The Reconstruction Of Values In The New Culture Movement (1915-1924)

The New Culture Movement as a enlightenment and cultural innovation movement, has a great significance in the process of modern Chinese social and cultural transformation. Values had become the key issues during this period, not only distinctively represents the the core spirit and specific features of modern Chinese philosophy since The Republic of China was founded, but also embodies the historical trend and developmental direction of philosophical revolution. The research allows further study on modern Chinese spiritual world in the 20th Century, provides fertile resources to think today matters.The value issues of The New Culture Movement had historical sources, social foundation and development laws. From the point of view of value system vicissitude process, values reconstruction in The New Culture Movement was in the transition from the old to the new value system and self renewal. Specifically, the old value system gradually disintegrated, the new value system established by absorbing western values and the traditional values of the reasonable resources, and developed to be an organic whole and comprehensive innovation. These were closely related to the development of 20th Chinese philosophy.The first chapter is a general introduction of values reconstruction. The New Culture Movement was impacted by restoration of a dethroned monarch, confused fighting between the warlords were a series of domestic history events. Meanwhile, The First World War, The October Revolution, The Paris Peace Conference failed events has caused quite a stir in China.These created the trend that people started to pursuit a new life with more visions. Continuously introducing western thought resources, the education system reformation and the change of identity of intellectuals and the modern publishing industry objectively helped with this process. The reconstruction of values general manifested three features. Firstly reevaluated the old system as a whole; Secondly, The May 4th Movement changed the social topic from the thought liberation to social transformation; Thirdly, people of different opinions and ideological factions took the debates and discussions on the rationality of the new values. In the last, the question why the "Science", "Democracy" and "Socialism" became the most popular and ideal would be stated, which was the perfect goal for all the people to pursuit in the whole movement.The second chapter investigate the "science" concept in The New Culture Movement, presents its morphology characteristics and influence. In Chinese modern history, science was one of the patriots'important tools to save the people and the nation, therefore it was known from technology to rules gradually. Until The New Culture Movement, the connotation of "science" unceasingly generalization and expanding. It's not only western technology or the cosmological evolution, but also the scientific attitude, rational spirit and scientific method, as a kind of inner liberation force lived in people's minds, guided people's thoughts and activities. This chapter would examine how natural scientists spread scientific spirit by creating "The Science" magazine and set up the Science Society of China. Furthermore, we would focus on "the Movement for Rearranging the National Heritage" movement, leading to the scientific method effect and penetrated on the humanities, the transformation of history and historical methodology consciously. At last, the thinkers of scientism and humanism around the relationship between science and philosophy had differences though "The Debate Between Science and Metaphysics" which deepened Chinese people's understanding of science in later The New Culture Movement.The third chapter investigate the "democracy", analyzes its process of expanding from ideological concepts to the freedom and independence, individual liberty and the universal values of social equality. Firstly, enlightenment thinkers represented by Chen Duxiu, made the task of democratic revolution turn to the social culture and ideological field. Secondly revolutionary thinkers represented by Sun Zhongshan, continued to explore new solutions for the construction of political democracy. Thirdly, democratic activists represented by Hu Shi, discussed theoretical connotation of western democratic values, had the further understanding and explanation. Lastly, after The May Fourth Movement, the early Chinese Marxists promote democratic ideals into practice, reflection the capitalist democracy and support socialist democracy theory. All of those contents represents the democratic characteristic in The New Culture Movement.The fourth chapter investigate the "socialism". Socialism as core value people pursuit in The New Culture Movement had answered the question "where should China go" and provided the new social and ideal personality. After The May 4th Movement in 1919, there were three popular socialist ideological trends-The Anarchism, The Guild Socialism and The Marxist scientific socialism.They shared the same value of equality of resources and put forward to solve the social problems.Yet different foreign sources and the functions of the traditional way of thinking, caused them to pursuit equality concept greatly different,especially on how to reach the goal of social equality issues, resulted in the fierce competition between different socialist ideological trend, and contributed to socialism's three big controversy during The New Culture Movement. The final result was that the Marxist scientific socialism won and a growing number of young intellectuals and progressive youth chose political and social ideal revaluation as their choices, made Marxism as a the new civilization to change the fate of the nation, and solve the problem of China in the future.The fifth chapter investigate the two represented thinkers of cultural conservatism, Kang Youwei and Liang Shuming. They had different explorations for modern transformation of Confucianism value system. Kang Youwei advocated Confucianism as the state religion related with restoration of Yuan Shikai and Zhang Xun. His Confucian thoughts analyzed and reconstructed Confucianism value system and ideology from Confucianism religious. Liang Shuming reconstructed Confucianism value system through Confucian academic, had opened up a path of cultural Conservatism in the 20th Century.In summary, "science", "democracy" and "socialism" had become native values through the baptism of The New Culture Movement. They are the Chinese people's pursuit of ideal and core values in the 20th Century. Traditional Confucianism values was endowed with new connotation and development of the modern New Confucianism. These values reconstruction in the 20th Chinese philosophy reconstructed the world of thought and gradually formed the spirit of a modern Chinese lineage.