5以.4 6583 C.52m THE MAY FOURTH 五四運動史 MOVEMENT Intellectual Revolution in Modern China Chow Tse-tsung Originally published in the Harvard East Asian Series 中研穿 *1HE0006580 STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Stanford,California
PREFACE refew mjor events in modern Chincse isry so much discussed,yet so inadequately treated as the May Fourth Movement. For some Chinese it marks a national renaissance or liberation,for others a national catastrophe.Among those who discuss or celebrate it most,views vary greatly.Every May for the last forty years,numerous articles have analyzed and commented on the movement.Several books devoted entirely to the subject and hundreds touching on it have been published in Chinese.The literature on the subject is massive,yet most of it offers more polemic than factual accounts. Most Westerners possess but fragmentary and inaccurate information on the subject.For these reasons,preparation of this volume recounting the events of the movement and examining in detail its currents and effects has seemed to me worthwhile. More personal motives have also impelled me to undertake this task.I have been interested in the subject since my boyhood in Changsha where I was a student in the same high school from which Mao Tse-tung had graduated fifteen years before.There I was active in the current student movement and became a central figure in the student"storms"and strikes.We of course looked back to the May Fourth Movement with pride and admiration.Significantly, my first poem in the new vernacular,written in this period following over one thousand verses in the classical style which I had composed earlier,was entitled "May Fourth,We Are Not Failing You."It was published in a newspaper edited by Kuo Mo-jo and T'ien Han.Even then I dreamed of some day writing a book on the May Fourth Movement.This intention was strengthened later when I attended a Kuomintang university where student movements were nor- mally prohibited. The study and presentation of this movement as a many-faceted intellectual and sociopolitical phenomenon has not been an easy task.Aware of the contro- versial nature of the subject,I have tried to introduce as many factual records as possible.A large number of quotations have been included in the text so that the records and the people concerned might speak for themselves. Translations are my own unless otherwise noted
viii PREFACE PREFACE 年 Underlying the general theme of the writing is the belief that,while eco- son,Dr.Albert Feuerwerker,Professor Wolfgang Franke,Professor Bayard nomic conditions and ideological interplay may be major factors in defining an Lyon,Mr.Roderick L.MacFarquhar,and Mr.Mark Mancall.Acknowledg- event such as the May Fourth Movement,other elements are also very influ- ment is also made of the assistance received from Dr.Arthur W.Hummel,Dr. ential.These include historical background,political setting,social organization Edward Beal,Jr,Dr.K.T.Wu,and particularly Mr.Liang Hsi,all of the and social psychology,personal leadership and participation,as well as some Library of Congress,from Dr.A.K.Ch'iu and other librarians of the Harvard- small but probably key incidents.Efforts have been made to analyze some of Yenching Library,from those of the University of Michigan Library and Mr. these factors with respect to the movement. Kuang-huan Lu of the Columbia University Library.None of those mentioned The book falls into two parts.In the first part,activities and events are de- above,of course,bears responsibility for the views expressed.Finally,I wish to scribed and analyzed in chronological order,with the exception of Chapter thank Harvard University Press for its great assistance in the publication of VIII which has been inserted somewhat out of sequence to provide background this volume. for the following chapter.In the second part of the book,main literary and CHOW TSE-TSUNG intellectual currents are separately analyzed and examined in some detail.A Cambridge,Massachusetts full Bibliography,a Glossary of Chinese and Japanese Names and Terms,with October 1959 characters,and an annotated list of periodicals current during the May Fourth period are published separately. I am deeply indebted to Professor Robert E.Ward of the University of Michigan.Without his encouragement,guidance,and assistance the study could not have been accomplished.I am most grateful to Professor John K. Fairbank of Harvard University and to Mrs.Wilma Fairbank for their in- cessant encouragement and help in the writing and publishing of the work.In the preparation of the manuscript for publication,Mrs.Fairbank has not only extended extremely painstaking editorship,but also made a number of critical and helpful remarks which greatly improved the presentation of the subject. Profound gratitude should also be expressed to Professor Benjamin Schwartz of the same university for many inspiring discussions and for his reading of most of the manuscript and making a number of valuable comments and sug- gestions.I am grateful to Mr.Bertrand Russell for his letter discussing his stay in China during the latter part of the movement.I also thank Dr.Hu Shih and Dr.Carsun Chang for interesting and illuminating discussions of the sub- ject.To my colleague at Harvard University,Professor Lien-sheng Yang,and former colleague,Professor Masataka Banno,I owe great appreciation for sav- ing me from many errors in romanizations in the footnotes.I wish to acknowl- edge the valuable comments on certain chapters made by Professors James I. Crump,Jr Russell H.Fifield,John W.Hall,and James H.Meisel of the University of Michigan.Professor Nathaniel Peffer of Columbia University, an eyewitness of the movement in China from I9I5 to Ig21,has given me first. hand information.I am also much indebted to the following friends for read- ing parts of the manuscript:Mr.Morton Abramowitz,Mr.William F.Daniel-
CONTENTS I Introduction Definition of the Movement Economic,Social,and Political Background 6 Significance of the Movement in Historical Perspective II PART ONE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVEMENT II Forces that Precipitated the Movement,1915-1918 19 Humiliation of Patriots at Home (Impact of the Twenty-one Demands) Reforming Zeal of Students Abroad 25 I I I The Initial Phase of the Movement:Early Literary and Intellectual Activities,1917-1919 41 Establishment of New Youth Magazine Reforms at Peking University The Alliance of the New Intellectuals and the Establishment of New Tide Magazine Reform Views of the New Intellectuals 58 The Opposition's Argument and the Rejoinder Response of the Youth to the New Ferment 7 The Anti-Japanese Petition of May 19t8 IV The May Fourth Incident y China's Failure at the Versailles Peace Conjerence 4 Chinese Public Sentiment in Respect to the Peace Treaty 8g Disillusioning News from Paris The Students:Their Character and Organization 94 The May Fourth Demonstration From the Legation Quarter to Tsao Julin's House I09 V Developments Following the Incident:Student Demonstrations and Strikes 117 Immediate Reaction of the Government 118 Establishment of the Peking Student Union and Mobilization of the Intellectuals 120 Student Support from Other Cities 129 The President's Disciplinary Mandates and Tsai Yian-p'ei's Departure I3 The Students General Strike 9
xi· CONTENTS CONTENTS ·xi Humanitarianism,Naturalism,and Romanticism:The Society for V I Further Developments:Support from Merchants, Literary Studies and the Creation Society 283 Industrialists,and Workers 145 From Literary Revolution to Revolutionary Literature 287 The Government's Failure to Secure a Compromise from the Students I45 Mass Arrests of June 2,3,and 4 I48 X II The New Thought and Re-evaluation of the Tradition 289 The June Fijth Merchants and Workers Strikes in Shanghai 151 The Hard Core of the Old Thought Settlement of the May Fourth Incident:Fall of the Cabinet and 28g New Thoughts:Realism,Utilitarianism,Liberalism,Individualism, Refusal to Sign the Peace Treaty 158 Socialism,and Darwinism Attempts to Split the Students ajter the Settlement 293 I67 New Methods:Pragmatic,Skeptical,and Agnostic Approaches and the Some Questions Regarding the Settlement I68 Beginning of Marxist Infuence 297 "Down with Confucius and Sons" VII Expansion of the New Culture Movement,1919-1920 171 30o Increasing Unity among the New Intellectuals 71 X I II The New Thought and Later Controversies 314 Invigorated Programs of New Youth and New Tide I74 Doubts on Antiquity Rapid Increase of New Publications and Revamping of Old 176 34 Re-evaluation and Reorganization of the National Heritage 182 37 The Rising Tide of Iconoclasm The Antireligious Movement New Intellectual,Social,and Political Organizations 87 320 Public Education Sponsored by the New Intellectuals The Controversy over Eastern and Western Civilizations I9I 327 Increaring Support for the New Culture Movement The Polemic on Science and Metaphysics I94 V I II Foreign Attitudes Toward the Movement 197 X IV Conclusicn:Various Interpretations and Evaluations 338 A Renaissance,Rsjormaion,or Enlightenment-The Liberals Views The Japanese Reaction 97 8 A Catastrophe to Chisa--Criticisms by the Conservative Nationalists Two Contrasting Western Attitudes:Sympathy and Suspicion 20t and Traditionalists 20g 34 The Soviet Appeal An Anti-Imperialist and Antifeudal Movement Called Forth by Lenin- The Communist Interpretation 347 IX The Ideological and Political Split,1919-1921 215 Who Led the Movement? 355 Major Intellectual Groups Involved in the Split 215 The Real Nature of the Movement-A Suggested Interpretation 358 "Problems and Isms" 2r8 Achievements and Shortcomings Reappraised 36r Sociopolitical Activism versus Cultural Activism 222 Some Further Considerations 366 Democracy,Capitalism,Socialism,and Westernization 228 Participation in Politics 239 A Chronology of Relevant Events,1914-1923 371 X Sociopolitical Consequences,1920-1922 254 Appendixes 379 Reorientation of Political and Economic Organizations 254 A.A Brief Analysis of the Social Forces in the May Fourth Period 379 The Emancipation of Women B.The Number of Schools and Students Involved in the May Fourth Reforms in Education Incident Later Trends in the Student Movement C.Universities and Colleges Involved in the May Fourth Incident 386 D.Data on Workers Strikes in China,1918-1926 3 PART TWO Notes 391 ANALYSIS OF MAIN INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS Index 457 XI The Literary Revolution 269 The Old Literature 26g Advocacy of Realism and the Vernacular in Literary Writing 271 Opposition to the Literary Reform 279
THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Definition of the Movement Maytdets i Peking demoratedn protsnthe Chinese government's humiliating policy toward Japan.There resulted a series of strikes and associated events amounting to a social ferment and an intellec- tual revolution.This rising tide was soon dubbed by the students the May Fourth Movement (Wu-ssu yfin-tung),a term which acquired a broader mean- ing in later years than it had originally1 In the ensuing pages,the term May Fourth Movement will be used in this broader sense.It covers the period roughly from roI7 through Igar and includes the events summarized briefy as follows.Supported by the rising patriotic and anti-Great-Power sentiments of the public which had been ignited first by the Twenty-one Demands of Japan in 195 and then by the Shantung reso- lution of the Versailles Peace Conference in 1,the students and new in- tellectual leaders promoted an anti-Japanese campaign and a vast moderniza- tion movement to build a new China through intellectual and social reforms. They stressed primarily Western ideas of science and democracy.Traditional Chinese ethics,customs,literature,history,philosophy,religion,and social and political institutions were fiercely attacked.Liberalism,pragmatism,utilitarian- ism,anarchism,and many varicties of socialism provided the stimuli.The protest of May 4 marked the pivot of these developments.Its aims soon won sympathy from the new merchants,industrialists,and urban workers,and the Peking government was forced to compromise in its foreign and domestic policies. This victory of the new coalition facilitated the expansion of the cultural and intellectual reforms it advocated.Shortly after this,the movement gradually became involved in politics,and the united front of the new intellectuals col- lapsed.The liberals lost their zeal or turned away from political activity, whereas the left wing of the movement took the expedient political step of
2· THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION 3 allying itself with the Nationalists to overthrow the warlord Peking regime. tors,such as anarchism,upon the students.Their view is not accepted by Western attitudes shifting from sympathy to antagonism towards the move- many who have closely observed and studied the history of the May Fourth ment constituted one major factor in this split.Thereafter socialism and na- Movement.3 tionalism became ascendant,and a multitude of complicated controversies were Still another group,who recognized the close relation between the students precipitated. aspects of the May Fourth Movement and the new culture movement,re- The effects of the movement were widespread.It contributed to the rise of jected the idea that the term May Fourth Movement should cover the latter. the student and labor movements,the reorganization of the Kuomintang,and The principal proponents of this opinion were Hu Shih and certain other the birth of the Chinese Communist Party and other political and social groups. scholars.Basically,Hu regarded the May Fourth Movement as a patriotic move- Antiwarlordism and anti-imperialism developed.A new vernacular literature ment of the students and emphasized the significance of its cultural rather than was established and popular education was greatly facilitated thereby.The its social and political activities.He accepted Sun Yat-sen's view that the stu- Chinese press and public opinion made great progress.The movement also dents'activities in the May Fourth Movement had a close relation to the literary accelerated the decline of the old family system and the rise of feminism.And and intellectual movements.While Sun rated the new thought movement above all,the authority of Confucianism and traditional ethics suffered a funda- higher than the others,Hu paid more attention to the new literature move- mental and devastating stroke and new Western ideas were exalted. ment,and the vernacular problem in particular.Works in English by Hu and At first the term "May Fourth Movement"as used by the students and the others who hold the same view have familiarized many Westerners with the press did not refer to all of the events mentioned above.It was rather applied new culture movement under the epithet,"the Chinese Renaissance." only to the student demonstration in Peking on May 4.By analogy the mass Though the adoption of the vernacular in writing was one of the most arrests that occurred after June 3,191g,were called the "June Third Movement." prominent achievements of the movement,the literary revolution should be In later years,people talking of the May Fourth Movement may not consciously considered merely one aspect of the great general advance which occurred have taken such a narrow view,but they rarely failed to equate the movement during the period.To this writer the political,social,and ideological events of with the May Fourth Incident (Wa-sst shih-chien)and its consequences.The the time do not seem less significant than the adoption of the vernacular. term May Fourth Movement was,then,in many cases interchangeable with Moreover,the movement cannot be regarded solely as a student or youth move- the term May Fourth Incident. ment.The term"student"(hstieh-sheng)as employed in China denotes only a A second and more serious question of scope has also been raised:should person studying in a school.This usage,which is followed in this study,differs the term May Fourth Movement embrace on the one hand both the social and from the English use of the word,which may also refer to scholars or learners political activities of the students and intellectuals,and,on the other,the new not engaged in active study in an institution.5 While it is true that students or literature and new thought movements,which started earlier,in 19I7,and later youths provided the most powerful driving force in the movement,adult in- came to be called the new culture movement?Some people held that the May tellectuals such as the professors and writers of the new thought group assumed Fourth Movement and the new culture movement were different and bore little the leadership of the ideological aspects of the movement,and both young and relation to each other.They thought that the movement was not directly caused adult intellectuals played a part in its development outside of the schools also. by the new culture movement and the leaders of the latter did not in general Consequently,though the movement may properly be viewed from the angle guide or even support the former.They admitted only that the new culture of a student or youth movement,it should not be regarded exclusively as such. movement probably somewhat facilitated the May Fourth Movement,while the The question whether to give primary emphasis to the literary or to the latter served to intensify and to aid in the expansion of the former.2 youth and political aspects of the May Fourth Movement has been a subject The advocates of this interpretation overlooked the necessary relation be- of political controversy in China.In March 1939,when the Communist-spon- tween the students'actions and the development of their thought.They seem sored Youth Association of China (Chung-kuo ch'ing-nien lien-ho-hui)was to have adopted such a view with the intention of belittling the significance established in Yenan,it suggested that May fourth of each year be proclaimed of the new culture movement and of exaggerating the influence of other fac- "Youth Day"(ch'ing-nien chich).Its proposal was accepted by many other
4… THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION …5 organizations throughout the country and by the Chinese government.Later, demonstration was but a logical conclusion of the new thought movement on April 16,1944,the Kuomintang government in Chungking,accepting the which had begun two or three years earlier.Thirdly,many of the important proposal of the Association of Chinese Literature (Chung-kuo wen-i-chieh student leaders concerned in the incident felt from the beginning that the hsich-hui)changed this to "Literature Day"(wen-i chieh),and substituted real spirit of their movement was not one of simple patriotism,but was bound March 29 as Youth Day (on that date in IoII,seventy-two young members of up with concepts of the supremacy of public opinion,people's rights,and an the Kuomintang died in an attack on the provincial government at Canton intellectual renaissance.Their activities were not confined to antiwarlordism, under the Manchu regime).In December 1949,after taking over power on nor were they only concerned with diplomatic problems.As the incident de- the mainland,the Communist government formally reaffirmed May fourth veloped,they paid as much attention to social and intellectual reforms as to as Chinese Youth Day.Subsequently,both parties have clung to their different patriotic agitation.Subsequently,the most profound and lasting impression celebrations on May fourth.This does not mean that the Communist Party of the movement of rorg and rg2o was that of an intellectual revolution and a regards the movement solely as a youth movement or that the Kuomintang social transformation;its keynote was social and intellectual as well as political views it as an event of merely literary significance.But the episode does shed iconoclasm.In view of these facts,it seems best to accept the broad definition some light on their different views of the meaning of the movement. and regard the movement as a vast upheaval affecting many aspects of society. In addition to the above views,the term May Fourth Movement has to The May Fourth Movement then may be defined as a complicated phe- many Chinese intellectuals a broader meaning.In popular usage,it often im- nomenon including the "new thought tide,"the literary revolution,the student plies both the student and the new culture movements.In this sense it in- movement,the merchants'and workers'strikes,and the boycott against Japan, cludes all aspects of this period of intellectual ferment before and after Iorg. as well as other social and political activities of the new intellectuals,all in- For instance,when Fung Yu-lan talked about the May Fourth Movement,he spired by the patriotic sentiments after the Twenty-one Demands and the Shan- referred to the currents concerning new thought and Westernization.If an tung resolution,and by the spirit of Western learning and the desire to re. average Chinese student were asked about the movement,one would surely evaluate tradition in the light of science and democracy in order to build a elicit an answer embracing both the social reform activities of the intellectuals new China.It was not a uniform or well-organized movement,but rather a and the new literature and thought movements.Discussing the programs of coalescence of a number of activities often with divergent ideas,though not the new intelligentsia in the period,few would fail to refer to science and without its main currents.3 democracy.In the years after the movement,political leaders of the Kuomin- Furthermore,the time span of the movement has also become a confused tang,Communist,and other parties eventually subscribed to the same view. problem.The term "May Fourth period"(Wa-sst shih-tai)has actually been "The May Fourth Movement,"said a writer with hardly any political colora- very loosely used by many Chinese authors.It denotes sometimes the months, tion,"means,of course,not merely the movement which took place on the sometimes the years,immediately following the incident;it implies,for others, day of May 4;it denotes a cultural process resulting from China's con- a period extending from I9I5 or 19r6 to 1g23.Some writers extend it to 1925 tact with Western civilization.The May Fourth Incident was but a signal in this process,”7 when the famous"May Thirticth Incident"began a new phase.Ch'en Tu-hsiu Hu Shih agrees with Chang Hsi-jo that the May Fourth Movement indudes the new thought This wider use of the term is eminently justified.First of all,many of those movement developed in 1917 and 1918 and in the few years following the May Fourth Incident. who played leading roles in instigating the demonstrations,strikes,and boy- Ho Kan-chih'claims that the May Fourth Movement started from the time New Youth was estab- lished and ended at the time of the conclusion of the polemic on science and metaphysics,that is, cotts were actually the new intellectuals who had been promoting the new Sep.19r5-Dcc.1923.” literature,new thought,and social reforms.Their opponents,both in action and On May 30,1925,more than two thousand Chinese students and workers demonstrated in in thought,were or pretended to be representatives of the Chinese tradition. Shanghai protesting the killing of a Chinese worker by guards of a Japanese textile factory on May 15 in that city.At least cleven students and workers in the demonstration were killed and Secondly,the theoretical basis of the antiwarlord and anti-Great-Powers activi- twenty wounded by the British police.A strike of one hundred.thousand Chinese workers ensued ties of these intellectual reformers was the idea of democracy,popularized on June 1.Consequently over twenty foreign warships entered the Whangpoo River and marines of five nationalities landed.At least eight more Chinese were killed and forty-four wounded after earlier by a group of intellectuals.Considered in this light,the May fourth May 30.Sympathy strikes and demonstrations in twenty-eight other Chinese cities and in Hong Kong protested the British and Japanese actions.A boycott resulted,lasting for almost sixteen
6… THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT CH.I INTRODUCTION .7 maintained that the period lasted to "the present,"writing in 1938.In this answer this,even partially,it is necessary to mention the changes in China's study,since the movement is treated as a phenomenon with many facets,its cconomic,social,and political situation and international influences on China time span is regarded as variable,not strictly or uniformly fixed.Nevertheless, after the beginning of World War I. an examination of the main currents of the movement reveals that most of China's economy was agricultural and preindustrial in nature before she the important events in it took place during the five years from the beginning came into contact with the modern West.In this economy most of the wealth of 1917 to the end of 12.In 197 the new thought and new literature reforms was owned by landlords and merchants.They ordinarily accumulated it started to gather momentum due to the rallying of the new intellectual leaders through four main channels:by buying more land with their profits from land around New Youth(Hsin ch'ing-nien)magazine and the National Uniyersity products,by trade,by moneylending,and by the emoluments,legal and illegal, of Peking.After Ig2r,the movement revealed itself more in direct political of bureaucratic position.As the economy continued to be agricultural through action,and for a few years intellectual and social reforms were more or less the two thousand years before this century,the second and third methods of neglected.Therefore,the May Fourth period may be reasonably defined wealth accumulation usually depended on agricultural production.Conse- asinclusive,which period may be divided into two phases separated quently traditional Chinese economic thought was dominated by the concept by the May Fourth Incident proper.During the first phase,some new intellec- of capital accumulation in the form of land investment,a concept which was tuals concentrated on instilling their ideas in the students and youth of China. well illustrated by the proverbial folksong,"It is as impossible to be rich During the second phase an all-out attack on tradition and conservatism was without possession of land as to kiss through a piece of glass."The abolition launched principally by students,and the movement was carried beyond purely of the institution of primogeniture in the third century B.c.prevented the intellectual circles. overconcentration of landownership or the large accumulation of wealth.12 The period however cannot be strictly limited to these years.Some of the Family and village became basic economic units and were self-sufficient.Handi- nationalist sentiments and new thoughts started to take hold at least as early craft establishments,which were maintained by apprenticeships and served as as 195,the year when a feeling of national humiliation was aroused by the homes as well as shops,were the only industries.Production and exchange Twenty-one Demands,when some students started to consider more seriously were for the most part fixed by local guilds.All these practices kept the domestic than ever before the national problem,and when New Youth was established. market from expansion and prevented large-scale development of industry. Nor should the movement be considered as coming to a full stop in Igzr. This self-sufficing agrarian economy began to change after the opening of Ideological controversies developed in the period are still a part of the contem- China by the West during the last century.In 1863 China built her first factory, porary Chinese scene.The polemics on Eastern versus Western civilizations, a state-owned arsenal.Yet in the latter half of the century her industry still and on science and metaphysics,which took place in 1922 and 1g23,were direct had little opportunity to expand,partly because foreign manufactured goods results of the movement.The latter cannot be fully understood and evaluated, of lower price and better quality were dumped into Chinese markets under the if the polemics of this later period are left out of consideration.At any rate, privileges obtained by the Great Powers either by force or by diplomatic means. the movement must be considered as a stage of a whole historical development, The pressure of foreign commercial competition never eased until the out- in fact one of the most eventful and crucial stages in the long process of China's break of World War I,when the Western Powers became preoccupied with transformation to adjust herself to the modern world after the Western im- military production.From that moment Chinese national industry and com- pact in the last century. merce obtained a breathing space and an opportunity to grow,owing to the lowered excess of imports.Native production by textile and four mills and Economic,Social,and Political Background other light industries developed markedly from 14 to 120.These years of If this understanding of the movement is acceptable,the question may be prosperity have often been considered in retrospect the Golden Age of Chinese raised:why was the process of adjustment accelerated during this period?To industrial history,at least by comparison with the previous situation.a Because of this expansion and the long-term penetration of the forces of Western capi- mionths.The incident and its consequences bore some marks of the May Fourth Movement and exerted deep and far-reaching political inence on Chinese socicty. talism,the collapse of China's traditional self-sufficing agricultural and village
