Table Of ContentHARVARD EAST ASIAN STUDIES 6
The Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University
administers postgraduate training programs and research
projects designed to jurther scholarly understanding of
China, Korea, Japan, and adjacent areas.
THE
MAY FOURTH
MOVEMENT
&
Λ ii
* %
/'I
&
•ä
THE
MAY FOURTH
MOVEMENT
Intellectual Revolution
in Modern China
Chow Tse-tsung
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London, England
© Copyright, I960, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Fifth Printing, 1980
Preparation of this volume was aided by a grant from the
Carnegie Corporation. The Corporation is not, however, the
author, owner, publisher, or proprietor of this publication and
is not to be understood as approving by virtue of its grant any
of the statements made or views expressed therein.
Publication has been aided by a grant from the Ford Foundation
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60—10034
ISBN 0-674-55750-6 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674—55751-4 (paper)
To the Memory of My Beloved Father
CHOW P'ENG-CHU
(1887-1952)
Poet Scholar Calligrapher
PREFACE
THERE are few major events in modern Chinese history so controversial,
so much discussed, yet so inadequately treated as the May Fourth Movement.
For some Chinese it marks a national renaissance or liberation, for others a
national catastrophe. Among those who discuss or celebrate it most, views vary
greatly. Every May for the last forty years, numerous articles have analyzed and
commented on the movement. Several books devoted entirely to the subject and
hundreds touching on it have been published in Chinese. The literature on the
subject is massive, yet most of it offers more polemic than factual accounts.
Most Westerners possess but fragmentary and inaccurate information on the
subject. For these reasons, preparation of this volume recounting the events of
the movement and examining in detail its currents and effects has seemed to
me worthwhile.
More personal motives have also impelled me to undertake this task. I have
been interested in the subject since my boyhood in Changsha where I was a
student in the same high school from which Mao Tse-tung had graduated
fifteen years before. There I was active in the current student movement and
became a central figure in the student "storms" and strikes. We of course looked
back to the May Fourth Movement with pride and admiration. Significantly,
my first poem in the new vernacular, written in this period following over one
thousand verses in the classical style which I had composed earlier, was entitled
"May Fourth, We Are Not Failing You." It was published in a newspaper
edited by Kuo Mo-jo and T'ien Han. Even then I dreamed of some day writing
a book on the May Fourth Movement. This intention was strengthened later
when I attended a Kuomintang university where student movements were nor-
mally prohibited.
The study and presentation of this movement as a many-faceted intellectual
and sociopolitical phenomenon has not been an easy task. Aware of the contro-
versial nature of the subject, I have tried to introduce as many factual records
as possible. A large number of quotations have been included in the text
so that the records and the people concerned might speak for themselves.
Translations are my own unless otherwise noted.
PREFACE
Underlying the general theme of the writing is the belief that, while eco-
nomic conditions and ideological interplay may be major factors in defining an
event such as the May Fourth Movement, other elements are also very influ-
ential. These include historical background, political setting, social organization
and social psychology, personal leadership and participation, as well as some
small but probably key incidents. Efforts have been made to analyze some of
these factors with respect to the movement.
The book falls into two parts. In the first part, activities and events are de-
scribed and analyzed in chronological order, with the exception of Chapter
VIII which has been inserted somewhat out of sequence to provide background
for the following chapter. In the second part of the book, main literary and
intellectual currents are separately analyzed and examined in some detail. A
full Bibliography, a Glossary of Chinese and Japanese Names and Terms, with
characters, and an annotated list of periodicals current during the May Fourth
period are published separately.
I am deeply indebted to Professor Robert E. Ward of the University of
Michigan. Without his encouragement, guidance, and assistance the study
could not have been accomplished. I am most grateful to Professor John K.
Fairbank of Harvard University and to Mrs. Wilma Fairbank for their in-
cessant encouragement and help in the writing and publishing of the work. In
the preparation of the manuscript for publication, Mrs. Fairbank has not only
extended extremely painstaking editorship, but also made a number of critical
and helpful remarks which greatly improved the presentation of the subject.
Profound gratitude should also be expressed to Professor Benjamin Schwartz
of the same university for many inspiring discussions and for his reading of
most of the manuscript and making a number of valuable comments and sug-
gestions. I am grateful to Mr. Bertrand Russell for his letter discussing his stay
in China during the latter part of the movement. I also thank Dr. Hu Shih
and Dr. Carsun Chang for interesting and illuminating discussions of the sub-
ject. To my colleague at Harvard University, Professor Lien-sheng Yang, and
former colleague, Professor Masataka Banno, I owe great appreciation for sav-
ing me from many errors in romanizations in the footnotes. I wish to acknowl-
edge the valuable comments on certain chapters made by Professors James I.
Crump, Jr., Russell H. Fifield, John W. Hall, and James H. Meisel of the
University of Michigan. Professor Nathaniel Peffer of Columbia University,
an eyewitness of the movement in China from 1915 to 1921, has given me first-
hand information. I am also much indebted to the following friends for read-
ing parts of the manuscript: Mr. Morton Abramowitz, Mr. William F. Daniel-
PREFACE
son, Dr. Albert Feuerwerker, Professor Wolfgang Franke, Professor Bayard
Lyon, Mr. Roderick L. MacFarquhar, and Mr. Mark Mancall. Acknowledg-
ment is also made of the assistance received from Dr. Arthur W. Hummel, Dr.
Edward Beal, Jr., Dr. Κ. T. Wu, and particularly Mr. Liang Hsü, all of the
Library of Congress, from Dr. A. K. Ch'iu and other librarians of the Harvard-
Yenching Library, from those of the University of Michigan Library and Mr.
Kuang-huan Lu of the Columbia University Library. None of those mentioned
above, of course, bears responsibility for the views expressed. Finally, I wish to
thank Harvard University Press for its great assistance in the publication of
this volume.
CHOW TSE-TSUNG
Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 1959
