民國初年北大內部桐城派與章門弟子的關系問題,系新文化運動得以在北大發生、發展的關鍵所在。其中的一些深層次問題,需要引入學術史視角深入研析。揆諸史實,將桐城派驅離北大客觀上起到為"文學革命"掃清障礙的作用,使得北大整體上趨向新文化運動。這一舉動源于章門弟子與桐城派的"駢散之爭",背后的實質乃"漢宋之爭"。清代的駢散、漢宋之爭屬文學和學術發展史上的常態,延伸到新文化運動時,此一爭論則具有打著傳統的旗號服務于現實目的的色彩。同時,章門弟子對桐城派的種種責難,不僅基于文學和思想主張的差異,也夾雜著"學者"對"文人"的輕蔑態度。就新文化運動的歷史前提和時代語境而論,為"新"文化做鋪墊的一些思路和做法仍為"舊"。

In the early Republican period,the disputes between the Tongcheng-style Group and Zhang Taiyan’s disciples at Peking University were the key factor that led to the beginning and development of the New Culture Movement there. The fact that faculty belonging to the Tongcheng-style Group were driven out of Peking University facilitated the "literature revolution"and pushed the intellectual atmosphere at Peking University toward the New Culture in general. The Tongchengstyle Group advocated highly stylistic"parallel"writing,while Zhang’s disciples promoted free-style writing. Their dispute on writing style was indeed a continuity of the prolonged dispute between the Song Learning and the Han Learning in the Qing. Meanwhile,Zhang’s disciples criticized the Tongcheng-style Group also due to scholars’ disdain for literati in Chinese academic tradition. In this sense,some logic and practice that led to the New Culture Movement were still"old".