Chapter 26 The first flag of righteousness

The first flag of righteousness An important content of the "May 4th" New Culture Movement was to oppose old literature and promote new literature, oppose classical Chinese and promote vernacular, and carry out a literary revolution.This is the first truly great revolution in the history of Chinese literature, opening the first page of the new history of Chinese literature. Hu Shih was one of the main advocates of this literary revolution.According to his own statement, his dedication to the literary revolution was "forced to the top". As early as 1915, when "Youth Magazine" was first published, Chen Duxiu denounced the kind of "slave articles" that "praise meritorious deeds" in an article.Then he published "A History of Modern European Literature and Art" and other articles, introducing the development history of modern Western literary thoughts, from classicism, idealism (romanticism) to realism (realism) and naturalism.In connection with the situation in our country, he advocated the reform of literature and art, pointing out:

Our country's literature and art are still in the age of classicism and idealism, and should tend towards realism in the future.Articles focus on chronicles, while paintings focus on sketching, which is enough to stop today's evil trend of glitz and decay. ① Roughly at the same time, Hu Shi and a group of foreign students such as Ren Shuyong, Mei Guangdi, and Yang Xingfo spent their summer vacation in Qiserjia in the United States.They took walks on the Cornell campus, went boating on Lake Kayoga, and discussed Chinese literature together, often having heated debates.Mei Guangdi was the most conservative, and most of the others were on Mei's side, so gradually "forced" Hu Shi's idea of ​​"literary revolution".In September of this year, he wrote in his poem "Sending Mei Jinzhuang (Guangdi) to Harvard University":

Mei Sheng Mei Sheng, don't despise yourself! Chinese literature has been withered for a long time, and there has been no vigorous one in a hundred years.The arrival of new trends cannot be stopped, and the time for a literary revolution is upon us! We cannot afford to sit idly by.And call on the second and third sons, rode the horses in front of the revolutionary army, flog them to drive away a carload of ghosts, and welcome the new century again! In this way, we will serve the country without Yunfei: the difference between the land and the sky can be imitated.Mei Sheng, Mei Sheng, don’t despise yourself! ② This is Hu Shi’s first declaration of “literary revolution” and expressing his intention to “serve the country with this”.But his concept of the literary revolution was still hazy at that time.After further discussions and debates among classmates studying in the United States, in the autumn of 1916, he synthesized the opinions discussed privately with his friends and sent a letter to Chen Duxiu from the United States, publicly putting forward the slogan of "literary revolution" and the "eight things" he advocated for for the first time. :

After years of thinking and observation, I think that if you want to talk about the literary revolution today, you must start with eight things.What are the eight things? One said that there is no code. The second is not to use clichés. The third is not to talk about confrontation. (Writing should be abolished parallelism, poetry should be abolished.) The fourth is not to avoid common words and sayings. (I don't mind writing poems in vernacular.) The fifth is to pay attention to the structure of grammar. These are all revolutions in form. The sixth is not to groan without illness.

The seventh is not to imitate the ancients.Every language must have me. Eighth, there is something to be said. These are all spiritual revolutions. ③ These "eight things" became the later "eight noisms", representing Hu Shi's programmatic views on the literary revolution.Although most of them focus on the aspect of form, they also clearly put forward the aspect of "spiritual revolution".Therefore, it is unrealistic to simply identify Hu Shi's propositions as formalism. After Chen Duxiu received this letter from Hu Shi, he immediately published it in "New Youth" and praised it strongly:

Except for five or eight of the eight events of the Literary Revolution, the rest of the six events are all admired by the servants, and they are regarded as the thunder of the Chinese literary world today.If you can explain the reasons in detail, refer to Chen's gains and losses, and develop them into an article to inform the world, your career will be particularly prosperous. ④ It is not an exaggeration to regard Hu Shi's proposition as "the thunder of today's Chinese literary world", considering the situation of the literary world at that time. In January 1917, according to Chen Duxiu's request, Hu Shi "developed the above eight propositions into one article" and published "Suggestions on Literary Improvement".This is Hu Shi's first official manifesto advocating a literary revolution and advocating vernacular literature.Among them, he advocates "there is something in words" and vaguely opposes the despotism's theory of "literature conveys truth"; he advocates the theory of evolution to explain the law of literary development and change; The concept of "authenticity of Chinese literature"; opposing the imitation of the ancients, advocating "realistic description of the conditions of today's society", etc., are all worth noting arguments, which enrich the content of the literary revolution.Hu Shi also put forward the literary proposition of active patriotism of "serving the country with hard work" through literature.He said:

Don’t I know that the country is suffering so much? But when the country is in danger, how can crying and weeping be effective? I only hope that today’s writers will be Fichte and Mazzini.But I don't want it to be Jia Sheng, Wang Can, Qu Yuan, and Xie Gaoyu.It can't be Jia Sheng, Wang Can, Qu Yuan, and Xie Gaoyu, but a poem written by a woman who is alcoholic, dejected and frustrated, especially humble and insignificant. ⑤ Hu Shi hoped that writers would be Fichte and Mazzini, use literature to actively strive for the independence and self-improvement of the motherland, and oppose literature that is useless to cry and moan without illness.This kind of positive patriotic literary thought is commendable.

However, "Suggestions on Literary Improvement" also shows that Hu Shi's attitude is quite cowardly and hesitant.After repeated research and thinking, he changed the "literary revolution" to "literary improvement", but he was still afraid of overcorrecting, so he asked others in advance to "correct it and correct it".He himself later said: I was opposed by my friends in the United States, and my courage became weaker and my attitude became more modest. Therefore, the title of this article is only called "Suggestions on Literary Reform", and the whole article dare not raise the banner of "Literary Revolution". ⑥

It was Chen Duxiu who made up for Hu Shi's weakness of cowardice and hesitation with the resolute attitude of a revolutionary. In February 1917, he published "On Literary Revolution" and officially raised the banner of "Literary Revolution".Although the "Three Major Principles" proposed by him,7 are not unavoidably general, but the direction of the edge, "willing to drag the cannon of forty-two students, as a precursor"! His attitude and proposition are more resolute and radical than Hu Shi. ⑧ However, "A Humble Opinion on Literary Reform" was, after all, always recognized as "a signal to attack" the literary revolution, and it aroused great repercussions in the Chinese literary and ideological circles at that time.Chen Duxiu's "On Literary Revolution" was the first response.He said:

The fate of the literary revolution has been brewing for a long time, and the vanguard who first raised the banner of righteousness is my friend Hu Shi.Yu Gan pretended to be the enemy of pedantry all over the country, and held high the banner of the "Literary Revolutionary Army" as the solidarity of my friends. Then, Qian Xuantong, Liu Bannong, Zhou Zuoren, Fu Sinian, etc. also wrote articles to respond, and gradually started a heated discussion.Lu Xun "demonstrated the achievements of the literary revolution" with his outstanding short stories; other new literary creations also emerged gradually.Thus, the first truly great revolution took place in the history of Chinese literature, ushering in a new era of modernization of Chinese literature.

Not long after the May 4th Movement, Mr. Sun Yat-sen's close assistant, Mr. Liao Zhongkai, strongly praised Hu Shi for advocating the literary revolution. He said: My generation advocated vernacular literature for my husband (press, referring to Hu Shi), and brought about a revolution in the literary world, so that ideas can be spread to all levels of society through the medium of words, and I think the merits created are ten times greater than those of Confucius and Mencius. ⑩ Liao Zhongkai's evaluation is representative of "my generation", that is, people from the Chinese Revolutionary Party (soon to be reorganized into the Chinese Kuomintang) headed by Sun Yat-sen, and colleagues in their theoretical publication "Jianjian".At that time, they almost worshiped Hu Shi: Mr. Sun Yat-sen was grateful for Hu Shi's criticism and introduction of his theory; "Jianjian" magazine was "extremely happy" to get Hu Shi's manuscript.Mao Zedong, who later became the leader of the Communist Party of China, also said when recalling his youth that he "very much admired the articles of Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu" and regarded them as his "models."However, Lu Xun, the standard-bearer of China's new culture, still said ten years later: "The Literary Revolution" was "advocated by Mr. Hu Shizhi." These reflections of representative people from all walks of life all illustrate one point: in the literary revolution, Hu Shi was indeed "the vanguard who first raised the banner of righteousness". ①Chen Duxiu, in the first issue of "Youth Magazine"; "European History of Literature and Art" in volume 1, No. 3 and 4 of the same issue.For the citation here, see Chen Duxiu's answer to Zhang Yongyan's letter in "Youth Magazine", Volume 1, No. 4, "Newsletter". ② "Send Mei Jinzhuang to Harvard University", included in "Going to Guoji" attached to "Try Collection".There are three sections in the poem, the second section is quoted here. ③This letter was originally published in "New Youth", Volume 2, No. 2 "Newsletter", and later included in "Hu Shi Wencun" Volume 1, titled "Send to Chen Duxiu".The writing time of this letter is not noted in "New Youth". Not exactly.At that time, it took at least one month to send a letter from the United States to China, plus the publication time of the publication. Based on this, it was inferred that it was written in August of this year. It is "August 21st", and the first paragraph of the letter is excerpted here; it is completely consistent with the content of the "Eight Articles" sent to Zhu Jingnong Xin on the same day, with only a small difference in text. ④ See "New Youth", Volume 2, No. 2, "Newsletter", Chen Duxiu's reply to Hu Shi's letter. ⑤ "Suggestions on Literary Improvement", originally published in Volume 2, No. 5 of "New Youth", and later included in Volume 1 of "Hu Shi Wencun".For the quotations here, see Shanghai Yadong Library, August 9, 1926, pages 12-13. ⑥ "Forcing to the Liangshan Mountains", contained in "The Theory Collection of the Great Department of Chinese New Literature", Shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Company, 1935 edition, p. 26. In the book "Hu Shi's Oral Autobiography", this incident is also mentioned: In that article I offered eight very modest suggestions.You can see that even the title is very modest.I have given up the "literary revolution" that I so often refer to to my friends. The term "literary revolution" is often mentioned in my poems and letters; it is also often mentioned in the letters sent to me by friends.Sometimes they use a joking attitude; but sometimes they are serious.But when for the first time I wanted to write the results of our more than one year of discussion and my own conclusions into an article and send it to China for publication, in order to take into account the undoubted opposition of the older generation of conservatives, I I feel that I want to write this essay title mildly and modestly.So I use this title to explain that it is an improvement rather than a revolution; at the same time, it is just a "humble opinion" rather than a dogmatic conclusion. (Translation and annotation by Tang Degang, Taipei Biographical Literature Publishing House, March 1981 edition, pp. 152-153) ⑦ "On Literary Revolution", originally published in "New Youth" Vol.The article says: Yu Gan pretended to be the enemy of pedantry all over the country, and held high the banner of the "Literary Revolutionary Army" as the solidarity of my friends.The big book on the flag is dedicated to the three major principles of my revolutionary army: to overthrow the polished and flattering aristocratic literature, and to build a plain and lyrical national literature; It is said that overthrowing the obscure and difficult mountain and forest literature and constructing a bright and popular social literature. ⑧ The difference in attitude between Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu, Hu himself described in "Chinese Literature in the Past Fifty Years", saying: Hu Shi himself often said that his historical obsession was too deep, so he was not worthy of a revolutionary cause.The most important vanguard of the literary revolution was his friend Chen Duxiu.After Chen Duxiu published "On Literary Revolution" (February 6) following his "Suggestions on Literary Reform", he officially raised the banner of "Literary Revolution". ...Hu duly acknowledged the period when the Literary Revolution was still being discussed. ...his attitude is so peaceful.If he followed his attitude, the literary revolution would have to go through at least ten years of discussion and experimentation.But Chen Duxiu's courage just made up for this shortcoming of being too prudent. ("Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong Library, March 6, 1929, Volume 2, pp. 196-197) Later, Hu Shi talked about Chen Duxiu's attitude of "no room for discussion by those who oppose it" in "Forced to the Liangshan", saying: This arbitrary attitude is really the tone of an old revolutionary party.As a result of our more than a year of literary discussions, we got such a strong revolutionary as a propagandist and a promoter, and it soon became a powerful movement. ("Chinese New Literature Department? Construction Theory Collection", p. 27) ⑨ See Zheng Zhenduo's "Chinese New Literature Series? Introduction to the Collection of Literary Disputes", written on October 21, 1935, contained in the foreword of the book, published by Shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Company in 1935. ⑩Liao Zhongkai sent a letter to Hu Shi on July 19, 1919, contained in "Hu Shi's Correspondence and Selected Letters", Beijing Zhonghua Book Company, May 1, 1979, Volume 1, p. 64. The Chinese Revolutionary Party was founded by Sun Yat-sen in Japan in July 1914.After the Revolution of 1911, the fruits of the revolution were stolen by Yuan Shikai.In order to oppose Yuan Shikai's dictatorship, Sun Yat-sen and others launched the "Second Revolution" against Yuan in 1913; after the failure, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan.The following year, another Chinese Revolutionary Party was formed, and the banner of the bourgeois democratic revolution was raised again to continue the struggle against Yuan Shikai. After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, the party moved to Shanghai; in 1917, he led the "Dharma Protection Movement". In October 1919, it was reorganized into the Chinese Nationalist Party. See Liao Zhongkai's letters to Hu Shi on July 11, 19, August 2, and October 20, 1919, in "Selected Letters from Hu Shi", Volume 1, pp. 64-67, 74. See (US) Odegar Snow's "Red Star Over China" (Edgar Snow: "Red Star Over China") ), translated by Dong Leshan, Beijing Sanlian Bookstore, December 1, 1979, p. 125. Lu Xun's "Silent China", contained in "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", People's Literature Publishing House, 1981 edition, Vol. 4, p. 13.