New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

Liu Shi*

1

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2004, pp. 1-24.

© 2004 by the Sungkyunkwan University, The Academy of East Asian Studies

A b s t r a c t : The May Fourth Movement of 1919 marked an importantturning point in the traditional culture. It laid the path for the com-mencement of the modernization of the studies of Chinese Culture.As the component of the New Culture Movement (1915-19), ‘tostraighten out the Chinese Culture’ has an air of modern elements. Itis the guiding principle of the studies of Chinese Culture to adopthistorical insight and evolutionary mode of thinking. Scrupulousspirit and scientific methodology become the researchers’ initiativepursuit. The May Fourth Movement marked the change of the acade-mic thinking in the studies of Chinese Culture from traditional tom o d e r n .

* He is a professor in the Chinese Literature Department, Beijing Normal Uni-versity Tsinghua University and earned his doctor’s degree from the sameUniversity. He is specializing in literature of Tang and Song Dynasties, Chi-nese classical studies and Chinese calligraphy. He has more than 50 publica-tions in his name and his publications also include a collected work namedEssays of Yougao Building, monologues Selected Ci of Sushi and Calligraphy andC u l t u r e etc. Besides, he worked as a senior editor in China Press in Beijing in1999 and at present working as an assistant editor of Tsinghua UniversityJournal (Philosophy and Social Science). He was also a visiting professor atSogang University, Seoul, Korea.

The twentieth century is a period full of unprecedented uncer-tainties. In this period, the development of the modernization,which began in the middle of the nineteenth century, quickened itspace and accomplished its historic transition from traditional tomodern. From the Reform Movement of 1898 to the May FourthMovement of 1919, besides political changes, the ideology and cul-t u re also went through big transformations. In the process of thistransformation, western culture served as a catalyst as well as a bea-con light. At that time, with the guidance of western social politicalideas and philosophical culture, an inspired group of peopleresolved to social reforms denounced the decadent feudal customss t e r n l y. If resisting foreign aggression, saving the nation from subju-gation and making the country strong were the order of social poli-tics before 1919; it follows that the enlightenment of the nation withdemocracy and science as its core were the central theme of the cul-t u re current. In this influential book named “Academic Studies of QingDynasty (1644-1911): A Survey,” Liang Qichao stated at the begin-ning, ‘Not all thoughts can be developed into academic current ofthe times. Only those that contain considerable values and meet theneeds of the time can. In China, from Qin Dynasty (206-220BC) top resent, the study of Confucian classics of Han Dynasty(206BC-220AD), Buddhist philosophy of Sui Dynasty (581-618) and Ta n gDynasty (618-917), Confucian school of idealists philosophy of theSong Dynasty (420-479) and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and textualre s e a rch of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), can be called the academicc u r rent of the time.’1 Just as Lizhu, who had the good eyesight and

2 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

K e y w o r d s : May Fourth Movement; studies of Chinese Culture; acade-mic thought

1 . Liang Qichao, 淸代學術槪論 (Academic Studies of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): AS u r v e y), Oriental Publishing House, 1996.

could see everything 100 steps away clearly, but not those rightunder his nose,2 Liang was unable to take into his vision the NewC u l t u re Movement (1915-19) which marked a new chapter in thehistory of Chinese Culture since this book was written in 1920. Ofcourse, it is natural that this book, specialized in the academic stud-ies of Qing Dynasty, does not mention anything after, but we shouldknow that, compared with the four periods enumerated by Liang,the new thoughts of the May 4th Movement period with science anddemocracy as their slogan seemed important and significant sincethese new thoughts became the turning point of the Chinese culture .As a component of the social cultural life of the time, the studies ofChinese culture also underwent a series of historical changes. Thusbegins the modernization of the studies from traditional to modern.

I .

What is the trend of the studies of Chinese culture in the twentiethcentury? Let’s consider this question by instancing the studies ofclassical literature, which is one of the major parts of the studies ofChinese culture. Two decades before the May 4th Movement of1919, classical literature was still prevailing although reform move-ments and Revolution of 1911 dominated this period. Recently LiuNa, a contemporary literary historian, scrupulously straightened outthe literal history of this period, which has been always neglected.She said, ‘in this newly established and chaotic Republic of China(1912-49), political upheavals were leading the value criteria astray.Chinese traditional culture went through awful ordeal when socialsystem underwent through a big transformation, which was distinc-tive for ‘power-has-the-say’ politics. The literati of the times wereoverwhelmed by wilderment and agitation when they were trying

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2 . A word of Hanfeizi (Han-Fei-Tzu, 280-233B.C.), a legalist statesman andthinker of the late Warring States Period (475-211B.C.).

to regain their faith in traditional values. Not only those believers inthe traditional values were stubbornly defending the classical litera-t u re experiences, but also the young people nurtured by new ideasmanifested a trend of restoring old customs. During those yearswhen the monarchy was superseded by the republic, poetry becamethe last-ditch attempt to save the traditional culture from its doomsince public morality was no longer existed in the form what it usedto be. This attempt illustrated the usual way of thinking that litera-t u re was closely related to the national destiny. ’3 In this period, vari-ous types of classical literary works, such as poetry, c i,4 c l a s s i c a lp rose, and parallel pro s e ,5 etc were booming. Also the studies onthese literary forms were flourishing. There f o re, Liu Na calls thisperiod “the last glow” of the setting Chinese classical literature. By“the last glow,” she refers to the situation of works of various liter-ary forms. The studies of classical literature, even the studies of Chi-nese culture, had never stagnated, before or after the New CultureMovement (1915-19) even in its heyday.

Wang Yao has pointed out long ago that whom the fore ru n n e r sof the New Culture Movement criticized as ‘Tongcheng absurdities’and ‘Xuanxue monsters’ was not the Tongcheng School or XuaxueSchool in history but the conventional literati at that time that gotdizzy with their modeling on the ancients.6 Liu Na, in her bookmentioned above, also states similar opinion that over a long periodof time the public often showed their strong disapproval toward s

4 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

3 . Liu Na, “An End as Well as a Beginning終結與開端 1912-1919” in C o l l e c t i o non Chinese Modern Literature Studies, No.1, 1998.

4 . Ci, poetry written to certain tunes with strict tonal patterns and rhymeschemes and in fixed numbers if lines and words, originating in the TangDynasty and fully developed in the Song Dynasty.

5 . Parallel prose, a rhythmical prose characterized by parallelism andornateness.

6 . Wang Yao, “The Reassessment of the Chinese Classical Literature in theNew Culture Movement ‘ 五四’時期對中國傳統文學的价値重佑 ,” in L i t e r a r yWorks in Modern Chinese Literary History, Beijing: Beijing Publishing House,1 9 9 8 .

the traditional culture including classical literature, yet re reading thetwo manifestoes, A humble Opinion on Literary Reformation, and O nthe literary Revolution, reveals that the pioneers of the New CultureMovement such as Hushi, Chen Duxiu etc, denounced exactly theconventional literati of that time, not the classical writers in history.

Since traditional Chinese culture was always deficient in thespirit of science and democracy, the New Culture Movement withjust these two as its slogan, put forward the fighting against the tra-dition as its first move and was famous for this. The reason theyfought against the traditional culture was the lack of the elements ofdemocracy and science, not all its achievements. On the contrary, theleading figures of the New Culture Movement also derived a lot ofnourishment as well as anti-traditional elements from these veryachievements. Hu Shi said, ‘I believe there is wonder in the historyof poetry, from Tang poems to Song poems. Poetry is more close tocompositions and conversations. ... An important contribution of themajor poets of Song Dynasty to the history of poetry was that theyb roke free from the conventional metrical patterns developed inf rom Six Dynasties, and tried to create a conversational style. At thattime, I was under very good influence from reading these Songpoems and thus formed my own ideas that to compose a poem wasto write an assay and avoid meticulous and flowery language.’7

F rom the above, we can see that the main ideas of the major leadersof the New Culture Movement were all derived from classical litera-t u re, let alone the Movement itself embodied various academic cul-tural schools, such as cultural radicals, cultural conservatives, andcultural liberalists, the names, given by later generations, bear obvi-ous bias. No matter whether these names are proper or not, it is ah a rd fact that there exist various academic cultural schools. It isthese schools intermingled together that formed a sweet ensemble ofthe New Culture Movement. Yet during a long period, some people

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7 . Hu Shi, “To Be Compelled to Act Desperately逼上梁山,” in The Sections ofChinese New Literature, Shanghai: Shanghai Art Press, 1980.

believed that in the transition period only the ‘radicals’ pro m o t e dcultural development, while the ‘liberalists’ and especially the‘conservatives’ hindered its pro g ress. This kind of opinion is some-what biased, at least calls for our reconsideration. In the transitionperiod, there existed three kinds of ideas, that is, radicalism, conser-vatism and liberalism. In the twentieth century, these three schoolsw e re formed with abrupt social upheavals and world cultural turbu-lence as their background and manifested their diff e rent re s p o n s e sand foci towards these changes. It is these three schools worktogether that promote cultural development.’8 Among these, theidea of straightening out the national culture that developed simul-taneously with the New Culture Reform calls for special attention.Not because it served as one of the most important school of theNew Culture Movement, but because it embodies a new way ofthinking, new method and spirit of re s e a rch, which will greatly ben-efit our understanding of the transformation of academic studies.

I I .

During the New Culture Movement, ‘to straighten out ChineseC u l t u re’ as a kind of cultural ideas was first put forward by themembers of the Chinese Culture Association founded by Liu Shipeiand Huang Kan in early 1919, not in the New Culture camp. C h i n e s eC u l t u re, the journal of this Association, stated clearly its motto as ‘tocarry forward the indigenous learning of China’ in 1919 in Vol. 1. Atabout the same time there appeared the voice of ‘straightening outthe Chinese Culture’ in the New Culture camp. In April 1919 FuS i nian published an article on New Tre n d, a journal edited by himselfand his friends. In this article he pointed out that ‘in China no matterwhat school it is, if its thoughts are not well organized, it should be

6 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

8 . Tang Yijie, Preface, in Collection on the Studies of Chinese Culture in 20thcentury, Beijing: China Broadcasting Publishing House, 1995.

re o rganized first then people can understand and study them.’9 As acomponent of the New Culture Movement, the idea of ‘straighten-ing out Chinese Culture’ had modern elements from its very birth.In May 1919, Mao Zishui published a thesis named ‘The Spirit ofChinese Culture and Science.’ In this article he analyzed the function ofstudying Chinese Culture as ‘to know the reason why the academicthoughts and the Nation are so underdeveloped in order to find outthe way to improve them.’1 0 In November Hu Shi put forward theidea of ‘quintessence and dregs.’ He said, ‘if you want to know thequintessence and the dregs of Chinese culture, you must straightenthe culture by employing critical attitude and scientific method.’1 1 I nJanuary 1923 Hu Shi added, ‘the studies of Chinese Culture includeboth the quintessence and dregs in culture. Without a thoro u g hunderstanding of the dregs how can we know the quintessence?’1 2

Yu Xiangsen was also of the same opinion as Hu Shi’s. He said,‘ t h e re are two real kinds of culture, good and bad.’ He furtherexplained that the ‘the good culture refers to those works that con-tain profound meaning, perfect form, and plain style’ and are of‘ c reativity’ and ‘permanent value’; the bad culture refers to thoseworks that ‘only stresses the words and expressions and not themeaning, that only tries to imitate the traditional culture withoutbringing new ideas, and that only repeat former arguments to forc eothers to submit without telling the truth of life to move and enlightenothers.’ The good culture needs ‘our study and development,’ whilethe bad one should be thrown away ‘with an attitude of revulsion letalone study them.’1 3 All these ideas can be re g a rded as the basis of

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9 . Fusinian, “Several Books Access to Studies of Qing Dynasty淸代學問門經書幾

種,” in New Trend, Vol. 1, No. 4.1 0 . Mao Zishui, “The Spirit of Chinese Culture and Science國故和科學的精神,” in

New Trend, Vol. 1, No. 5.1 1 . Hu Shi, “The Significance of New Thinking新思潮的意載,” in Modern Genera -

t i o n, Vol. 7, No. 1.1 2 . Hu Shi, “Introducing to Quarter on Chinese Culture Studies‘國學季刊’發刊

宣言,” in Quarter on Chinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 1.

the thoughts of straightening out Chinese culture holding by theNew Culture Movement’s Supporters. These ideas also marked aclear discrepancy with the conservatives’ idea of battling against thewestern culture and advocating the culture quintessence re p re s e n t e dby Liu Shipei.

Traditionally writings were meant to convey truth and practicalknowledge of managing state affairs and Chinese intellectualsalways considered literature and literary studies as a natural methodof moral and political education. Modern literature started taking afirm root under a difficult circumstance when the invasion of thewestern big powers and national crisis were persisting, so the mostimportant task of the modern intellectuals was to save the countryf rom subjugation and to enlighten the people.’ They expect literaturecould invite western thoughts to enlighten people to rescue andbring the nation back on the right course. There f o re, the traditionalideas that literature functions in the moralization of the society havebeen developed and promoted to a great extent under the new cir-cumstances and historical conditions. A typical example to illustratethis point is the opening part of ‘On the Relationship between Novelsand Mass Education’ written by Liang Qichao in 1902. In that, Liangwrites that, ‘if you want to modernize the mind of the whole nation,m o r a l i t y, religion, politics, customs, learning and skill then first, youmust modernize the writing of novels; and the people’s mind is alsothe case, that is, the modernization of the people’ s dignity pre s u p-poses the modernization of the novels.’1 4 Several years later Wa n gZhonglin in his article ‘On The Relationship Between Novels And Politi -cal Reform stated,’ ‘saving the country starts with the novels i.e., thereform of the novels.’1 5 Although the focus of the above comments is

8 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

1 3 . Yu Xiangsen, “The Straightening Out of the Chinese Culture and the NewCulture Movement整理國故與新文化化運動,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 1,1 9 2 3 .

1 4 . Liang Qichao, “On The Relationship Between Novels and Mass Education論小說與群治之關系,” in Collected Works in Yinbing Study, Vol. 10, Beijing:China Press, 1989.

on novel, but it also means the creation of other literary forms aswell. Chinese Literature carries out its fight against the imperialismand feudalism and enlightening people. Thus it still remains thehighest form of literary creations and criticisms and the studies ofChinese culture as well. One can see the basic principle of the move-ment of “straightening the Chinese Culture,” a slogan at that timeserves as a good answer. Hu Shi carried on the slogan forward in his‘The Significance of New Thinking.’ He said, ‘re s e a rches on variousquestions should foster academic thoughts; straightening out ChineseC u l t u re should rebuild civilization.’ Mao Zishui in his article citedabove said, ‘only those people who follow the spirit of science canstraighten out Chinese Culture.’ Here the spirit of science refers tothat of academic learning to benefit the society. The study of pastc u l t u re should pave the way for the establishment of the futurecivilization principles and scholarly pursuits. The putting forward ofthis study under new and changed situation carries some modernelements of the time. But the dichotomy of quintessence and dre g sin culture and the original idea of making the past serve the pre s e n ta re obvious.

Liang Qichao’s idea of saving the country from subjugation,enlightening the people, focusing on the human destiny, and re f o r m-ing the society which resulted from feeling of anxiety about laggingbehind, another literary school re p resented by Wang Guowei wastotally against the former one. Influenced by Kant, Nietzsche,Schopenhauer and others Wang Guowei paid more attention to liter-a t u re for aesthetic taste and the independent characteristic of itsforms. He criticized ‘the recent literary works forget their own valuewhile boast as a mean of political education which demonstrate nod i s c repancy with philosophy. This kind of idea is sure to deserve thec h a rge of desecrating philosophy and literature. There f o re how canit be developed?’ He also denounced the idea in many articles such

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1 5 . Wang Zhongqi, “On The Relationship Between the Novels And PoliticalR e f o r m論小說與改良社會之關系,” in Novels Every Month, No. 9.

as Kang Youwei’s R e s e a rch on Confucius Social Reform as ‘an examplethat has no sense of literary works but political means.’1 6 Then headded that ‘it has a long history that arts contain no independentvalue. This is not the fault of ancient poets who were motivated bytheir intention of being loyal to the sovereign and faithful to thecountry and encouraging virtue and punishing the evils. The worksonly on arts usually received criticism without any exoneration.’1 7

This idea is a typical reflection of the intellectuals pursuing fre e d o munder the influence of the western ideas after Reform Movement of1898. This kind of pursuit was further developed after the MayFourth Movement. The reflection of this idea on literature is to stre s saesthetic conception of literature. For example, Yan Jicheng said, ‘theaim of arts cannot be mixed with the elements of utilitarianism.’1 8 YuXiangsen also pointed out that we should pay much attention tothose works, which convey no ‘profound meanings’ but can as well‘move people.’1 9 He added that the influence of the author himselfon the works also needs our attention because ‘literary works are thereflection of the author’ and ‘the true value of literature lies also inthe inner world of the author apart from the aesthetic appre c i a t i o n . ’2 0

Just as these learners discussed, these are the ‘aesthetic criteria’of those who studied Chinese Culture to treat ‘national literaryheritage.’ Based on the idea that arts are one of the aesthetic forms,

1 0 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

1 6 . Wang Guowei, “On Recent Academic Circle論近年之學術界,” in Last Will andTestament of Wang Guowei in Collected Works of Jing’an, Shanghai: ShanghaiAncient Books Bookshop, 1983.

1 7 . Wang Guowei, “On the Bounden Duty of Philosophers and Artists論哲學家

與美術家之天職,” in Last Will and Testament of Wang Guowei in Collected Workso f Jing’an, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Bookshop, 1983.

1 8 . Yan Jicheng, “Verses and Poems韻文及詩歌之整理,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14,No. 1, 1923.

1 9 . Yu Xiangsen, “The Straightening Out of the Chinese Culture and the NewCulture Movement整理國故學與新文學運動,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 1,1 9 2 3 .

2 0 . Wang Boxiang, “The Status of The Studies of Chinese Culture國故的地位, ”in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1923.

they stressed literature itself, aimed at the self-satisfaction of litera-t u re, and pursued the aesthetic characteristics of arts. They believedthat ‘the personality, ideas and behaviors etc are all shaped asa c c o rding to the time and circ u m s t a n c e s . ’2 1 They also analyzed therelations between author and his works from the angle of how doesthe inner world of the author is fused into his works and stre s s e dthe function of the author’s subjectivity on the works. This is notonly the development of the criteria of ‘making comments on thepublic figures and states affairs’ and those of human personality, butalso the reflection of the idea to ‘emancipate the personality’ and theachievement of the bre a k t h rough of the convention that ‘writingsa re meant to convey truth and practical knowledge of managingstate affairs.’ All these manifest the characteristics of the time andmodern ideas.

Still some learners connect the idea of stressing the aestheticvalue of literature with the exploration and demarcation of ‘litera-t u re’ as a concept during the New Culture Movement. They thoughtthat the concept of ‘literature’ always has broad and blurred mean-ings. From Zhang Taiyan’s On the Studies of Chinese Culture b e f o reRevolution of 1911is a collection of the articles of the learners ofthe May Fourth Movement in which many people tried to adoptscientific insight to separate literature from studies of Confucius,p h i l o l o g y, various schools of philosophy and historiography. Ite n l a rges the range of the studies of Chinese Literary history to poetry,novels, traditional opera and artistic essays and grants literature anindependent status. This not only ensured the scientific direction forthe development of present studies of Chinese classics, but alsomade people to pay attention to the aesthetic value of literary works.Wang Guowei’s On the Red Mansion, On Literary Wo r k s, and T h eHistory of Traditional Opera of Song and Yuan Dynasty w e re the pathb reaker and the intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement periodw h e re they clarified the artistic nature of literature. Hu Shi, Zheng

Liu Shi 1 1

2 1 . Yu Xiangsen, Ibid.

Zhenduo, Lu Xun and others as well can sense this in the works onc l a s s i c s .

The appearance of the idea that people try to explore, confirm,and enhance the aesthetic value of literature is a symbol of the fre e-dom of thought in the May Fourth Movement Period. This kind ofstudies never died out, although gone through a lot of misunder-standing, distortion, and blame because of its confrontation with thetraditional view of stressing the educational function of literature ,with the historic task of fighting against the imperialism and feudal-ism in the early part of the twentieth century and with the rampantidea of literature as an instrument and political vulgarization. Dur-ing the last two decades of the twentieth century when a new era ofliberation was coming, this kind of studies, full of vigor, became themain current of the time.

I I I .

Several years before the May Fourth Movement, Hu Shi bringf o r w a rd ‘the inductive theory,’ ‘historical insight,’ and ‘evolutionarymode of thinking. Nowadays, what our nation need the most is notthose novel ideas, profound thought, but the ways to do re s e a rch, todiscuss various phenomena, and to manage the country. In my opin-ion, there are three important ways that could as elixir for the deadlyevils; the inductive theory, historical insight, and the evolutionarymode of thinking.’2 2 Actually this is not Hu Shi’s opinion but asummary of academic theories and ideas of that time.

Inductive theory is a branch of logic and is a method to obtain-ing conclusion by starting from specific facts. It is the generalizationof the experiences and facts as a common way of knowing andgrasping the world. Hu Shi thought that only the studies in the re i g n

1 2 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

2 2 . Hu Shi, “The Diary on 25th Jan. 1914,” in Diaries of the Studies Abroad,Beijing: Business Press, 1947.

of Qianlong (1736-95) and Jiaqing (1796-1820) combined the induc-tive and deductive methods together. There f o re ‘among the oldstudies, only the plain learning of Qing Dynasty carried the scientifics p i r i t2 3 and ‘coincide with the scientific method,’2 4 but this coinci-dence was subconsciouses. For those learners of the May FourthMovement period who advocated the straightening out the Chinesec u l t u re, they tend to accept the western ideas. Zheng Zhenduo oncesaid, ‘it is Bacon who started the inductive observation. And it isbecause this idea that the modern thoughts get dramatic develop-ment and strengthen its foundation.’ ‘From the birth of the inductiveobservation, to be reliable and borne out of evidence were the cre e dof all learners.’2 5

Evolution, as a systematic theory, was born in Europe in thenineteenth century founded by Darwin. Later this theory wasemployed in social and political fields and thus formed a social Dar-winism theory. In China, Yan Fu was the first one to introduce thist h e o r y. The reformists of 1898 always used the modern ideas that‘ n a t u re selects and the fittest survive’ to motivate people to save thecountry from subjugation. Influenced by this, after the May FourthMovement an influential thought came into being. The re l i g i o u sidea that ‘Heaven changeth not, likewise; the Way changeth not’cannot exist anymore and doomed to die out. In literary field thiskind of evolutionary idea won popular support. Wang Guowei inhis P reface to History of the Traditional Opera of Song and Yuan Dynastysaid ‘every period has its own literature.’ This evolutionary mode ofthinking became the major principle to guide those learners to carryout their re s e a rches and to fight against the old outdated practices of

Liu Shi 1 3

2 3 . Hu Shi, “The Research Method of the Learners Of Qing Dynasty淸代學者的

治學方法,” in Collection on the Works of Hu Shi, Part 1. Vol. 2. East AsiaLibrary, 1928.

2 4 . Hu Shi, “On the Studies of Chinese Culture—an Answer to Mr. MaoZishui 論國故學—金答毛子水,” in New Trend, Vol. 2, No. 1.

2 5 . Zheng Zhenduo, “A New Way to Study Chinese Literature 硏究中國文學的新

途徑,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 17. Extra. 1927.

restoring ancient customs and to reform the literature. Hu Shi said,‘every dynasty has its own literature. They are all diff e rent from onea n o t h e r. This is not my personal opinion, but a universal truth in thep rocess of cultural evolution. ...... This is also the universal truth forthe literary evolution. Then I can talk about my idea of not imitatingthe ancients.’2 6 ‘Every period has its own literature. There are dis-c repancies in between. Although formed a succession, they nevercopy each other. Those plagiarisms can never be called real litera-t u re . ’2 7 Zheng Zhenduo also pointed out that ‘literature is in ap rocess of constant development and change; there f o re the studieson literature should also advance. The literature of one time shouldbe diff e rent from another. ’2 8 Hence every period should have itsown studies on literature, and these studies should also be devel-oped together. This calls for the reassessment of the past heritage HuShi emphasized this point in his The Significance of New Thinking b yciting Nietzsche; ‘Nietzsche said that this is an age of re a s s e s s i n geverything.’ Zheng Zhenduo also asked to ‘reassess and explore thevalue of the Chinese literature . ’2 9 ‘All the literary criticism and theold conventions should be thrown away. To study a kind of literaryworks or the works of certain time, you should build your ownb a s e s .3 0 At that time, most of the advocators of the New CultureReform including Lun Xun are also the supporters of evolutionaryt h e o r y. The evolutionary mode of thinking is not only adopted in there s e a rches on Chinese classics but also the studies on the history of

1 4 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

2 6 . Hu Shi, “A Tentative Discussion on Literary Reform文學改良芻議,” in C o l l e c -tion on the Works of Hu Shi, Part 1. Vol. 1, East Asia Library, 1928.

2 7 . Hu Shi, “A Historical View on Literature歷史的文學觀念論,” in Collection onthe Works of Hu Shi, Part 1. Vol.1. East Asia Library, 1928.

2 8 . Zheng Zhenduo, “A New Way to Study Chinese Literature硏究中國文學的新

途徑,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 17, Extra. 1927.2 9 . Hu Shi, “A Proposal for Rearrange the Chinese Literature整理中國文學的提

議,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1923.3 0 . Zheng Zhenduo, “The Construction of New Literature and the New Study

of Chinese Culture新文學之建設與國故之新硏究,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No.1, 1923.

l i t e r a t u re. When commented on one of the literary works named T h eChanges of Chinese Literature in the 1930s, Luo Zegen said, ‘before theMay Fourth Movement, most studies are guided by the idea of re t ro-g ression in ideology and the idea of the educational function of liter-a t u re, such as The Complete Literary History of Chinese Literature by XieWuliang and The History of Chinese Literature by Zeng Yi; after theMay Fourth Movement, most studies are guided by the evolution-ary theory in ideology and the literary idea of exploring the emo-tion, such as The History of Poetry edited by Lun Zhongkai and FengYuanjun, The History of Chinese Literature With Picture s by ZhengZhenduo and this book.’3 1

The historical insight produced by Hu Shi contains manymeanings. First it is combined with the evolutionary theory. He crit-icized openly in his The Significance of New Thinking that ‘the pastre s e a rc h e s on Chinese Classics seldom adopted the historicalinsights’; there f o re it was actually ‘a literary idea of historical evolu-t i o n . ’3 2 Besides this it also refers to ‘the employment of the historicalinsight to enlarge the range of the studies of Chinese Culture toinclude the custom and tradition of the last 3,000-4,000 years. Thehistorical insight broke through all the bias and observed every-thing historically, so the studies of Chinese Culture are re s p o n s i b l efor the task of straightening out all Chinese culture and thro w i n gaway the ignorance’s.’3 3 At the same time we should also considerthe background of the literary works. ‘A diff e rent type of literaturedominates in every age. There f o re, it is necessary to put the literaryworks back to its time and then study them. Without noticing itshistorical background, we would misinterpret the contents andmislead the followers.’3 4 ‘ We should give full attention to its value

Liu Shi 1 5

3 1 . Zheng Binyu, “The Changes of Chinese Literature中國文學流燮史,” in C o m -ments and Criticism, Vol. 2, No. 10, 1934.

3 2 . Chen Pingyuan, Chap. 5, in The Foundation of Modern Chinese Learning,Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1998.

3 3 . Hu Shi, “Introducing to Quarter on Chinese Culture Studies,” in Quarter onChinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 1.

of its time and assure its original value.’3 5

It is obvious that these three ideas considerably influenced thestudies of the twentieth century. As for Chinese Classics it is nodoubt that the complete reassessment of the traditional culture, theconstant enlargement of the re s e a rch areas, the continuous changesof the study angles, and the innovation of the methods and the criti-cism systems are all determined by the specific social thoughts ofevery period, but they are also closely related with the historicalinsights and the evolutionary theory.

I V.

‘The scientific spirit’ to ‘straighten out the studies of ChineseC u l t u re,’ advocated during the period of the May Fourth Move-ment, undoubtedly includes the self-conscious exploration of thespecific methods and means of ‘straightening out the studies ofChinese Culture.’ At that time many people mentioned the pro b l e mof ‘scientific method.’ In Fu Sinian’s Postscript written for MaoZishui’s the spirit of the studies of Chinese literature and Science, he putf o r w a rd the idea of ‘scientific doctrine and method’ to straighten outthe studies of Chinese literature. In August 1919 Hu Shi in one of hisarticle on the studies of Chinese literature-an answer to Mao Zishui w ro t e ,‘ We could achieve more if we would study Chinese literature bymeans of self-conscious scientific methods together with the scru p u-lous ones.’ In Liang Qichao’s Two Major Ways to Study Chinese Cul -t u re in 1923, he said, ‘We should use objective scientific method tostudy the knowledge of literature . ’3 6 The same year, in Zheng Zhen-duo’s The Construction of New Literature and the New Study of Chinese

1 6 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

3 4 . I b i d .3 5 . Gu Jiegang, “Our Attitude Towards the Studies of Chinese Culture,” in

Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1923.3 6 . Liang Qichao, “Two Major Ways to Study Chinese Literature治國學的兩條

大路,” in Collected Works in Yinbing Study, Vol. 39, Beijing: China Press, 1989.

C u l t u re, he expressed the similar idea that ‘the new spirit of ourstraightening out the studies of Chinese culture “every bit should bebased on evidence.” We should do some pioneering work in the lit-erary circle using the scientific method.’3 7 Mao Zishui said, ‘the term“scientific spirit” contains many meanings. The main idea is “to seekt ruth” which was often talked about by ancients. Anytime when youwant to expound a theory, you must justify them. Only when theevidences are adequate, can you make a conclusion. We shouldmake accurate and just analysis of certain fact without believingother people’s words blindly or sticking to our own opinion stub-b o r n l y. This all consist scientific spirit.’3 8

When one talk about the scientific method it is impossible notto mention Mr Hu Shi who talked about methods and being themodel. Liang Qichao, in his Academic Studies of Qing Dynasty i n1920, said, ‘the reason that I talked about the Confucius studies ofQing Dynasty are that this kind of studies employed the inductivemethod and scientific spirit. This method and spirit can bedescribed as follows: first, observe the subject carefully and thenfind out their valuable points. Second, pay attention to everythingrelated to the valuable points and list them for further investigation.T h i rd, put forward your opinion based on the result of the compari-son. Fourth, prove your thoughts by seeking all kinds of evidences.If it is affirmative then your opinion is acceptable, if not then dro pthat idea.’3 9 The historical insight also contains methodology. HuShi, in his The Grammar of Chinese, explained the meaning of thehistorical re s e a rch method. He divided this into two parts: ‘first,when you instance examples you must classify the examples

Liu Shi 1 7

3 7 . Zheng Zhenduo, “The Construction of New Literature and the New Studyof Chinese Culture新文學之建說與國故之新硏究,” in Novel Monthly, Vol. 14, No.1, 1923.

3 8 . Mao Zishui, “The Spirit of Chinese Culture and Science國故和科學的精神, ”New Trend, Vol. 1, No. 5.

3 9 . Liang Qichao, Academic Studies of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): A Survey,Oriental Publishing House, 1996.

a c c o rding to time. There f o re the Analects of Confucius should not beput together with the works of Oyang Xiu. Second, generalize theregulations of certain period and then compare them. If they are thesame then they can be put together. If not we should study thechanges of every period, trace them back and find out the re a s o n . ’4 0

Hu Shi took an honor and was known for is his exhortation whichwas produced under the influence of Huxley and Dewey after hisstudies on the learning of the Qing Dynasty. He said, ‘in scientificstudy you can put forward a bold hypothesis, but you must seekthe proof conscientiously.’ ‘Because without bold hypothesis, therewould be no new findings; without adequate evidence, it wouldnot able to convince people.’4 1

Apart from these, what need to be mentioned are another twomethods; systematic and comparative study.

In The Research Method of the Learners of Qing Dynasty by Hu Shi,he said, ‘every school of thoughts should have a system. They arenot chaotic bits of knowledge.’ Later in his I n t roducing to Quarter onChinese Culture Studies, Hu Shi clearly pointed out the systematicmethods to straighten out Chinese Culture, such as, index, closingentries, and special coverage, and also designed a particular holisticsystem for the studies of Chinese Culture which was a branch of thestudies of Chinese History. Although this was based on the biggerp roblem of Chinese History, his ideas were of great importance inplanning, designing, arranging, and studying of each specific field.

Liang Qichao also stressed the importance of the systematicmethod in his The Scientific Spirit vs. the Oriental and Western Culture.He said, ‘only those knowledge which formed a system can becalled scientific; and only the methods that taught people to seekt ruth can be called scientific spirit.’4 2 By ‘systematic,’ he meant the

1 8 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

4 0 . Hu Shi, “The Grammar of Chinese國語文法槪論,” in Collection on the Works ofHu Shi, Part 1. Vol. 1, East Asia Library, 1928.

4 1 . Hu Shi, “The Research Method of the Learners Of Qing Dynasty,” in C o l l e c -tion on the Works of Hu Shi, Part 1. Vol. 2, East Asia Library, 1928.

4 2 . Liang Qichao, “The Scientific Spirit vs. The Oriental and Western Culture

same with Hu Shi4 3 and also meant that ‘one must find out the simi-larities among the discrete subjects, and grasp the relations inbetween. Thus from what is already known to what is not.’4 4 H i smany academic writings in the last ten years of his life such as T h eEmotion Conveyed in Chinese Ve r s e s (1922), The Geographic Distributionof Modern Learning Conventions (1924) etc all adopted the systematicmethod. He himself was also very proud of ‘employing the methodof classifying the works according to their emotions inside to studythe old literary works. The ancients did mention sometimes butnever study them systematically. ’4 5 Even his works on specificauthors such as On Qu Yu a n (1922) and The Philosophy of Dai DongYu a n (1923) were greatly diff e rent from the old type of commentsand criticisms in collecting the evidence, designing the stru c t u re ,and describing the process. As for the form, these all articles containmodern stru c t u res. There f o re, systematic method is a kind ofre s e a rch method and without any doubt this method re p re s e n t sthe modern scientific research and rational spirit and has an air ofmodern l e a r n i n g .

So is the method of comparison is also very important. Compar-ison is a method that penetrates all the academic re s e a rches past andp resent home and abroad based on the common points of humanbeings. Take the re s e a rches on the history of ancient literature as anexample. The controversies such as the discrepancies between theliterary works of the north and south China, between Li Po and DuFu, the poems of Tang and Song Dynasties are all based on the

Liu Shi 1 9

科學精神與東西文化,” in Collected Works in Yinbing Study, Vol. 39, Beijing:China Press, 1989.

4 3 . Liang Qingchao, “The History of Chinese Culture國文化史,” in C o l l e c t e dWorks in Yinbing Study, Vol. 39, Beijing: China Press, 1989.

4 4 . Liang Qichao, “The Scientific Spirit vs. The Oriental and Western Culture,”in Collected Works in Yinbing Study, Vol. 39, Beijing: China Press, 1989.

4 5 . Liang Qichao, “The Emotion Conveyed in Chinese Verses中國韻文里頭所表現

的感情,” in Collected Works in Yinbing Study, Vol. 37, Beijing: China Press,1 9 8 9 .

method of comparison. Apart from this it also manifested the mod-ern vision and global idea re p resented by the phenomenon that theoriental studied the western world and combined it together. It is forthis reason Hu Shi stressed the method of comparison and statedthis point in his The Grammar of Chinese. He thought that besides thecollection of the rules of the ancient Chinese and the variousdialects, the comparison between them and the western languagessuch as English, Germany, French, Greek, and Latin as well as theoriental languages such as Mongolian, and Japanese also called forour attention. ‘There are many facts that cannot be explained clearlyonly by them; but when compared with others the facts turned outas plain as one’s nose without any explanation.’ In Introducing toQuarter on Chinese Culture Studies (1923) he added, ‘nowadays whenstudying Chinese Culture we should bre a k t h rough the conventionof looking at everything separately, instead, we must do comparisonc a re f u l l y. Firstly, as for methodology, the academic studies alre a d yaccepted the methods of western world, while we Chinese are still inthe process of learning the ropes bit by bit. At present we mustadopt their scientific method to better our re s e a rches. Secondly, asfor the materials, the western world provides experiences, achieve-ments, and methods that we can study and employ. Ignorance is thebiggest enemy of science and the comparison of various materials isthe best way to win the battle.’

F rom that time on, it became a common practice for the learnersto adopt the method of comparison. Chen Yinke and Fu Sinian whohad studied abroad all noticed this phenomenon closely. ChenYinke, in A Letter to My Sister, said, ‘if the studies can be done byusing the western method of studying languages to compare Chinesewith Tibetan languages, it will be much better than the great learnersof Qing Dynasty. ’4 6 In The Purport of the Researches on Languages inH i s t o r y, Fu Sinian advocated strongly the comparison method. ‘If

2 0 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

4 6 . Chen Yinke, “A Letter to My Sister與妹書,” in S t u d i e s, No. 20, Shanghai:Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1980.

you want to study the dialect of Sui and Tang Dynasty, you can startwith the translated terms in Sanskrit also the Tibetian language,Burmese, and Siamese actually all belong to the same family. In thef u t u re these are all indispensable materials for the establishment ofancient Chinese philology by way of comparative linguistics.’4 7

Meng Wentong, an orthodox historian, said in his memoir of the cre-ation of The Details of History that ‘it was a good way to compareChina and abroad when you want to study the h i s t o r y.’ ‘When Iw rote this book I was enlightened by the western history I had re a dit when I was a student. Combining this with the history of ourcountry I broke the conventional way of arranging history by divid-ing the ancient nations in Chinese into three sections.’4 8 Hu Shi’s T h eStudy Method and Materials in 1928 analyzed the shortcomings ofChinese learning by comparing it with the Western writings. Sever-al decades later, the comparative study that he advocated devel-oped into a wider and independent branch of m o d e r n learning,which was never dreamed of even by Hu Shi himself no matterhow bold his hypothesis was.

V.

Chinese learning including the studies of Chinese culturechanged its forms after the May 4th Movement. The old Confuciusstudies-led knowledge system that contains four parts was re p l a c e dby western way of classification quickly in as short as twenty years.4 9

Liu Shi 2 1

4 7 . Fu Sinian, “The Purport of the Researches on Languages in History歷史語言

硏究所工作之旨趣,” in Collection of the Researches on Languages in History, No. 1,1 9 2 8 .

4 8 . Meng Wentong, “Notes of Studies治學雜語,” in Learning Notes of MengWentong, Meng Mo, San Lian Bookstore, 1993.

4 9 . Liu Longxin, “The Establishment of Academic System and Chinese History學科體制與近代中國史學的建立,” in China in the 20th Century: Academics andSociety II, Jinan: Shandong People’s Press, 2001.

Many papers used western academic theories. Wang Guowei’ sComments on The Red Mansion (1904) and Notes and Commentaries onCi Poetry (1908) were all typical examples which adopted the pes-simistic philosophy of Schopenhauer and western modern aesthetict h e o r y. Many more types of studies were born during this period oftime. The rise of folklore and folk literature re p resented that theNew Culture Movement thought highly of the folk literature, popu-lar literature, and vernacular writings and were influenced byJapanese folklore studies. The Chinese-foreign communication histo-r y, although with the studies of the history of Yuan Dynasty andnorthwest history and geography as its background, was dire c t l yrelated with the archeological discovery of the western learners inthe northwest China at the beginning of the twentieth century. In thesecond and third decades of the twentieth century, traditional epig-raphy developed into modern archeology and the re s e a rches on var-ious dialects were carried out; these were all promoted by westerna rcheology and linguistic theories.5 0

Founded in January 1922, the studies of Chinese culture re s e a rc hinstitute of Beijing University is the earliest re s e a rch institution of itskind. The establishment of this kind of re s e a rch institute itself is atypical embodiment of the western impact. For example, Hong Shilvsaid, ‘when I traveled in Europe, I found that various re s e a rch insti-tutions have adequate re s o u rces to carry out a detailed re s e a rc hwork. Then I understand why the western studies reached so gre a tachievements. This is no sheer coincidence.’5 1 The new change in theacademic thoughts is the cause inside for its establishment. ShenJianshi, who was entrusted to build this institute by Cai Yu a n p e i ,pointed out that every kind of studies which aim at developing intoan academic school must be based on systematic re s e a rches and thiskind of re s e a rches depend on adequate materials.’ Every kind of

2 2 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

5 0 . Chen Yiai, Chap. 3, The Rise of Chinese Modern Research Institutions, Nanchang:Jiangxi Education Press, 2002.

5 1 . Hong Shilv, “The Future of the Oriental Learning東方學術之將來,” in T h eFive-Year-Anniversary Supplement to Morning Newspaper, December, 1923.

re s e a rch ‘needs special institute to shoulder the re s p o n s i b i l i t y,enough funds to run, versatile learners to carry out, and a consider-able period of time to complete.’5 2 At the same time, the establish-ment of the modern institute will promote the development of thesystematic re s e a rches. The article, I n t roducing to Quarter on ChineseC u l t u re Studies, which contains many new ideas and theories, actual-ly is the right fore w o rd to the journal of the studies of Chinese cul-t u re re s e a rch institute of Beijing University by Hu Shi. And from thevarious publications of the studies of Chinese culture re s e a rch insti-tute of Beijing University including the Quarter on Chinese Culture,we can find the change in academic environment from tradition tomodern. As for the forms, these articles use both the classical andvernacular Chinese and combine the modern way of writing whichemploy footnotes and the traditional way which use ‘preface’ and‘postscript.’ These articles were written both by Chinese authors andf o reign writers. As for the articles themselves, the ideas and there s e a rch method were influenced by the west and showed the char-acteristic of changing to modern re s e a rches. For example, Wa n gRongbao’s R e s e a rch on Gegeyuyumogu5 3 is a novel thought, which,under the influence of Transliteration of Sanskrit and Ancient ChineseP ro n u n c i a t i o n s5 4 by a Russian writer named鋼和泰, studied about San-skrit of Six Dynasties (222-589 A.D.) and the Chinese pro n u n c i a t i o n sin Japanese and ancient version of Pilgrimage to the We s t and there-f o re put forward a new idea of Chinese pronunciations. Lin Yu t a n gafter reading Wang’s article5 5 w rote a paper to mend it by using the

Liu Shi 2 3

5 2 . Shen Jianshi, “A Proposal to Build the Studies of Chinese Culture ResearchInstitute of Beijing University,” in A Collection of Academic Papers by ShenJ i a n s h i, China press, 1986.

5 3 . Wang Rongbao, “Research on Gegeyuyumogu歌戈魚虞模古讀考,” in Q u a r t e ron Chinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 2.

5 4 . Gang Huatai, “Transliteration of Sanskrit and Ancient Chinese Pronounci-ations,” in Quarter on Chinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 1.

5 5 . Lin Yutang, “After Reading Research on Gegeyuyumogu of Wang Rongbao,”in Quarter on Chinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 3.

method of comparing the Chinese and western pronunciations andstudying the dialects of Japan, Korea, and Annam. Liu Fu’s A nExperiment of the Change of the Four Tones in Chinese5 6 adopted themethod of phonetic experiments that were newly invented by E u ro-pean re s e a rchers. This article introduced this method to China.5 7

With the foundation of many universities such as, Southeast Univer-sity (1923), Tsinghua University (1925), Xiamen University (1926),Zhongshan University (1927), Central Research Institute (1928), Ya n-jing University (1928), and Qilu University (1930) etc. many re s e a rc hinstitutions were established successively. They are getting integrat-ed into the world academics.5 8

Although May Fourth Movement period had long past, itsinfluence still remains powerful. It ranks as one of the most impor-tant patriotic movements in the political history since it was againstimperialism and feudalism, as one of the essential cultural move-ments in the cultural history since it advocated democracy and sci-ence, as one of the key literary movements in the literary history andestablished a new branch of learning. Looking back on the pasteighty years after the May Fourth movement, we find that it devel-oped from the old learning and are completely diff e rent from the oldones in motivation, goal, standard, criteria, ideology, methodology,s t ru c t u re, and way of writing and expression. It is just these discre p-ancies that made the May Fourth movement the component of themodern culture of the twentieth century. All these changes got itsfoundation in the May Fourth Movement period.

2 4 New Trend of Academic Thinking in the Studies of Chinese Culture after the May Fourth Movement

5 6 . Liu Fu, “An Experiment of the Change of the Four Tones in Chinese,” inQuarter on Chinese Culture, Vol. 1, No. 3.

5 7 . Chen Yiai, Chap. 3, The Rise of Chinese Modern Research Institutions, Nanchang:Jiangxi Education Press, 2002.

5 8 . Sang Bing, “Research on the Studies of Chinese Culture of the Late QingDynasty and the Republic of China, Chen Yiai,” in The Rise of Chinese ModernResearch Institutions, Nanchang: Jiangxi Education Press, 2002.