Talk About The Literary Theory & Criticism Of Hu Shi

Hu Shi took the view of history of the social development as the point of department, emphasizing that the characteristic of literary development was its linear progress. He believed that the literature in the future would be different and advanced, which was the inevitable result of the evolution. He advocated that the content of literature should be put into the vast social life, which was considered as the source of it and the motive force of the vicissitude. He thought that only by paying attention to the on-the -spot observation and blending one's own special experience can you reach the state that one could observe the reality of our society and give free rein to one's own imagination, after which the excellent literary work would be created. Hu considered much of the characteristic of the objects that would receive the literary work and their peculiarity of the way they receive it, paying much attention to the reader's reacting force of the literary version and the impossibility of the re-explanation in the acceptation of literature. In order to make literature as a tool of arousing the masses of the people to take part in the national rejuvenation campaign, Hu tried his best to make the writings in the vernacular as the basic medium of all the written communication. He turned the function of literary transformation to increase the members of reader group. After reading the literary work, the readers would get a clear understanding of the reality of China at that time, which would reach the utility aim of remaking the society. The literary concept of Hu emphasized the objectivity, the accuracy and the scientific nature, considering the literary work as a tool, making the literary criticism efficacious. Whether a literary work was good or not was based on the effect expressed by it. "Instrument" was the most important criteria for the fixed position of a literary work. The form of Chinese literary works was incomplete in Hu's eyes. He emphasized the learning from the "first-rate" model in the west literature. Hu stressed the methodology in the literary theory and criticism. He considered the scientism, which was synthesized by Du Wei's pragmatism, Chinese traditional Sinology method and the study method of the scholars in Qing Dynasty. The best generalization of Hu's methodology was "the concretization anti the abstraction".