Cultural Conservatism And Chinese Modern Literary Thought

On the basis of the existing research results,this dissertation,putting aside its political,historical,educational and moral concepts,proceeds by defining the standpoints and propositions of Cultural Conservatism from perspective of the culture,literature etc.and by analyzing its practical consciousness and theoretical innovation as well as its logical relationship between rational reflection and cultural reconciliation so as to make its role in the historical process of China and its influence on contemporary and later literary thought and literary creation clear to the world.It holds that the existing research results,focusing particularly on the study of its intellectual history and the ideological and conceptual opposition between modern Chinese cultural conservatism and radicalism,have not gone far enough in the aspect of the impact of cultural conservatism on literature.That is to say,there are still a lot of things to do for further study,from the context of cultural conservatism,on the literary thoughts of the theorists of modern literature such as Wang Guowei,Lu Xun(early),Liang Qichao(later),Xueheng school,Liang Shiqiu,Zong Baihua and so on.This dissertation,following the method of two-way,that is,aesthetics-history of literary and artistic sociology,tries to delineate the influence of modern Chinese cultural conservatism on modern Chinese literary theory from the levels of the diachronic and synchronic and the unity of logical argumentation and historical narratives.The dissertation is divided into three parts.The first part is the introduction which explains the writing motive and purpose of this paper,reviews the research achievements of the predecessors,and introduces the research methods and scope of the study.The second part includes the first and the second chapters.The first chapter mainly analyzes the concept of cultural conservatism,the context and particularity of its appearance in China,its connotation and difference from the political conservatism and the relevant content about "modernity"which accompanies the arising of cultural conservatism.The first three parts of the second chapter summarize the emergence and development of modern Chinese cultural conservatism by settling it in the historical contexts of the time.The cultural conservatism begins at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic period and its representatives are Zhang Zhidong's theory of "Chinese-style westernization",Yan Fu's cultural eclecticism and the nationalism of the late Qing dynasty.The May Fourth is the booming period of the cultural conservatism which includes the debates between Eastern Miscellany and New Youth,Zhang Shizhao's "mediation of the new and the old",Liang Qichao's reflection on scientism in his,Liang Shuming's neutralizing between cultural identity and modernization in his Records of Travels in Europe and the all-round introduction to Xueheng Shool including its members,its ideological resources,and the debates between it and literary revolution as well as Xueheng's contents' analysis.The 1930s and 1940s,the mature stage of cultural conservatism which mainly covers the controversy between "Chinese culture" and "all-out westernization" and the rise of "modern Neo-Confucianism",in which the argumentation among Records of Travels in Europe,The Oriental and Western Culture and its Philosophy and "science and metaphysics" in 1923,which is full of theoretical significance and becomes the focus of my dissertation.The fourth and the fifth parts of the second chapter discuss the theoretical characteristics and contemporary meaning of modern Chinese cultural conservatism and summarize the predecessors' definition of the theoretical characteristics as well as the three major points it concerns which include the Sino-Western cultural problems,the old and new cultural issues and the issues of westernization and modernization.Generally speaking,the introspection and critique of cultural conservatism to the western modernity and instrumental rational reason are the treasures which are of worth assimilating and mirroring.The aesthetic character of modern Chinese cultural conservatism is the focus of this dissertation and the main foothold of the issue.The highlighting of its characteristic of aesthetic introspection-transcending,its new humanistic literature and cultural criticism which are full of critical spirit and its cultural trend,emphasizing the historical continuity and traditional effective value,is the unique complementation of the mainstream ideological trend of the May Fourth New Literature.The third part,the main part of this dissertation,from the third chapter to the eighth one,discusses in detail the influence of modern Chinese cultural conservatism on the Chinese modern literature theory/aesthetic ideology and its form of expression in the theory or ideology of Wang Guowei,Lu Xun(early),Liang Qichao(Later),Xue Heng School,Liang Shiqiu,Zong Baihua and so on.The third chapter discusses the "binary state" of Wang Guowei's literary and artistic thoughts under the influence of cultural conservatism and points out the real reason of his ideological fault as well as the extension of his "binary state" which is affected unavoidably by his four-year psychological translation career as well as the career as a teacher.In addition to its influence on "binary state" and his Jen-chien Tz'u-hua from 1908 to 1909,which establishes a systematic critical theory on the basis of the combination of western and traditional Chinese poetics,the cultural conservatism's impact is more obvious on Wang Guowei's "useless use".The significance of the analysis above is that,firstly,it can help us to understand some treacherous ambiguities of Chinese cultural thought since the May Fourth.Secondly,some ideological dilemmas faced by Chinese modern intellectuals,which is represented by Wang Guowei,are also related to the "binary state" of the May Fourth and at the same time,the development of Wang Guowei's "binary state" mirrors the openness and abundance of the thought of the May Fourth.The fourth chapter,concentrating on the critique of Lu Xun's early literary thought on the "enlightening modernity" from perspective of the"aesthetic modernity",explores the "anti-modernity" of Lu Xun's early literary thought.The"anti-modernity" of Lu Xun's early literary thought is not only reflected in "the evolution of Moro" and "ontology beauty" but also in "I-ness" and "I-country".About the five papers,which are put under the impact of Huxley's social Darwinism and Nietzsche's philosophy of anti-modernity by the scholars,written during his stay in Japan,embody Lu Xun's distinctive nationalist and cultural conservatism.With a strong cultural conservatism,the poetic world Lu Xun constructs,violating the temporal literary laws,shows the powerful vitality of his thought.The fifth chapter examines Liang Qichao's transformation from his early time,the"enlightening modernity" of "new novel" to his later period,"aesthetic modernity" of"aesthetic man" in the "second stage" of his academic life and it is proved mainly in the following aspects:First is the reflection of modern European literature and the critique of the naturalist literature.The second is the propaganda of the aesthetic and non-utilitarian outlook and the last is the selection of artistic self-discipline.The sixth chapter,proceeding from the explanation of the literary thoughts of Xueheng school,analyses its reflection on modernity from its idea of "thriving of the quintessence of Chinese culture and melting the knowledge"which embodies in the criticism of scientism based on the humanism and of romanticism on the classicism.A lot of valuable articles written by the scholars of Xueheng elucidate their views on literature to fight against the realism of new literature.General speaking,the theoretical system of Xueheng,mostly the interpretation of Babbitt's humanism so as to denounce the views of new literature,is short of its own creation and specific achievements so that the strength of its criticism is slightly weak.Liang Shiqiu's "rational control" and"literary discipline" are elaborated in the seventh chapter.Borrowing from Babbitt's new humanism,Liang Shiqiu's literary ideas,standing against the May-4th literature and revolutionary literature as well as the romance and chaos of proletarian literature with the theory of human nature,are the unshaken supporter of new humanism and the discipline in literature.Another aspect needed to be emphasized is that Liang Shiqiu's theoretical construction in literary criticism,such as his survey of literary phenomenon from new humanism is also unique and quite different from most of the writers and theorists.The eighth chapter concentrates on Zong Baihua's early representative theory of "aestheticism","artistic view of life" which takes the birth of poet's personality as its practice.His two models of view of life,life/universe and spirit/material,based on artistic view of life,are displayed in his articles published from 1919 to 1932.The dissertation takes "Goethe study",which means much for Zong Baihua,as the embodiment of "poet's personality" and this can be viewed as the continuation and completion of his "artistic view of life".The dissertation holds that the choices of modern Chinese cultural conservatism and the modern Chinese literary theory under its influence which include to maintain Chinese traditional culture,emphasize the national standpoint,advocate humanistic spirit,anti-scientism and guard the moral ontology and the religious feeling are of rich modern value.It can be manifested in following aspects:It begins the creation of the modern Chinese aestheticism and the multi-fusion model of the new Confucianism.What's more,it provides a classical reference system for the modern literary creation and criticism and indicates another choice except for the retro and Europeanization.It is a relatively large and complicated proposition to study the influence of modern Chinese cultural conservatism and its influence on modern Chinese literary theory.This dissertation attempts to study this phenomenon with the characteristics of the time and the all-round significance from the perspective of history and reason by exploring it from its discourse context,its appearance and development,its characteristics and modernity pursuit and its impacts on modern Chinese literary theories.The purpose of the research is to clarify the differences among cultural conservatism,radicalism as well as liberalism,to analyze its ideological characteristics and modern significance,to make its modernity of"anti-modernity" known to the world and particularly,to illustrate the choices and its literary ideology of the Chinese modern literary theorists under the influence of modern Chinese cultural conservatism so as to inspire more scholars to go deeper and obtain more in this field.The themes this dissertation concerns may be a supplement to the research situation before the emergence of a more complete and comprehensive literary theory of the May 4th.