"重新估定一切價值"(Transvaluation of all Values),在1919年被胡適用以概括"新思潮的根本意義",成為新文化運動的重要口號。該口號的提出本有特殊語境。一戰后的中國思想界有了新的趨向,尊西趨新、反傳統已不再具有類似"政治正確"的獨尊地位,原本被尊崇的"歐化"、被否定的"國故"都面臨重估。在此背景下,《新青年》派與《時事新報》同人關于"外國偶像"與"固有文化"的爭論,成為傅斯年、胡適調整表述的契機,促使他們使用更折中、開放的口號——"重新估定一切價值""整理國故"來回應對方質疑,并容納多元的新派。在這一情境中提出及流行的"重新估定一切價值"具有多重屬性:胡適在表述上統合種種不一致的新思潮,又暗藏其對中西文化的主張,并針對新興的"主義";因其開放性,它在流傳中更被不同地理解與使用。這一口號的多重性體現出歷史上的五四新文化運動比以往認知的更為豐富。

In 1919,Hu Shi used Nietzsche’s epigram"Transvaluation of all Values"to summarize"the fundamental meaning of the new intellectual trend"and this epigram thus became one of the important slogans of the New Culture Movement. After WWI,Chinese intellectuals no longer believed that Westernization and anti-traditionalism were absolute truth,and both the Western culture they had advocated and the Chinese tradition they had criticized needed to be revaluated. In this context,the debates about "foreign models"and "native culture"between Xin qingnian( New Youth) and Shishi xinbao( China Times) gave opportunities for Fu Sinian and Hu Shi to adjust their expression and urged them to use the more eclectic and inclusive slogans,such as "Transevaluation of all Values"and "reexamining the national heritage"to respond to their opponents’ challenges and appeal to more intellectuals inclining to new ideas in general. Thus, the slogan,"Transevaluation of all Values",had multiple meanings. Hu Shi used it to summarize various new ideas,imply his own idea about the Chinese and Western cultures,and criticize the emerging"isms". Because of its inclusiveness,it could be interpreted and perceived in different ways. The plural meanings of this slogan illustrate the complexity of the May Fourth New Culture Movement in history.