October 14, 2021 The 120th anniversary of Wang Yanan's birth Wang Yanan, an academic giant dedicated to science and education, has the courage to pursue the truth and is committed to spreading Marxism-Leninism as a well-known master at home and abroad, and has worked hard for the development and expansion of Marx's political economy into the development and expansion of Xiamen University for the reform and innovation of China's higher education
Wang Yanan (1901--1969)
Not afraid of hardships and dangers, bravely climb the peak of economic science
As we all know, "Capital" is an economic masterpiece to which Marx devoted his life, and it is in "Capital" that Marx's materialist view of history and the theory of surplus value have been explained in the most systematic and mature way. Therefore, Capital is hailed as the "Bible of the Working Class" in the world and has a wide and profound impact internationally.
In 1928, Wang Yanan and Guo Dali met at the Great Buddha Temple in Hangzhou, and the two talked about the common ideal of transforming society and agreed on a plan that would later affect their lives—to translate Marx's Capital. In order to accurately and completely translate Capital, they decided to spend 6-8 years to start with the study and translation of Western classical political economy masterpieces, including Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", Ricardo's "Principles of Economics and Taxation", Malthus's "Population Theory" and John Mill's "Principles of Economics", in order to master economic theory and translation skills, in preparation for the translation of "Capital".
In that turbulent era of war and chaos, it was undoubtedly necessary to complete the huge project of translating Capital, which undoubtedly required extraordinary perseverance and courage. For this reason, they have suffered oppression by reactionary forces, endured poverty and disease, and suffered the loss of burning entire volumes of translations under gunfire. But they never wavered, but with the spirit of perseverance, perseverance and perseverance in translation. In August and September 1938, with the full support of the underground Party of the Communist Party of China and the Reading Life Publishing House, the first, second and third volumes of Capital Chinese all translated were finally published, and the long-cherished wish of Wang Yanan and Guo Dali for ten years finally became a reality. Since then, Capital, as the cornerstone of Marxist theory, has for the first time presented itself to the reader in a complete form, Chinese people can comprehensively and systematically understand and study Marx's economic theory.
Translation of Capital
After the publication of all three volumes of Capital, Wang Yanan shifted his focus to disseminating and studying Capital. He further applied the principles and methods of Capital to conduct a profound analysis of China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial economic form, including in-depth analysis and study of the commodity form, capital form, currency form, profit interest form, and economic crisis form of old China, and exposed many contradictions within China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial economy under the domination of imperialism and the development law of its decline. He integrated Marxist economic theory with China's specific reality and effectively promoted the sinicization of Marxist political economy.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xiamen University was demobilized from Changting to Xiamen, and Wang Yanan became the dean of the Xiamen University Law School and the head of the Economics Department, and he not only continued to use the university pulpit to propagate Marxism, but also hired a number of progressive professors such as Guo Dali, Shi Zhaotang, and Wang Shouli to lead everyone to publicize Marxism together. Although he was repeatedly suppressed, intimidated, and even included in the "blacklist" of Kuomintang agents, he was not afraid, insisting on teaching Marx's economic theory in the classroom and using various ways to spread Marxism.
After the founding of New China, Wang Yanan more consciously and systematically propagated and studied Marxism. Whether it is in the lecture hall of the political economy of Tsinghua University, or in the study of political current affairs at Xiamen University; whether it is to give a lecture to the students of the Department of Economics or the graduate students of the Institute of Economics, or to give lectures to the students of the Department of Chinese and History, he has explained Marxist economic theory in a simple and easy-to-understand way in connection with reality and in connection with the actual economic life.
Wang Yanan talked with students about their experience in studying Capital
Wang Yanan not only lectured on Capital on the university podium, but also attached great importance to the popularization of Capital. The "Popular Lectures on the > of capital < edited by Wang Yanan and Yuan Zhenyue explains the main contents of "Capital" chapter by chapter and section by section in the form of a popular reading, and each article is personally examined and approved by Wang Yanan and published by "China's Economic Problems", which not only sets a precedent for the popular interpretation of "Capital" in China, but also greatly enhances the enthusiasm of the vast number of cadres and the masses in studying "Capital" by the masses.
Wang Yanan's theoretical achievements in the study of Capital are extremely rich. During his tenure as president of Xiamen University, in addition to his busy administrative and teaching work, from 1960 to 1965, he wrote more than 30 special articles on the study of Capital, and conducted in-depth discussions on the background of the era, historical tasks, research objects, research methods, structural systems, content and practical significance of the articles produced by Capital, and its number and level were second to none in the economics community.
Wang Yanan spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Institute of Chinese Economic Issues
After the founding of New China, Wang Yanan and Guo Dali also spent a lot of time and energy to make two comprehensive and systematic revisions to the translation of Capital, which is equivalent to re-translating most of the translations, so that the omissions and errors in the first edition can be corrected, so that the economic terms and various allusions can be translated more accurately and smoothly, and the translation can better express the meaning of the original work.
To this day, "Capital" is still a peak in the history of the development of Marxism, Wang Yanan and Guo vigorously cooperated in the translation of "Capital", systematic study of "Capital", for the spread of Marxism in China, for the sinification of Marxism has made outstanding contributions, they also carved their own shining names on this glorious milestone!
Hard work to promote economic theoretical innovation
In 1954, Wang Yanan was in Xiamen Da Woyun Mountain House (No. 8 Danan Road)
As early as the early 1940s, when Wang Yanan moved to the National Sun Yat-sen University in Shaoguan Pingshi, northern Guangdong Province, as a professor and head of the Department of Economics during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he began to take advantage of various opportunities to disseminate Marxist theory on the podium and at the forum, and to closely link the basic principles of Marxism with the social reality of China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. In 1941, in his article "Political Economy in China", he clearly proposed that "we should study political economy with the qualifications of Chinese", and from this research, we should strive to create an economic theory course that is "particularly conducive to Chinese reading, which will arouse the interest of Chinese, and can especially point out the way of China's social and economic transformation." This article also became his "beginning of the study of Chinese economics".
From 1941 to 1944, Wang Yanan successively published a number of articles on the possibility and necessity of establishing Chinese economics, research objects and research methods, and became one of the important pioneers in the creation of Chinese economics. In his view, the whole system of Chinese economics,
"Special attention can be paid to the application of its assertions or conclusions in China's social economy; its illustrations and citations, as far as possible, the actual situation of China's economy as material."
In the autumn of 1944, Wang Yanan came to Yong'an, the "wartime provincial capital" of Fujian, and served as the director of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Fujian Provincial Research Institute. He systematically sorted out the lectures he had given at Sun Yat-sen University in previous years and the series of articles published in newspapers and periodicals, and published the book "The Original Theory of China's Economy" in the Economic Science Press in early 1946, which made a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the production relations in China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, put forward many incisive and original insights, and constructed a new and relatively systematic system of economic theory. The book was hailed as "a successful example of the sinicization of Marxist political economy" and was translated into Japanese and Russian, and had a major impact at home and abroad.
Some of Wang Yanan's writings (translations).
Wang Yanan actively advocated the creation of Chinese economics and clearly established the academic guiding ideology of studying the Chinese economy guided by the basic principles of Capital, which was another important leap in his academic career after translating Capital.
In the field of economic history, he started from China's economic history and explored the socio-economic form of old China under the guidance of historical materialism. He believes that China's feudal system is divided into two stages: the lord economy and the landlord economy, and the landlord economy is its main feature, which is significantly different from the European feudal system and the lord economy. Therefore, he conducted an in-depth discussion on the reasons for the long-term stagnation of China's feudal society that lasted for two thousand years, profoundly discussed the historical origins of China's feudal landlord economic form and semi-feudal and semi-colonial economic form, and systematically put forward the famous "landlord economy theory", which is called "a summary of the discussion since the 1930s". This was a major theoretical innovation in the field of Chinese economic history at that time, which attracted the attention of historians at home and abroad.
In the field of the history of economic theory, Wang Yanan has devoted himself to building a new system of scientific and systematic history of economic theory in his long-term teaching and research work. In the compilation of the "Outline of the History of Political Economy" and the compilation of the textbook of "History of Economic Theory", he took the materialist view of history as the methodological basis of research, sorted out the historical origin and development context of various schools of economic theory, so that its source, trunk and branches were clearly presented to the reader, and a building of economic theory history with rigorous internal logic and unique style was constructed. After the founding of New China, he was entrusted by the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Education to compile a national unified textbook on the history of political economy, which further highlighted the status and role of Marxist political economy in the history of economic theory.
Wang Yanan is also unique in the study of Chinese bureaucratic politics and bureaucratic capital. His book "Research on Chinese Bureaucratic Politics", published in October 1948, combined history and logic, from abstract and concrete, from partial to complete, made a profound systematic analysis of China's bureaucratic politics and bureaucratic capital forms, revealing its movement laws and the correlation with the long-term stagnation of China's feudal society. The book's exposure of the reactionary nature of bureaucratic capital and bureaucratic politics has played a positive role in raising the awareness of the masses of the people and clarifying the targets of the revolution. The book is regarded by scholars as "a pioneering work on Chinese bureaucratic politics" and has become another important masterpiece of Wang Yanan.
Group photo of the first batch of graduate students of the Institute of Economic Research of Xiamen University, starting from left in the front row: Liu Qinghan, Deng Ziji, Xie Youquan; back row: Chen Yancang, Hu Yucai, Xu Rukui, Huang Liangwen, Chen Kekun.
After the founding of New China, Wang Yanan became the president of Xiamen University, and while actively disseminating and studying Capital, he extended the guiding role of Marxist political economy to the entire economic discipline. He attaches great importance to the combination of theoretical disciplines and applied disciplines, and in 1952, when the national faculties were adjusted, he did everything possible to retain a number of applied economics majors such as accounting, finance, statistics, and trade of Xiamen University, and vigorously promoted the integration and mutual promotion of theoretical economic disciplines and applied economic disciplines, which strengthened the overall strength of Xiamen University's economic disciplines and doubled its influence in the country. Ge Jiashu, Deng Ziji, Luo Yucong, Huang Liangwen, Wu Xuangong, Zhang Yichun, Hu Peizhao and other well-known economists were the talents carefully cultivated by Wang Yanan at that time, and later became the backbone of the economic discipline of Xiamen University. Ge Jiashu, Deng Ziji, and others expounded their profound experiences in their book "< Capital> and The Economic Theory of socialist Sectors," which became a good story for the development of the economic discipline of Xiamen University.
He is in charge of the government and has carefully cultivated construction talents
Throughout his life, Wang Yanan has made outstanding contributions to the development and growth of Xiamen University, to the creation of a new type of university for the people, and to the development of Higher Education in China.
As the first president of Xiamen University after the founding of New China, he personally participated in the educational reform and practice of China's colleges and universities, whether in school management work or in teaching and scientific research activities, he always insisted on starting from the actual situation of the school and starting from the characteristics of education itself, exploring the law of education and teaching development.
Proceeding from the essence and function of education, he advocated that the structure of university education (including disciplines and professional settings) must take the initiative to adapt to the development of productive forces and changes in the economic foundation, and should not emphasize light writing and destroy the proportional development of higher education; starting from the nature and function of comprehensive universities, he believes that multidisciplinary comprehensive universities and monodisciplinary colleges and universities are different, and it should pay more attention to theoretical education and cultivate people who can independently carry out creative research work; starting from the characteristics of comprehensive universities. He advocated that comprehensive universities are both educational institutions and research institutions, and should adhere to the unity of teaching and scientific research, focus on teaching, take into account scientific research, improve high-quality teaching through high-level scientific research, and transform scientific research advantages into teaching advantages, so as to form talent training advantages.
Wang Yanan cares about cultivating students
Starting from the nature and function of scientific research, he advocated that universities should create an academic atmosphere of free research, encourage students to learn from each other, discuss together, and learn on their own, research on their own, and think independently. He stressed: The purpose of our advocacy of a hundred schools of thought is to discover the truth, and the controversy of a hundred schools of thought not only does not contradict Marxism, but is also the way to realize Marxism. For Marxism is open to all truths.
Proceeding from the principle of the universality and particularity of contradictions, he advocated that schools should have a clear understanding of the school's conditions, give full play to their strong points and avoid their weaknesses, and give play to their strong points; they should suit measures to local conditions and develop their own characteristics. On the basis of fully understanding the geographical location advantages and traditional discipline advantages of Xiamen University, he clearly put forward the development direction of Xiamen University "facing the ocean, facing Southeast Asia and overseas Chinese" and the development ideas of focusing on the construction of economic and chemical and other advantageous disciplines, strengthened the research of Nanyang studies, marine research and regional economic issues, established the Institute of Economics, the Institute of Chemistry and the Nanyang Research Institute, and personally served as the postgraduate tutor of the Institute of Economic Research; took the lead in restoring the Journal of Xiamen University and founding the magazine "Chinese Economic Issues". Using it as a platform to promote scientific research has greatly promoted the improvement of the teaching and scientific research level of Xiamen University and laid a good foundation for building Xiamen University into a comprehensive research university with characteristics.
Wang Yanan has been teaching in the university pulpit for a long time and has accumulated rich teaching experience, and many of the principled opinions he has expressed on the study methods and experience in governing the study not only contain rich educational ideas, but are also very practical. He advocates teaching and learning, opposes behind closed doors, advocates teaching with a research attitude, inspires students to think positively, and cultivates students' ability to analyze and solve problems. He encouraged students to ask more questions and express more different opinions, so that educators can be "constantly educated", so that students can become an important factor in promoting teachers to improve their professional level, so as to "teach each other".
He emphasized "applying what they have learned" and asked teachers to clearly explain the practical basis of theory and its application in practice, so that students can thoroughly grasp the essence and connotation of theory and avoid detours. In view of the weakness of young students who are prone to "dead reading" and divorced from reality, Wang Yanan actively encourages students to step out of the "ivory tower", devote themselves to social practice, find research topics in practice, increase their talents in practice, and obtain true knowledge. He himself set an example by insisting on proceeding from the actual problems of Chinese society, from the discussion of China's finance, finance, prices, and industry issues during the war, from the analysis of bureaucratic capital and bureaucratic politics to the study of China's social and economic transformation.
In his decades of education, Wang Yanan has consistently cherished talents and used talents in an eclectic manner wherever he goes. This is also one of the reasons why he is often "praised" by people, and even after his death, he is often remembered by people.
In 1955, Chen Jingrun returned to Xiamen University and made major innovations in the field of mathematical research.
People will not forget Wang Yanan's knowledge and support for Chen Jingrun when he was the president of Xiamen University. After learning that Chen Jingrun returned to his hometown for various reasons after graduation and set up a book stall on the street, Wang Yanan reached out to help in time and let Chen Jingrun return to the Department of Mathematics of Xiamen University, giving him the opportunity to contact Chinese and foreign books and materials and concentrate on number theory research. Chen Jingrun did not live up to the expectations of the public, and soon achieved major scientific research results, which were highly affirmed by the famous mathematician Hua Luogeng. Later, Wang Yanan actively supported Chen Jingrun's transfer to the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which enabled Chen Jingrun to take a key step on the road to the peak of science. To this end, the writer Xu Chi praised Wang Yanan as an "economist who understands the value of man" in the popular reportage "Goldbach Conjecture".
Manuscript of Chen Jingrun's thesis
During the Cultural Revolution, Wang Yanan was criticized as a "reactionary academic authority." In the days of suffering, Wang Yanan still firmly believes in Marxism and still pays close attention to the future and destiny of the country. On November 13, 1969, he died at the age of 68 in Huadong Hospital in Shanghai due to ineffective medical treatment.
On December 23, 1978, the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China held a solemn ceremony for wang Yanan in Fuzhou, and Wu Hongxiang, secretary of the provincial party committee, said in a eulogy:
"Comrade Wang Yanan is an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, an economist who has worked tirelessly, dared to climb, is knowledgeable, and is an educator loyal to the party's educational cause."
Wang Yanan has published more than 40 academic works and translations, published more than 300 papers, and a large number of speeches, reports, letters, diaries, etc. to be sorted out. These works, papers and other documents are a valuable ideological legacy left to us by Wang Yanan.
In order to comprehensively display Wang Yanan's outstanding achievements in disseminating, researching and publicizing Marxist economics and education theory and practice, Xiamen University decided to compile and publish the Complete Works of Wang Yanan, in order to present the centenary of the founding of the Party and the centenary of the founding of Xiamen University, and to comfort Wang Yanan, an outstanding Marxist economist and educator in China! The publication of "The Complete Works of Wang Yanan" will certainly have a profound impact and play a tremendous role in enriching China's social sciences, systematically summing up the practical experience of reform, opening up, and socialist economic construction, revealing the law of socialist economic development with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and opening up a new realm of contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy.
The Complete Works of Wang Yanan (20 volumes)