Li Hanjun: Studying in Japan to "steal" revolutionary seeds

(Text/Shen Honghui)

"What should modern China do? The solution to this problem is neither in the Republic nor in the Restoration. The inability of such a political revolution to transform china has been proven in the past. Now it will be proven. However, we should be the strivers, and only the way of social revolution is one way. At the turn of the spring and summer of 1921, at No. 76 Xingye Road in present-day Shanghai, a young Chinese man with strong blood and strength explained the way to save the country to a visiting Japanese literary hero Ryunosuke Wasagawa.

In 1921, Japan's Osaka Mainichi Shimbun sent Wasagawa to China for an inspection. Mustard Chuan has been visiting China for several months and has traveled all over most of China. In his travelogue, the only person he expressed admiration for was the young man above. And this young man is Li Hanjun, one of the founders of the Communist Party of China and a major representative of the Communist Party of China.

Rare Japanese, German, English and French four-lingual talents

After analyzing the situation in China at that time, Li Hanjun said to Mustard Chuan: "The seeds are in hand, lest we be desolate for thousands of miles, or if we can't catch it." At the time, Mr. Li was secretly building the Chinese Communist Party with like-minded progressives. Dozens of days later, at the spot where the two men met, the first congress of the Communist Party of China was held.

Born in Qianjiang, Hubei Province in 1890, Li Hanjun studied in Japan with his brother Li Shucheng at the age of 14, from middle school to university, graduated from Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) in 1918, and returned to China in the same year. According to historical data, Li Hanjun was admitted to Hyosung Gakuen a year after his arrival. The reason why I chose this place may be because Hyosung Gakuen has dormitories, and the school can take care of living and living.

At Hyosung Gakuen, not far from tokyo's tourist attraction Imperial Palace, Nakayama (pseudonym), the head of the same window club, showed reporters an alumni roster containing information on graduates for more than 100 years. "1910033 Li Renjie," Nakayama said, pointing to the March 1910 (Meiji 43) graduation list, "This should be Li Hanjun." 1910 was the year he graduated, and 033 was the number given to him by the school. Li Hanjun studied in Japan that year and used the name "Renjie".

Founded at the end of the 19th century by French and American missionaries, Hyosung Gakuen excelled at teaching English and French, and its students were almost all Japanese. Li Hanjun has lived and studied with local Japanese classmates for many years and learned Japanese in a very natural way. This study experience laid an excellent foreign language foundation for Li Hanjun's later translation and creation of Marxist works.

After returning to China, Li Hanjun's foreign language ability was well known in the circle of progressives who introduced and disseminated Marxism in China, and was regarded as a rare talent in Japanese, German, English and French. In 1920, after Chen Wangdao finished translating the first complete version of the Chinese Communist Manifesto, Chen Duxiu asked Li Hanjun to review and check it.

Immerse yourself in reading Marxist books

After graduating from Hyosung Gakuen, Lee was admitted to the old No. 8 High School in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. In 1915, he was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University and became a public student of the Chinese government.

The University of Tokyo still retains Lee Han-joon's student card. According to the photocopy materials provided to reporters by the University of Tokyo, Li Hanjun studied civil engineering and was a science student. However, during his time at UTokyo, Li Hanjun, who cherished the feelings of home and country, focused his main energy on seeking strategies to save the country and began to believe in Marxism.

After the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, with the help of the labor movement and the Taisho Democracy Movement, the socialist trend in Japan re-emerged. In those years, representative figures of Japanese Marxism, such as Sakai Toshihiko, Takahata Suyuki, and Kawakami, were active in the ideological and speech circles, promoting the vigorous development of Japanese Marxism. This trend of thought had a great influence on the Chinese student community who were seeking a way to save the country in Japan at that time.

During his time at UTokyo, Li Hanjun immersed himself in reading Marxist books and profoundly realized that Marxist doctrine was "really the most beautiful gift from heaven" to China. It is reported that during this period, he also became acquainted with Japanese progressive figures such as Takatsu Masamichi, one of the founders of the Japanese Communist Party. Li Hanjun's brother Li Shucheng once wrote in a letter: "Li Hanjun was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University and had frequent contacts with Japanese progressives Kawakami. He believed in communism and was inspired by his teacher Kawakami. ”

In 1918, Li Hanjun dreamed of social reform and returned to China with a large number of Japanese books on Marxism. Later, while paying close attention to the latest trends in Japanese Marxism, he published works and translations introducing Marxism in journals such as "Enlightenment" and "Labor Circles", playing the role of an early evangelist and a fire sower of Marxism. Almost all of the early important people in the CCP were influenced by it. Dong Biwu once wrote: "Li Hanjun brought back from Japan many Japanese books and periodicals on the Russian Revolution, and after I borrowed them, I gradually understood the revolutionary purpose and working methods of the LeninIst Party in the Russian Revolution. ”

Liu Risheng promoted the spread of Marxism

In addition to Li Hanjun, early Marxist propagators such as Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and Li Da all studied in Japan. The Group of Japanese Residents played an important role in the early founding of the CCP, especially in promoting the spread of Marxist theory.

"At that time, Japan was the most developed capitalist country in East Asia, and it was convenient to travel with China, tuition fees were cheaper than in Europe and the United States, and Both Japan and China used Chinese characters. Therefore, many people of insight regard Japan as the first choice for staying in the west. Li Hanjun and others came to Japan to study in this context. Hiroshi Oni, a professor at Keio University in Japan, said in an interview with this reporter.

In Onishi's view, the basic vocabulary of Sino-Japanese Marxist doctrine today is highly similar, and it is the remnants of this influence.

He said: Kawakami, a representative figure of Japanese Marxism whom Li Hanjun called a teacher, was the first figure in East Asia to study Marxism as a theoretical system. He first translated Marx's Capital, on how the German vocabulary of Capital was translated into Chinese characters, as determined by Kagami, and the words "capital", "relations of production", and "surplus value" were all translated by him. Since Chinese edition of Capital borrowed from the Japanese version, the basic terminology of Marxist economics today is almost identical between Japan and China.

Source: Reference News Network