The Renaissance And The New Cultural Movement

A thinking and culture movement with the slogan Democracy and Science had sprung upever since The New Youth was established in 1915 by Chen Duxiu. And then in 1917 Hu Shi's"On Literary Reform" on The New Youth initiated a literary reform. The new cultural movementawakened most Chinese people, and groups of intellectuals and numerous students joined in it.Following The New Youth, the students in Peking University started The New Trend Union inNovember 1918. Later on, The Renaissance was issued on January 1st in 1919. The mainparticipants Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, Mao Zishui, Gu Jiegang, Yang Zhensheng and Yu Pingboplayed an important role in popularizing the new thought, new learning and new literature, withthe purpose of enlightening and criticizing, and establishing a modern China.The present study on The Renaissance focuses mainly on three aspects; one is the study ofFu Sinian's thought, pointing out the resource and evolvement, proceeding from his views ofliterature reform, writing and society. Another is the study of the establishment, development andevolvement of The New Trend Union. And the third is to research The Renaissance, either on itsrelationship with the New Youth and the May Fourth Movement new-vernacular literature, fromthe perspective of literary genealogy, or on its influence and significance in the contention withother magazines from the perspective of editing. Moreover, The Historical Echo of THERENAISSANCE focuses on the "Discussion" and "Bibliography", to reappear the historicalfeatures of the New Trend people and the New Trend union. Consequently, The Renaissance hasalways been a sub-thesis of the whole study, and few focus on the textual analysis of TheRenaissance. The author holds that all the articles in different areas on The Renaissance are ofgreat significance, and we can see from them the manifestation, development and contribution ofThe Renaissance in the new cultural movement. This paper intends to investigate with textualanalysis the relationship between The Renaissance and the new cultural movement, from theperspectives of thinking revolution and social reform, the advocating of science and learning,and literary reform.On the thinking revolution and social reform, they attached great importance to theenlightenment thoughts, such as criticized the traditional feudal ideology poisoning of people'smind, advocated women's liberation and valued education. They aimed at enlightenment thoughts and establishing modern thoughts through the enlightening of minds of people at thelower hierarchy of society. And on the science and learning, they held rigorous and rationalattitude toward science, and played an important role in the development of western modernlearning thoughts in China. On literature, they advocated vernacular writing, emphasized thepopularization of literature "for life", created vernacular literature works and translated famouswestern literature works. And that was when a group of new writers began to distinguishthemselves after Lu Xun.The publication of The Renaissance was strongly affirmed and supported by the leaders andinitiators of the new cultural movement, such as Lu Xun, Hu Shi, and Chen Duxiu. What is moreimportant, it caused a new tide to surge among students and inspired their confidence andambition. As a second comprehensive magazine of the new cultural movement, The Renaissanceplayed the role of a crucial ally of The New Youth, and also inherited the past and giveenlightenment to the future during the new cultural movement.