Figures from the May Fourth Movement, following an extremely simplistic line of thought, erected a dichotomy between democracy and science on the one hand and traditional Chinese culture on the other. Some radicals even cried out slogans such as "Down with Confucius" and "Throw the old books in the toilet." This laid the foundation for Darwinism, scientific positivism, and anti-traditionalism in modern China.
五四人物用極其簡單的思考方式把「民主、科學」和「傳統文化」對立起來，有些主張「全盤西化」的激進份子甚至還叫出「打倒孔家店」，「把線裝書扔到茅廁坑裡去」的口號，為近代中國的「達爾文主義」、「科學主義」、和「反傳統主義」奠下基礎。