Intellectuals of the day, in the face of the West's bullying and humiliation of China, advocated a complete turn to Western ideas in order to save the nation from subjugation and ensure its survival. They regarded the Chinese classics as the source of China's backwardness, and in haste threw away much of their cultural inheritance.
當時的知識分子面對西方列強的欺凌，為了救亡圖存，主張全面向西方看齊，把傳統典籍視為中國落後的病源，卻在倉皇中不顧一切丟掉老祖宗的文化遺產。