Ren Fangqiu’s Study Of The Gong An School

Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren and other Literature Revolution pioneers, made great contributions to history intheir exploring of the rising process of the new-vernacular literature movement. Zhou Zuoren in theaftermath of this revolution began to reflect on the movement, and turned from Western literature toclassical Chinese literature in his discussion. In1932, Zhou Zuoren, in his The Origin and Development ofthe Chinese New Literature (zhongguo xin wenxue de yuanliu), traced the origin of the new literatureadvocated in the May Fourth Movement period all the way back to the late Ming dynasty and argued thatChinese literature was formed through the consecutive ups and downs of the two general literary schools,namely "yan zhi (expressing one’s will)" and "zai dao (enlightening)". This argument sparked a debateamong the literati, and the study of the Gongan School in the late Ming dynasty became animated andheated. In the1930s when two opposing outlooks of literature existed, the academic study on the GonganSchool became increasingly intensified, and Lin Yutang, Yu Dafu, A Ying, Lu Xun, Chen Zizhan, Liu Xie,etc., were involved in the study. Ren Fangqiu was also one of them. This thesis first examines thebackground of Ren’s study of the Gongan School in the1930s, and then deals with his study, which can bedivided into two periods: a period of preliminary exploration and a period of further research. Finally wediscuss his academic value.The whole thesis falls into two parts: Introduction and the main body.In Introduction, the significance and value of this topic is introduced and the current research on thistopic is briefly analysed.The main body falls into four chapters.Chapter1deals with the historical background of Ren’s study of the Gongan School. This chapter isdevided into three sections: Section1is about the debate caused by discussing over "yan zhi(expressingone’s will)" and "zai dao(enlightening). It is focused on Zhou’s The Origin and Development of the ChineseNew Literature and the prelude and climax of the debate, which resulted in the two opposing outlooks onliterature in1930s, are discussed. Section2discusses the debate over the Gongan School in the late Mingdynasty carried out by liberal writers and left-wing writers, and the focus of the debate is to use Yuan Hongdao as an example and argue over the ideological and political differences. The incident highlightedthe disagreement concerning literature between the left-wing and the liberal writers. Ren appeared in thedebate with a pure academic perspective, peaceful and calm, which is an invaluable academic spirit.Section3introduces the rising to fame of Ren, and it is under such a background he began to study theGongan School.Chapter2discusses the early exploration of the Gongan School made by Ren. The first section of thischapter introduces how Ren got interested in the Gongan School, and makes a brief review of the GonganSchool and the trend of thoughts in the late Ming dynasty. The second section introduces the main contentof Ren’s two works：A Critical Biography of Yuan Hongdao, written in college, and A Study of YuanHongdao, his thesis for a master degree. By inspecting the two works and comparing the similarities anddifferences of their study and creation processes, Ren’s preliminary exploration of the Gongan School in the1930s is analyzed.Chapter3discusses Ren’s further exploration of the Gongan School. With the passage of time and theincrease of the experience of life, Ren’s understanding and knowledge about the Gongan School wasdeepening and widening. The first section of this chapter is about the revision of and addition to A Study ofYuan Hongdao, which was Ren’s thesis submitted for a master’s degree, and afterwards because of theoutbreak of war it was laid aside for more than40years before it was revised and supplemented severaltimes by Ren and published by Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House in1983. The modified workwas injected a new dialectical materialist view; this is a change compared with the first period. Section2discusses the further exploration of the origin of the new-vernacular literature during the May FourthMovement days. When revising A Study of Yuan Hongdao, Ren extended his discussion from YuanHongdao, the Gongan School and the late Ming dynasty literature to the origin of Chinese new literature,and published The Origin of Chinese New Literature. This work is another achievement of his further anddeepened research on the Gongan School. In it the relationship between the new literature advocated in theMay Fourth Movement and the late Ming dynasty literature was expounded on and Ren thus became thefirst to discuss after Zhou the relationship between the new-vernacular literature and the late Ming dynastyliterature.Chapter4mainly discuss the intellectual merit Ren Fangqiu Gongan Genre. Through Comb and analysis his study, we have a general knowledge about Ren’s history of literature. We can find he haveunique Genuine knowledge and ideas about Gongan School through his study. And his Genuine knowledgeand ideas refleted in the following aspect: generous placid academic character, dispassionate and rationalacademic attitude, consistently academic ideas.