在五四的學者中，胡適是最早進行新文學回顧的一人。他在1922年寫的〈五十年來中國之文學〉，既在載錄1873-1922年間的文學發展，也是有意識的建構、導引人們新文學的道路。胡適在文中大談晚清以來士人們所進行的古文變革，並推斷其不脫舊有的束縛，肯認1917年以來的「文學革命」才是有意的鼓吹白話文學。他將1919年的五四運動，當作是「白話傳播遍於全國」的一大關鍵，加上1922年起國民學校的國文教科書改成白話文，宣言從此將是新文學的創造時期。胡適的這篇文章，不以聯繫晚清和五四作為目的，而是大膽地宣布古文退位、白話登場，晚清士人退位、五四學人奮起。儘管，文中有不少武斷之處，但是其中所談的文學進化史觀，與對新文學圖景的描繪，直到今天都還深深影響著我們

Among May Fourth scholars, Hu Shih was the first to conduct a review of modern literature. In 1922, he wrote Chinese Literature of the Past 50 Years to document the literature development between 1873-1922, showing the conscious construction and leading people to the course of modern literature. In his paper, Hu Shih discussed ancient Chinese revolution promoted by scholars in the late Qing Dynasty. He concluded that they were not rid of traditional boundaries and acknowledged the ＂literature revolution＂ since 1917 was the purposeful movement of vernacular literature. He indicated the May Fourth Movement in 1919 as the key ＂to nationally promote vernacular literature.＂ With the adaption of Chinese teaching materials written in vernacular Chinese used in elementary schools in 1922, he declared this was the creation era of modern literature. Hu’s article did not aim to tie the movements in Late Qing Dynasty and May Fourth. Instead, he baldly declared the decline of ancient Chinese and the emergence of vernacular Chinese as well as the fall of late Qing Dynasty scholars and the rise of May Fourth scholars. Although in his paper, there are subjective conclusions, the perspective of literature evolutions and the description of the future of modern literature still influence us today