Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.7, 2013

 

The Idea of Literary Writings in the Vernacular Movement

(Abstract)

 

Wang Benchao

 

In the May Fourth movement, the replacement of classical Chinese by vernacular Chinese marked the end of one era and the beginning of another, the era of vernacular literature. The vernacular movement not only changed the view of Chinese literature, but also established the idea of vernacular writings. In the historical development of the movement, the conceptualization of vernacular writings saw a shift from advocacy and establishment to suspicion and criticism, and thence to self-reflection and self-adjustment. Accordingly, people’s view also underwent a change from “writing is talking” to doubting whether vernacular Chinese can make good writing, and thence to exploring how to write good vernacular essays, demonstrating the dynamism and complexity of the conceptualization of vernacular writings. The successful conceptualization of vernacular writings owed as much to the creative practices of new literature. Vernacular literature and new literature shared much in common in content and concept, in a way of promoting and constraining each other. On one hand, this facilitated the transformation of literary modernity and socialization, and on the other, cast new literature into a dilemma between responding to the changing times and pursuing aesthetic ideals.