Among the pioneers of the "May Fourth" literary revolution, Qian Xuantong can be said to be a brave general and a pioneer. Although he was not the one who started the trouble, he was the first to give them strength. Strong support. Urging the birth of new literary works and providing incentives and support was another historical contribution of Qian Xuantong during the May Fourth Movement. The first vernacular novel in the history of modern Chinese literature was written by Lu Xun under Qian Xuantong's urging.

In early 1917 (the sixth year of the Republic of China), after Hu Shi published "A Preliminary Discussion on Literary Reform" in New Youth, Volume 2, No. 5, Qian Xuantong immediately published "Correspondence" in Volume 2, No. 6 of the journal. In support, Neiyun said: "I just saw Mr. Hu Shizhi's "Brief Discussion on Literature" in "New Youth" No. 5, and I admire it very much. He denounced the incomprehensible sentences of parallel prose and advocated that the vernacular literary theory was the most incisive... With this insight, when it comes to improving literature and art, the results will undoubtedly be good. Wei Xianxue is a demon and a Tongcheng bastard. When he sees this, he doesn’t know how to curse. ”

Qian Xuantong believes: “The parallel prose of the Six Dynasties is full of words and phrases, without any real emotions. They even use allusions to replace actual facts, delete other people’s names, and accommodate the duality of his articles. If you look at "Selected Works", you can see this kind of clumsy and abusive articles everywhere. Until now, there is still a delusion that the article should be written in this way. The articles in "Selected Works" are authentic through the ages. This is the first kind of literary demon who ruined the vernacular. ”

Qian Xuantong’s appearance inspired Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi deeply in their loneliness. What is particularly important is that Qian Xuantong clearly identified the “Tongcheng bastards” and the “chosen evildoers” as literary revolutionaries. The object struck a chord with the old-school literati who imitated the ancient prose of the Tongcheng School or the parallel prose selected in "Selected Works".

Qian Xuantong opposed the feudal cultural system and the imperialist invasion in 1925. After the May 30th Massacre, he wrote an article "On Resisting Imperialism". He considered the two combat tasks of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism together, and advocated actively resisting imperialist political and economic aggression while using Democracy, scientific thought and modern cultural knowledge "awaken the Chinese people" and make them love their country. Qian Xuantong once advocated "Europeanization" and believed that China's fundamental reform path lies in "Europeanization". Modern culture in the world is not owned by Europeans, but Europeans heard about it earlier and took a few steps ahead of us. ”

Qian Xuantong’s views can be represented by his own words:

“If you want to prevent China from being destroyed and make the Chinese nation a civilized nation in the twentieth century, you must The fundamental solution is to abolish Confucianism and destroy Taoism, and to abolish the Chinese language that records Confucianism and Taoist myths is the fundamental solution. " In the modern Mandarin movement in China, Qian Xuantong was an active participant in the Mandarin movement. In his early years, Qian Xuantong actively promoted the conversion of Chinese to Pinyin script, and once used the International Phonetic Alphabet to formulate the Chinese Pinyin alphabet.

In The main contributions to linguistics are concentrated in the study of Chinese language reform activities, characters, phonology and "Shuowen". Qian Xuantong opposed classical Chinese and advocated vernacular Chinese.

Qian Xuantong. Xuantong proposed thirteen things in the "Writing Outline" in "On the Urgent Improvement of Applied Essays", such as writing in "Guoyu"; specifying the word order of grammar; adding phonetic letters to primary school textbooks and newsprint; and adding punctuation marks to articles. The use of Arabic numbers and arithmetic to write numbers, the use of AD dates, and the change of the writing method from left row straight down to right row horizontal meandering, etc., are all initiatives related to major reforms in culture and education. Later, together with Zhao Yuanren, Li Jinxi and many other people, he proposed. The formulation of the "Guoyu Romaji Pinyin Method" was very constructive at the time.

"Literature Phonology" was Qian Xuantong's 1917 lecture on the phonology of literature at the preparatory course of Peking University. It is the first general work on phonology in China. For the first time, it divides the evolution of ancient and modern phonetic sounds into six periods: Zhou and Qin, Han and Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang and Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, and modern times, forming the first complete Chinese A phased plan for the history of phonetics; for the first time, modern phonetics were included in the research content, and it was pointed out that "Zhongyuan Phonology" was the source of modern Beiphone, which broadened the scope of phonology research. Starting from the historical concept, Qian Xuantong systematically discussed it in five chapters. The development of ancient and modern phonology. He started from the point of "focusing on the application, not on archeology", and focused his discussion on "Guangyun" and the unification of pronunciation, which are "of great use in archaeology and the present". Discussion and formulation.

Qian Xuantong’s achievements in the Mandarin movement are at least reflected in the following aspects:

1. Approval of commonly used vocabulary for Chinese pronunciation (a period of 10 years, a total of 12,220 words) .

2. Create Mandarin textbooks edited in vernacular.

3. Drafting the "First Batch of Simplified Chinese Character List" (more than 2,300 words in total).

4. Formulate a Chinese romaji pinyin plan.

Qian Xuantong has been teaching for nearly 30 years. He has offered courses such as "Evolution of Ancient Phonetic Research", "Evolution of Chinese Phonology" and "Shuowen Research", and has trained a large number of talents for the field of Chinese linguistics. Qian Xuantong also made considerable contributions in the field of history. He opposed both "disregarding the ancients" and "contempting the ancients." He distinguished the true from the false, examined the false and the true, and sought the true and the true. He became the first person to inherit the legacy of the Jinwen writers during the Daoxian period of the Qing Dynasty and inspire the modern use of scientific methods to expand the movement of identifying falsehoods. Gu Jiegang became the leader of the ancient history debate movement. In this regard, the person who inspired him the most was Qian Xuantong. It was Qian Xuantong who asked him to reorganize the public case on the dispute between modern and ancient literature, which gave him the motivation to debate ancient history.

Qian Xuantong had many original ideas on "Confucian classics". He has two famous sayings: "Seek truth in archeology, and seek suitability in application." His articles discussing ancient history and Confucian classics published in "Ancient History" have many unique insights and have great influence. Guo Moruo admired some of Qian Xuantong's views on ancient history research very much, saying: "These opinions are not the same as those of contempt, but they all came from me first."

Qian Xuantong's lifetime He has made outstanding contributions in the New Literature Movement, New Culture Movement, Mandarin Movement, Ancient History Movement and phonology.