Abstract

Abstract:

During the May Fourth Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu from New Youth and Du Yaquan of Eastern Miscellany engaged in a series of heated exchanges in their common search for a solution to the Republican crisis and an understanding of World War I. Du argued that nation-states are founded on the cultural and civilizational orientation of its people, therefore the essence of war and the source of political conflict are functions of the thoughts of the people. This insight shifted the debate from the political to the cultural arena, and allowed the May Fourth intellectuals to examine the attributes of Eastern and Western civilizations as a way to counter the threats of Hongxian monarchism, China's political and social fragmentation, as well as the inadequacies of Western nation-statehood. Du predicted that the future master of the twentieth century would be a scientific laborer with a cultural outlook derived from the mediation of the traditional Chinese and twentieth-century European civilizations.

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