May Fourth Chinese poetry

On 4 May 1919 students demonstrated in Beijing against the Treaty of Versailles, and the movement that followed changed the written language: classical Chinese was abandoned for the spoken language, baihua. Lu Xun opened the way with the diary of a man who discovers that his society devours itself. Guo Moruo wrote odes in free verse, Wen Yiduo sought a new form, Bing Xin invented a short, limpid poetry legible to all. In a few years a literature two thousand years old changed its instrument.

works 5

• Short storiesDiary of a Madman狂人日記Lu Xun · 1918A short story of 1918, the first signed by Lu Xun, which makes cannibalism the figure of the Confucian tradition.Literature
• PoetrySelected Poems from The Goddesses女神Guo Moruo · 1921The author's first collection, published in 1921, which brought free verse into modern Chinese poetry.Literature
• Narrative寂寞Bing Xin · 1922not translated into EnglishA narrative of 1922 about two children brought together by a visit, and about the loneliness one discovers in childhood.Literature
• PoetryRed Candle紅燭Wen Yiduo · 1923The author's first collection, published in 1923 in Shanghai during the poet's stay in the United States, where he was then an art student.Literature
• Poetry志摩的詩Xu Zhimo · 1925not translated into EnglishThe author's first collection, printed at his own expense and put on sale in Beijing in the autumn of 1925.Literature