Today we introduce Zhang Shenfu, a member of the early organization of the Communist Party of China in France.
Zhang Shenfu (張申府), formerly known as Song Nian (崧年), was a native of Xianxian County, Hebei Province, and one of the important founders of the Communist Party of China. He was a contributor and editorial board member of New Youth Magazine and made important contributions to the promotion of new culture and new ideas. He successively introduced Zhou Enlai and Zhu De to join the Communist Party of China. He was the deputy director of the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy. After retiring from the party, he still cared about the development of the party. After the September 18 Incident, he often used the pulpit to propagate patriotism and devoted himself to the anti-Japanese movement, and was an important organizer and leader of the 129 Movement.
On June 15, 1893, Zhang Shenfu was born in a farming family in Xiaoduozhuang Village, Xianxian County, Hebei Province, whose father was a jinshi in the late Qing Dynasty, and served as an editor of the Hanlin Academy and a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of China. Zhang Shenfu received a strict traditional education from an early age and had a solid foundation in Chinese language. At the age of 14, he went to Beijing with his uncle to receive a new-style education. At the age of 19, inspired by the Xinhai Revolution, he was determined to devote himself to the national revolution. In 1913, he was admitted to the preparatory department of Peking University with excellent results, and his thinking underwent a major change, and he was introduced to Li Dazhao by Guo Renlin, a fellow villager of Peking University, and gradually embarked on the revolutionary road under his leadership. In 1917, Zhang Shenfu stayed on as a teacher. Deeply influenced by democratic liberal thought, he, like many advanced elements, was actively involved in the New Culture Movement. In publications such as "New Youth", he used the pseudonyms of "Chi", "Chizi", "Zhang Songnian", "Zhang Chi", etc., and successively published a number of articles introducing Western progressives and propagating new views and new ideas, which had a wide and far-reaching impact in China. As a result, he quickly became a prominent figure. In 1917, Zhang Shenfu published an article discussing the "youth problem" in the "Diary of Jiayin" edited by Li Dazhao. In 1919 he published "New School" in the Morning Post, advocating a new education for the purpose of transforming society. In 1920, in the article "Three Freedoms of Coming" published in the "Peking University Student Weekly", he boldly proposed freedom of education, freedom of work, and freedom of relations between men and women, which played an important role in breaking the traditional shackles, emancipating the mind, and promoting democratic freedom. After the victory of the October Revolution in Russia, Marxism was rapidly introduced to China. Zhang Shenfu chased the revolutionary wave, not only wrote a large number of articles, vigorously propagated Marxism, but also actively participated in progressive groups and called for social revolution. He has successively become a member of the Youth China Society, the Xinchao Society, the Beijing Work-study Mutual Aid Group and other organizations. In July 1919, he joined the Juvenile Chinese Society founded by Li Dazhao and presided over the editorial work of the journal "Young China". In September 1920, Zhang Shenfu shouted in an open letter to the Young Chinese Society: "It is natural to have absolute faith in socialism." Communism is the essence of socialism, and it is natural to believe more absolutely in communism. This shows that Zhang Shenfu has achieved ideological transformation and become a Marxist. In the winter of 1918, Zhang Shenfu discussed with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu to jointly found the influential progressive journal Weekly Review, which was edited by Zhang Shenfu. In this journal, Zhang Shenfu published more than 10 articles to promote innovation and free thought and awaken the soul of the Chinese people. The Weekly Review had a profound impact on society and gave a powerful impetus to the development of the revolutionary situation. While in Europe, Zhang Shenfu also founded a journal similar to the party magazine "Youth", which was later renamed "Red Light", vigorously disseminating Marxism and propagating communist theory, reporting on the world workers' and youth movements, and fighting against anti-Marxist ideas such as anarchism and nationalism.
In the process of party building, in addition to "Southern Chen and Northern Li", Zhang Shenfu also participated in the early preparatory work. In early 1920, Zhang Shenfu negotiated with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu in Shanghai to organize the Communist Party at Peking University. In April, representatives of the Far East Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Brazzaville) Vyjingsky and others came to China to help establish Communist Party organizations in China. After learning about China's situation many times, Vyjingsky, Li Dazhao, and Zhang Shenfu held that China already had the conditions for establishing the Communist Party and hoped to establish the party at an early date. Subsequently, Li Dazhao introduced Wei Jingsky to Shanghai to meet Chen Duxiu in order to plan the establishment of the party. During this period, Zhang Shenfu played a role in communication and coordination between "Southern Chen and Northern Li". In August, Zhang Shenfu received a letter from Chen Duxiu, mentioning that "only Li Dazhao and you can talk about the establishment of the party in Beijing." Chen Duxiu also consulted with Zhang Shenfu and others on the name of the party in his letter, "Whether to call it the Communist Party or the Socialist Party is not determined, and later Vyjingsky said that it was still called the Communist Party." We agreed. In mid-September, Zhang Shenfu went to Shanghai to welcome the British philosopher Russell to give a lecture in China, and took the opportunity to exchange views with Chen Duxiu on the issue of party preparations. After returning to Beijing in the second half of the month, Li Dazhao approved and began to organize the early organization of the Communist Party in Beijing. After some efforts, in October 1920, the early organization of the Communist Party in Beijing was formally established, and Li Dazhao, Zhang Shenfu, and Zhang Guotao were the earliest members of the group. Zhang Shenfu did a lot of constructive work on the founding of the party, and thus became one of the important founders of the CCP. In November 1920, shortly after the early organization of the Communist Party in Beijing was founded, Zhang Shenfu went to France to teach. During this trip, he also shouldered an important mission, that is, to establish and develop party organizations abroad under the entrustment of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. In the spring of 1921, after he arrived in France, he successively introduced Liu Qingyang and Zhou Enlai to the party, and then Zhang Shenfu, Together with Zhou Enlai, Liu Qingyang, and Zhao Shiyan and Chen Gongpei, who later went to France, established the early organization of the Communist Party of China in France, and Zhang Shenfu was the person in charge of this organization. Under the leadership of Zhang Shenfu and others, he initiated the establishment of the Chinese Youth Communist Party in Europe, the establishment of the Marxist Research Association, and the founding of the important journal "Youth" to introduce and disseminate Marxism. In addition, in the early days of the CCP in France, the CPC organized and led the movement of work-study students studying in France, carried out the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle of the Chinese in Europe, trained a large number of outstanding revolutionary cadres, and made major contributions to supporting the domestic revolutionary cause.
Zhang Shenfu and Zhou Enlai met on the eve of the founding of the party. At the end of 1920, Zhou Enlai, Liu Qingyang and other major representatives of the Enlightenment Society also went to France one after another, and under the introduction of Liu Qingyang, Zhang Shenfu became more familiar with Zhou Enlai, and Zhou Enlai left a deep impression on Zhang Shenfu. In March 1921, the 23-year-old Zhou Enlai joined the Communist Party of China under the introduction of Zhang Shenfu and Liu Qingyang, and together with Zhang Shenfu founded the early organization of the Communist Party of China. After returning to China, Zhang Shenfu recommended Zhou En to serve at the Whampoa Military Academy, so that his outstanding talents could be brought into full play. Zhang Shenfu was also Zhu De's introducer to the party. Inspired by the October Revolution in Russia and the May Fourth Movement in China, Zhu De deeply realized that the original method of military struggle would not work, so he considered finding a new way out of the country. In 1922, Zhu De went to Europe to seek the truth and found Zhang Shenfu, Zhou Enlai and others in Berlin, Germany. Before Zhu De went abroad, he asked Chen Duxiu to join the party, but he was refused because he was an old military officer in the past. Zhang Shenfu inspected Zhu Deduo, talked to him many times about joining the party, and introduced Zhu De to the Communist Party of China with Zhou Enlai.
Zhang Shenfu always had a strong literary temperament. In 1925, when Zhang Shenfu attended the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Shanghai, he had a fierce dispute with Cai he sen and others because of his opposition to the alliance with the Kuomintang, and he angrily withdrew. Zhou Enlai advised him not to be impulsive, to abide by party discipline, and to return to the meeting hall to continue discussions, so as to seek common ground while reserving minor differences. But Zhang Shenfu still withdrew. In the nearly 30 years after the founding of New China and the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Shenfu basically disappeared from the public eye and was once branded as a rightist, until after 1978, Zhang Shenfu's name reappeared and was added as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
On June 20, 1986, Zhang Shenfu, who had just celebrated his 93rd birthday, passed away peacefully. The obituary published in the People's Daily read: "Comrade Zhang Shenfu is a well-known patriotic democrat and an old friend of the Communist Party of China... Comrade Zhang Shenfu also had twists and turns in his lifelong struggle, but he was an old comrade who was nostalgic for the truth, who was open-minded, bright and upright, humble, simple in life, and did not care about personal gains and losses. ”
