19 19 On May 4th, a vigorous anti-imperialist patriotic mass movement broke out in the ancient capital Beijing. The revolutionary wave swept across the country quickly, and people from all walks of life were United and played a heroic song of the times.
At the beginning of the year, the victors of World War I held a post-war peace conference in Versailles, a suburb of Paris. At the meeting, China's initial request to abolish seven conditions of partial privileges of great powers and 2 1 unequal treaties was unreasonably rejected. Finally, the Peace Conference actually transferred all the rights and interests seized by former Germany in Shandong to Japan.
The news spread to China, causing strong protests from the people all over the country. On the afternoon of May 4th, more than 3,000 students from more than a dozen schools, including Peking University, gathered in Tiananmen Square and shouted slogans such as "Fighting for national rights outside, punishing national thieves inside", "Abolishing Article 21", "Fighting to the death" and "Give me back Qingdao". Instead of petitioning in the embassy district of Dongjiaominxiang, the procession went to the residence of Cao Rulin in Zhao Jialou Hutong. Cao Rulin and He Lu are both pro-Japanese bureaucrats who specialize in negotiating with Japan. At that time, Cao was scared to hide, and angry students would beat up Cao Zhai and set it on fire. At this time, a large number of military police arrived and arrested 32 students on the spot. With the students' tit-for-tat struggle and the strong support from all walks of life, the arrested students were quickly released, but the purpose of the movement was not realized. On May 19, more than 25,000 people from large and medium schools in Beijing went on strike and launched a large-scale patriotic movement. On June 3rd, 4th and 5th, more students took to the streets to protest against the perversion of the warlord government. More than 800 students were arrested and imprisoned, and the authorities even used the Peking University campus as a temporary prison for students.
The appalling arrest on June 3 aroused stronger resistance all over the country. The patriotic struggle in the north and south of the great river, inside and outside the Great Wall, which is upright and fearless of violence, has gradually become a prairie fire from a single spark. According to statistics, there are more than 20 provinces and regions in China, and 100 large and medium-sized cities are involved in this turbulent torrent, especially the June 3rd Movement in Shanghai. On June 5, Shanghai workers went on strike automatically to support students' anti-imperialist and patriotic struggle. Under the leadership of the workers of the third, fourth and fifth cotton mills of Japanese merchants, 60,000 to 70,000 workers in the city went on strike. At the same time, Shanghai businessmen also went on strike. Workers and businessmen in some places responded positively and promoted the development of the struggle. The rapidly expanding struggle situation has brought great pressure to the reactionary authorities. On June 7, the Beijing government was forced to release the arrested students. On June 10, Cao, Zhang and Lu were dismissed. However, on June 17, the Beijing government telegraphed the representative of China and agreed to sign the peace treaty. This triggered a new round of protests, and the voice of refusing to sign the peace treaty flooded in. More than 7,000 telegrams were sent to Paris from all over the country to protest the signing, but the representative of China did not attend the signing ceremony of the peace treaty.
The traitors were deposed and the peace treaty was rejected, and this anti-imperialist patriotic movement achieved initial victory. This is the first complete and uncompromising great struggle against imperialism and feudalism in the history of China.
The May 4th Movement is also an enlightenment trend of thought that holds high the banner of "democracy" and "science", which lasts longer and has a deeper influence.
The New Culture Movement began to rise with the establishment of Youth magazine in Chen Duxiu in 19 15 (renamed New Youth the following year). 19 17, Chen Duxiu went to teach at Peking University, and the editorial department moved to Beijing. Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi and Lu Xun all took an active part in sports, especially after the use of vernacular Chinese, the circulation of each magazine surged from 1000 to 15600, and their influence expanded rapidly. The basic slogans of the New Culture Movement are "Mr. De" and "Mr. Sai", namely democracy and science. "To support Mr. Nader, we must oppose Confucianism, etiquette, chastity, old ethics and old politics; In order to support Mr. Nasai, we must oppose old art and old religion; If you want to support Mr. De and Mr. Sai, you have to oppose national quintessence and old literature. " This ideological emancipation trend of pursuing democracy and truth strongly shook the dominant position of feudal orthodoxy, which made a large number of intellectuals, especially young students, undergo a profound ideological baptism and made full ideological and public opinion preparations for the mass patriotic movement that broke out later. The May 4th Patriotic Movement greatly promoted the development of the New Culture Movement, opened up new space and injected new vitality into it. Within one year after the May 4th Movement, more than 400 new periodicals advocating new ideological trends and 300 or 400 new progressive societies, especially Marxism, were established all over the country.
During the May 4th patriotic movement, the working class in China began to enter the historical stage as an independent regime. Intellectuals with preliminary ideology began to infiltrate workers, which promoted the combination of Marxism and China workers' movement and made organizational and ideological preparations for the establishment of China's * * * production party. In this sense, the May 4th Movement went down in history with the great starting point of China's new-democratic revolution.