Cultural Syncretism Of The May Fourth Movement

The May Fourth Movement era in China's history is an important period during which China's society has witnessed a great transformation from the traditional into a modern one. In the intellectual and cultural fields, various streams of thoughts spring out, and numerous programs are put forward for cultural development to find a way out for traditional Chinese culture in the face of increasing conflicts between western and oriental, traditional and new cultures, forming a scenario of intense competition and debates. The school of culturlal conciliation is a strong one among the competing streams of thoughts at the time, whose most outstanding advocate is Du Yaquan. Of course, such figures as Zhang shizhao, Li Dazhao, Liang Qichao, and Qian Zhixiu also hold similar ideas on this. However, a firm advocate of culturlal conciliation among them is Du Yaquan, whose ideas are embodied in Oriental Journal of which he himself is the editor-in-chief. With Du's arduous efforts, Oriental Journal becomes the main battlefield or mouthpiece for this school of thought, arousing wide attention and debates among intellectuals.The ideas of culturlal conciliation during the May Fourth Movement era carry multifaceted connotations and deep intellectual values. Specifically, with its recognition of the heterogeneity between western and Chinese culture as a prerequisite, and with the generation of a new culture as its ultimate pursuit, it maintains that steady steps should be taken for reforms of the traditional Chinese culture, while seeking the coordination and combination between western and Chinese culture, the continuity between the traditional and new culture, the complementarity between the spiritual and material, the co-marching forward of the opposites. It also advocates taking rational attitudes as the guidance, opposes following the west blindly while accepting western culture with"conditional tolerance", and upgrades the traditional Chinese civilization in a scientific manner to create a new culture. In addition, it stresses to conduct a cultural self-reflection without any national or parochial bias, changing the inertness of the Chinese nationality, integrating the Chinese culture with the world, thus reaching a harmonious state of pluralistic cultural coexistence.As for its intellectual roots, the thought of eclecticism carries not only deep Chinese features, relating closely with the traditional Chinese thinking of"taking the middle ground"and"seeking the common ground while preserving the differences", but adopting ideas from France, Britain, India, and Japan. In brief, it is a product of exchanges and conflicts between the west and the east. Du Yaquan's words and deeds reveal that he shares the goal of building a new culture with those from the radical school of the New Cultural Movement, though they choose different methods for the new-culture-building cause, with the former advocating"building comes before breaking"while the latter emphasizing"breaking comes before building". They are not in intellectual conflict with those from the school of the New Youth in their attitudes toward the New Literature Movement, and on such matters as supporting individualism, opposing setting the Confucian as the state religion, building close relations with other cultures on the world. Their ideas are mainly aimed at those theoretically radical ideas and practically radical behavior of the radical New Cultural activists against which they wish to rectify and complement in a conciliatory manner, and to cultivate a new culture peacefully. They are neither the opposing forces of the New Cultural Movement, nor utter eclectics. As a matter of fact, they too are participants of the New Cultural Movement, and they constitute a relatively rational and steady school compared with others.Of course, culturlal conciliation is not without flaw, although it contains valuable ideas and gains some achievements in cultural cultivation. The cultural eclectics'shallow knowledge about western culture, and their ideational vagueness about how to integrate the western and Chinese culture, overcast their ideas an idealistic color, creating a gap between reality and their ideals and failing the test of the worldly affairs. As a result, culturlal conciliation soon fades out as it does not harvest due progress or gain the support of the majority in the era of the May Fourth Movement during which radicalism runs high. Therefore, we should be objective in evaluating the thought of culturlal conciliation, taking into account both of its strong points and its weaknesses.Today, Chinese culture is experiencing further transformation. In conducting this great cause, we should not only learn from history, but pay more attention to the present and have more innovations. We should be more open-minded, treat the western and Chinese culture in a rational way, handle properly the relationship between traditions and modern ideas, and create a healthy environment for cultural exchanges, thus enabling the exchanges and integration among different cultures, facilitating the generation of a new culture. This is a significant topic that deserves our further considerations and practical efforts.