Reread Hu Shi,

This thesis discusses Mr. Hu Shi. It is well known that Mr. Hu Shi was the leader of Chinese early liberals. Not only was he a liberal, but also he was a Confucian scholar. He had been engaged in liberalism activities for his whole life as a Confucian scholar. Being a Confucian scholar, his thinking methods, value standard and motive force would certainly fall into the Confucianism. It is determined that he would head for a status of dilemma and paradox.It is well-known that the goal of the liberalism in the west country is individualism. While it was introduced to Chinese people as a kind of tool that could enrich the state and benefit the people and defeat the foreign aggression. So the liberalism in China had a different character.Firstly, Hu Shi was only a scholor, he was not a man of operational disposition. In the ethic period, that is, "Five-fourth Movement "period, he created many brilliant achievements. He belonged to that period, he advocated individulism, Literature Innovation, transvaluation of all values, and so on. In a word, he created a New Cultural paragon. All these enlightenment activities were linked with the ideal of creating a new civilization.Seondly, the historical period emphasized action and practice. In this period, Hu Shi limited himself to writing, running several kinds of newspaper and journals, went in for the authority to supervise and freedom of speech, publishing and so on. He refused to establish a political party, was willing to submit himself to the rule of Guo Mindang. This kind of liberalism had no party, no pratice. He just wanted to enable the government to head for democracy gradually and peacefully under his and supervision. Because of the friendship between Mr. Jiang Jieshi and himself, he lost his independent status as a liberal intellectual. This thesis is divided into five parts:The first chapter introduce Hu Shi's childhood and youth, including his family, his hometown and his education from Confucianism and western country. Many of his character sprouted in this period and determined his idea and practice of all his life.The second part is about some relative historical affairs and preparation to Hu Shi's creating new cultural paragon. It focus onMr. Yan Fu and Liang Qichao's enlightenment activity and the springing up of the citizen ethic.The third part aims to research the main achivments of Hu Shi during the Five-fourth Movement. By the way of anti-Confucianism, launching cultural innovation, advocating individualism and science, he created a new cultural paragon. I'll focus on analyzing the reason why he chose, the contradiction between his early opinions and later ones and the influence to Chinese culture and literature in the 20th century.The fourth chapter is about his political idea and practice. Because he was a Confucian scholor, but he blieved in liberalism, he devoted himself to the liberty, democracy and human rights survive in China.But paradox came into being when he carried out his ideas.The last part will research the main characteristics of the enlightenment movement of Hu Shi. By the means of interpreting several key words: pragmatism, paradox, the absence of economic ethic, the Name Religion. Then sum up the main failure experience of Chinese early liberalism.