May Fourth Movement History (Revised Edition)

Author: Peng Ming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-12-01
Features: The book "History of the May Fourth Movement" consists of 20 chapters and 526,000 words, covering three main aspects: the social and ideological conditions for the occurrence of the May Fourth Movement, its development process, and its historical role as well as its position in the history of the Chinese revolution. Without understanding the rule of the Beiyang Warlord government, it is impossible to explain why the May Fourth Movement happened. The book begins with a substantial section describing the deepening national crisis, the dark rule of feudal autocracy, and the plunder by foreign imperialism and warlord oppression in Chinese society during the Beiyang Warlord period. It also describes the development of Chinese national capitalism in difficult circumstances and the corresponding growth of new social forces, thereby explaining that the occurrence of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and its role as a great new starting point for the Chinese revolution were not accidental. The author points out that before the May Fourth Movement, there were already sporadic and spontaneous resistance struggles among the masses, and a new revolutionary storm was also brewing. At the time, the New Culture Movement served as a prelude and harbinger of this storm. After narrating the struggle between democracy and autocracy, and scientific thought and superstition, the author emphasizes the need to fully recognize the "shaking and enlightening ideological liberation role" of this enlightenment movement. He acknowledges that this struggle, by undermining the authority of feudal thought, objectively created certain conditions for people to later accept Marxism. At the same time, he points out the weaknesses of the movement, such as its "failure to combine with political and mass movements" and its "formalist tendencies," particularly its absolute affirmation of Western civilization, especially fascist civilization. The author believes that "establishing a bourgeois republic was the common solution of the enlightenment thinkers at the time" and also the only choice they could have made. However, regarding how to implement this plan, "they could not provide a satisfactory answer." They lacked the ability to realize the "kingdom of freedom, equality, and fraternity" they envisioned on the land of a semi-colonial China. This very fact became the historical driving force behind the advanced Chinese intellectuals' later abandonment of the capitalist path and their turn toward socialism.