Lesson outline the may 4th movement

2. OriginsOrigins
Parallels and connections to 1898 reforms
Warlord Era, Japan’s 21 Demands
Treaty of Versailles - Shandong
New intelligentsia: 5 million educated in
West
Beijing University (Peita) founded 1898 –
promoted free expression
New Youth magazine started 1915: edited by
Chen Duxiu – attacked Confucianism
Literary Revolution: attacks on traditional
language led by Hu Shi

3. Q1Q1
The May 4
th
Movement can best be described as a
reaction against foreign involvement in China?
B)True
C)False

4. Chen DuxiuChen Duxiu

5. May 4, 1919May 4, 1919
3000 student demonstrators at Gate of
Heavenly Peace against Versailles Treaty,
Japanese demands and general state of China
Cabinet minister’s house burned
Manifesto declared:
“China’s territory may be conquered, but it
cannot be given away. The Chinese people
may be massacred, but they will not
surrender…”

6. 4 May 1919, Beijing4 May 1919, Beijing
The May 4
th
Incident
House burned
Former Chinese envoy to Japan beaten with iron bed
legs
So heavily bruised his body looked like “it was covered
in fish scales” –Rana Mitter

7. Movement SpreadsMovement Spreads
May-June 1919May-June 1919
Mass demonstrations throughout China
Warlord cabinet resigns
Students joined by the press and the middle class
Sun Yatsen supported protest (but was ambivalent
about movement as a whole)
Japanese goods boycotted
Schools closed

8. Intellectual RevolutionIntellectual Revolution
Explosion of new magazines
Attacks on Confucianism
Western ideas promoted
Marxism promoted – New Youth spring 1919 edition (CCP founded 1921)
Women’s rights (Ding Ling),
Workers rights, trade union activity
Peasant rights and education
New educational ideas
New literature, vernacular – Lu Xun

9. Lu Xun-author of “The Lu Xun-author of “The
True Story of Ah Q”True Story of Ah Q”
“Our vaunted Chinese civilization is only a
feast of human flesh
prepared for the high and mighty”

10. Intellectual ConflictIntellectual Conflict
Hu Shi: PROBLEMS
Beware of isms, simple solutions to complex
problems. Solve problems one at a time without
revolution but with PRAGMATISM
Vs
Li Dazhao: ISMS
Solve problems with a complete and thorough socio-
political transformation – revolution - MARXISM

11. Li DazhaoLi Dazhao

12. CCP FoundedCCP Founded
Beijing University converts: Chen Duxiu, Li
Dazhao, Mao Zedong
Comintern agent Voitinsky set up study
groups
July 1921: First Congress of CCP in Shanghai
Organized labour centres, workers’ schools,
strikes
Chinese Seamen’s Union strike: union
recognition, increased pay

13. Key FeaturesKey Features
Nationwide student demonstrations against the Versailles Treaty and Japan
Criticism of China’s past – attacks on “Confucius and Sons” – look to the West for solutions –
“keep young while growing old”
New intelligentsia – five million by 1919 – Western schools
Peking (Beijing) National University – founded 1898 – leading scholars: Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao,
Hu Shi
Chen Duxiu’s New Youth magazine – attacks Confucianism – promotes social Darwinism
Language Reform – rejection of classical Chinese – phonetic form of written characters
Literary Revolution – Hu Shi – “Overthrow the painted and powdered literature of the aristocratic
few” – plain, simple expression – literature of the people
Marxism – Bolshevik Revolution in Russia – promoted in special edition of New Youth May 1919 –
‘My Marxist Views’ (Li Dazhao)
Rejected by Hu Shi – more study of problems, less talk of “isms” – argued for pragmatism of John
Dewey
Lu Xun – China dying of suffocation – China as a cannibalistic society due to Confucianism etc

14. RecapRecap
Direct connections to 1898 Reforms e.g.: Beijing University
New Culture movement related but different to May 4
th
New Culture focused on literature and culture less than
politics
May 4
th
Movement an example of ‘Unstable Pluralism’,
e.g.: Weimar Germany
Foreign models popular e.g.: Edison, Ghandi,Marie Curie,
Ataturk and Marx