Abstract
This chapter argues that classical and modern Chinese literatures are of different language systems, and chooses Hu Shi and Lu Xun as two representative modern writers who opened up a new and modern page for Chinese poetry and a new chapter for Chinese fiction. The chapter concludes that it is the baihua system with its own discursive pattern and structure that determines the modern characteristics of modern Chinese literature, which is the conclusion of the book: it is nothing but the modern Chinese language (baihua) that shapes modern China in terms of its literature, culture, history, and even social system.
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Works Cited
Hu Shi. (1998). Foreword’ to Collection of Experimental Poetry. In Collected Works of Hu Shi (Vol. 9). Beijing: Beijing University Press.
Hu Shi. On New Poetry. Vol. 2.
Lu Xun. (1981). Articles Under the Lamplight. Vol. 1. Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House.
Lu Xun. Diary of a Madman. Vol. 1.
Lu Xun. Letter to Xu Shoushang. Vol. 11.
Lu Xun. New Year’s Sacrifice. Vol. 2.
Lu Xun. Preface to the Two-Volume Collection of Short Stories. Vol. 6.
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Qian Liqun, et al. (1998). Thirty Years of Modern Chinese Literature. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Yan Fu. (1996). In Liu Mengxi (Ed.), Theory of Natural Selection (Translation of Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics). Modern Academic Classics: Collected Writings of Yan Fu. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press.
Zhang Dingheng. (1925, January 25). Mr. Lu Xu. Modern Review, 7–8.
Zhou Zuoren. (1935). On Human Literature. In Hu Shi (Ed.), Anthology of New Chinese Literature: Theory Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Book Company.
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Gao, Y. (2018). Hu Shi and Lu Xun: Pioneers of Modern Chinese Literature. In: The Birth of Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55936-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55936-4_8
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56529-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55936-4
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