本文主要探討新文學運動之核心觀念—「一代有一代之文學」—追溯這一理論的淵源所自，指出胡適與王國維有密切的關係，從而說明從晚清到民初新文化運動的兩代人之間，在思想上的繼受和疏離關係。本文詳細比對王國維和胡適的文學觀念，先探究王國維觀念如何受到歐洲、日本著作的影響，再考察王國維著作的流布，指出胡適在美國留學受到王氏的啟迪，發現了宋元白話文學的成就，大大提高對文學革命的信心。可是，胡適基於對上一代學人的競勝心理，卻不願公開承認王國維對他的啟迪，最終使王國維在新文化派建構的新文學系譜中，未能佔有一席之地。然而，從文學及學術的整體視野來看，王國維在歐美觀念的影響下，早已展示出現代學術的精神，且作出傑出的研究成果，得到域外學者的普遍尊重，譽之為現代中國最重要的一位學者。惟當年輕人接受的是胡適「哥白尼式革命」的精神，遠離了王國維「承先啟後」的態度，乃使「後勝於前」的高昂信心，成為這一時代文化運動的主調。

This study traces the origins of the core concept of the New Literature Movement, which claimed every generation has its own literature. Through a comparison of two leading figures in the New Literature Movement, Wang Guowei and Hu Shi, it contrasts the conceptual acceptance and alienation between the two generations of the New Culture Movement from the late Qing to the early Republic of China. At the same time, this article also compares the literary concepts of Wang and Hu, who had close academic relations, in detail. First, it explores how scholars of Europe and Japan influenced Wang. Second, it examines the dissemination of Wang's works and points out that Wang inspired Hu when the latter studied in the United States. Hu discovered the achievements of the vernacular literature in Song and Yuan, which greatly increased his confidence in the literary revolution. However, Hu was reluctant to publicly acknowledge Wang's influence. As a result, Wang's contribution to the New Literature Movement has never been adequately noted. In fact, Wang had already demonstrated the spirit of modern scholarship under the influence of Western concepts from the overall perspective of literature and scholarship. Due to his outstanding academic achievements, Wang was widely regarded as the foremost Chinese scholar of his day by foreign scholars. However, the youth accepted Hu's ＂Copernican Revolution＂ and moved away from Wang's ＂carrying on the past heritage and opening up the future.＂ Confidence in ＂catching up from behind＂ became the main theme of the New Cultural Movement.