The Restudy Of The May Forth Movement In Tianjin: From The Perspective Of Civil Society

Civil society is a theory which originates from the west.After its introduction into China,this conception has been used and perfected for 20 years.The theory of civil society provides a new perspective for Chinese modern history and becomes an efficient explanatory framework under the endeavor of Chinese scholars.As one of the earliest treaty ports of China,Tianjin has an early and relatively high-level modernization,accordingly,the appearance of Tianjin’s civil society is early and the development is mature. We can make a comprehensive analysis of the interrelationship and effect of the gentry merchant and student and thus seek internal situation of civil society if we research into the May Forth Movement in Tianjin.Civil society showed various duality in the May Forth Movement:Students boycotted classes,gave speeches on the street and petitioned the government with their patriotic enthusiasm,nevertheless,they had a lot of radical and violent behaviors such as inner power struggle,the conflict between the police and the act of burning Japanese products.Merchants sacrificed themselves to close up shops and boycott Japanese products,however,some businessmen overtly agreed but covertly opposed.Civil society showed both consistency and discord internally.As for the impact,students made a great momentum,however,the actual effect was heavily discounted.Businessman played an unneglectable role in this movement integrally despite of someone’s selfish behaviors.At last,the union of the inner civil society collapsed and was replaced by divergence and discord,which was represented by the conflict between student and businessman.In addition,if we consider civil society as a unified whole,we could see the relationship between society and state such as benign interaction,conflict and game.As a whole,the frequency and degree of the conflict between civil society and state in the May Forth Movement was much bigger than that of the benign interaction of both side.Different position led to different thinking angle of both side,and that was the resource of contradiction.Facing with the awakened national consciousness and arising patriotic enthusiasm,the government took measures to prevent and suppress this trend,which caused constant conflict and the confrontational relationship between civil society and state.