The Stylistic Features, Functions of Fictions and Their Relationship with May 4th Literary Reform

Compared with the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao’s article “On the Relationship between Fictions and Mass Governanceis” more closely related to the thoughts of May 4th generation. On the one hand, some of the issues raised in this article, including the re-understanding of the stylistic features of fictions, and the alternative and functional realization of the fiction writing content based on this new understanding, were still shared by the Zhou brothers, Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi when they discussed the construction plan of new literature, which providesthe ideological and logical starting point or even original point for the different exploration of new literature in the later new literature camp. On the other hand, Liang Qichao’s revelation of the characteristics of “yiren” (“移人”, re-understanding) in literature, and the construction of the author—reader and writing— reception community through the interpretation of “xun” (“熏”), “jin” (“浸”), “ci” (“刺”) and “ti” (“提”) with “emotion” as the link, provide practical direction and connotation for its independent role in the literature enlightenment project of the age, which is one of the bases for the formation of modern Chinese literary concepts.