"Ability" And Speech: The "extreme" Phenomenon In The May Fourth Criticism Of Confuciu

As an important link in the history of modern and modern Chinese thought,the criticism of Confucius and Confucianism during the May Fourth Movement is still enduring and has a tendency to be renewed with its multiple and complex features for later generations to recall and interpret.People’s criticism of Confucius and Confucianism during the May 4th Movement continues to change with the development of The Times,which makes the historical narrative about the May 4th Movement increasingly show a colorful scene.However,a real problem is that the criticism of Confucius and Confucianism mentioned today in the May Fourth Movement period has been given new significance in the history of one hundred years,but it is further away from its original historical reality.Breaking the established ideas and going back to the original text of the New Youth magazine is helpful to restore the historical picture of whether the criticism of Confucius and Confucianism during the May Fourth Movement is extreme.According to the statistics of scholars’ criticism of the texts containing extreme language in the May Fourth Movement period,most scholars were not extreme in their criticism of Confucius and Confucianism,and only a small number of scholars criticized Confucius and Confucianism with extreme attitude,mainly Chen Duxiu,Qian Xuantong and Wu Yu.In the climax period of honoring Confucius and restoring the monarchy,their fierce criticism of the etiquette centered on the king and the feudal ethics centered on the three principles was indeed extreme.However,for the whole May Fourth Period,their comments on Confucius or against Confucius’ Confucianism were not extreme,and they never destroyed Confucius himself and the historical value of Confucianism.As for the radical attitude of the leaders of the New Culture Movement represented by Chen Duxiu criticizing Confucius and Confucianism,the witnesses and scholars of the May Fourth Movement have different opinions on their evaluation.With the help of the "Correspondence" column of New Youth magazine,young readers wrote letters to Chen Duxiu and other scholars,refuting their opinions of attacking Confucius and resolutely abolishing Confucianism to varying degrees.However,Lin Shu and Gu Hongming of the cultural conservatism camp denounced their behavior of criticizing Confucius and Confucianism in order to stick to the Confucian tradition.The Oriental school of Fun and balance advocated the reconciliation of old and new cultures.A comprehensive review of the various comments on the extreme phenomenon that Chen Duxiu and others made when criticizing Confucius and Confucianism is mainly due to their differences in cultural and academic positions,as well as emotional factors.However,after the May 4th Movement,many comments on this issue from the academic circle are more a form of historical discourse.Under the view of revolutionary history,the theorists fully affirmed the positive significance of criticizing Confucius and Confucianism during the May 4th Movement,and believed that this event had defeated Confucius and highly praised it.With the introduction of postmodern thought and the rising call of "return to tradition" in China,the academic circle put forward the so-called "radical" theory for the extreme problem of criticizing Confucius during the May Fourth Movement.At the same time,some scholars refuted the "radical" theory from different perspectives,such as the connotation of "Confucius" criticized during the May Fourth Movement and the development path of Confucianism.Taking a comprehensive look at people’s criticism of Confucius and Confucianism in the past hundred years,whether it is the criticism of Chen Duxiu and other leaders during the May Fourth Movement,or the historical narration of "extreme" issues by the intellectuals under the influence of revolutionary history and postmodern historical view,they provide us with valuable enlightenment to explore the deep historical motivation behind the rhetoric.This is enough to prove that the history of criticizing Confucius during the May 4th Movement has been stamped by The Times.However,any statement that is out of the historical context or deviates from the historical situation is subjective.Those who criticize and accuse Chen Duxiu and others of criticizing Confucius and Confucianism are too radical and even completely anti-traditional conclusions are obviously non-historicism.Therefore,we should adhere to historical materialism,and on the basis of in-depth investigation and comprehensive grasp of the historical character and destiny of Chinese intellectuals,adopt a rational attitude to look at the "extreme" phenomenon in criticizing Confucius and Confucianism during the May Fourth Movement.