movement was an inevitable part of China's modern historical development, not an irrational "emotional outpouring".

●The May Fourth Movement focused on criticizing old ideas and traditions such as feudalism, but it did not completely reject them.

●The widespread spread of Marxism in China and its gradual dominance in the field of thought was a distinctive feature of the May Fourth New Culture Movement in its later stages of development.

●From the May Fourth New Culture Movement's advocacy of science and democracy, to the "national, scientific and popular culture" proposed in the "Essay on New Democracy", to the construction of a culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics proposed at the 15th Party Congress, it is a line of continuity, continuous improvement and development.

The May Fourth Movement was a great patriotic movement and a new cultural movement.

Since the day of its occurrence, the May Fourth New Culture Movement has received mixed reviews from people. Until now, although it has been eighty years, there are still many different opinions, different evaluations, and the views are far apart, so it is necessary to continue to explore.

After the 1911 Revolution, Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of victory and ascended to the presidency of the Republic of China. He undermined the democratic **** and, the implementation of authoritarian dictatorship, the great imperial restoration. Accompanying the political retrogression was the countercurrent of respecting Confucius and restoring the past in the field of ideology and culture. Yuan Shikai slandered since the Xinhai Revolution, "the program has been abandoned, and human desires have flowed horribly, and it has become a country of bandits and beasts", and ordered the whole country to "respect the Confucius Sacred". Under this circumstance, organizations such as the Confucian Church, the Confucian Way Society, the Zongsheng Society, and other organizations that venerate Confucius and the restoration of antiquity appeared one after another in different parts of the country. These organizations sang with the Northern Warlords, attacked the Xinhai Revolution, abused the democratic **** and advocated that non-Confucianism and non-restoration could not save China. Historical facts clearly show that Yuan Shikai's so-called Temple of Literature and Temple of Heaven was only a prelude to the restoration of the imperial system: Zhang Xun, the "Sage of Martial Arts", and Kang Youwei, the "Sage of Literature", even joined hands to direct a farce of restoration. Since there is always a corrupt culture to support reactionary politics, the defense of **** and against retrogression will inevitably fight against this reverse flow of reverence for Confucius and the restoration of the past. It was against this background that the advocates of the New Culture Movement, flying the banner of science and democracy, launched a violent attack on feudal culture.

The May Fourth Movement was also an inevitable part of the historical development of modern China. After the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, with the development of the Restoration Movement, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others began to attack monarchical autocracy and the principles and religions, and to advocate for civil rights, freedom and equality, which can be considered the precursor of the New Culture Movement. During the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionaries further criticized the feudalistic principles, pointing out that if they did not "sweep away the three principles and cleanse the five Confucianisms", China would not be able to "promote the air of freedom, invigorate the spirit of independence, pull out the evil roots of slavery, and save the people from their sorrowful fate". They also pointed the finger of criticism at Confucius and Mencius and put forward the "Sage Revolution", which denied the absolute status of "sages" and "saintly learning". The May Fourth New Culture Movement's criticism of the program and the famous religions and its opposition to Confucianism were basically the same as the Xinhai Revolutionary Party's treatment of the program and the famous religions and Confucius, and could be said to be in the same lineage. From this point of view, the May Fourth New Culture Movement is the inheritance and development of the ideas of the Restoration and Revolution, and is the inevitable development of modern history.

To describe the May Fourth Movement as an "emotional outpouring" and "irrational feelings at work" on the part of Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and other advocates of the New Culture Movement is obviously not in line with historical reality. Their criticism of feudal culture and their advocacy of new culture were choices made after serious reflection on social reality, ideological and cultural conditions. This choice is based on rational analysis and is an objective response to reality.

The main content of the May Fourth New Culture Movement against the old ideas and traditions was to oppose Confucianism and criticize feudalism, but it did not negate the traditions completely

The advanced intellectuals in the May Fourth period showed a broad vision and grandeur, and the problems they wanted to solve were not only confined to the cultural level, but also to save the country and to "recreate China". remake China". Although New Youth boasted that "criticizing current politics is not its purpose," in fact, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others did not detach themselves from politics. The New Culture Movement was triggered by the social reality of the restoration of Confucianism and imperialism. As Chen Duxiu said, "This old and rotten thought is all over the country, so if we want to consolidate the **** and the state in good faith, we have to wash away this old thought of ethical literature and so on, which is against the **** and cannot be washed away completely. Otherwise not only **** and politics can not be carried out, is this piece of **** and signboard, also can not hang."

So, in the New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others criticized the "old ideas" in a very specific way. They focused on opposing the designation of Confucianism as the state religion and its inclusion in the constitution, pointing out that Confucianism was a defense of authoritarianism and ran counter to the ideas of civil rights and equality.

Li Dazhao pointed out: "Confucius is the talisman of authoritarianism of successive emperors. The Constitution, the modern national freedom of securities. Dictatorship cannot be tolerated in freedom, that is, Confucius should not exist in the Constitution." Chen Duxiu also emphasized that democracy **** and focus on the spirit of equality, Confucianism focuses on the hierarchy of inferiority and superiority, "If on the one hand, since the recognition of the **** and the state system, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to preserve the Confucianism, theoretically is really impracticable, in fact, really can not be done." They also pointed out that respecting Confucius was for the purpose of restoring the imperial system, and that "to advocate respecting Confucius is to establish a monarch; to advocate establishing a monarch is to restore the empire."

Advocates of the New Culture Movement believed that ideas and doctrines change with the development of society, and that "the way of Confucius is not suitable for survival in today's society."

Advocates of the New Culture Movement opposed the inclusion of Confucianism in the constitution, and necessarily focused on criticizing the feudal three principles and five virtues. They believed that the core of Confucianism was ritualism, a hierarchical system of respectability and inferiority, and that "Confucianism is based on the principles of the rule of law, and those who are the sons of men and the wives of men have lost the independence of their personalities, and have no independent property". Lu Xun's masterpieces "Diary of a Madman" and "My View of Temperance", Wu Yu's "Theory of the Family System as the Basis of Despotism" and "Cannibalism and Ritualism", etc., also expose the evils of feudal rites and sharply criticize the dangers of feudal ethics and morals, such as loyalty, filial piety, and temperance.

The opposition to the inclusion of Confucianism in the constitution and the criticism of the famous feudal principles can be said to be the most important elements of the New Culture Movement against the old ideas and traditions. However, the advocates of the New Culture Movement did not completely reject Confucius and his doctrines. For example, Chen Duxiu affirmed the historical status of Confucius and the historical value of Confucianism, stating that "to oppose Confucianism is not to oppose Confucius personally, nor to say that he was worthless in ancient society", and that Confucius' doctrines had their merits and were not "desirable for nothing". Li Dazhao also made it clear that: "I take up Confucius, not to take up Confucius itself, but to take up the authority of the idol sculpted by the monarchs; not to take up Confucius, but to take up the soul of authoritarian politics." For this reason alone, it can be seen that the New Culture Movement did not completely deny tradition, did not regard traditional Chinese culture as dross, and could not be said to be totally anti-traditional. The New Culture Movement did not and could not interrupt traditional culture, not even Confucianism. Even Confucianism was not interrupted. If there was an "interruption", what was interrupted was only the orthodox status of Confucianism.

Taking the May Fourth Movement as a boundary, the New Culture Movement is divided into the early and late stages, and the late stage is the development of the early stage.

After the May Fourth Movement, the new cultural movement had a new development, and in addition to the original bourgeois new culture, the Marxist revolutionary new culture was added, and gradually dominated the field of thought.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 shook the world and cast doubt in people's minds on Western capitalism, which had been held up as an example to be followed, to such an extent that it broke down.

The October Revolution took place in Russia in 1917, and the world's first socialist country was established. In the midst of despair and uncertainty, the Chinese people finally learned something new from the October Revolution, which was Marxism-Leninism. From then on, the face of China changed.

Marxism and Leninism spread in China mainly through pioneers such as Li Dazhao, who played a key role in the New Culture Movement in the early years of the movement, and who wrote an article in 1918 hailing and discussing the victory of the October Revolution in Russia. In the following year, he edited and published a special issue of New Youth entitled "Marx Studies," and published a famous article entitled "My View of Marxism," which for the first time systematically and accurately introduced the three components of Marxism: the materialist concept of history, political economy, and scientific socialism, as well as the concepts of history, political economy, and scientific socialism, political economy, and scientific socialism, and pointed out that the three were inseparably related, "and that the theory of class competition is just like a golden thread that fundamentally links these three principles". Thereafter, a large number of articles introducing Marxism were published in many newspapers and magazines, and the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin were translated and published, so that Marxism was widely disseminated in China. In this way, the New Culture Movement, which had begun to develop in 1915, underwent a fundamental change, developing from a bourgeois cultural movement into a new proletarian revolutionary cultural movement that widely publicized Marxism.

The reason why the spread of Marxism gradually became the mainstream of the New Culture Movement was by no means due to the momentary emotional impulse of a few intellectuals. It was only after comparing and practicing with various doctrines that the Chinese people finally chose Marxism. Rather than irrational impulses, and even less than simple blind obedience, what runs through it all is the forerunner's deep and rational reflection on social reality. It is a choice made after reflection, a response to reality.

The spread of Marxism in China has not been smooth sailing, but has gone through serious struggles and arduous journeys. The introduction of Marxism into China was accompanied by various other isms, such as bourgeois democracy, experimentalism, reformism, anarchism, neo-villageism, pan-laborism, kirtan socialism, and so on.

Marxism was at first only one of them. Marxism competed with these currents of thought in the wave of social transformation and the struggle was inevitable. From 1919 to 1 923, Marxism and anti-Marxist currents engaged in three great polemics, defeating successively the experimentalism and social reformism represented by Hu Shi, the bourgeois reformism represented by Zhang Dongsun and Liang Qichao, and the anarchism represented by Huang Lingxiang and Au Shengbai. In the practice of the Chinese revolution and in the struggle for ideology and theory, the other doctrines soon disappeared, and only Marxism was accepted by the Chinese people and became the guiding principle of the Chinese revolution. It was through study, comparison and discrimination that the Chinese people finally chose Marxism as the theoretical weapon for the salvation of the country and the people.

It should be pointed out that in recent years there has been an argument that the Marxism accepted by the Chinese people was not genuine Marxism but a dogmatism accepted from Soviet Russia after the October Revolution in Russia. This argument is not in line with historical reality and simplifies the issue. The October Revolution undoubtedly had a great impact on China, and it gave the Chinese revolution a new look. However, the Marxism accepted by the Chinese people did not come only from Soviet Russia. Li Dazhao's My View of Marxism was clearly influenced by the Japanese scholar Hiromu Kawakami. Early purveyors of Marxism, such as Yang Lagenan, Li Da, and Li Hanjun, all received Marxism while studying in Japan. In contrast, Zhou Enlai, Cai Hesen and many other young people who stayed in France to work and study were studying and accepting Marxism in France. They hungrily read the ****Productive Manifesto and other Marxist classics. At home, in 1920, the Chinese version of the ****Production Party Manifesto, translated in full by Chen Wangdao, was published in Shanghai. According to Luo Zhanglong's recollection, there was also a Chinese mimeographed translation of the German version of the **** Proletarian Manifesto in Beijing at that time. 1883 and 1888 Engels' preface to the German and English versions of the **** Proletarian Manifesto repeatedly made it clear that, including the doctrine of the class struggle, it was the "fundamental principle which constitutes the core of the Manifesto". ". This shows that the doctrine of class struggle accepted by the Chinese ****producers is a fundamental principle of Marxism, not some Soviet dogmatism.

From the May Fourth New Culture Movement, which advocated science and democracy, to the Fifteenth Party Congress, which put forward the construction of a culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, it is a lineage that has been inherited, continuously improved and developed

The banner of science and democracy, which was hoisted by the New Culture Movement, was inherited and developed in the post-May Fourth period, thanks to the dissemination of Marxism and its gradual emergence as the mainstream of the New Culture Movement. It is out of prejudice to think that the spread of Marxism meant that the New Culture Movement was increasingly deviating from its initial direction.