The literary revolution officially took place in 19 17. According to its development process, it can be divided into three stages.
Before 19 17 1, it was the brewing stage of the literary revolution. The colleagues in "New Youth" paid attention to the necessity of literary revolution while propagating the new ideological trend and carrying out the Enlightenment. Shortly after the publication of "New Youth", in view of the domestic literary situation, Chen Duxiu published articles such as "History of Modern European Literature and Art", which introduced the evolution of western modern literary thoughts from classicism and idealism (romanticism) to realism (realism) and naturalism, and clearly expressed his desire for literary reform in his communication with Zhang: "China's literature and art are still in the era of classicism and idealism, and should tend to realism in the future. The article focuses on chronicles, and painting focuses on sketching, which is enough to drive the unhealthy trend of today's flashy decline. " (Chen Duxiu: Answer a Letter, Youth Magazine No.4, vol. 19 15, 12. This idea has been endorsed by some people. 19 16 In June, Hu Shi, who was studying in the United States, wrote a letter to Chen Duxiu. While criticizing the corruption of old literature, he first put forward the concept of "literary revolution" and the "eight things" proposition of transforming old literature, that is, one day, there is no need for a code. Second, don't use cliches. Third, don't talk about antithesis (prose should be abolished, poetry should be abolished). Fourth, don't avoid common words and idioms (don't think that poetry is written in vernacular Chinese). Fifth, we must emphasize the structure of grammar. Six days, no illness, no moaning. Seven, don't imitate the ancients, there must be self in the language. Eight words, you must have something to say. (Hu Shi: To Chen Duxiu, Theory Collection of New Literature Construction in China, p. 32, Shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Company, 1935). ) Chen Duxiu's "thought that all the literary circles in China today are Lei Yin" agreed with Hu Shi's "eight things" about his literary reform, except the "582 items". Although these discussions did not cause great repercussions at that time, they were still the brewing stage of the literary revolution. ?
The period from the beginning of 19 17 to the beginning of 19 18 is the advocacy period of the literary revolution. 1917,65438+10. In October, New Youth published Hu Shi's article "My humble opinion on literary improvement", which was the first signal that the literary revolution was openly challenged. This paper is a systematic exposition of Hu Shi's thought of "Eight Things" in 19 16 literary revolution. Although the tone of the article has become euphemistic compared with the letter to Chen Duxiu, "revolution" has become "improvement", Hu Shi opposes the separation of old literature and spoken language from the perspective of historical evolution, advocates the closeness of literary language and spoken language, and puts forward that vernacular literature should be "authentic in China literature". Chen Duxiu declared: "The fate of literary revolution has been brewing for a long time, and it was my friend Hu Shi who first raised the banner of justice." (Chen Duxiu: On Literary Revolution, New Youth1965438+No.6, Volume 2, February 2007. Cai Yuanpei once said: "In the first decade of the Republic of China, vernacular Chinese was also quite popular ... he advocated replacing classical Chinese with vernacular Chinese and holding high the banner of literary revolution. This began in the era of "New Youth". " (Cai Yuanpei: Preface to China New Literature Series, Shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Company, 1936 edition. ) Visible hu shi's influence at that time. But it is Chen Duxiu who really holds high the banner of literary revolution. His Theory of Literary Revolution was published in New Youth in February of 19 17, which can be said to be the program and declaration of literary revolution. He said: "Yu Gan braved the enemy of the national pedant and held high the banner of the' literary revolutionary army' to show the unity of his friends. The banner reads the three principles of our revolutionary army: knocking down polished aristocratic literature and building simple and lyrical national literature; It is said that it is to overthrow the stale and extravagant classical literature and build a fresh and sincere realistic literature; It is said that it is necessary to overthrow the clumsy and incomprehensible mountain literature and establish a clear and popular social literature. " Chen Duxiu pointed the finger at feudal literature. He not only opposed the formal disadvantages of old literature, but also emphatically opposed the feudal ideological content of "shady and dirty". He regards the literary revolution as a "sharp weapon" to "develop civilization", "change national character" and "innovate politics". He opposed the feudal literary view that "literature carries Tao" and asked writers to "represent the times" with a sincere attitude and "write the world with naked lyricism". Later, he also said: "To improve China literature, when vernacular Chinese is regarded as authentic literature, its right and wrong are very clear, and opponents must not have room for discussion." (Chen Duxiu: Answer to Hu Shizhi, New Youth, Volume 3, No.3, May 19 17. This resolute attitude expanded the influence of the literary revolution and quickly gained the response of some fellow travelers and young people. Qian was the first to express "absolute approval" in the letter, and made a fierce attack on all kinds of disadvantages of feudal old literature. 19 17 in March, in his letter to Chen Duxiu, he denounced for the first time the popular parallel prose and prose at that time as "choosing to learn evil" and "Tongcheng fallacy". He also provided strong evidence for the "consistency of language and writing" from the historical facts of language and writing evolution. Liu Bannong also published articles such as My View on Literary Improvement, and discussed the definitions of applied articles and literary articles. He also made constructive discussions on breaking the superstition of ancient Chinese prose, establishing beautiful vernacular prose, destroying the old rhyme of poetry, recreating new rhyme and using new punctuation marks. These articles and viewpoints violently impacted the fortress of feudal literature and promoted the development of literary revolution.
The period from the summer of 19 18 to the spring of 192 1 is the development stage of the literary revolution, which is marked by: firstly, the nature of the literary revolution has changed. The literary revolution before 19 18, as far as its guiding ideology is concerned, still belongs to the category of the enlightenment of the old people initiated by the radical petty bourgeoisie. After the May 4th Movement, 19 18, especially 19 19, the nature of the literary revolution changed obviously. Under the influence of the dawn of the October Revolution and Marxist theory, a group of advanced petty-bourgeois intellectuals gradually turned into intellectuals with the initial idea of * * * production. Together with some radical democratic intellectuals, they became the leaders and backbones of the United front of the New Culture Movement. The proposition of literary revolution has a more distinct and thorough anti-imperialist and anti-feudal color. 19 19 At the beginning of this year, Chen Duxiu published "The Book of Accusations of Local Records" in "New Youth", which raised the banner of scientific democracy, which was not only an ideological revolution, but also a literary revolution, and made a resolute struggle against feudal autocracy and feudal culture. Lu Xun saw the dawn of the new century in his struggle and became a great standard-bearer of the literary revolution with the bravest and most enthusiastic fighting. 19 19 In the summer and autumn, Li Dazhao published articles such as "New Era" and "What is New Literature", which not only criticized the zombies of the old feudal literature, but also criticized the "new poison" of the budding bourgeois literature and profoundly discussed the essence of new literature. He pointed out: "An article written in vernacular is not new literature. Just introducing some new theories, new facts, describing some new characters and listing some new terms is not new literature. " "The new literature we want is literature about social reality", and it should have "profound thoughts, theories, firm beliefs, beautiful literature and art, and the spirit of fraternity". Linked to Li Dazhao's article My View on Marxism six months ago, the so-called "belief" here implies a Marxist world outlook. Therefore, before and after the May 4th Movement, the nature of the literary revolution belonged to the nature of new democracy. ? Secondly, the development of literary thoughts and theories. If we say that during the advocacy of the literary revolution, we mainly focused on destroying old literature, especially the form, then we mainly focused on the construction of new literature. 19 18 In April, Hu Shi published "On the Literary Revolution of Construction" in "New Youth", summarizing the goal of new literature construction as "literature in national language, literature in national language". Although Hu Shi's idea is only considered in form, and "literature in Mandarin" also has its fuzziness, it has aroused people's thinking about the construction of new literature. Lu Xun obviously noticed the importance of ideological revolution in literary revolution. 19181kloc-0/He said in the article "Crossing the River to Guide the Way" published in New Youth: "If the idea remains the same, you will still change the edition without replacing the goods; ...... So in my opinion, instilling appropriate academic literature and improving my mind is the first. " On the other hand, Zhou Zuoren paid attention to the elaboration of new literary values. 19 18 In February, he published People's Literature in New Youth, and put forward the idea of "People's Literature" for the first time, that is, based on humanitarian observation, research and analysis of social "life problems" and resolutely opposed the promotion of "Confucianism and Taoism". 19 19 At the beginning of this year, Zhou Zuoren published the article Popular Literature, which concretized "people's literature", that is, reflected "the pessimistic success or failure of ordinary men and women in the world" with ordinary style and sincere thoughts. Li Dazhao, Shen Yanbing and others all put forward new requirements for the theory of literary revolution. 1920 Shen Yanbing published articles such as "What is the responsibility of a writer now", which put forward new literary propositions for life. He believes that "the life a writer wants to express is by no means the life of a person and a family, but the life of a society and a nation". Now, writers "have a positive responsibility to fill the literary world with democracy, socialize literature, wipe out the face of aristocratic literature and release the spirit of civilian literature." The following words are for human beings, not for the aristocratic class; It was written with blood and tears, not with deep affection and gorgeous meaning. It is an indispensable article for human beings, not something for drinking and recreation, which shows the maturity of literature as a theory of life.
Third, the initial development of new literature creation. With the advocacy and in-depth development of the literary revolution, the creation of new literature has gradually developed. After New Youth first published eight new poems in vernacular Chinese, including Butterfly, which Hu Shi tried on 19 16 in February 2007, thanks to the efforts of Liu Bannong, Liu Dabai, Shen, Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, especially the new poems collected by Guo Moruo in Goddess,1. Later, Lu Xun published novels such as Kong Yiji and Medicine, which not only showed the achievements of the literary revolution, but also laid the foundation for the history of modern literature in China.
Fourth, vernacular Chinese has finally become a "national language". The literary revolution with the original intention of opposing classical Chinese and advocating vernacular Chinese realized the great liberation of language form during this period. 19 18 In April, New Youth was written in vernacular, and then new vernacular publications such as Trendy and Weekly Review appeared. Especially under the impetus of the May 4th patriotic movement, vernacular Chinese has gone beyond the category of pure literature and almost swept the whole cultural field. From the second half of 19 19, including three well-known supplements at that time, namely, Beijing Morning Post Supplement, Shanghai Daily of the Republic of China, Awakening, Current Affairs News and Deng Xue, they were all important positions in the vernacular, even mastered by old writers such as Oriental Magazine and Novel Monthly. By 1920, when it was a fact that the vernacular Chinese replaced the classical Chinese, the Ministry of Education of Beiyang government finally recognized the vernacular Chinese and ordered schools all over the country to adopt the vernacular Chinese, thus realizing the historic change that the vernacular Chinese replaced the classical Chinese.