In June 1921, Ma Lin came to Shanghai as a representative of the Comintern and met Li Da, one of the founders of the Shanghai Party organization.
At that time, Chen Duxiu was in Guangzhou, and Li Da, as the head of the Shanghai party organization, received Ma Lin and reported to him on the situation of the Shanghai party organization.
Marin fully affirmed the development of the Party organization in Shanghai and suggested that communist groups in various parts of the Communist Party of China had been established and that a national congress must be convened to clarify the Program of the Communist Party of China and the leading organs of the whole country. Li Da immediately contacted Chen Duxiu in Guangzhou and Li Dazhao in Beijing to discuss matters related to the convening of the first national congress.
Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao agreed that Li Da would first organize a preparatory group to begin preparations for the conference. Li Da immediately threw himself into work with the comrades in Shanghai.
After all the preparations were made for the meals and accommodation of the deputies in various places, the places where the meetings were held, and the agenda materials for some meetings, etc., Li Da began to send notices to the Communist groups throughout the country, which were sent in the form of letters, and because the situation was very grim at that time, out of the consideration of confidentiality, the letter only asked the groups to send two representatives to the meeting, and did not say that the first national congress of the Communist Party of China was to be convened.
At that time, the groups were short of funds for their activities, and the Comintern supported part of it, and Li Da used this fund to send 100 yuan to each delegate as a travel expense. The recipient of Li Da's letter to the Hunan Communist Group was Chairman Mao in Changsha, who handed the letter to the Hunan Communist Group, and finally the Hunan Communist Group decided to send him and He Shuheng to Shanghai for a meeting.
Chairman Mao and Li Da were fellow villagers in Hunan and shared common pursuits; after the two met at a great meeting, Li Da called Chairman Mao "Runzhi" and Chairman Mao called Li Da "Brother Heming.", and the two established a profound revolutionary friendship and jointly fought for the communist ideal.
Chairman Mao and Li Da had a revolutionary friendship of more than 40 years, and one example is enough to illustrate.
In the summer of 1956, Chairman Mao came to Wuhan for the first time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and in order to facilitate his work, the Hubei Provincial Party Committee specially sent Mei Bai, deputy secretary general of the provincial party committee, to work next to Chairman Mao.
On the first day that Mei Bai arrived at Chairman Mao's side, Chairman Mao smiled and set up a rule for him and said to him: "Xiao Mei, your provincial party committee has formulated many 'rules' for me. However, I have a request, don't censor everything, don't study everything, especially if someone comes to see me, no matter what time, unless I go to the toilet, you can come to see me at any time, you can't stop me. ”
Mei Bai vaguely knew who Chairman Mao was talking about, so he asked, "Is this person comrade Li Da, the president of Wuhan University that you and I mentioned?" ”
After hearing this, Chairman Mao laughed a little, pointed at him, and said, "You understand the intention very quickly!" ”
Chairman Mao took a puff of his cigarette and said to Mei Bai: "You may not know Li Da, but he is a major organizer and organizer of our party, the first propaganda director of our party, and he encountered some setbacks in the middle of the way, but he is extremely firm in his faith and has always insisted on propagating Marxism. ”
So, what kind of setback does Chairman Mao mean when he says that Li Da "has encountered some setbacks"?
After the Second NATIONAL CONGRESS OF the COMMUNIST Party of China was convened, Li Da and Chen Duxiu had a fierce debate on issues such as cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and whether the Communist Party should join the Kuomintang; Chen Duxiu lost his temper and said that he wanted to expel him.
However, Li Da's departure from the party was only dissatisfied with Chen Duxiu and others, and did not have opinions on communism, so even if he left the party, he continued to engage in Marxist research. In 1927, when Chairman Mao presided over the Peasant Movement Seminar in Guangzhou, he also specially invited Li Da to Guangzhou to teach Marxism.
After that, Li Da's research on Marxism reached its peak, and he published three famous books: "Dialectical Materialism Course", "Economic Outline", and "Sociological Outline".
After Chairman Mao arrived in northern Shaanxi after the victory of the Long March, Li Datuo gave him these three books, and Chairman Mao loved them after reading them, and he read the "Outline of Sociology" 10 times in succession, praising it as "the first Marxist philosophy textbook written by Chinese himself."
Later, when Chairman Mao was talking about Marxism in Yan'an, he recommended Li Da's three books to the public more than once, and introduced them to everyone: "Li Da is a real person, and he is in the theoretical circles, just like Lu Xun in the literary and art circles. ”
In 1939, Li Da was invited by Feng Yuxiang to teach Marxist philosophy in Chongqing, and Zhou Enlai passed this news to Chairman Mao, who consulted with Zhou Enlai and sent one of Li Da's students to meet Li Da to solicit opinions on whether he would like to come to Yan'an.
Li Da left the party for so many years and always wanted to return to the embrace of the party, he immediately said: "As long as there is a bowl of rice to eat, I am willing to go!" ”
However, at that time, Zhou Enlai was in charge of Bogu's position because he went abroad for medical treatment, but Bogu misunderstood Li Da's words, believing that he was talking about conditions and did not agree to let him go to Yan'an. In this way, Li Da's opportunity to return to the embrace of the party was missed.
After Zhou Enlai returned, he learned of this news, and was very puzzled by Bogu's approach, and questioned him: "Li Da means unconditionally returning to the embrace of the party, how can you understand it as talking about conditions?" ”
In 1948, the War of Liberation was in full swing, the founding of New China was just around the corner, Chairman Mao thought of Li Da again, so he wrote him a letter, in order to keep it secret, Chairman Mao said in the letter: "My brother is one of the founders of the company, and now the company's business is booming, and I hope that my brother will come to participate in the operation as soon as possible." ”
In March 1949, Chairman Mao left Xibaipo for Beiping and lived in the Shuangqing Villa in Xiangshan, and Li Da also came to Beiping and stayed at Chairman Mao's residence, and the two often had long talks all night.
At the end of 1949, with the permission of the central government, Li Da rejoined the party, and after 26 years, he finally returned to the embrace of the party again.
Later, Li Da served as president of Wuhan University and president of the Wuhan Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and died in 1966 at the age of 76.
(References: "Biography of Li Da", "Yanhuang Chunqiu", "Literature and History Expo")