ABSTRACT
The history of how the various countries in Europe and North America had taken the road to modernization was given careful attention and studied by Chinese reformers. The Italian Renaissance, the German Reformation, the French Revolution, and the American War of Independence all became models that the reformers tried to emulate. Hu Shi insisted on calling the new culture movement China’s Renaissance and admitted that his theory of literary revolution came from the lessons of Chinese literary history and the European Renaissance. Hu Shi was clearly familiar with the history of the European Renaissance. It has already been noted that one of the great contributions of the European Renaissance lay in the revival and use of the ancient cultural heritage. People were filled with hope, as they awaited the Renaissance of a new period to appear quickly on China’s old territory.
