Peng Xiaoliang (Shanghai Municipal Archives)
This article focuses on several historical details before and after the publication of Chen Wangdao's translation of the Communist Manifesto in 1920, and is committed to excavating the advertising historical materials in newspapers and periodicals such as the Declaration, the Republic of China Daily, and the Peking University Journal, combing through the historical facts before and after the publication of Chen Wangdao's "Communist Manifesto", especially the past that was included in the publication plan of the appendix to Dai Jitao's translation of "Commentary on Capital"; and examining and analyzing the first edition of Chen Wang's "Communist Manifesto" discovered in the library of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in 2020 is the origin and value of Chen Wangdao's signature to Wang Yunwu. and the early friendship between Chen Wangdao and Wang Yunwu, the recipient of the book. The words of the family, pray for the correction of the Fang family.
Chen Wangdao, Wang Yunwu
I. Chen's Translation of the Communist Manifesto to Be An Appendix to Capital's Commentary
The story of Chen Wangdao's translation of the Communist Manifesto has been widely praised, and there are many special articles, books, master's and doctoral dissertations on the examination and research of the edition of the book. However, Chen's translation of the Communist Manifesto has been included in the appendix of other books and included in the publication plan, but few people pay attention to it. The author carefully read the advertisements published in the "Declaration" and "Republic of China Daily" in 1920 and made new discoveries in this regard.
In the advertisement of the second edition of the "Declaration" on June 6 and 7, 1920, and the advertisement of the "Republic of China Daily" that began to be published on the same day, there is a striking "Advance Notice of the Publication of the First Issue of the Social economy series", the full text of which is more than 800 words, and is hereby copied as follows:
The transformation of economic organizations is the foundation of social transformation. Since last year, China's ideological circles have been agitated in response to the trend of the world's transformation, from an empty cultural movement to a movement to the transformation of economic organizations. This is a good sign of Chinese awakening. We fellows, how much research we have done during the year. For Chinese knowledge requirements, a number of materials are also provided. Recently, I feel that the criticism of fragments will not contribute much to the ideological circles in the future, so I have decided to temporarily suspend the cause of the current journal, and on the one hand, I am quietly engaged in systematic research, and on the other hand, I am trying to increase the old manuscripts of the past year, and at the same time I am committed to translation and writing. It is now decided to publish the following books within one year, entitled "Socio-Economic Series", a total of sixteen kinds, about 5,600 pages, in five or six characters, four or six editions. After the completion of the first plan, the second plan will be published.
Kautsky, Li Junpei's translation of Socialist Ethics, 220 pp., published in August of this year.
Kautsky, Translated by Dai Jitao, Commentary on Capital (Notes), 600 pages, published in September of this year.
Appendix I: A Biography of Max, by William Riblecht (now translated as William Liebknecht) and translated by Dai Jitao
Appendix II: Manifesto of the Communist Party (i.e., the Communist Manifesto), co-authored by Max and Engels, translated by Chen Wangdao
Appendix III: Socialism Utopian and Scientific (i.e., The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science), by Engels, translated by Chen Wangdao
Appendix IV: Interpretation of capital terms, edited by Dai Jitao
Sakai Toshihiko, Chen Wangdao's translation of "History of The Struggle Between Men and Women", 120 pages, published in October this year.
Rolia A. Loria, Li Hanjun's translation of The Foundations of the Social Bottom Economy, 600 pages, published in October this year.
Prof. A. Groppali, Outline of Sociology, translated by Chen Wangdao, 500 pages, published in November of this year.
E. Carpenter, Translated by Chen Wangdao, Women's Center and Same-Sex Love, 200 pages, published in November of this year.
Dai Jitao edited the "Outline of Socialism", 400 pages, published in December of this year.
Hu Hanmin's "The Ethics of Economics", 500 pages, was published in December of this year.
Prof. E. Antonnell, Lin Yunqi's translation of Bolsevic Russia, 200 pages, published in December of this year.
Written by Taro Yoneda, translated by Hu Hanmin, "A Study on the Bottom of Syndical Doctrine", 500 pages, published in February of the tenth year of the Republic of China.
C.M. Lloy, Translated by Chen Wangdao, On Labor Compositionism, 220 pp., published in February of the 10th year of the Republic of China.
Dai Jitao's "Research on the Bottom of Labor Problems", 500 pages, published in March of the tenth year of the Republic of China.
P. F. Brissendon, Lin Yunjie's Translation of I. W. W.'s Bottom Study, 300 pp., published in April of the 10th year of the Republic of China.
Li Hanjun, ed., History of the Socialist Movement, 300 pages, published in April of the 10th year of the Republic of China.
Henry George, Liao Zhongkai translation of Progress and Poverty, 300 pages, published in May of the 100th year of the Republic of China.
Liao Zhongkai, ed., Studies on Cooperatives, 300 pages, published in June of the 10th year of the Republic of China.
Communication Office: No. 44 Huanlong Road, No. 44, Baier Road Sanyili No. 17
The Socio-Economic Series was published
From the above advertisement, it can be seen that in the first issue of the "Socio-Economic Series" of the Socio-Economic Series Publications Association, a total of 16 kinds of books are planned to be compiled and published. Among them, Chen Wangdao undertook the translation of the "Communist Manifesto" co-authored by Marx and Engels, which is intended to be the second appendix to Kautsky's and Dai Jitao's translation of "Commentary on Capital"; second, Engels's "Socialism from Utopia to the Development of Science", which is intended to be the third appendix to "Capital's Commentary"; third, Sakai Rishihiko's "History of Men and Women's Struggle"; and fourth, A. Outline of Sociology by Groppali; fifth, E. Groppali Carpenter's "Female Center and Same-Sex Love"; sixth is C. Carpenter. On Labor Compositionism by M. Lloy. Chen Wangdao alone accounts for more than a quarter of the entire compilation and publication plan, which shows his translation ability and energy, which is amazing.
Dai Jitao's translation of "Commentary on Capital" (Jianshe Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, published on November 1, 1919)
Dai Jitao
In 1920, in addition to translating the Communist Manifesto, Chen Wangdao also published a number of translations and writings, which can be called a strong pen. In the may 1, 1920 issue of the Weekly Review No. 48 "Commemoration of The Labor Day", Chen Wangdao published a translation of "A Glimpse of women's Labor Problems", which was translated from chapters 9-12 of Kawakami Zhao's "Social Problems Management: A Long Talk on Women's Issues"; he also worked tirelessly in the Republic of China Daily Enlightenment under the pseudonym of Buddha, such as August 1-3, 1920, the supplement published his translation from Hisashi Honma's "New Trends in the Moral Bottom of Sex"; on August 12, he published "New Literature on Women's Issues" On August 17, he published "Women's Liberation and Floating Youth"; on August 22, he published "The Founding of the Japanese Socialist League", which translated the "Draft Statute of the Japanese Socialist League"; on September 14, he published "On women's liberation and floating youth"; on November 16, he published the record "Difficulty in Marriage and the Death of Zhao Yingdi", and so on.
It is worth mentioning that the biography of Max (by William Riblecht, translated by Dai tatau), which is intended to be an appendix to the Commentary on Capital, was published in the Weekly Review No. 31 (New Year's Issue) published on January 1, 1920. Dai Jitao is mainly based on the translation of Shizuno Yuro contained in the first issue of Socialist Studies published in Japan in 1906, and is translated from the 1919 Translation of Murofu Takanobu contained in the Criticism. (William Riblecht and Dai Jitao's translation of Max's Biography, Weekly Review No. 31, Published January 1, 1920) And Kautsky's original Commentary on Capital, which was translated from the first edition of the 1910 Japanese translation by Dai Jitao, Zhu Zhixin and Li Hanjun, respectively, between 1919 and 1920, began to be published in the November 1, 1919 issue of Jianshe magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, followed by Vol. 1, No. 5-6, Vol. 2, No. 2-3, respectively. No. 5, until The publication of Volume 3, No. 1 on December 1, 1920, consisted of seven issues. Later, it was supplemented and revised by Hu Hanmin and published by Shanghai Minzhi Book Company in 1927. (Kautsky, Dai Jitao, Zhu Zhixin, Li Hanjun, Hu Hanmin's translation of "Commentary on Capital", Dai Jitao's Preface I, Hu Hanmin's Preface II, Shanghai Minzhi Bookstore, 1927 edition) This officially published edition naturally lacks appendices such as the Communist Manifesto in the 1920 plan.
Why did the aforementioned "Announcement of the First Issue of the Socio-Economic Series" be published in both the Declaration and the Republic of China Daily on June 6, 1920? This should be directly related to the suspension of the weekly Weekly Review, which was announced on this day. In the 53rd and final issue of the Weekly Review, published on this day, the "Declaration of suspension of the Publication of the Weekly Review" was published in the name of "our colleagues", and announced the plan after the suspension: "(1) Study basic scholarship and prepare to publish the periodicals and works of socialism in the near future. (ii) Publication of books on socialism of research value (about six or seven kinds of books have now been decided to engage in translation). (3) Periodically obtained from research and publishing irregular pamphlets at any time. ("Declaration of suspension of publication of the Weekly Review," Weekly Review No. 53, published June 6, 1920)
The advertisement was published in the Declaration for only two days, but in the Republic of China Daily, it was published from June 6 to October 12, 1920, for more than four months, with a total of 42 publications. The author notes that in the advertisement published in the Republic of China Daily, the publication date of the above 16 books has been postponed by two months since July 7. In this publication plan, The Commentary on Capital, including the appendix The Communist Manifesto, was originally planned for September 1920 and later planned for November 1920.
However, in fact, the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese full translation, which was included in the "First Small Series of Socialist Studies" of the Socialist Research Society, and was officially published in August 1920, followed by the second edition.
2. Peking University Library was awarded the first edition of the Communist Manifesto
In the process of searching the materials, the author stumbled upon the fourth edition of the Peking University Journal on September 24, 1920, which contained an on-campus announcement issued by the Peking University Library, which was extremely brief but unexpectedly eye-catching.
Notice of the third part of the library login room
The Museum hereby acknowledges that Mr. Chen has donated a volume of "The Communist Manifesto", a volume of "Everyone Needs to Work Hard", a volume of "Opinion on the Cause of alliances", and a copy of "Social Star". ("Bulletin of the Third Part of the Library Registration Room", Peking University Journal, September 24, 1920, fourth edition)
It can be seen from this school announcement that shortly after the first edition of the Communist Manifesto was published, this "Mr. Chen" gave a copy to the Peking University Library, as well as a copy of "Everyone Needs to Work Hard", "Opinion on the Cause of the League", and a copy of "Social Star" magazine. Peking University Library issued a special announcement in the school journal to thank "Mr. Chen" who donated the book, according to the author's judgment, this person should be Chen Duxiu. This announcement indicates that since September 1920, the Peking University Library has included a complete translation of the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese. Today, more than 100 years later, it is not known what the whereabouts of the book are.
Peking University Daily, September 24, 1920, 4th Edition
After the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese full translation was published, this thin pamphlet aroused great interest from all walks of life, because the initial print volume was only more than a thousand copies, and it was difficult to find a book, and many readers wrote letters to inquire. Therefore, on September 30, 1920, the "Republic of China Daily Enlightenment" published Shen Xuanlu's "Answering People's Questions at the Bottom Publishing House of the Communist Manifesto", which gave a unified reply to the letter. The content of this open letter contains many clues, and it is a historical material that is cited by researchers and is recorded later.
Huixin, Mingquan, Qiuxin, Danchu, P. A:
You wrote to ask Chen Yi of The Place to Buy Magus's Communist Manifesto, because there were so many people who asked them that they didn't have time to reply to them one by one, so I borrowed this column to reply to your words:
I. Socialist Research Society, I don't know where. The one I read was given to me by Mr. Chen Duxiu; Mr. Duxiu brought it to the New Youth Society; and the New Youth Society was opposite the big chiming bell on The Avenue of Law.
Second, the content of this book, "New Youth", "Guomin" (published by Peking University), and "Morning Post" have all been translated in bits and pieces into a few chapters or sections. Anyone who studies the theoretical system of "Capital" cannot but read the "Communist Manifesto", so Mr. Wangdao spent five times the usual translation of the book and translated the whole text of it, which was proofread by Mr. Chen Duxiu and Mr. Li Hanjun, but unfortunately there are still some mistakes, fortunately, the first edition is almost finished, and when it is republished, I hope that Mr. Chen Wangdao will personally proofread it! (Xuan Lu) (玄庐: "Answering Questions at the Bottom Of the Communist Manifesto", Republic of China Daily, Enlightenment, September 30, 1920)
Judging from the content of Shen Xuanlu's open letter, it was obviously published before the publication of the second edition of Chen's translation of the Communist Manifesto, and the author judges that the exact publication time of the second edition should be after the end of September 1920 and estimated to be in early October.
III. Was the "Communist Manifesto" in the library of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences signed by Chen Wangdao as a gift to Wang Yunwu?
Everyone has their own unique handwriting. Because the author sorted out the compilation of historical materials such as "Inkblots of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Celebrities in the Shanghai Municipal Archives", "Shanghai Banker's Letters", "Zhou Zuomin's Diary and Letters", and "Qian Xin's Correspondence and Telegrams", he had allegorically and copied and annotated no less than thousands of chinese modern and modern celebrity codexes, so he was more familiar with celebrity handwriting.
The first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese the entire translation of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Library collection (the origin of the collection, see Gao Ming: "How was the first translation of the >Chinese < Communist Manifesto Discovered", Shangguan News, August 20, 2020), which distinguishes it from other collections in that it has the six words "Honoring Mr. Xiulu" written on the upper left corner of the cover, but it is not signed. When the author saw the first impression of the cover picture of the book, he determined that Chen Wangdao personally signed Wang Yunwu for two reasons: First, according to the usual book signing habits in modern China, the head-up plus the date is the standard format, such as "Mr. So-and-so Yazheng, so-and-so, date", only write "Honorific Gift Mr. Xiulu" without signing, if it is the translator Chen Wangdao himself is not surprising. Coincidentally, in March 2021, the library staff of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences found a volume of Yang Mingzhai (Xin Ping, Yang Yang: "Ten Thousand Miles of Pioneering the Wilderness- Yang Mingzhai and the Founding of the Communist Party of China") in the vast collection of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and signed Wang Yunwu's "Commentary on the Chinese and Western Cultural Views" (Yang Mingzhai's "Comments on the Chinese and Western Cultural Views" was first published in 1924). Yang Mingzhai used a brush to write the words "Mr. Xiulu" in the upper right corner of the cover of the book, and the word "Tribute" was written under the printed word "Yang Mingzhai" in the lower left corner of the cover. This is the same writing pattern as the Communist Manifesto signed by Chen Wangdao to Wang Yunwu. The second is the six-character handwriting of "Honoring Mr. Xiulu". The author found Chen Wangdao's other handwriting, and after word-for-word comparison, at least the four words "respect", "gift" and "sir", the handwriting is the same, it is very likely that Chen Wangdao signed it by himself.
Full translation of the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Library)
Yang Mingzhai signed Wang Yunwu's "Comments on the Concept of Chinese and Western Culture" (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Library Collection)
Yang Mingzhai
So, what was the intersection of Chen Wangdao and Wang Yunwu in the early 1920s? The author hopes to gain something from the records of their activities. In common sense, diaries and letters should be the most direct basis. As of now, whether the two have the habit of keeping diaries, whether there are diaries passed down, it is unknown, and there is no correspondence between the two people. After investigation, Wang Yunwu's "Eighty Self-Descriptions of Xiulu" and Wang Shounan's "First Draft of Mr. Wang Yunwu's Chronology" and other related books have not been recorded. In Chen Wangdao's recollections and other historical materials, Wang Yunwu was never mentioned. In this way, it is not easy to prove the intersection of the two people. Aren't there any clues?
Wang Yunwu was born in July 1888 and Chen Wangdao was born in January 1891, a difference of two and a half years. In 1920, the 32-year-old Wang Yunwu had already been self-taught by apprentices, and his translation works were quite rich, and he already had a certain reputation in the translation industry. At that time, the 29-year-old Chen Wangdao translated the "Communist Manifesto" and published many translations in the "Weekly Review" and "Republic of China Daily Enlightenment", which also had a considerable influence in society. Chen Wangdao became one of the early representatives of the spread of Marxism and the Chinese Communist Party, and made many contributions. Chen's translation of the Communist Manifesto was widely disseminated and had a far-reaching impact since its publication in August 1920. Wang Yunwu's "Xiulu Citizen Series" and the "Citizen Series" of the Civic Bookstore edited and published in Shanghai in the 1920s were also important fronts for the dissemination of Marxism. (Gao Ming: "Wang Yunwu, Citizen Bookstore, "Citizen Series" and the Spread of Marxism in the Early 1920s", unpublished) The two are similar in age, and both have extensive books, full of talent, and may have met in the process of early Marxist translation and dissemination, so there is communication and book donation.
On November 1, 1920, the "New Youth" volume 8, No. 3, cover two advertisements were published, "The second issue of the Xiulu Citizen Series published" and "The New Youth Series", of which the former was published for the first time. It was followed by six consecutive issues, namely Volume 8, No. 4 (december 1, 1920), No. 5 (January 1, 1921), No. 6, Volume 9, No. 1 (May 1, 1921), No. 2 (published after June 2, 1921), and No. 3 (published on July 1, 1921). The advertisement introduced a total of eight kinds of "Xiulu Citizen Series", the second issue of "General Theory of Science", "Natural Morality", "Geography of European Warfare", the first issue of "Principles of Social Transformation" (the third edition was published at that time), "Commentary on the League of Nations", "Scientific Socialism", "Persian Question", and "The Problem of Transformation of European and American Countries". The series is published by Qunyi Books and Evans Books. ("The second issue of the Xiulu Citizen Series was published", New Youth, Vol. 8, No. 3, Second Advertisement, published by Shanghai New Youth Society on November 1, 1920.) See Gao Ming: "Wang Yunwu, Citizen Bookstore, "Citizen Series" and the Spread of Marxism in the Early 1920s"
New Youth, Vol. 8, No. 3, Feng II (published on November 1, 1920)
According to the historical data I have seen so far, it is speculated that Chen Wangdao and Wang Yunwu may have intersected when the "New Youth" magazine published an advertisement for the "Xiulu Citizen Series". It is likely that when Chen Wangdao took over the New Youth Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 5, he had contacts with Wang Yunwu, that is, around December 1920, he signed the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese the full translation to Wang Yunwu. The author also noted that the Commercial Press began to have the Commercial Press in the sub-sales offices of The New Youth Magazine, starting from Volume 9, No. 5, which was published in September 1921; and the "Special Notice" of Volume 9, No. 6 (published in July 1922), was also explicitly entrusted to the Commercial Press and Evans Books. Wang Yunwu entered the Compilation Institute of the Commercial Press in September 1921 and officially took over as the director of the Compilation Institute of the Commercial Press in January 1922. This should have a lot to do with Wang Yunwu's entry into the Commercial Press.
In summary, if the speculation is true, of the 12 volumes of the first edition of the Communist Manifesto Chinese full translation seen in Chinese mainland, only the collection of the Library of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences is Chen Wangdao's handwritten gift, and it is signed to Wang Yunwu, a modern celebrity, which is quite meaningful. The book has been published for more than a hundred years, and its good quality is particularly precious on the occasion of the centenary of the Communist Party of China.
Editor-in-Charge: Shanshan Peng
Proofreader: Yijia Xu