Study On The Thoughts Of Literature Radicalism During The May-4^th Movement

In1917, the delivery of the revolutionary thoughts on literature declared theopening of the vigorous and great literary revolution. A group of literary activistswere in the dominant position, among whom were Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu. Thoseintellectuals, who boasted the experience of studying in European and Americancountries or Japan, were deeply influenced by the thoughts of foreign natural scienceand literature. Darwin’s theory of evolution exerted great influence on China. Theevolutionism, which should be applied in the fields of nature and science, wasingenuously and mistakenly interpreted by Yan Fu, and then has become the universaltruth of everything in China and the firmest theoretical basis for the transition ofChinese literature from traditional to modern one. Meanwhile, it provided reasonableexplanation for activists in the May4thMovement to overall reject the old literature.A clear-cut line was drawn between the traditional and modern literature.From the revolutionists of Westernization Movement to the feudalscholar-bureaucrats who started to look into the world much earlier were trying theirbest to save China to be carved up by a series of movement seeking being strong andprosperous. The great intellectuals gained deeper knowledge of the country’s fatethrough the learning of the level of materials to the revolution of political mechanism.They showed common anxiety in their mind towards the society, in which theystarved for some way to change the dull situation. They learned from failure that theenlightenment of thoughts was the primary problem to be solved. During the process,the radicalism which should be adopted in political fields appeared in the view ofliterature after propagations and assimilation. The ancient mission of literature andthe evolutionary literary viewpoints provided the enlightenment with the best tool.The way, the form and the content of literary revolution were conceived in their heartwith the help of foreign enlightening resources. As for the linguistic forms, theyadvocated modern vernacular Chinese instead of classical Chinese, then furtherrejected the traditional literature on the content, and proposed learning from the western countries and civilian literature. With the promotion of community forces, theindividual and decentralized power were converged into a great one, forming a trendof radical thoughts.