In the 10 years before the Xinhai Revolution, the spread of new ideological trends with students studying in Japan as the main body of translators and interpreters formed the first wave of socialist ideas in the early days of China. After the Xinhai Revolution, when the political turmoil in the early days of the founding of the Republic of China came to an end, the voices of China's ideological circles talking about socialism began to become lively again.
(i)
From October 14 to 16, 1912, Sun Yat-sen delivered a speech entitled "The Emergence and Factions of Socialism" at the headquarters of the Chinese Socialist Party in Shanghai, highly praising Marx's contribution to the writing of Capital. In his speech, he pointed out that Marx "painstakingly studied the question of capital, spent thirty years, wrote the book "Capital", expounded the truth, spared no effort, and the doctrine without organization became a unified theory." Sun Yat-sen prophesied optimistically: "The day socialism is practiced, that is, our people will be taught at an early age, supported by the old, operated in separate jobs, and each will get what he wants." The country of our Republic of China has been transformed into a socialist country. ”
Under the active advocacy and influence of Sun Yat-sen, talking about and studying socialism was once all the rage. The Chinese Socialist Party, led by Jiang Kanghu, published a variety of periodicals, such as Social Star, Socialist Party Monthly, and New World, and published articles that introduced Marx and his doctrines. The semi-monthly magazine "New World", published by the Shaoxing branch of the Chinese Socialist Party, serialized parts of the first, second and third sections of Shi Renrong's translation of "Ideal Socialism and Practicing Socialism" (that is, "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science") translated by Shi Renrong from May to July 1912, which is the earliest Chinese translation of the book we have seen. In 1945, Mao Zedong mentioned this matter at the preparatory meeting of the Seventh Party Congress. He said: "It is said that there is another person who translated Engels's 'Socialism from Utopia to the Development of Science' in a magazine. In June 1912, the second issue of New World published Zhu Zhixin's translation and dust-cooked "The Theory of Socialist Everyone Malk", introducing Marx's life and doctrine, and praising the "Communist Manifesto" as "no less than the guiding line of the social revolution in the twentieth century and the driving force of the new world of Datong Taiping".
In addition to Sun Yat-sen and Jiang Kanghu, there were not a few people and periodicals who talked about socialism in the early years of the Republic of China.
(ii)
In 1915, marked by the founding of the Youth Magazine (renamed New Youth from Volume 2 onwards), the Chinese intellectual circles began an ideological enlightenment movement, the New Culture Movement. The New Culture Movement was an unprecedented ideological emancipation movement in Chinese history, which shook the dominance of feudal thought and created conditions for the spread of various new ideological trends.
In November 1917, the October Revolution led by Lenin broke out. Many Chinese newspapers and periodicals reported and commented on the News of the October Revolution in Russia. In October 1918, Li Dazhao published a speech on the European War, "The Victory of the Common people" and a special article "The Victory of Bolshevism" in The New Youth, Vol. 5, No. 5. In "The Victory of the Common People", Li Dazhao believes that the First World War was the defeat of capitalism and the victory of laborism. He predicted: "The Russian Revolution of 1917 was the precursor of the world revolution in the twentieth century. The victory of the October Revolution turned socialism from theory into reality, and this gave China's advanced intellectuals, who were groping forward in the darkness, see new hopes and new forces to rely on.
On the eve of the May Fourth Movement, articles devoted to Marx's life and doctrine began to appear in domestic newspapers and periodicals. Previously, Marx's life and doctrine were mostly mentioned in works and articles translating socialist theory, and rarely introduced in special articles. From April 1 to 4, 1919, the Beijing Morning Post supplement published an article entitled "The Struggle Career of Marx, the Originator of Socialism in The Modern Era" (reprinted in New Youth, Vol. 6, No. 5). The author Yuanquan (that is, Chen Puxian) shows at the beginning that he introduces the reader to the struggle career of Marx, the "originator of socialism in the modern world", with two major intentions, one is to arouse people's interest in studying socialism, and the other is to let people understand the struggle career of the "ancient sages" who devoted themselves to study. The article introduced: "Marx, a German, made the transformation of social organizations his life's work in his youth. All the writings, lamentations, with the goal of solving the problem. And "Ma's career of struggle, that is, the career of dedication to writing, and the immortal masterpiece of Capital in the work" depicts Marx as a scholar-type social revolutionary. The article details marx's painstaking efforts and costs in writing Capital, and "recounts" Marx's struggle to create the Neue Rhine and the German-French Yearbook in his youth, as well as to draft and publish the Communist Manifesto.
On April 6, 1919, Weekly Review No. 16 published in the "Masterpieces" column the "Communist Manifesto" translated by Chengshe I, with an abstract translation of the Ten Principles in Chapter II. The translator noted: "This manifesto is the first and most significant opinion of Marx and Engels... Its purpose was to advocate class war and to demand the unity of laborers everywhere. It is an instrument that indicates a new era. ”
(iii)
The May Fourth Movement, which broke out in 1919, opened the floodgates for the spread of various new ideas, and various newly founded publications sprung up like mushrooms. Articles in the press introducing Marxism began to proliferate. From May 5 to 8, 1919, Yuanquan's translation of Marx's materialistic view of history was serialized in the morning newspaper supplement "Enlightenment", and reprinted in New Youth, Vol. 6, No. 5. This is an article translated from the famous Japanese Marxist economist Kawakami. The article believes that "Marx's socialism has two major foundations in learning. The first is the view of history, and the other is economic theory." Based on the Communist Manifesto and the Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, the article systematically expounds Marx's materialist view of history. In May 1919 (the actual publication was in September), the "New Youth" Vol. 6, No. 5 "Marxism Special Issue" published Li Dazhao's famous "My View of Marxism" (Part I), Liu Binglin's "Biography of Marx" and other articles promoting Marxism. The "Marx Studies" column of the same period also published Chen Qixiu's "Marx's Materialistic View of History and the Problem of Chastity" (recorded from "New China") and Yuanquan's "Marx's Struggling Career" (recorded in the Morning Post).
In addition to the supplements of New Youth and Morning Post, other well-known periodicals of the May Fourth period, such as The Kuomintang magazine, Enlightenment (supplement of the Republic of China Daily), Jianshe magazine, and the monthly magazine of the Communist Party, also published many articles introducing Marxism. A prominent feature of the spread of Marxism during this period was the publication of many articles translating Marx's materialist view of history. The Guangdong Zhonghua Xinbao, published from November to December 1919, published Yang Zai'an's article "Marxism (a scientific socialism)", in which it said: "Ma's materialist view of history as the scripture, the revolutionary ideology as the dimension, and the income from observing the economic state in Britain and France constitute a world outlook based on economic content, which is why it is called scientific socialism." This was the first article published in the domestic press during the May Fourth period calling Marxism "scientific socialism." In addition, the First Issue of the Communist Party, which was launched on November 7, 1920, published for the first time two articles on Leninism, "List of Lenin's Writings" and "History of Lenin".
During the May Fourth period, there began to be more periodicals disseminating Marxism, but at that time, there were not many Marxist books that people could see. Li Da recalled: "At that time, the works of Marx and Engels were rarely turned over, and we only saw some in Japanese. China's acceptance of Marxism has been greatly helped by Japan, because no one in China translates it, bourgeois scholars do not translate it at all, and none of our people can translate it. It was only around 1921, when the Chinese Communists wrote Marxism as a guiding ideology on their banners, that the tide of widespread spread of Marxism on the land of China really began to surge.
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