What does May Fourth Literature mean?

1) Modernity of ideological concepts: The change of ideological concepts is the most prominent change in May Fourth literature. Ideological concepts include political concepts, ethical concepts, educational concepts, historical concepts, family concepts, etc. Among them The most critical thing is the change in concepts of life and values. Because the expression of literature on life and people, the key is what kind of vision and value standards are used to view and evaluate life and people. May Fourth Literature uses The new culture's concept of life is to feel, understand and think about life issues, and advocates a free life, a personalized life, and an evolved life. Use the values ??of the new culture to measure and evaluate historical life and real life, criticize the old life, and look forward to the new life. New The values ??of culture are individualism, humanitarianism, populism and scientific spirit. For example, Lu Xun's discovery of the problem of "cannibalism" and his emphasis on the theme of "transforming national character", and the expression of the tragic fate and ignorant mental state of farmers in rural literature , Guo Moruo's extreme demands for self-image and personality liberation, Yu Dafu's demands for people's emotional desires and mental anguish, etc.

(2) The modernity of emotional experience: May Fourth literature in terms of emotional experience Modernity has two major characteristics. One is the downplaying of group emotions and the emphasis on individual emotions; the other is the denial of standardized emotions and the admiration of naturalized emotions. Emphasizing individual emotions means paying attention to the complexity of individual emotions. Sex, subtlety, and difference pay attention to the self-characteristics of different individuals' emotional experiences. For example, Guo Moruo uses "coal in the furnace" and "young girl" to express his love for the motherland, and Wen Yiduo uses "stagnant water" to express his love for society. Xu Zhimo uses "snowflake happiness" to express his experience of love amid the disappointment and resentment of darkness and corruption. Emphasizing naturalized emotions means paying attention to the spontaneous and natural state of natural emotions, and paying attention to the unrestrained expression and display of emotions, such as The emotional state in Guo Moruo's poems such as "Tiangu" and "Good Morning", the bold confession of love by Liu Bannong and the Hupan poet, and the strong expression of extreme anger in Wen Yiduo's "Discovery".

(3) Modernity in the way of thinking and imagination: The changes in the way of thinking and imagination in the May Fourth literature mainly emphasize the dual separation of subject and object and the characteristics of scientific thinking. This is reflected in the following points: highlighting the status of the subject and The image of the self shows the individual characteristics of the way of thinking and imagination, such as the conception and writing characteristics of Lu Xun's novels, Guo Moruo's poems, and Yu Dafu's prose. It emphasizes the contradiction, conflict, and complexity of the expression of life and soul, such as Lu Xun and Xiangtu The conflict between people and the social living environment, the conflict between human character and destiny expressed in literature, Lu Xun's "Wild Grass" and Yu Dafu's novels dissect the self-psyche and torture the soul. The description methods and creations brought about by the intervention of scientific thinking Changes in methods, such as the emphasis on "fine observation" and "lifelike description", the rise of realism, the deepening of people's inner psychological understanding and the birth of psychological novels. The formation of modern knowledge structure and the representation of life in literature. Systematic changes, such as changes in character images and environmental images in novels, changes in image description and metaphor in prose and poetry.

(4) Modernity of art forms: May Fourth literature in terms of art forms The general characteristic of the changes is that the principle of free expression replaces the principle of stylized expression. The specific form is: modern novels with various styles replace classical novels with a single style. For example, the forms of Lu Xun's novels are diverse, as Mao Dun said , "Almost every article has a new form, and every article is different"; new free-style poems have replaced the old metrical poems, such as the diversification of various poetry styles and poetry forms in Guo Moruo's "Goddess"; popular and flexible prose has replaced In order to replace the difficult and profound classical Chinese prose, Hu Shi advocated "just write how you say it". The stylisticization of the article brought unprecedented liberation to the prose style; the drama replaced the classical opera and changed the stylized and facial makeup plot and characters of the opera. , background expression routines, making it close to the natural state of life.

(5) Modernity of the language system: The changes in the language system of May Fourth literature are generally replaced by the vernacular language system The classical Chinese language system established the written language of modern literature. Specifically, it includes: changes in narrative language, which show the diversity, concealment, and objectivity of modern narrative language in narrative functions. Changes in descriptive language show that modern description Language has the characteristics of subtlety, authenticity, and depth in writing about people. The changes in lyrical language show the individuality, naturalness, and meticulousness of modern lyrical language in expressing emotions. The changes in argumentative language show modern discussion

On the characteristics of logic, analysis, and thoroughness of language in argumentation and reasoning. It can be said that changes in the literary language system laid the foundation for the formation of modern Chinese written language.