After May 4, almost all the active members of Peking University have been involved in the movement. Three or four months ago, Peking University students who did their own things gave up their past grudges and united under the banner to jointly shout and run for issues such as diplomatic crisis, release of students and retain Cai Yuanpei.
"New Trend" and "National Ancient" are rivals, and "New Trend" and "National National" were not incompatible before the May Fourth Movement. As for the source, it can be traced back to a year ago:
In early May 1918, Chinese students in Tokyo held a large-scale demonstration in order to protest the signing of the Sino-Japanese Military Agreement on Joint Defense of the Enemy with Japan, but were suppressed by Japanese police. Chinese students decided to strike. Two weeks later, because the strike was not effective, they decided to return to China. At that time, more than 1,000 international students returned to China. After contacting students from Peking University and other schools, they initiated a petition for more than 2,000 colleges and universities in Beijing and Tianjin on May 21, 1918. The petition was "very moderate" and received no response from the government. In the petition team of
, Peking University was led by Xu Deheng, Duan Xipeng and others, but Fu Sinian and expressed opposition from beginning to end. This petition led to the first resignation of principal Cai Yuanpei, and for this reason Gu Jiegang scolded Luo Jialun, who participated in the petition. Xu Deheng insisted in his memoir: The failure of this petition was all because of the "bad students" such as Fu Sinian who reported to the authorities.
Xu Deheng gave a speech at Peking University Democratic Square
After this petition, the student team split. Some radical students were dissatisfied with the "lifelessness of Beijing students" and decided to set up a group and publish a publication. The group is the "Students' Saving Congress" (originally called the "Students' Patriotic Congress"), and the publication is the National Magazine.
The first issue of "National" was originally planned to be published in the second half of 1918, but because Lu Xueqi, director of the General Affairs Department, misappropriated funds, the publication was postponed to January 1919, which happened to coincide with the first issue of "New Trend".
In later narratives, the difference between the National Magazine and the New Tide Society was only the difference in ideological tendencies among students, but they belong to the camp of "new ideas and new cultures". For example, Huang Rikui, one of the editors of the National Magazine, distinguished two publications: "Before the May Fourth Movement, except for the professors who were hosted by the New Youth magazine, there were two major tendencies in terms of students,... One tendency is to represent philosophy and literature on the one hand, and the other tendency is to represent political and social issues. The former is "New Tide" Magazine, and the latter is "National Magazine." (Peking University in the Evolution of Modern Chinese Thought History)
This is only one aspect. The differences between the two societies also contain a strong element of intention. Xinchao Club is relatively elite. At the beginning, there were only 21 members, and the threshold was quite high. Peking University students had to "submit three times and publish this journal" before they could join the club. Students from other schools not only had to publish three articles, but also had to introduce more than two members. If members do not submit their articles within one year, they would be "cleared". Three were cleared out in the first year. Later, the regulations were relaxed and the submission restrictions were lifted, but only 40 new members were recruited, mainly students from Peking University.
"National" magazine is an agency publication of the Student National Saving Association. In theory, as long as members are members, they are mostly members of the magazine. In fact, it is mostly based on members' introduction, because "National" magazine has 189 members, and even some student editors of the "National Ancient" monthly magazine, such as Zhang Xuan, Meng Shouchun, and Chen Zhongfan, are among them. There are many people outside the school. Moreover, the Students' National Rescue Association was closely linked to the political forces in the south. Xu Deheng and others met with Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai. It is said that the unknown Chiang Kai-shek at that time also donated ten yuan to the Students' National Rescue Association.
"National"
For this reason, Cai Yuanpei will not allow the editorial department of "National" magazine to be located in Beijing University—"New Trend" and "National Ancient" can be done. Moreover, for "New Trend" and "National Ancient", Peking University has provided "advancement of three periods" to support "Peking for the third period". "National" raises funds by relying on students to save the National Assembly members' "enterprise funds" of four yuan per person and one yuan per person per year (changed to binary at the end of 1919) to support the operation of the magazine.
There is obvious hostility between "National" and "New Trend". Before the May Fourth Movement, "National People" basically used classical Chinese, which was originally the norm for social publications, but Xu Deheng explained: "Because we were unable to get along with Fu Sinian, we did not do what they did. Fu Sinian did not agree with us against Japan, so he did not participate in the student union. "Xinchao" advocated writing vernacular Chinese, and our "National People" instead published articles in classical Chinese genre. Of course, this is related to our publications nationwide, because at that time the society was not easy to accept, but it also contained the intention of opposing the "Xinchao". "Because of the inconsistency, the Peking University members of the National Magazine "also wrote vernacular Chinese outside the school", and "only wrote classical Chinese when they went to Peking University."
May Fourth Movement changed this opposition situation.
The alliance between "National" and "New Trend" should probably be attributed first to their joint instructor Li Dazhao. Li Dazhao's library director's office is a place of discussion that fans of "New Trend" often go to. Many of the members of the Youth China Society initiated by Li Dazhao are from the National Magazine. Therefore, Li Dazhao often serves as a mediator between the two societies. For example, before the May Fourth Movement, Li Dazhao came forward to persuade Xu Deheng and others to let Luo Jialun, Kang Baiqing , Yang Zhensheng and other Xinchao clubs join the Peking University Student Union and jointly organize the May Fourth Movement.
Li Dazhao
In March 1919, students from Peking University initiated the establishment of a lecture group for civilian education. The purpose of this organization is to "enhance the intelligence of the people and arouse the enlightenment of the people." It covers almost all the main members of Xinchao Society and National Magazine, and often in the same speech group, there are members of the National Magazine and backbone of Xinchao Society. During the May Fourth Movement, speeches were one of the main ways for Peking University students to resist the government and win support from the outside world.
After May 4, almost all the activists at Peking University were involved in the movement. Three or four months ago, Peking University students who did their own things gave up their past grudges and united under the banner to jointly shout and run for issues such as diplomatic crisis, release of students and retain Cai Yuanpei.
For Xinchao Society, the greatest significance of the May Fourth Movement is to allow them to participate in the actual "national saving action". Before, they did not believe that ordinary people who "the morality of the people is degenerate, and their life is everywhere in the country" have the ability to accept new ideas and new cultures, so they designated the presupposition readers of "New Trend" as primary and secondary school students with a certain level of education. Now, they try to bring the fierce criticism of the old ideas and systems in "New Trend" to the people. They talked about topics such as "Reformed Family", "Superstition", and "Breaking the Idioms" towards the citizens gathered on the streets.
In the tide of the May Fourth Movement's victory over everything, the call for action overwhelmed rational thinking. Xinchao Society had to ashamed that "in the past, our Chinese students had broken the sky and lost all the splashes in their pens; when it came to implementation, they shrank their heads and necks", and joined the team that spread the " Peking University Spirit " to the people. At this time, the "Peking University Spirit" has gone from "arousing the Chinese people's awareness of their own academics" to "education through learning to others", "Peking University is based on the university of populism as its standard" ("Notice on the Establishment of the People's Education Lecture Team"). This transformation from "initiation of thought" to "initiation of action" as Schwarz pointed out, shows that the leaders of the Xinchao Society "aspired to transcend their own narrow circles and bring full advocacy of enlightenment into Chinese society." ("China's Enlightenment")
is also based on the people's desire for enlightenment, and the National Magazine has also revised its own policy. Due to the particularity of street speeches, speakers cannot only talk about political and diplomatic issues, but also talk about topics that are closely related to the general public. They not only talk about "The History of Qingdao's Dispute" and "Is it really impossible to discuss state affairs?" 》, also talks about "Family System". The focus of "National" and "New Trend" gradually moved closer and integrated during the May Fourth Movement.
The relationship between the two members of the community has also improved significantly.In the "National" in Volume 2, Luo Jialun has a poem "Sending Chu Monk to Qianmen Station", which is a gift to Xu Deheng who is about to go abroad, recalling the situation when they fought side by side during the May Fourth Movement:
One night after May Fourth Movement,
You are in the door, I am in the venue;
One night before June 3rd,
I enter the door, you are in the venue-
This is all a dark night
The terrible short tree for us to hide,
Poor sword-bearing man, we are in the venue,
What is this situation?
Chu Monk Let’s part tonight!
In May 1918, the two walked together in the parade. After a year of parting ways, it was another May, and the two finally got together again.
