The Vernacular Movement In The Eyes Of "New Youth" Readers

The Vernacular Movement is one of the most important issues in the May 4~thh New Culture Movement.For a century,conservatism held that the abandonment of classical Chinese text itself caused a break-up of tradition,and vernacular Chinese even had to pay for the more and more radical tendency in modern history.However,the revolutionary view held that the replacement of classical Chinese with vernacular Chinese is reform and innovation of history,the establishment of vernacular Chinese extended and interpreted the achievements of the modern beginning.Significant divergence existed as each side sticking to their own ground.Only by returning to the historical scene and restoring its original appearance can the movement be put in place.As a‘golden signboard'of the May 4~thh New Culture Movement,the journal New Youth is endowed with a unique character of historical scene,which may become a point to retrace its origin.The readers of the New Youth,because of their advantages of presence in this historical scenario,provide another means to get access into the movement.By the means of analyzing the correspondence column of the New Youth,we can examine the movement in the eyes of the readers.The group who cared about the language reform was mainly constituted by adult between 20 and 30,living in big cities like Beijing,Shanghai,Chengdu with high educational background or oversea study experience.They had different cognitive orientations and attitude such as support,opposition,support with reserved objection,and unclear attitude.Among them,the proportion with compromise orientation is as high as 35%which deserves attention.All these feedbacks attested that the Vernacular Movement did cause social repercussions at that time.However,the detailed examination of the readers,such as Chang Naide,Zhang Houzai and Zhou Hu,revealed that their standpoints did not fundamentally changed before and after the discussion.The influence of the Vernacular Movement to shape the readers had the problem of validity.According to the the New Youth readers'diary,memories and literary works,some key point of the movement under the view of the New Youth can be examined:firstly,on the early publication of the article the discussion of the literature reform,it had little social influence which was indicated from the memories of Zheng Chaolin,Yun Daiying,Zhang Guotao;secondly,on the appearance of the Shuang Huang Letter,according to Luo Jialun,Lan Zhixian,Dai Zhuyi,Yi Zongkui's response,the social influence is negative;thirdly,even in the‘the debate between Lin and Cai'which the innovationists overcame the conservatives,they were basically neck and neck in competition from the description of Yang Zhensheng,Li Jiye,Shu Xincheng.It can be seen that the influence of the Vernacular Movement had certain limitations.From the New Youth readers'response,the Vernacular Movement was born with complex diversity and the Vernacular Chinese had limitations in its social impact.Therefore,the Vernacular Movement shall be reviewed practically and realistically without exaggerated aspect.Those had logic flaws when thinking the innovationists got the triumph of the movement simply by making a clarion call or when thinking the Vernacular Movement eliminated all the possibilities of traditional Chinese.At least,these viewpoints cannot found their support from the readers of the New Youth.However,in fact,the Vernacular Movement soon achieved rapid success which proved the complexity and diversity of the Vernacular Movement from one side.Obviously,the study that employs only one perspective or only one field of vision cannot retrace the panorama of the movement.Further study should return to its historical context and consider it in a deeper and broader social context.