“五四”时期胡适顺应时代潮流倡导和发起白话文运动对中国的语言变革作出了巨大贡献,然而由于语言观和文学观的局限,他对这场变革的理由并未给出正确的解释。事实上,文言遭到废黜并非它不适宜于诗歌,而恰恰因为它有过分诗化之弊;文言的简略、含糊使它难以适应自然科学、社会科学和现代教育之用;诗歌为了社会整体利益必须作出牺牲。胡适以“死”与“活”作为废文言兴白话的理由,难以获得广泛认同;必须从社会整体需要出发才能真正找到语言变革的理由。 In the period of the May 4th Movement, Hu Shih made great contributions to the language change in China according to the trend of the times advocated and initiated by the vernacular movement. However, due to the limitations of linguistic and literary views, he did not give a correct explanation for the reason of the change . In fact, the discard of classical Chinese is not inappropriate for poetry but precisely because it has the disadvantages of over-poeticization. The simple and vague language of classical Chinese makes it difficult to adapt to the use of natural sciences, social sciences and modern education. For the sake of society as a whole Must make sacrifices. It is difficult to gain wide acceptance due to his use of “Death ” and “Living ” as the reason for discrediting the vernacular Chinese language. Only by starting from the needs of the whole society can Hu Shi find the reason for the language change.