On The Crescent School’s Literary Concept

The Crescent School is one of the most important literary genres in the history ofmodern Chinese literature. In1920s when Chinese modern intellectuals’ thoughtsdifferentiated, it didn’t follow the mainstream literature to serve the revolution, butcontinued to adhere to May4th enlightenment, and seeked for independent thoughtand artistic standard, thus making itself one of the coerced liberalism literature underthe group. But in quite a long period of time, the Crescent School had been subjectedto discrimination, misunderstood or even shaded. The present reexamination of theCresent School starts from literary notion, the essence of literary genre, which decideson a literary genre’s art style, activities, and even its characters. It is evidentlydifficult to study the literary concept of the Crescent School, because the School is notwell-organized, compact and identical. Its literary thoughts are not only reflected inthe complicated theory and criticism, but also hidden in the changing writing practiceand literary translation. It will lead to a completely different conclusion if we onlytake one of its aspects in locating its literature concept. This is the fundamental reasonwhich caused controversy on the literary concept. Therefore, the literary thoughts canbe reasonably defined only by a comprehensive viewing on its literary theory andpractice.In theory and criticism, on the one hand, represented by Liang Shi-qiu, theCrescent School advocated the manifestation of human nature, subjecting to thediscipline and balanced scale which obviously has neoclassicism; On the other hand,represented by Xu Zhi-mo, the Crescent School advocated the manifestation ofinspiration, writing life and natural beauty, which has typical romantic color. Inwriting and translation, the Crescent School advocated working for art and life, whichmakes it have a variety of colors. From the pursuit of romantic self portrait to theclassical formal beauty, even the modern psychological adventure, different poeticsshow the essential idea of "freedom". On the basis of inheriting the tradition ofChinese and foreign literature, the Crescent School pursues the dream of ancient andmodern, the fusion of Chinese and western. Therefore, although it debated with theLeft-wing Literature, it also promoted the modernization of new literature, making itfrom heteronomy to self-discipline. At the same time, through the Crescent School’sliterary concept, we can see conservative national consciousness and the world visionof modern liberalism intellectuals. Although they have the conflicts between ideal and reality, traditional and modern, they don’t lack of responsibility, tolerance and robust.The humanistic spirit can not be ignored because it can be used to resist materialismand scientism value.This paper studies the Crescent School’s literary concept mainly from thecross-cultural perspective, by the integrated use of literature, sociology and translationstudies, etc. and from the different level of discourse in every style. In particular to:Chapter One studies the historical context of the Crescent School. The CrescentSchool was the result of a comprehensive development of modern Chinese politicalthought, culture and art. Firstly, enlightenment from the late Qing Dynasty to May4thlaid the ideological foundation of democracy and equality, nationalism and patriotism.Secondly, liberalism provided it with individual freedom of thought and independentspirit paradigm. Thirdly, the new humanism provided theoretical resources for its newclassicism literature. Finally, the modern transformation of Chinese literature laid asolid foundation for its literature pursuit for life and art, aesthetic and enlightenment.This chapter mainly reveals that the modern appeal is the inherent power of theCrescent School’s formation, and the Crescent School literature is a product ofintellectuals’ modernity anxiety.Chapter Two studies development of the Crescent School’s literary concept. Indifferent stages of its development, the Crescent School had different theory andpractice, which reflects the complex ideas. In the first stage, as Tsinghua students,they pursued freedom and independence, national literature, which reflect strongromanticism and nationalism thought. In the second stage, they published Poetry andPlay, advocating the fusion of ancient and modern, Chinese and Western literature,especially the classical poetics. In the third stage, they founded the CrescentBookstore and New Moon issue to promote "healthy" and "dignity" literature. Theydebated with the Left-wing writers, and cried for human rights and the rule of law. Inthe fourth stage, they founded Poetry and Learning to demand a return to art itself,ideological and mellow, style diversity, even modern literature. This chapter focuseson clarifying the changing process of the Crescent School’s literary concept, and givesa redefinition of its initial stage.Chapter Three studies the Crescent School’s basic literary conceptions. TheCrescent School hasn’t throughout and completely unified literary ideas, but hasinfluence and representative literature view. They include： Literature reflects"universal human nature". Reason is "the highest control authority". Beauty is"beautiful soul" belongs to "beauty of body".“A poet must be a genius"."Life connects with art", etc. These views accommodate the Crescent School’s the mostbasic view about literature. Even if they are conflicting, it indicates that the CrescentSchool absorbs anything and everything, forming robustly rational literary thoughts atanother level.Chapter Four studies the Crescent School poetry’s discipline and freedom whichare in rebellion. The Crescent School poetry has become an important turning point inthe history of Chinese poetry. In order to correct defects of early vernacular poetrywhich is too lax and whose poetic flavour is insufficient. On the basis of western lawpoetry and Chinese classical poetry, the Crescent School poetry put forward poetrypropositions and "rational emotion" aesthetic principles, forming a new paradigm forthe vernacular poetry. But the metrical poetry advocation is not all the ideas of theCrescent School poetry. From early having a special liking for romantic poetry to lateoverflowing metrical standard and returning to the free body, even the deviation ofwriting and theory, all prove that there is a contradiction between the CrescentSchool’s discipline and freedom. Only let the new poetry become "a combinationproduct of Chinese and Western art" is their common and eternal goal. This chaptermainly discusses its Chinese and Western art fusion concept, new metrical poetrytheory, and aesthetic transcendence alienating the principles.Chapter Five studies the Crescent School prose in pursuit of "soul" and"freedom". On the one hand, represented by Xu Zhi-mo, Zhu Xiang and Chu An-ping,the Crescent School prose pays attention to spiritual life and nature. On the other hand,represented by Liang Shi-qiu, Hu Shi, Luo Long-ji, etc, the Crescent School prosecalls for "human nature" and "freedom", the rule of law and democracy. Among them,lyrical prose inherits the literary essays in late Ming Dynasty and English essays,which Embodies the blending of traditional Chinese literati culture and westerngentleman culture. Argumentative prose has inherited the pre-Qin philosophers’ prosethat is good at reasoning, which shows the responsibility of Confucian intellectuals,and the subjective consciousness of public intellectuals influenced by Western culture.Especially the political prose calling for "human rights" and the literary proseopposing the "class" highlights the strong idea of freedom, which adds to modernprose another color of "force and thought". This chapter discusses narrative and lyricprose which believe in life and nature, literary prose which talks freely and debateswith Lu Xun,“comment row on politics” which called for human rights and the ruleof law in turn. Chapter Six studies persistence and transcendence of classicalism of the CrescentSchool drama and novel. Drama is a polymerization opportunity of the CrescentSchool. For the Chinese cultural renaissance, the Crescent School launched theChinese drama movement. Going against the tide, they proposed to organize anddevelop Chinese traditional drama art. And based on the appropriate reference ofwestern drama, they put forward the modern drama "freehand theory","program" and"comprehensive art" theory. They especially advocated freehand brushwork art andpure art, advocating that new drama should aim at art and interest, and dramatistsshould balance the development of reason and emotion, artistic conscience and moralconscience, which displays the classical aesthetic pursuit. Yu Shang-yuan’s theory andDing Xi-lin’s drama are examples. But there are also different views in the CrescentSchool. Xu Zhi-mo and Lu Xiao-man’s aesthetic drama, Chen Chu-huai’s symbolizeddrama showed varied aesthetic pursuit. The Crescent School has no systematic theoryabout novels, but their writing achievements can not be ignored. The uniquecontribution of Shen Cong-wen and Ling Shu-hua had been obscured, or mistakenlybelieved to belong to the Beijing School literature. In fact, they first belong to theCrescent School, then the Beijing School. The Crescent School novels’ aestheticpursuit and value orientation of humanistic care, placid, harmonious and graceful, alsoshow the classical and romantic aesthetic quality, and directly influence the BeijingSchool novels.Chapter Seven studies both aesthetic and practical translation poetics. As aliterary school that mainly consists of the British and American student, the CrescentSchool shows special advantage in translation. Translation has become a considerablepart of its literature activities. Their translation theory and practice also reflect theirliterary concept to a certain extent. On the one hand, they emphasized artical andclassical translation material. On the other hand, they paid attention to scientific andpractical material. They reinterpreted translation principle of "faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance", and supplemented the "human nature" as a literarytranslation standard. They clearly advocated the combination of literal translation andfree translation，objecting to the "hard translation" and the distorted translation, andarguing again with Lu Xun on translation theory. Through the translation, theCrescent School not only provides the new heterogeneous text, but also promotes theinteraction of Chinese and foreign literature, which uncovers a kind of "world"literature view. This chapter mainly studies the Crescent School’s theory and criticismfrom the perspective of translation poetics, view of literature in translation practice,and interaction of translation and heterogeneous culture. The conclusion part mainly reassesses the Crescent School and its influence onthe liberalism literature. Obviously, liberalism literature pursues spontaneouslyaesthetic modernity of literature based on human nature and art standard. At the sametime, it actively participates in the construction of modern social system, daring tochallenge and revolt against the authoritarian politics, which shows the progress ofhistory. But it takes elite intellectuals’"reason" and "interest" as the ruler, far from thereal life of ordinary people, ignoring the realistic demand of the social revolution, andalways in the conflict of the romantic spirit and rational principle, which alsohighlights some limitations of history. To reflect the Crescent School’s modernity andhumanism, if modernity was an unfinished enlightenment planning, the significanceof studying the Crescent School lies in providing theoretical enlightenment fornowaday modern construction. Its humanism of respecting for life, displaying humannature, advocating people, people and nature to maintain a harmonious relationship, iswidely applicable. So does the constructive identity about national and world culture.In short, the Crescent School literature whose spirit is based on liberalism works forlife and art, sets the classicism, romanticism and modernism together, and constitutesa unique scene of modern literature.