Past Experience And Future Possibilities About The Research Of May 4^th Movement In The Recent Century

How to evaluate the May 4th Movement is always a senstive issue for the Chinese historians,it is concerned by the historians not only from the mainland, Taiwan,Hongkong and Macao but also from the western counties,The May 4th Movement is an overpassed historic event,but its new ideas,such as science and democracy,have accompanied us ever since.The May 4^th Movement we are discussing today is the one narrated by the historians.As a text of historic research, the movement was narrated in different ways.So we can say its image in our mind is complicated and formed in many layersThe research of the movement has started since the 1920s,so we can say the history of its reseach is nearly as long as the movement itself.Besides the general annual celebrations ever since it happened,the reseach upsurges appeared successively in the 1930s,the 1950s till the beginning of the 1960s,1979 till the beginning of the 1980s and in the period before and after 1989. The reseach during these periods achieved a lot in the fields such as the cause of its breaking out,its historical background,its leadership and nature,and the effect and influence of the people in different classes,which was represented by many monographs,biographies and collections of academic theses。The May 4^th Movement is of epochmaking significance in the Chinese history.A hundred schools of thought contend in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods is the origin of the ancient Chinese thoughts,while the May 4^th Movement is the origin of the modern Chinese thoughts.People didn't attach due importance to the reseach of the movement as the result of the historical reason,especially during the period of the the Great Cultural Revolution.The research of the May 4^th Movement is extremely insufficient compared to its position in the Chinese history.Obviously the research of the May 4th Movement is not satisfying.They like to present their arguments from today's point of view and their needs,and then try their best to find the foundations in the history materials.While they are making their research in a new way,they always neglect the combinations of the new research way and the unearth,analysis and use of the history materials.The existing research productions are mainly about the culture,politics and thought,but they don't appraise intensively and scientifically the economic situations,the dispute of the North and South governments,the diversity of different areas and the education reform of the time.Some research foundations even copy the existing conclusions, make their own judgement according to some judgements of revolutionary leaders or interprete the existing conclusions,which was a common phenomenon in the research of Chinese modern history.A number of writings sometimes excerpt the relative judgement of Chairman Maozedong and then check whether these judgements accord with the fact when they treat of the meaning of the May 4^th Movement. What's worse,some productions are unilateral because they overemphasize the effect of one period,one group of intellectuals and one thought,but neglect the effect of the other period,the other group,the other thought.So far there have been very few masterpieces on the research of the May 4^th Movement,especially those written by the historians of the new generation.In the research of the May 4^th Movement there are some fields neglected before and also some fields needed to be further deepened,further expanded and anewedly recognized.In this article I think we should take consideration into the combination of the histories of politics,society and culture.And we should try our best to make a new breakthrough in the several fields such as the spirit of the movement,the relations between people from all walks of life and the movement,the relations between ancient and modern cultures and the movement,and the study of different figures of the movement.