Abstract: Master WANG Yuan-hua calls himself as a "son of the May Fourth Movement". He reflects on the deficiencies of the May Fourth,traces back to Rousseau's doctrine of nation-state and then returns to the spirit of freedom and humanism of the May Fourth and the stance of modern civilization. In this way,he inherits the spirit of the May Fourth through reflecting on the May Fourth. WANG has lots of deep and unique insights into Chinese and Western theories of literature,philosophy and social politics. We need to further consider how to understand the intellectual issues raised by WANG,how to establish a discourse system of literary theory with Chinese characteristics by re-studying Chinese classical academics,especially classical theories of literature,and how to inherit the spirit of the May Fourth and go beyond it.

Key words: WANG Yuan-hua, May Fourth Movement, theory of literature, idea of “pure literature”