The May Fourth Movement: Travel Of Romanticism In China

The May Fourth Movement is a long-lasting as well as ever-new topic in the studies of history of Chinese thought. Its unfailing charm and significance in history of thought lies in that with the historical occasion on which Chinese Culture and Western Culture surged together, it not only breaks down the traditional thought in China with over 2000-year influence of Confucius, but also condenses several hundred years' history of European thought. Therefore, it is multidimensionality that is the most striking feature of Chinese thought in the May Fourth period. Various thoughts and schools appearing diachronically in the history of western thought, the modern one in particular, present themselves to China synchronically. Such being a sudden changing and wide adopting phenomenon, it is rare in the history of Chinese thought. It is only the "Axis Period" in the pre-Qin days that may enhance the charm of such a "Transitional Period".The external source of the history of May Fourth's thought may provide us with a macroscopic and contrastive perspective to explore its organic thought system. It leaves no room for doubt that the May Fourth Movement known as the mark of thought development is of enlightening stamp, whereas the author holds that it is of another stamp, namely, romanticism. It has two aspects: the general sprit of the times and the specific tendency of thoughts. Explored from these perspectives, the May Fourth Movement resembles the Romantic Movement, which was shortly after Enlightenment and stirred the whole Europe in late 18th century and early 19th century. In other words, the May Fourth Movement can be viewed in a sense as travel of European Romantic Movement in China. Thus exploring the May Fourth with regard to Romanticism is the very angle and end of this paper.The meanings of Romanticism are, however, naturally broad and indeterminate. Explored its evolution in Europe, Romanticism in the history of thought has at least three core characters: subjectivity displayed by worshiping affection; rebelliousness displayed by smashing the trammels; idealism displayed by surpassing the reality. Examined in these dimensions, the May Fourth will reveal vivid and explicit grounds in terms of outlook on life, on culture and on politics. In the light of outlook on life, the May Fourth advocates individualism, affections and feminism, which displays the worship of affection and subjectivity in Romanticism; in the light of outlook on culture, the May Fourth advocates smashing the authorities and idols, and collapsing traditional moral system by revolutionizing literature and "bringing down the Confucius", thereby constructing an edifice of new culture by adopting western thoughts, which displays the rebelliousness of Romanticism; in the light of outlook on politics, the turbulent student movement, the righteous appeals in the power politics, and the anarchic utopia illusion all display the idealism of Romanticism.The May Fourth Romanticism as a response of European Romanticism is a natural norm of evolution of human civilization or a logical and inevitable tendency rather than a historical coincidence. In the sense of modernity, the exploration of meaning and value of human beings starts with the establishment of rationalism set by Enlightenment, and then goes to the emphasis of affection set by Romanticism. (The May Fourth combined these two processes into one). It is the combination of rationalism and affection that can fulfill the modernity of human beings. However, the significance of Romanticism is no more than what we have discussed, beyond which the exploration on cultural and political fields would be of little value.