Approximation and Restoration in Establishment of Humanistic Value Standard and Reconstruction of Literary History

The spotlight of literature has always fallen on human nature, which can be classified into two broad dimensions: natural and social. The 20th century Chinese literature, however, collectively manifests a feature of being overwhelmingly focused on the social dimension of human nature much due to its historical context. Meanwhile, the theories on human nature also make up the ultimate basis for literary criticism. They play an even greater role in the efforts of the academia to reconstruct literary history, for they will bring about radical changes in value standard, which in turn will lead to changes in the model of literary history as witnessed in three aspects, namely the repositioning of literary works, reassessment of writers and further exploration of implications in literary works.