Editing Chen Duxiu (section)

==Intellectual contributions and disputes==

===Crisis with Cai Yuanpei===
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In the second edition of ''New Youth,'' Chen prepared to publish [[Cai Yuanpei]]'s speech, the "[[Speech on Freedom of Religion]]" (蔡元培先生在信教自由会之演说/蔡元培先生在信教自由會之演說), along with an editorial interpreting its meaning and significance. Before its appearance in ''New Youth'', Cai criticized Chen for misinterpreting this speech. Chen later admitted that "the publication of my speech in ''[[New Youth]]'' included a number of mistakes." Fortunately, Cai did not become angry with Chen and the publication was then amended before publishing.

===Crisis with Hu Shih===
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This crisis was about the political stand of ''[[New Youth]]''. [[Hu Shih]] insisted that ''[[New Youth]]'' should be politically neutral and the publication should be concerned with [[Chinese philosophy]]. Chen attacked his rationale by publishing "Talking Politics" (谈政治/談政治) in the 8th edition. Because Chen was invited by [[Chen Jiongming]] to be the [[Education officer]] in Guangzhou in mid-December 1920, he decided to assign the publication to [[Mao Dun]], who belonged to the [[Shanghai Communist Party]].

Hu Shih was dissatisfied with this responsibility and their friendship and professional relationship ended. Later, Chen wrote to Hu Shih about his dissatisfaction with Hu's intimacy with many conservative faculty members of Peking University. Especially troubling to Chen was Hu's relationship with [[Liang Qichao]], a supporter of the [[Duan Qirui]] government and their anti-new wave ideology, which made Chen greatly dissatisfied.

=== Crisis with Liang Shuming ===
Chen Duxiu viewed human history as a whole thing, as a single entity. A monistic evolutionary historical model was suggested by Chen Duxiu's argument. On the other hand, [[Liang Shuming]] clearly divided cultures into three types: European culture, Chinese culture and Indian culture.<ref name=":2" /> European culture is characterized as the “primary, forward-seeking orientation”; Chinese culture is the “secondary, harmony and middle-ground-seeking orientation”; and Indian culture, the “tertiary, self-reflective and backward-looking orientation.”<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Mizoguchi|first=Yūzō|date=2016|title=Another May Fourth|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649373.2016.1244032|journal=Inter-Asia Cultural Studies|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=606–631|doi=10.1080/14649373.2016.1244032|s2cid=214652297|issn=1464-9373}}</ref> Chen Duxiu said "In many people’s estimation, the differences among Chinese, Indian, and European culture are almost entirely differences in ethnicity, and thus are not limited to those of culture.” <ref name=":2"/> This argument is clearly about criticizing Liang's Eastern and Western Cultures and Philosophies.

===Views on Confucianism and traditional values===
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Chen suggested six guiding principles in ''New Youth'' with an article called "Warning the youth" ({{lang|zh-hant|敬告青年}}). This article was aimed at removing the old beliefs of Confucianism. "Warning the Youth" promoted six values:

#Independence instead of servility;
#Progressivism instead of conservatism;
#Aggression instead of passivity;
#Cosmopolitanism instead of isolationism;
#Utilitarian beliefs instead of impractical traditions;
#Scientific knowledge instead of visionary insight.

''[[New Youth]]'' was one of the most influential magazines in early modern Chinese history. Chen introduced many new ideas into popular Chinese culture, including [[individualism]], [[democracy]], [[humanism]], and the use of the [[scientific method]], and he advocated the abandonment of [[Confucianism]] for the adoption [[Communism]].

Seen in this light, ''New Youth'' found itself in a position to provide an alternative intellectual influence for many young people. Under the banners of democracy and science, traditional Confucian ethics became the target of attack from ''[[New Youth]]''. In its first issue, Chen called for young generation to struggle against Confucianism by "theories of literary revolution" ({{lang-zh|s=文学革命论|t=文學革命論|labels=no}}).

To Chen, [[Confucianism]] was to be rooted out because:

#It advocated superfluous ceremonies and preached the morality of meek compliance, making the Chinese people weak and passive, unfit to struggle and compete in the modern world.
#It promoted family values and rejected the idea that the individual was the basic unit of society.
#It upheld the inequality of the status of individuals.
#It stressed filial piety, which made men subservient and dependent.
#It preached orthodoxy of thought, disregarding freedom of thinking and expression.

Chen called for the destruction of tradition, and his attacks on traditionalism gave new options to the youth of his time. New Youth was a major influence within the [[May Fourth Movement]].

===Views on democracy and the Soviet Union===
In ''My Fundamental Opinions'' written in November 1940, Chen Duxiu wrote about his views concerning democracy, socialism and the Soviet Union. He reflected on the Communist movement and provided his thoughts on related issues, fundamentally rejecting some of the core tenets of Communism.<ref name="我的根本意見">{{Cite wikisource|language=zh|author=陳獨秀|title=我的根本意見}}</ref>
#We should understand the lessons of Soviet Union in the past two decades without prejudices, scientifically rather than religiously reevaluate Bolshevik theory and its leadership. We can not attribute all the crimes to Stalin, such as the problems about democratic institutions under the dictatorship of proletariat.
# Democracy of the proletariat is not a meaningless noun. It shares common content with bourgeoise democracy like the freedom of assembly, association, speech, publication and strike. What is especially important is the freedom of opposition parties. Without those things, parliament would also become as worthless as a soviet.  
# Democracy in politics and socialism in economy is mutually supportive instead of opposing things. Democracy is not inseparable from capitalism and bourgeoisie. If the political parties of the proletariat also oppose democracy because of their opposition against capitalism, even if so called 'the revolution of proletariat' really appears, without democracy's disinfection of bureaucracy,  only bureaucratic regimes like Stalin's would appear in the world, brutal, corrupted, hypocritical, deceptive, rotten. Socialism is absolutely impossible. There is absolutely no such thing like 'the dictatorship of proletariat'. It is just the dictatorship of the party, finally the dictatorship of the leader. Any kind of dictatorship is bound with brutality, obscurantism, deception and corruption and rotten bureaucratic politics.