China historians have provided many definitions of the May Fourth Movement. Most scholars believe the movement, also called the New Culture Movement, is inextricably tied to the May Fourth Incident of 1919.(1) On that day approximately five thousand students descended on Peking to demonstrate against the Versailles Peace Conference. The day's events included marching, the shouting of slogans, and eventually the ransacking and burning of the house of foreign minister Ts'ao Ju-lin. Student protesters participated in similar protests throughout the nations major cities, and the "May Fourth Incident" quickly assumed increased significance and developed into a national awakening known as the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth Movement began an outburst of young intellectuals fighting against imperialists and warlords. These young students attacked Confucianism, initiated a vernacular style of writing, and promoted science. These and many other accomplishments justify the May Fourth Movement as being the most significant cultural revolution in Chinese history. This paper will discuss accomplishments of the May Fourth Movement such as the promotion of education for women, the educational reforms, and the attacks on Confucianism.
             While political theorists and activists, such as Sun Yat-sen, were aggressively pursuing political and economic modernization while retaining their roots in Confucianism, the May Fourth Movement had its specific goal of a complete elimination of traditional Confucian culture and replacing it with a culture resembling that of Western culture and beliefs. Intellectual revolutionaries between 1917 and 1923 spearheaded a movement to adopt Western science, culture, and democratic principles.
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