(See first post for background: #1 Cultural Revolution, previous post: #2 China before the CPC)

A Concise History of the Communist Party of China (2021, ISBN 978-7-5117-3978-0), pg. 5-13

《中国共产党简史》, pg. 4-11

(Chapter 1)

2. The May 4th Movement and the Spread of Marxism in China

The New Culture Movement and the Influence of the Russian October Revolution on China

The founding of the Republic of China did not bring the national independence, democracy, and social progress that people longed for. Hope was thus supplanted by profound despair. Since they found the old road impassable, people began to look for new ways out of their plight. Some progressive intellectuals began by reviewing the lessons of the Revolution of 1911. They determined to launch a new enlightenment movement, one that would eliminate obscurantism, awaken the nation, and free people’s minds from the shackles of feudalism. Known as the New Culture Movement, this campaign became a harbinger for great social change.

The New Culture Movement was born in Shanghai in September 1915 with the launch of Youth Magazine (later renamed New Youth) by Chen Duxiu. In 1917, Chen became the Dean of Liberal Arts at Peking University, and the editorial office of New Youth was moved to Beijing. The New Culture Movement was thus based around Peking University and the New Youth publication.

The movement made “Mr. Democracy” and “Mr. Science” its icons. Advocates used evolutionary theory and the emancipation of personality as their main weapons to violently attack Confucius and other “sages of the past.” They advocated a new morality and new literature and railed against those of the past. They promoted a vernacular writing style over the classical style. By criticizing Confucianism, they shook the dominance of feudal orthodoxy, opened the gates to new ideas, and generated a surge of ideological revolution in Chinese society.

The New Culture Movement still took bourgeois democracy as the plan for saving the nation. However, the inherent problems of the capitalist system were already evident in Europe and America, the birthplace of those ideas. World War I had served to only magnify these insurmountable problems in a most extreme way. The repeated failures of Chinese attempts to learn from the West led Chinese progressives to question the feasibility of a bourgeois republic on Chinese soil. Yet again, Chinese progressives’ explorations of plans for saving the nation reached an important historical crossroads.

It was at this point, in 1917, that the salvoes of the October Revolution brought to China the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. In the scientific truth of Marxism-Leninism, Chinese progressives saw a solution to China’s problems. The October Revolution was also a call to resist imperialism, a painful, solemn, and deeply meaningful cry in the ears of the Chinese people, who had for so long been tyrannized by imperialist powers. This prompted Chinese progressives to lean toward socialism and inspired them to gain a serious understanding of Marxism, the guide of the October Revolution. As a result, a group of intellectuals with incipient communist ideas emerged in China in support of the Russian October Revolution.

Li Dazhao was the first in China to embrace the October Revolution and one of the first to disseminate Marxism in China. Beginning in July 1918, he published articles arguing that the October Revolution was the forerunner of a 20th century world revolution and a new dawn for all humankind. His articles included “A Comparison of the French and Russian Revolutions,” “The Victory of the Common People,” and “The Victory of Bolshevism,” which enthusiastically praised the victory of the October Revolution. Li predicted that an irresistible tide had been set in motion by the October Revolution and that the future would surely see “a world of red flags.” After the May 4th Movement, he worked even harder to promote Marxism, and published the article “My View on Marxism.” This piece provided a systematic introduction to Marxist theory and had widespread influence among intellectual circles. This was a sign of the systematic way in which Marxism was now being disseminated in China. Li Dazhao also wrote other articles, including “More on Problems and Doctrines,” in which he criticized anti-Marxist ideas and argued that Marxism was suited to China’s needs.

Why did the October Revolution that erupted in Russia in 1917 call forth such response in China? In large part, it was down to the changes that were sweeping Chinese society. While radical changes were taking place in the thinking of Chinese intellectuals, profound shifts were also quietly occurring in China’s social structure. The country’s national capitalist economy had developed rapidly during World War I, as the Western imperialist countries, busy fighting at close quarters on the European battlefield, temporarily slackened their economic aggression against China. This saw the Chinese working class and national bourgeoisie grow in strength. On the eve of the May 4th Movement of 1919, industrial workers numbered about two million and were becoming an increasingly important force in society.

China’s working class is a great revolutionary class born in modern China. In addition to its basic qualities—its association with the most advanced form of economy, its strong sense of organization and discipline and its lack of private means of production—the Chinese proletariat has many other outstanding qualities. For example, it was more resolute and thorough in revolutionary struggle. Under the historical conditions of China as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the Chinese proletariat was the fundamental driving force behind the Chinese revolution. Meanwhile, there was a rapid increase in the number of students enrolled in various new types of schools, and a great many teachers also emerged from such centers of learning, along with many journalists, thereby helping to create a larger contingent of intellectuals than there had been in the period of the Revolution of 1911. This cohort was also in possession of more advanced ideas. These factors made the rise of a great new people’s revolution inevitable.

The May 4th Movement: The Dawn of the New-Democratic Revolution

The immediate trigger for the May 4th Movement was China’s diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference.

In the first half of 1919, the victorious Allied Powers of World War I held a “peace conference” in Paris. At the conference, the Chinese delegation put forward seven proposals (including the abolishment of foreign spheres of influence in China and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country) and called for the cancellation of the Twenty-One Demands[1] and the related notes exchanged between China and Japan. The Conference rejected China’s just requests and stipulated that Germany should transfer concessions in Shandong Province to Japan. The Northern Warlord government, capitulating under imperialist pressure, was prepared to sign such a peace treaty. When the news reached China, it sparked outrage among people from all walks of life. On May 4, more than 3,000 students in Beijing gathered in front of Tian’anmen Square to demonstrate. The protesters shouted slogans such as “Defend Chinese sovereignty against external aggressors and get rid of internal traitors,” “Annul the Twenty-One Demands,” “Return Qingdao to China,” and “Punish the traitors Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, and Lu Zongyu.”[2] Breaking through multiple barriers erected by reactionary military police, the crowd assembled in front of Tian’anmen Gate. The May 4th Movement, which stunned people in China and around the world, had erupted.

During the movement, the Chinese working class also entered the political arena as an independent force. From June 5 onwards, workers in Shanghai went on strike in solidarity with students, and within a few days, the number of striking workers reached 60,000 to 70,000. Strikes followed in Beijing, Tangshan, Hankou, Nanjing, and Changsha, and merchants in many large and medium-sized cities also staged strikes. As strikes were ongoing in three different arenas—workplaces, schools, and markets, the May 4th Movement reached a climax. The struggle swept across the country, engulfing over 100 cities in more than 20 provinces.

Although initiated by intelligentsia, the May 4th Movement evolved into a nationwide mass movement with the participation of the working class, petty bourgeoisie, and bourgeoisie. As a result of public pressure, the Northern Warlord government released the students it had taken into custody, and announced the dismissal of Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, and Lu Zongyu. On June 28, the Chinese delegates refused to sign the Paris Peace Treaty.

The May 4th Movement was an epoch-making event in the history of modern Chinese revolution, in that it signaled the dawn of a new-democratic revolution. With a revolutionary nature in diametrical opposition to imperialism and feudalism, a progressivesness that sought the truth for saving the country and making it strong, and broad-based participation from people of all ethnic groups and walks of life, the May 4th Movement promoted progress in Chinese society, the extensive circulation of Marxist ideas around China, and the integration of Marxism with the Chinese workers’ movement. It helped develop the ideology and the cadres for the founding of the CPC. Out of the Movement grew the great May 4th spirit, which features patriotism, progress, democracy, and science as its main inspirations with patriotism at its core. This movement was a milestone in the history of the Chinese nation’s quest for independence, development, and progress in modern times.

The Spread of Marxism in China

In the period before and after the May 4th Movement, the practical lessons of the Paris Peace Conference made Chinese progressives see that the imperialist powers were working together to oppress the Chinese people. This contributed directly to the further spread of socialist ideas in China. In March and April 1920, The East and other periodicals published the first declaration of the Soviet Russian government to China, in which it announced that all privileges (enjoyed by czarist Russia in China) would be abolished, thus creating further impetus for the spread of socialist ideas in China. The study and promotion of socialism gradually became the norm among the progressive intelligentsia.

Under these circumstances, many progressive intellectuals from different backgrounds came to Marxism by different routes, having carefully considered the alternatives.

Li Dazhao played a major role in the early stage of the Marxist movement in China. He edited no.5, vol.VI of New Youth, a special issue devoted to Marxism in 1919. He also helped to start a new column, “the Study of Marx,” in the Beijing-based Chen Pao.

Chen Duxiu, one of the intellectual leaders of the New Culture Movement, also turned to Marxism. He warned that China should not take the path followed by Europe, the United States, and Japan after the May 4th Movement. Chen declared it necessary to establish a state of the laboring classes by means of revolution.

Mao Zedong enthusiastically praised the victory of the October Revolution in the Xiangjiang Review, of which he was the editor-in-chief, declaring that it would spread worldwide and that the Chinese should follow its example. After he came to Beijing for the second time, he eagerly sought out and studied communist works, helping establish his faith in Marxism. Many years later he called, “By the summer of 1920 I had become, in theory and to some extent in action, a Marxist.”

Some veteran members of the Tong Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) also began to turn to proletarian socialism. Many years later, Dong Biwu recalled how he and others had joined Sun Yat-sen in the revolution. “The revolution forged ahead, but Sun Yat-sen failed to get hold of it and, as a result, it was snatched by others. We therefore began to study the Russian pattern.”

Guided by Marxism, Chinese progressives devoted themselves to the practice of mass struggle. At the beginning of 1920, some revolutionary intellectuals in Beijing visited the residential areas of rickshaw workers to investigate their desperate living conditions. Deng Zhongxia and others went to Changxindian to tell workers about the revolution and establish contacts with them. In this way, the advanced intellectuals helped connect Marxism with the Chinese workers’ movement.

[1] The Twenty-One Demands were set forth in 1915 by Japan whose purpose was to destroy China. Some of these unreasonable demands were designed to confirm Japan’s dominant position in Shandong, the southern part of the three provinces of the Northeast, and eastern Inner Mongolia.

[2] The three pro-Japanese bureaucrats in the Northern Warlord government.