The original educational intention of early Chinese Marxists

■A Discourse on the Political Wisdom and Education of the Communist Party of China in the Past Century

Editor's Note

The Communist Party of China has always attached great importance to the development of education and has formed a series of educational discourses in the course of a century of struggle. In order to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, this edition will open a column entitled "Discourse on the Political Wisdom and Education of the Communist Party of China in the Past Hundred Years" from today to study, summarize, and sort out the educational wisdom of the Chinese Communists and the brilliant achievements made in the cause of education under the leadership of the Party, promote the education front to draw forward strength from them, and make contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The educational practice of early Chinese Marxists began during the May Fourth Movement. The Party's educational practice is an important foundation for the Party's revolutionary cause. Mao Zedong pointed out: "We Communists, for many years, have struggled not only for China's political and economic revolution, but also for China's cultural revolution; the purpose of all this is to build a new society and a new country of the Chinese nation. "Over the past hundred years, the party's educational practice has always kept this original intention and mission in mind.

The May Fourth Movement opened up a new direction for the development of education in China

After the Opium War, the Western powers not only invaded and divided China by force, but also pursued a deeper policy of enslavement and imposed the core values of Western culture in an attempt to destroy the inherent civilization of the Chinese nation in order to achieve the goal of subjugating the country and destroying the species. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, scholars and scholars generally realized that saving Chinese civilization was the foundation of saving the survival of the people. Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan, and others were the first to call for the transformation of Chinese culture, advocating "mastering yi and mastering skills to control Yi" and learning from Western artifact civilization. Since then, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and other Western-style factions have cultivated economic and practical scientific and technological talents and governing ministers who are proficient in world affairs by setting up enterprises, planning coastal defense, establishing a new-style navy, creating new schools, and sending students to study abroad.

In the Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed, declaring the failure of learning Western artifact civilization, and stimulating the thinking of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others to change the political system. They planned and promoted the Penghu Reform Law, but failed in the Hundred Days. Japan's re-victory in the Russo-Japanese War strengthened the Qing court's motivation to learn and strengthen its troops. In 1904, the Qing government promulgated the "Decameron School System", opening up the modern school system. In 1905, the Qing government officially abolished the imperial examination system completely, hoping for a new school system and a new school.

In 1911, Sun Yat-sen led the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the millennium imperial system. Cai Yuanpei issued the "Opinions on the Education Policy", put forward the educational policy of combining military and national education, practical education, moral education, aesthetic education, and world outlook education, presided over the formulation and promulgation of the Republic of China school system, and abolished the reading of the Scriptures by Zun Kong. However, after Yuan Shikai stole the president of the Republic of China, he vigorously engaged in educational retrospectives. Cai Yuanpei became president of Peking University in 1916, advocating "freedom of thought and inclusiveness", and Peking University became the birthplace of the May Fourth Movement. Chen Duxiu, then the dean of liberal arts at Peking University, founded "New Youth", which will oppose the old culture and old education under the feudal etiquette system and advocate a new culture and new education that adapts to the trend of the world.

The May Fourth Movement explored the transformation from artifact civilization and institutional civilization to a spiritual civilization that transformed the quality of the people, which enlightened the way forward for the development of China's new education.

The exploration of Marxist education has created conditions for the founding of the Party

Li Dazhao is an important initiator of the Marxist educational trend. After the October Revolution, he successively published articles and speeches such as "Comparative View of the Franco-Russian Revolution", "The Victory of the Common People", and "The Victory of Bolshevism", and systematically introduced Marxist theory in "My View of Marxism".

In March 1920, Li Dazhao initiated the organization of the Marxist Theory Research Association at Peking University, which was joined by Luo Zhanglong, Liu Renjing, Deng Zhongxia, and Zhang Tailei. In October, the early organization of the Communist Party in Beijing was formed. In May 1920, Chen Duxiu initiated the organization of the Marxist Research Society in Shanghai to discuss the theory of socialism and the transformation of Chinese society, and on this basis established the earliest organization of the Communist Party of China. Under the impetus of the liaison between the Shanghai and Beijing party organizations, Wuhan, Changsha, Jinan, Guangzhou, Japan, France and other places successively established the early organizations of the Communist Party of China.

In order to spread Marxism, in September 1920, the magazine "New Youth" was changed into an open party publication. In November, the semi-public monthly magazine "Communist Party" was launched. At the same time, the New Youth Publishing House organized Chen Wangdao and others to translate and publish Marxist-Leninist classics such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "The State and Revolution" and various pamphlets for propagating Marxism. Among them, the educational exposition in the Communist Manifesto became the guiding ideology for the educational practice of early Marxists in China. Such as the exposé of the essence of bourgeois education - "education to train man into machines"; the educational assumption of the proletarian - "public and free education for all children, the abolition of the factory labour of children in the present form, the integration of education with material production", etc.; the role of education in the revolution - "not for a minute can be ignored to educate the workers, as far as possible aware of the antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat"; the elaboration of educational ideals - The free development of everyone is the condition for the free development of all people", and so on, and communist groups in various localities set up popular books for workers and peasants to propagate Marxism, such as "Labor Circles" in Shanghai, "Labor Voice" and "Workers' Weekly" in Beijing, "Xiangjiang Review" in Changsha, "Laborers" in Guangzhou, and "Jinan Labor Monthly" in Jinan, etc., to enlighten the working class consciousness. In July 1921, the Communist Party of China was formally established. The practice and exploration of Marxist education has cultivated talents for the Chinese revolution, and has also accumulated valuable experience for awakening workers and peasants and organizing and arming revolutionary forces.

Marxism has laid the foundation for the Party's educational ideology in China

Early Chinese Marxists insisted on using the basic principles of Marxism to analyze and guide The practice of Chinese education, and gradually formed the spiritual theme and basic framework of the Sinicized Marxist concept of education, providing a theoretical basis for the Party's educational policies, purposes and policies from later to today.

First, the essence and value of education are defined from the overall situation of social construction, and education is regarded as a means of revolution and a tool for transforming society. The early Chinese Marxists were gradually disillusioned with the path of reform, and inspired by the Marxist idea of class struggle, they believed in the Russian revolutionary method in order to transform China and the world and win the "victory of the common people". Li Dazhao pointed out in "My Marxist View" that all spiritual structures change with the structural changes of the economy. The new education must adapt to the new economy and new politics, and must abandon all feudal absolutist politics and ethics. He pointed out in "Youth" that "breaking through the nets of past history and destroying the prison of outdated doctrines" promotes new morality and builds a new culture. Chen Duxiu also declared in "New Youth" that "what we advocate is the social transformation of the mass movement." In the "Answer to Kong Zhaoming", it is said: "Transforming society is the only purpose of this Gu BenZhi. ”

Yun Daiying published "The Cultivation of Sociality" in 1917, taking "cultivating sociality" as the basis for social undertakings and even national salvation. In articles such as "To Shen Zemin's High Language" and "Education in Statism", he profoundly pointed out that the formal education controlled by the reactionary ruling class and rice bowl doctrine is hopeless and "has no benefit to saving the country." He called on young people to study Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and devote themselves to the national salvation movement. In "Cultural Aggression Against Imperialism," he pointed out that in order to eliminate the national spirit of the Chinese by imperialism by using the gengzi reparations as a fund for cultural aggression against China, "we must oppose him and work harder than against economic, political and armed aggression."

Yang Xianjiang pointed out that education is formed according to economic structure and changes with economic development. Education is closely linked to the process of social life and material relations of production, and is based on real socio-economic life. Education influences society by cultivating a "special labor force" and the reproduction of spiritual culture. He expounded the role and counter-role relationship between education and politics and economy, and pointed out that education in different periods should serve the needs of political struggle of political parties. In the course of the revolution, education is a weapon used by the revolutionaries to awaken, mobilize and organize the masses; after the success of the revolution, education must take on the responsibility of teaching and training the people in order to cultivate the "special labor force" needed under the new society and the new economic system.

Second, education targets all citizens and inspires the consciousness of the broad masses of the people. The early Marxists in China summed up the lessons of the Chinese movement to save the country and the Russian October Revolution, and in light of the Marxist idea of class struggle and the October Revolution in Russia, they knew very well that the success of the revolution lay in mobilizing the broad masses of workers and peasants and in arousing the consciousness of all the people. In the May Fourth Movement, there were not only intellectual groups, but also the working class, the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie, and the workers gradually became the main force of the struggle. This reality inspired the determination and confidence of the early Chinese Communists to enlighten the whole nation.

Li Dazhao pointed out that the working masses are the masters of society, and education must first meet their needs for knowledge. He pointed out in "The Question of Labor Education": "Modern education does not allow the establishment of several specialized schools, and it is enough to create a class of intellectuals with the printing procedure, but it is necessary to set up more subsidized educational institutions, so that ordinary laborers, with rest, can also get a proper opportunity to meet their knowledge requirements nearby." And "the spirit of democracy demands not only ordinary elections politically, but also equal distribution in the economy, but also equal opportunities for everyone in education and literature, in response to the requirements of ordinary people's knowledge." Under the call of Li Dazhao, labor education has become a general consensus and common behavior. Educational institutions such as night schools, half-day schools, schools for the poor, libraries, books and newspapers, rural schools, and peasant cram schools are widely practiced.

Chen Duxiu, on the other hand, paid attention to the problem of the Chinese peasants, pointing out that "it is difficult to accomplish revolutionary work without the assistance of the poor peasant masses," "agriculture is the foundation of China's national economy," and the peasants "are naturally the most powerful friendly forces of the working class and should not be ignored by the Communist Party of China." Based on this, he placed special emphasis on educating the rural population.

Li Dazhao analyzed and pointed out that in a country where women have not been liberated, there is absolutely no real "populism", and the "populism" between the two sexes is tighter than anything else. Therefore, "Isn't it a great loss of the intelligence and productivity of the people that make up half of the country's population not to study or to work?" He argued that women should enjoy the same right to education as men, and that access to education was an important way and method for women to achieve their own emancipation.

The main body of the early belief in Marxism was the relatively young left-wing backbone of the May Fourth Patriotic Movement, represented by Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, Deng Zhongxia, and so on. This is inseparable from the education and guidance of Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, and other pioneers of Chinese Marxism. Li Dazhao believes that China's hope lies first in the awakening of young people, and only when young people awaken can they shoulder the heavy responsibility of building a new China. "The resurrection of the old nation is not the responsibility of the elders of its nation, but the responsibility of the young people of its nation." "The country cannot go a day without youth, and young people cannot go a day without awakening." He attaches great importance to the knowledge education and personality cultivation of young people, and pays special attention to patriotic education for young people. Chen Duxiu published "Greetings to Young People" in the inaugural issue of "Youth Magazine", and put forward six proposals for young people: first, autonomous rather than slave, second, progressive rather than conservative, third, enterprising rather than retreating, fourth, the world instead of locking the country, fifth, practical instead of imaginary, sixth, scientific rather than imaginary, hoping to transform and shape the spirit of Chinese youth. They also explicitly called on young people to go among the masses of workers and peasants and to forge a new path of integrating youth education with workers and peasants.

Mao Zedong pointed out that any ideology "will not work if it is not mastered by the masses of the people, even the best things, even Marxism." The early Marxists in China broke the difference in the right to education between the traditional scholars, peasants, industrialists, and merchants, so that the workers and peasants, who accounted for half of the population, the women who accounted for half of the population, and the most active young people in the population all enjoyed equal rights to education, so that the people had basic knowledge, mastered the weapons of Marxist ideology, and established the people's nature of Chinese education from the very beginning.

Third, explore China's unique path of combining education with productive labor. Most of the early Chinese Marxists, such as Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Cai Hesen, etc., had work-study experience, they were practitioners of combining education and productive labor, and then under the guidance of Marxism, they grew into theoreticians and advocates of the combination of education and productive labor. Li Dazhao was the first representative of the combination of propaganda and education with production and labor, and in December 1919 he wrote an article in "New Life" advocating that "work should not be misread, reading should not be missed, and work and reading should be mixed together." He also said: "If we want to lose the modern new civilization to society from the bottom, we must combine the intellectual class and the working class. ”

There are three main types of integration of education and productive labor explored by the early Marxists in China: First, the "combination of work and study", that is, the two identities of workers and readers are embodied in the same person, represented by the work-study and work-study mutual aid groups that go to France; the second is that advanced intellectuals set up schools for workers and peasants, providing knowledge education, class education, and revolutionary enlightenment for production workers, who consciously "set out for the people" and held workers' remedial schools, peasant movement workshops, and civilian schools throughout the country The third is to carry out the practice of combining education with productive labor with the attitude and way of getting close to and walking into the laborers. For example, many early Chinese Marxists, who were born as intellectuals, took the initiative to put on the clothes of workers and peasants, learn the language of workers and peasants, engage in the labor of workers and peasants, and lead the movement of workers and peasants, so that the combination of education and productive labor shifted from form to substance, and completely got rid of feudal education that was separated from production labor. Looking back a hundred years ago, we can still feel the thorough understanding and practical application of the basic principles of Marxism by the early Chinese Marxists, the insightful and profound educational thinking, and the educational practice that focuses on the whole and takes root in the earth, which still has great practical significance today.

(The author is affiliated with the Institute of Basic Education, Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences)

China Education News, June 24, 2021, 7th edition

Author: Niu Nansen