Around the May 4th Movement, the trend of innovation surged and the slogan of literary revolution was put forward. Oppose old literature and advocate new literature. Old literature refers not to the literature of the old period, but to the literature of the old nature, which is characterized by classical Chinese style, stale content and feudal ideology. New literature does not refer to the literature in the new period, but refers to the literature of new nature characterized by vernacular style, novel content and ideological revolution.

Lu Xun's original work is classical Chinese. When he came back from studying in Japan, vernacular Chinese has risen. In order to better criticize the old society, Lu Xun naturally adopted a new form, that is, criticizing the old society in vernacular Chinese.