Liberalism during the May Fourth Movement has always been one of the key points in the study of Chinese modern history of thought. There are both macroscopic and microscopic investigations. Macroscopically examining the evolution of liberalism(individualism) in China in the 20th century will help us grasp the evolution of liberalism as a whole and its position in modern China during the May fourth Movement. However, micro-analysis is insufficient to show concrete changes. Micro-research seems to make up for macro-emptiness to some extent, but there are also some problems such as repeated research, macro-deficiencies being reinforced again, unclear concepts, and insufficient analysis of major magazines. In this way, the future research direction should be to further restore the context at that time, focus on the analysis of major magazines, and try to explain the new ideological history path through discourse.