오사(五四)시기 천두슈(陳獨秀)와 기독교의 만남 ― 「기독교와 중국인(基督敎與中國人)」을 중심으로

Abstract

In 1920 February, Chen Tu-hsiu released his “Christianity and Chinese People” and declared passionately that Christianity is the new faith Chinese people need to believe in. Considering the general attitude of the New Culture movement camp about religious matters, Chen Tu-hsiu's position as the supreme commander of the May Fourth movement and the leader of the New Culture movement, and the path he takes as Marxist from after 1921, his declaration about Christianity was a remarkable event. This writing, which centers on the text “Christianity and Chinese people”, deals specifically with understanding the background that enabled the special meeting of Chen Tu-hsiu with Christianity, the Christianity that Chen accepted and believed, and the meanings this 'meeting' had, both in Chen Tu-hsiu as an individual and in the broad May Fourth spirit. While in these issues lie profound meanings, the studies about Chen Tu-hsiu so far have not given enough attention to them and they have not been sufficiently dealt with. Chen Tu-hsiu met Christianity through witnessing Chosun Samil movement (March 1919) and through the experience of imprisonment after releasing the “Peking Civil Declaration” (June 1919). In Chosun Samil movement Chen Tu-hsiu finds the power of Christianity that influences both individual character and collective action, and through his time in prison for about 80 days, he was able to have personal religious experience. For Chen Tu-hsiu, the essence of Christianity was solely 'Jesus's character and sentiments'. He declared that this was exactly what was in the Western civilization that Chinese people needed to follow, and what the Chinese people needed to hold onto, while abandoning old faiths. “Christianity and Chinese people” reveals how the Chen Tu-hsiu's meeting of Christianity holds meaning as,on the one hand, the settlement of the whole values that Chen Tu-hsiu has persistently pursued, and on the other hand, as his confession of personal fasciation about Jesus and his secret faith. The meeting was possible with the openness and dynamics of the May Fourth spirit in which every value was re-evaluated and no ideology enjoyed absolute supremacy. And the spirit of idealism,romanticism, pacifism, and cosmopolitanism that were all present in “Christianity and Chinese People” were closely in touch with the core values of the New Culture movement and the May Fourth spirit. The meaningful influence his meeting with Christianity left unveils itself in the clear Christian color revealed through Chinese modern literature written around mid-1920s when anti-christianity movement was becoming stronger, or in the search for the unique bond formed between socialist groups and Chinese reformists.