工具革命:“活”与“死”的实用辩证法——论胡适白话文理论的命意基点及内在理路

A Dicussion on the Life Meaning Point and the Inner Logic in Hu Shi's Vernacular Theory

以胡适为代表的"五四"文学革命派认为,文学革命的实质就是文学工具的革命,文学革命的历史就是文学工具革命的历史。从实用主义理论出发,他们认为死文字不能产生活文学,要想有活的文学,必须有活的工具。他们还用"历史的文学观念"和进化的文学理论,对文学工具的"死"与"活"进行了辩证分析,从具体的比较之中,得出白话文一定会战胜文言文取得最后胜利的结论。

In the view of the “May 4th” literary revolutionaries represented by Hu Shi, literary revolution is a revolution in literary tools in nature ; while the history of literary revolution is that of revolution in lit- erary tools. In the perspective of pragmatism, dead languages ean, as opined by them, produce living litera- ture which earl not be created without living tools. Moreover, they have also anzlyzed dialectically the ＂dead＂ and ＂living＂ literary tools by using the ＂concept of literary history＂ and literary theories on evolution and have reached the eoneluison through specific comparisons that writings in vernacular would firtrtaly triumph over writings in classical Chinese.