The prosperity of literature in the Republic of China mainly benefited from the New Culture Movement, and major anti-feudal innovation movements such as the Revolution of 1911 and the May 4th Movement liberated people's minds.
Hu Shi, Liang Qichao, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Lu Xun were all founders of the New Culture Movement. These western-educated people launched an ideological and cultural innovation and literary revolution movement that was "anti-tradition, anti-Confucianism and anti-classical Chinese", which was called new education in those days.
19 15 September15 Youth Magazine was founded in Shanghai. Chen Duxiu is the editor-in-chief, and Li Dazhao is the main contributor, participating in the editing work. He published an article in Youth magazine, advocating democracy and science and opposing feudal culture, which opened the prelude to the New Culture Movement.
The exposition of the basic contents of the new culture movement, namely, four propositions and four oppositions, truly reflects the "newness" of the new culture movement. Namely:
First, advocate democracy and oppose autocracy.
Second, advocate science and oppose superstition.
Third, advocate new morality and oppose old morality.
Fourth, advocate new literature and oppose old literature.
The late New Culture Movement entered a new stage of propagating the October Revolution and Marxism.
At the same time, there has also been a polarization between the left and the right in the cultural circle.
During this period, China literature reached a peak in honor. A large number of writers emerged, including Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Cao Yu, Lin Yutang, Guo Moruo, Lao She, Mao Dun, Zhu Ziqing, Shen Congwen, Xu Zhimo, Liang Shiqiu, Qian Zhongshu, Yu Dafu, Zhang Jinling, Bing Xin and others, which greatly influenced modern culture and literature in China.
Famous works such as Diary of a Madman, Midnight, Camel Xiangzi, Four Generations of a Family, Family Spring and Autumn, and Love in the Whole City appeared.
Accompanied by the New Culture Movement, a vernacular revolution about writing has also been vigorously launched. When we look back on this revolution now, we have made great contributions to the literary reform and played an irreplaceable positive role in the development of literature. Hu Shi, who has traveled all over the world, has also expressed his opinion: "From the historical evolution of this world, vernacular literature is authentic in China literature and will be a necessary weapon for future literature.
As one of the all-rounders and generalists, Hu Shi once expressed the view: "From the historical evolution of this world, vernacular literature is authentic in China literature and will be a necessary weapon for future literature."
At this stage, there are also leftists and Rightists. Left-wing writers are led by Lu Xun, and their articles are mainly critical and satirical. The right wing represented by Xu Zhimo is far from reality, but it has more literary charm.
Then came the names of literary revolution, revolutionary literature, revivalism and conservatism.
The literati at that time were very different from today in their tolerance, mind, knowledge and taste. They are crazy or crazy, hot or stubborn, but they are all heroic and funny, and they are all guarded by the word "scholar". Anti-imperialism and feudalism, striving for independence and nationalism are its main colors!
This period was the second "Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period" in China. The so-called troubled times make heroes, and troubled times also make literature!