心 8 THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION .9 economy was quickened.Investment in land showed some slight signs of of new cities.The speed of urban growth in the first few decades of this cen- shifting to that in industrial,commercial,and financial enterprises.New joint- tury was remarkable.Peking for example had a population of about 600,000 stock corporations to foster industries grew faster than before.Toward the in rorg when the May Fourth Incident took place in that city,while four years end of the second decade of this century the Chinese national dollar (yaan) later,in 1923,it had increased to I,roo,000,almost twice the rorg figure.15 had largely displaced the Mexican dollar,and thus provided a uniform currency Because of civil wars (between 19I5 and 1922 there were ten major civil wars over some areas of the nation and gave impetus to the development of financial which lasted altogether for forty-eight months),calamity,and the collapse of activities.More modern-style banks were established in big cities and many the rural economy the number of landless peasants and unemployed increased. old-style money shops were transformed into banks.The years 19I2,19I5,191g, Many of these impoverished people left their villages and became professional 1920,and rgzr were landmarks in the development of modern Chinese money soldiers,others became bandits or roamers.This uneasy population nourished and credit system.And a tendency toward capital concentration and growth warlordism,which reached its most rapid growth in the years just prior to the of the urban economy began to manifest itself.Yet this economic transforma- May Fourth period.At the same time,a factor of fundamental long-range im- tion was still most rudimentary and spotty.Although the economic character portance began to assert itself in Chinese society.As the power of landlords and of the big cities became partially that of the twentieth-century West,the vast the old gentry waned,a new intelligentsia with some degree of modern West- rural districts of the hinterland retained the character which they had had in ern knowledge emerged.e In the ten years after 1go7,when the new Western- antiquity and in the Middle Ages.The agrarian economy was beginning to style educational system started functioning on an appreciable scale,there were give way,but it still had not been replaced by a modern economic system.A some 1o,000,000 persons who had received or were receiving the new education pattern of socioeconomic change embracing,successively,destruction,clearance in one form or another (see Appendix A).Their various contacts with modern of ruins,reconstruction,and reforms was expected in China at the beginning Western civilization and increasing alienation from the traditional ideology of the twentieth century.But on the contrary,shortly after the end of World and ruling class enabled them to lead other restless people in a"save China" War I,the international conditions which had fostered this economic surge in crusade.The movement reflects the regrouping of all these social forces. China ceased to exist.With the increase of Japan's influence and the return Meanwhile,the political situation of China after I9r5,both internal and of other powers to the Chinese market,China's infant industries ran into great external,provided a fertile soil for a revolt.During and right after World difficulties and showed violent ups and downs.14 Conflict of interests between War I sentiments of nationalism and democracy prevailed in the world and native and foreign economic forces tended to be acute.This sequence of eco- in Asia in particular.Woodrow Wilson's political idealism,such as his advo- nomic transformation,national prosperity,crisis,and struggle for survival sig- cacy of the abolition of secret diplomacy,the guaranty of the political inde- nificantly affected contemporary political and cultural activities at each of its pendence of small states,and national self-determination,had great appeal to stages. Chinese intellectuals.The hopes of the Chinese were also reinforced by the Accompanying these economic changes were important social ones.The new tide of political changes in Europe,the increase of new republics,the traditional equilibrium of social forces in which the old oligarchy maintained rise of women's suffrage,the devices of initiative,referendum,and recall,and its power by way of a united front combining,on the one hand,the imperial industrial democracy.But when the Great Powers attempted to re-establish house or military groups and,on the other,the landlords,with the gentry as a their colonial policies at the Paris Peace Conference,the Chinese fell from a middle group,was thrown seriously off balance.The civil service examination The term"intelligentsia"(chih-shih fen-tan),used here in a broader sense than in the West. system had been abolished in 1go5 and no new effective recruitment system ern wsage,refers to the intellectuals as a fuid group,including the more or less well educated had been substituted.Able and ambitious young men and women were often people,teachers,scholars,the students in middle or higher schools,and the gentry,as well as other professionals such as journalists,writers,artists,and lawyers.In later discussion we will use unable to enter the government through normal channels.Self-sufficient and the words "old gentry"to denote the traditionally educated literati who,owning land or not, cooperative family and village devices which customarily provided remedies formed part of the local ruling forces over all the country or remained bureaucratic candidates; and the "new intelligentsia"or "new intellectuals"to denote those with a somewhat new education for the society in times of stress were unequal to a crisis of this magnitude. or Western learning.The use of these terms in China seems to be particularly meaningful because New merchants,industrialists,and urban workers arose along with the growth about 8o per cent of the Chinese people were illiterate throughout the period of the May Fourth Movement
CH.I INTRODUCTION 11 10· THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT visionary hope to deep despair,and nationalist feeling ran higher than ever Significance of the Movement in Historical Perspective before.On the other hand,revolutions breaking out in many countries during In Chinese history,a number of events may be found which bear some this period demonstrated the possibilities of change by popular uprisings.The similarity to aspects of the May Fourth Movement.Examples of students'taking Russian October Revolution of I9r7 and socialist revolts in Finland,Germany, a lead in criticism of and interference in political affairs are not scarce.The Austria,Hungary,Bavaria,and other countries influenced the political climate first recorded incident of gatherings in village schools to criticize the govern- of the East.The "Rice Riots"of Japan occurred in August I9I8,and Korea experienced her "March First Movement"in 1grg.Two months before the ment occurred in 542 B.c.,nine years after the birth of Confucius.The criticism was tolerated by the current premier of the Cheng State,Tzu Ch'an.His policy May Fourth Incident,the Third Communist International was organized and of toleration has since been praised by most Chinese historians.17 In the first its First World Congress was held in Moscow. In contrast to this revolutionary flux abroad,the Chinese lived in a dark century B.c,during the Former Han period,thirty thousand students at the Imperial College,led by a student Wang Hsien,protested against the punish- domestic political scene.Party politics were tried for the first time in the Re- ment of an upright censor by the government.This was the first case in Chinese public,under the manipulation of warlords.In I9r4 Parliament was dissoived and the constitution was annulled by the warlord president Yuan Shih-k'ai. history of direct interference in domestic politics by students.During the sec- ond century A.D,in the Later Han period,student Kuo T'ai and others allied In 19I5 and 19r7 two unsuccessful monarchical restoration movements were with officials and intellectual leaders indulging in criticism of the government staged.Yuan's abolition f the Republic lasted eighty-three days and the restora- tion of the Manchu boy Emperor to the throne by Chang Hsuin,the tuchun and eunuchs,and later several hundred officials and students were imprisoned of Anhwei Province,ended in twelve days after Chang's pig-tailed troops in and executed.It was the first significant factional controversy in China.18 Stu- Peking were disbanded.Thereafter,while the whole country was in fact con- dent movements became more common than ever.before in the Sung dynasty trolled by local competing tuchuns,the power of the central government was (960-1279).In II25 students at the Imperial College led by Ch'en Tung (1o87 left in the hands of Tuan Ch'i-jui,the wardlord who was Yuian's long-time II28)petitioned the Emperor to execute the premier and military leaders, accusing them of mishandling state affairs;but their efforts were in vain.In subordinate.Tuan was the leader of the Anfu Club,a political group of war- lords and bureaucrats with Japanese financial support.To oppose the Peking the following year,Ch'en and several hundred other students led hundreds of regime,Sun Yat-sen established the rival Military Government in Canton on thousands of ordinary citizens as well as some soldiers in an appeal to the Emperor to punish the premier and to adopt a strong foreign policy of resist- September I,1917.From this time on,a number of indecisive civil wars between ance to the aggression of the northern invaders.There was a violent attack on the North and the South stirred the country.Shortly before the May Fourth the Emperor's attendants,several score of whom were killed.As a result,the Incident,a fruitless and wearisome internal peace conference between Peking government executed some citizens held responsible for the violence,but was and Canton began its lengthy deliberations in Shanghai under the encourage- forced by public opinion to change its foreign and domestic policies.This was ment of Woodrow Wilson,an ironical foreshadowing of a similar settlement the first time that Chinese students in schools had led ordinary citizens to in- suggested by the United States after World War II.Psychologically,the ups terfere in foreign policy.Ch'en Tung and many other students were later put and downs of the two peace conferences in Shanghai and Paris disturbed Chi- to death.However,half a dozen similar student movements occurred during nese social sentiments to a high degree.It should be remembered that,through- the latter part of the Sung dynasty and it is recorded that students took part in out the years following the roI Revolution,Chinese political thinking and be- havior had not been very far from tradition.Most of the people were still the strikes.Cases of professors encouraging or supporting student movements victims of oppressive ultraconservative officials and were,as before,obedient to against the government are also found in the Sung records.Following such examples,student movements of the Ming dynasty (1368-1643)were continu- authority,to armed force,and to the traditional ethical and political dogmas. This political chaos and backwardness convinced the new intellectuals that vast ously involved in the feuds of political factions.20 How did this phenomenon of student interference in Chinese political and fundamental reforms were necessary to rejuvenate the old nation. affairs arise?In a monarchy without a genuine legislature or system of popular
12. THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION ·13 representation,it was perhaps inevitable that the educated minority should lar.Then in the Ch'ing period (1644-rorr)classical scholarship rose to oppose under duress seek to express itself.And,in fact,the government-supported the Neo-Confucianist philosophy. schools,through their faculties and student bodies,did throughout Chinese Despite all the precedents,however,the May Fourth Movement was unique history occasionally assume in moments of crisis the role of spokesmen for pub- both in breadth of activity and in depth of significance.2 First of all,this was lic opinion.This practice has been generally approved by Chinese commentators the first time Chinese intellectuals recognized the need for a complete trans- both in earlier periods and in modern times.In the seventeenth century,for formation of traditional Chinese civilization.Before China came into contact example,the famous scholar and thinker Huang Tsung-hsi (16ro-1695)actu- with the modern West,her civilization had never been seriously challenged ally advocated a political system in which schools would perform the functions in toto by any foreign influence except Indian Buddhism,which had touched of informed tribunals of public opinion or of a kind of legislature,a system closely many aspects of Chinese intellectual and social life but had affected the he considered to have originated in the ancient Golden Age.21 political and economic systems less.Several hundred years of advance in science This traditional concept of the students'political mission was accepted by and other spheres,and many additional factors arising from differences be- the students in the May Fourth Movement as their publications repeatedly tween the societies made the West's impact on China beyond comparison. stated.22 But there is an important distinction between the twentieth-century After the Opium War of 1840-42 had demonstrated the irresistible power of student movements and their traditional prototypes.The meaning of"school" the West,leading Chinese intellectuals began to awaken to the fact that China and"student"in old China differed from that in general usage at the time of needed to learn Western scientific technology,though they held that traditional the movement,and,in fact,from that at the turn of the nineteenth century Chinese institutions and traditional thought were superior to their Western when the school system was reformed to accord more with Western practice. equivalents and did not need reform.This first stage of China's response to The traditional government schools,which generally commenced at,in modern Western civilization ended after her defeat by Japan in 1894-95.From that terms,the middle school stage,were closely linked to the old civil service exam- time on,young Chinese intellectuals,impressed by the achievements of the ination system,and functioned both as reservoirs of civil servants and as insti- Meiji Restoration in Japan,believed that,in addition to learning scientific tech- tutes for learning.Hence,they were attended by more adult and by fewer niques,China should also model her laws and political institutions after those juvenile literati than their modern counterparts.These adult literati were of the West.They still maintained that Chinese philosophy,ethics,and the more concerned with public affairs than the ordinary younger students who fundamental principles of the traditional society,more basic and substantial, were commonly dispersed throughout the land with their private tutors.That in their view,than laws and institutions,should not be changed.This idea is,the traditional Chinese private tutorial schools (ss-sh),usually isolated, was well summarized by Chang Chih-tung in 1898 in the phrase,"Chinese and organized on a comparatively small scale,were apparently less involved studies as the fundamental structure,Western studies for practical use."d The than the government schools in student movements,although a few big pri- proposed changes in laws and political institutions failed of realization in the vate and semipublic schools (shu-yiian)sometimes exerted an influence on Hundred Days'Reform of 188 and were achieved only in part by the Ig public opinion. Revolution.After the establishment of the Republic,the resurgence of warlord Similarly,there were precedents from history for the literary and intellec- rule and the two attempts?at monarchical restoration proved that the mere tual changes of the May Fourth period.Literature and thought made great transplantation of laws and political institutions unaccompanied by other progress in the latter part of the Chou dynasty (I122?-221 B.c.).More elements changes did not work.Then came the third stage,the era of the May Fourth of the vernacular were then brought into the written language.An important literary reform took place in the Tang dynasty (618-g07).New poetry and 4 This formula,Chung-hstich wei i,Hsi-hsieh wei yung,for a synthesis of Western learning and Chinese studies,and a similar Japanese idea might bave influenced each other or developed new prose achieved much,and Ch'an(Zen)Buddhism was developed.Later, along parallel lines.For the justification of their Chinese learning,the Japanese had a saying, in the Sung period,Neo-Confucianism was established in the teeth of me- "Japanese spirit,Chinese skill"(Wakon,Kanrai),which was attributed to Sugawara Michizane (A.D.845-g03).Later,in the nineteenth century,Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864),one of the pioneers dievalism.Under the Yian dynasty (1279-1368),a new drama form was of Western learning,suggested "Eastern spirit,Western crafts"(Toyo seishin,Seiyo giger).Even evolved,and under the Ming vernacular novels and short stories became popu- the ardent Westernizer Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901)coined a popular phrase "Japanese spirit, Western skill"(Wakon,Yosar)probably derived from the earlier one
14. THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION .15 Movement.The new intellectuals in the movement claimed that not only customs,and institutions in the period was Western thought in the guise of Western scientific technology,laws,and political institutions ought to be intro- ideas like liberalism,democracy,and science.The wide influence of the West, duced,but also China's philosophy,ethics,natural science,social theories and especially the United States,is not to be denied.Yet,with nationalist senti- institutions should be thoroughly re-examined and modeled after those of the ments on the rise,fed by the example of Soviet Russia defying the West, West.It was not half-hearted reform or partial renovation which was being socialist ideas became more infuential in later years.The shift in emulation advocated,but a vast and fervent attempt to dethrone the very fundamentals from liberalism to socialism may be explained in terms of such factors as of the old stagnant tradition and to replace it with a completely new culture.?4 China's need to industrialize rapidly,her humiliating defeats,her authoritarian The May Fourth Movement also marked an accelerated awakening of the political heritage,and the appeal of socialist idealism to a society based on Chinese intelligentsia to the ideas of individual human rights and national inde- cooperation rather than individualism,as well as the policies of the Nation- pendence.It hastened the unification of China in the nation-state pattern by alists in and after the movement.On the other hand,inadequacies of the drawing the people together in thought and action.The emancipation of the in- West are exemplified by the hated imperialist methods of their economic in- dividual and the promotion of a sense of nationality and social equality among terests in China,and by the misguided policies and ineffectuality of the Chinese such a great number of people-as Bertrand Russell put it,"a quarter of the liberals.In addition to these,an examination of the policies and attitudes of human race"25-was,of course,far from accomplishment even decades after- the Western countries toward the movement per se may also shed some light ward.But the increased consciousness and activity of Chinese intellectuals along on the reasons for this rise and fall. these lines at this period must surely be recognized by historians as an event of The foregoing pages have outlined in brief the scope and significance of the world-wide significance. May Fourth Movement and,in particular,the setting in which it arose.The Furthermore,since the movement introduced or coincided with many new ensuing detailed examination of its events and ideas will,it is hoped,present a factors in the economic,social,political,and intellectual fields,it serves as a full picture of the twentieth-century intellectual revoution which shook China most important key to the understanding of modern China during the last to her roots and which,after forty years,is still reverberating. forty years.So many furious controversies and struggles in the following dec. ades were initiated by the movement that without a study of it one would miss the origin and nature of the real issues.In fact,the current Chinese political situation may be regarded as,directly or indirectly,a result of the movement.The issue is not dead.It remains to the present and may point to the future.Moreover,most contemporary Chinese leaders,in fields varying from literature and philosophy to economics and politics,were educated and trained during the May Fourth period and started their careers by joining the movement.This experience still influences their thinking and psychology. While some conservatives blame it for all the evils that developed in China later,almost all the younger generation consider that its benefits to them have been"bountiful and undiminished."At any rate,"as one of China's leading journalists declared,"the influence the May Fourth Movement exerted upon my mind will not be effaced as long as I live."2 Considering all these facts, one may reasonably assert that the temper of modern China cannot be fully understood without knowing the currents of the movement. Finally,the movement cannot be ignored when reviewing Western relations with China.As is known,the major challenge to Chinese traditional ethics
PART ONE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVEMENT