Chen Duxiu founded Youth Magazine (soon renamed New Youth) in Shanghai to promote cultural and social reform. The journal became a main platform for May Fourth–era arguments that traditional Confucian ethics and social hierarchy were holding China back. This opening move helped set the agenda for later, more direct critiques of Confucianism.
Cai Yuanpei became head of Peking University and promoted a more open intellectual environment. Under his leadership, the university became a key center for New Culture and May Fourth debates, where Confucian tradition was publicly questioned alongside calls for “science” and “democracy.” This institutional support gave critics of Confucianism a high-profile base.
Hu Shi’s essay on reforming Chinese literature appeared in New Youth and became a milestone for the vernacular (plain-language) writing movement. Promoting vernacular writing made it easier to challenge classical learning and the elite culture connected to Confucian education. Literary change became a practical tool for wider cultural criticism.
Lu Xun’s short story, published in 1918, used the metaphor of “cannibalism” to criticize oppressive social norms. The story is widely read as a sharp challenge to traditional culture, including how Confucian classics could be used to justify cruelty and conformity. It showed how fiction could serve as a public critique of Confucian moral authority.
Just before the May 4 protests, New Youth ran a special issue on Marxism edited by Li Dazhao, including his essay “My Marxist Views.” In May Fourth circles, Marxism often framed Confucianism as part of a “feudal” social order to be overcome. This strengthened a critique that linked cultural tradition to economic and political structures.
On May 4, 1919, Beijing students protested decisions at the Versailles Peace Conference that benefited Japan, and the demonstrations soon spread. The broader May Fourth Movement grew into a major cultural and political reform wave, closely tied to the New Culture Movement. As part of that push, many activists openly attacked Confucian ethics and the traditional family system as obstacles to national renewal.
In early June 1919, worker and merchant strikes—especially in Shanghai—expanded the movement beyond student circles. This shift encouraged critiques of Confucianism that emphasized social power, hierarchy, and obedience, not just ideas in books. The movement’s growing social base made anti-Confucian arguments more publicly influential.
Facing sustained public pressure, the Chinese government refused to sign the peace treaty with Germany at Versailles in 1919. Many May Fourth participants took this as proof that public mobilization and new ideas could force political change. Cultural critique—including attacks on Confucian tradition—gained credibility as part of a broader reform strategy.
In 1920, New Youth began openly supporting communism, reflecting a broader shift among some May Fourth intellectuals. In this climate, Confucianism was increasingly criticized not only as an old moral system but as a cultural support for inequality and weak resistance to imperialism. The critique moved closer to organized political programs.
The First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party met in Shanghai and later moved to a boat in Jiaxing. For many former May Fourth activists, communist organization offered a direct route to fight imperialism and to overturn what they called “feudal” social relations, often including Confucian family-and-hierarchy norms. This marked a major shift from cultural critique toward disciplined political action.
Lu Xun’s novella began serial publication in late 1921 and continued into early 1922. Through satire of social behavior and “self-deception,” it extended May Fourth–style cultural criticism into popular reading. The work reinforced a common May Fourth theme: traditional moral language could mask humiliation, injustice, and stagnation.
The journal The Critical Review (Xueheng) began publishing as a major intellectual countercurrent to New Culture radicalism. Writers associated with Xueheng supported traditional Chinese culture and criticized what they saw as shallow attacks on the past. This created a more structured debate over whether rejecting Confucianism was necessary—or reckless—for modernization.
On May 30, 1925, British police in Shanghai killed protesters, triggering widespread strikes and demonstrations. The new wave of mass politics emphasized anti-imperialism and labor struggle, and it helped communist organizing grow quickly. In this environment, May Fourth–era cultural battles over Confucianism became less central than immediate political mobilization and confrontation with foreign power.
Confucian Critiques during the May Fourth Movement (1919–1925)