Editing May Fourth Movement (section)

== Neotraditionalism versus Western thought ==
Although the May Fourth Movement attack on traditional Chinese culture was largely successful,{{sfnp|Chow|1960|p=173}} opponents still argued that China's traditions and values should be the fundamental foundations of the nation. These opponents of Western civilization formed three [[Neotraditionalism (politics)|neotraditional]] schools of thought: national essence, national character, and modern relevance of Confucianism. Each school of thought denounced the western values of individualism, materialism and utilitarianism as inadequate avenues for the development of China. Each school held to specific objectives. The "national essence" school sought to discover aspects of traditional culture that could potentially serve the national development of China. Such traditional aspects consisted of various philosophical and religious practices that emerged parallel with Confucianism. Most particularly, China imported Buddhism during antiquity from [[ancient India|India]]. Under the "national character" school, advocates promoted the traditional family system, the primary target of the May Fourth Movement. In this school, reformers viewed Westerners as shells without morals. Finally, the modern relevance of Confucianism was centered on the notion that Confucian values were better than Western ones. In response to western culture's primary concentration on rational analysis, China's neo-traditionalists argued that this was misguided, especially in the practical, changing milieu of the world. Most importantly, these three neo-traditionalist thoughts did not consider the individual, which was the main theme of the May Fourth Movement.{{sfnp|Schoppa|2019|pp=177–179}}