The Literary Research Society is one of the earliest established and most influential and contributing literary societies of the New Literary Movement.
The Society was founded by Zhou Zuoren, Zheng Zhenduo, Shen Yanbing, Guo Shaoyu, Zhu Xizu, Qu Shiyin, Jiang Baili, Sun Fuyuan, Geng Jizhi, Wang Tizhao, Ye Shaojun, Xu Dishan, and its purpose was to "study and introduce the world's literatures, to organize the old Chinese literatures, and to create a new literature".
History of Development
The Beginning of the Establishment
After the May Fourth Movement, some petty bourgeois intellectuals, who had been hit by the new trend of thought and awakened to the brightest hopes, longed to express their political bitterness and ideals of life through literature and art. The development of the literary revolution also demanded new breakthroughs in creative achievements. New literary societies emerged. The Literary Research Society was not only the earliest literary society to be founded, but also became one of the most important literary societies in the New Literary Movement because of its large number of members, great influence, and distinctive features in the development of genres. Literary Research Society of novels accounted for an important proportion of the creation of Shen Yanbing, Zheng Zhenduo has edited the Novel Monthly. Many of the initiators and participants of the Literary Research Society later became outstanding contributors to the new literary movement in China.
Toward the End
The founding manifesto of the Literary Research Association, which was colored by a writers' union, proclaimed that the founding of the Literary Research Association "is the basis for the establishment of a writers' union," and expressed the hope that the "unity of writers and their fellow writers" would "seek to develop and consolidate the work of literature. Due to various reasons, their activities were not carried out according to the plan, and the organization was quite loose, and the activities of the union basically came to a halt after the Novel Monthly ceased to be published in early 1932.
Organization
The Literary Research Society was formally established in Beijing on January 4, 1921, with the following founders: Zheng Zhenduo, Shen Yanbing (Mao Dun), Ye Shaojun (Ye Shengtao), Xu Dishan, Wang Tuanzhao, Geng Ji Zhi, Guo Shaoyu, Zhou Zuoren, Sun Fuyuan, Zhu Xizu, Qu Shiyin, and Jiang Baili. Later developed members are Xie Wanying (Bingxin), Gu Yucheng, Huang Luyin, Zhu Ziqing, Wang Luyan, Xiaoxiao, Shu Qingchun (Lao She), Hu Guizhi, Liu Bannong, Cabinet Kenra leakage of Liu Dabai, Zhu Xiang, Xu Zhimo, Peng Jiahuang and so on, * * * up to more than 170 people. Founded by Xiong Baidan published "Declaration of the Literary Research Society" and "Literary Research Society Charter". The meeting place is located in Beijing.
Achievements of the Society
The Literary Research Society attached great importance to the study and introduction of foreign literature. Their aim was half to introduce foreign literature and art in order to promote the development of new literature in China, and half to introduce the modern ideas of the world (Mao Dun, "The Responsibility and Efforts of the Researchers of New Literature"), and they emphasized the translation of the realist masterpieces of Russia (including the later USSR), France, the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, Japan, India, and other countries, and introduced the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gorky, Mopo?an, Roman Polski and the other famous writers. It introduces the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gorky, Maupassant, Romain Rolland, Ibsen, Hinkevich, Arztiev, Antref, Byron, Rabindranath Tagore, Hans Christian Andersen, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. The journal of the Association, "Novel Monthly", has published special issues of "Russian Literary Studies", "French Literary Studies" and "Literature of Damaged Peoples", as well as albums such as "Rabindranath Tagore", "Rabindranath Byron" and "Rabindranath Andersen", and has made great efforts to introduce the foreign progressive realist literature.
We should recognize that the Literary Research Society, as the earliest new literary group in Chinese history, played an important role in the development of modern Chinese literature and vernacular poetry. To a certain extent, it can be considered that the Literary Research has accomplished some of its goals.
Limitations of the Society
The Literary Research Society's idea of "for the sake of life" was put forward in all seriousness as a response to, and as a means of eliminating, the amusement and recreational role of the old literature of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterfly School, which it continued to fight against and dominate in the 1920s and 1930s. But thereafter the whole of modern literature focused on serious social reality and neglected the entertainment role to a considerable extent. This attitude has not only permeated the work of the new writers, but has also limited the field of study of modern literature, and the study of the creation of popular literature has been neglected.
Thus the limitations of this association, the Literary Research Society, can be summarized in one sentence, that is, exaggerating the real social role of literature and over-emphasizing the social value of literature.