白话之美的发现与五四新文学运动

Discovery of the Beauty of Vernacular Chinese and New Literature in the May Fourth Movement

五四新文学运动超越晚清白话文运动的关键是对白话之美的发现与体认,从美学上论证了白话文用之于新文学的正当性,解决了新文学至关重要的语言选择难题。进而根据白话文的特点,为早期新文学设定了真实、抒情、个性等审美尺度,更新了文学的审美内涵。白话之美的观念有力反击了文言复古的主张,但也给早期新文学造成了语言自然主义、审美平均主义等局限。

The most important reason for the New Literature in the May 4th Movement to exceed the vernacular Chinese movement in the late Qing Dynasty is the discovery and acknowledgement of the beauty of vernacular Chinese.Literature Revolution in the May 4th Movement proved the rationality and legitimacy of the vernacular Chinese from the aesthetic aspect and solved the problem of language choice in the New Literature.According to the characteristics of vernacular Chinese,the early New Literature set such aesthetic measures as truth,lyricalness and personality and renewed the aestheticconnotation of literature.The concept of beauty in the vernacular Chinese launched powerful counterattack against the claims from Classical Chinese,but caused the limitation of language of naturalism and aesthetic egalitarianism in the early New Literature.