Chen Duxiu (陈独秀,1879 - 1942, pinyin: Chén Dúxiù, Wade-Giles: Ch'en Tu-hsiu;,Original name:Qing Tong, Style:Zhong Fu, Ancestral home:Huaining, An Hui Provoince )
--a great Chinese educator
--an influnential literatus
--an influential person in the repunblican revolution of 1911
-- the main founder of famous "The New Youth"
--the main founder of the Communist Party of China
Chronological life of Chen Duxiu
1819.10 - 1901.10 Early life and education
1910.10 - 1915.9 Planning 1911 Revolution
1915.9 - 1920.4 Being one of the influential person in the May Forth Movement
1920.4 - 1924.1 Established the Communist Party of China
1924.1 - 1927.7 Working in revolution and reformation of China
1927.7 - 1932.10 Changed from supporting Liquidationism to Trotshyism
1932.10 - 1937.8 Life in jail
1937.8 - 1942.5 Remaining Year of his life
== Educatuin ==
Chen had never received formal education in his very young age. He received most education from his grandfather, eldest brother and private tutors. Especially under his grandfather's stern and comprehensive nourishment, he was trained a critical mind and had developed judgement over unfair and insensible traditional thoughts.
In 1898, Chen studied in Qiushi Academy ﹙求是書院﹚ which was founded in 1897, the predecessor of Zhejiang University﹙浙江大學﹚. He then studied overseas in Japan for some time. Multilingual Chen is he knows Chinese, English, French and Japanese.
Experience with the media
In 1904-3-31, Chen and his friends founded Anhui Suhua Bao (《安徽俗話報》)to promote revolutionary ideas using Plain Language. Only 1000 prints were published in the first time, but not until half a year, it increased to 3000 prints, and ranked at the top amongst the plain language newspaper;During 1904 to 1905, a total of 23 periodicals were published ( half monthly for a periodical) . 1905,the newspaper stopped publishing. Anhui Suhua Bao (安徽俗話報)had 40 pages for each publish, about 15000 words. Until the sixteenth publish, the newspaper added 16 more topics, e.g. military, hygiene, astronomy etc. Almost all of the added topics were written by Chen. His nickname is三愛, and published at least 50 articles with this nickname.
Early 1914, Chen went to Japan and helped Zhang Shichao 章士釗 ;editting the Tokyo Jiayin Magazine (甲寅雜誌) and also wrote some articles. One of them entitled "愛國心與自覺" generated much discussions and received lots of criticisms as the article had a strong sense of patriotism and instigated people to fight for their freedom.
In 1915 Chen started an influential monthly periodical in shanghai, the Youth Magazine(青年雜誌) later( 1916-9) renamed the New Youth(新青年), with subtitle ‘ La Jeuness’. It was published by 群益書社. but stopped publishing in 1926. Chen lectured Chinese literature and became the president of the school of Arts in Peking University since 1917. Supported by the principal of the Peking University, he collected the writings of Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Qian Yuan, etc. in order to expand the editorial department andthe centre of New Youth was moved to Pei Jing. In 1918-11-27 he started another magazine, the Weekly Review(每週評論)with Li Dazhao, to criticize the politics in a more direct way and to promote democracy, science and new literature (baihua).
Publications
Anhui Suhua Bao This newspaper was published at 1904 to promote revolution. It was concentrated to study the crisis of China and the failures of the previuos modernize reforms and movements. And Chen found that the crux of the matter is lacking of self-concious for the Chinese to participate to politics. He raised two points:
- the Chinese regraded families seriously than the country.
- they always listen to the god's will rather then do their levels best.
In one word, the Chinese at that time did not care about politics and the country.
The New Youth
New Youth is one of the most successful and influential magaizines in the early modern Chinese history. It was cultural in native at the very first beginning. Chen infused many new ideas such as individualism, democracy, humanism and scientific methods which could compensate the inadequacies of Confucianism into the New Youth. "The New Youth" then became a position for many young people to obtain theoretical nourishment. Under the banners of democracy and science, the traditional ethics represented by Confucianism became the target of attack from "the New Youth"In the first issue, Chen called on the young generation to struggle against the old and rotten elements of society and to reform their thought and behavior in order to achieve national awakening. The youth were asked to choose the fresh, vital elements from all the civilizations of the world in order to create a new culture. In this monumental task, Chen suggested six guiding principles:
- to be independent and not servile
- to be progressive and not conservative
- to be aggressive and not retrogressive
- to be cosmopolitan and not isolationist
- to be utilitarian and not impractical
- to be scientific and not visionary
To Chen, Confucianism must be rooted out because of the following reasons:
- it advocated ‘superfluous ceremonies and preached the morality of meek compliance,’ making the Chinese people weak and passive, unfit to struggle and compete in the modern world
- it recognized the family and not the individual as the basic unit of society
- it upheld the inequality of the status of individuals
- it stressed filial piety which made man subservient and dependent
- it preached orthodoxy of thought in total disregard of freedom of thinking and expression.
In a word, Chen was calling for the destruction of tradition and his attack of traditionalism open a new vista for the educated youth. This critical and extreme magazine was also a seed for the May Fouth Movement later on.
New Youth Crisis 1) Crisis on Chai Yuanpei (蔡元培) In the second edition of New Youth, Chen published Chai Yuanpei’s (蔡元培) speech, <<蔡元培先生在信教自由會之演說>>, which is about the religion matter. He at that time criticized Chen for his misinterpretation about his speech on religion. As he puts it, “ The publication of my speech in New Youth committed a number of mistakes.” Fortunately, Chai did not angry with Chen and the publication is then amended before publishing.
2) Crisis on Hu Shih (胡適) The crisis was about the political stand of New Youth. Hu Shih insisted that New Youth should be politcally netural and the publication should be more or less concerned with the Chinese philosphy. However, Chen attacked his rationale by publishing <<談政治>> in the 8th edition. At that time, Chen was invited by(陳炯明) to be the Education officer in Guangzhou in mid-December of 1920. He decided to assign the publication to 沈雁冰, which belonged to the Shanghai Communist Party. That’s why Hu Shih dissatisfied with this and their partnership was then crumbled.
Later, Chen posted to Hu Shih about his dissatisfaction on Hu’s intimacy with research faculty. He mentioned, “ Please be noted your close relationship with the research faculty” Actually, the faculty is advocated by Liang Chichao (梁啟超), which is the supporter of 段祺瑞 government and their anti- new wave ideology made Chen greatly dissatisfied.
The unpublished defense
Chen Duxiu was involved in another crisis which is journalistic related. In 1937, the 16th of March, Da Gongbao (大公報)published a piece of news about Chen as a Chinese traitor towards the Japanese. In the news, it even stated that he received three hundred dollars grant from the Japanese government. Chen immediately defense by written a public letter to Xinhua Ribao(新華日報) , stating that the scandal is intriguing, the aim is to force him to leave tuopai, but not his role as Chinese traitor. And he further emphasized that it was the government that have exclusive right to receive the testimony of whether he is disloyal to the government, but not the public. His last statement in the speech declaring that he would not allow himself to be part of the drifting water, making grievances that the moral standard is not that defined in the nowadays China. However, this defense ultimately was not published.
Influences of the publications
The effect of New Youth can be divied into different phrases: From 1915 to 1918,
it opposed the Chinese conservatism (Confucianism) and promoted the development of democracy.
So it became the centre of the New Cultural Movement. From 1919 to 1921(until the formation
of the Communist Party), its nature turned from democratic to socialist, aiming at
promoting Marxism. From 1921 to 1926, it became the theoretic base for the Communist Party.
At last, it advocated the youth to start the May Fouth Movement in 1919.
Chen has written many articles and most of them are argumentative in nature. He was a significate writer and contributed much on journalism. Much more, he was a revolutionary and politican as he
was so experienced to use the media such as newspapers and magazines to brainwash inject
ideas into mind of people. All the publications of him were full of sense of democracy and
revolution and a new China was born when the Chinese aware of all these.
Movement participation
Chen was actively involved in Dr. Sun revolutionary movement. He has joined the Anti-Russian Movement (拒俄運動) in April 1903. Later, he formed 安徽愛國會. 1905, Chen and his friends formed the 岳王會, and he was the chairperson of this organization.
Chen was one the active participants in the 1911 republican revolution and was forced to flee to Japan after the "second revolution" in 1913 against Yuan Shikai. He was one of the main leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. After that,Chen was heavily influenced by the 1917 October Revolution and started to advocate and promote Marxism. He founded the Communist Party in 1921 and was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Bureau. In 1927, due to Chen's opposition of the Comintern[1], he was dismissed from party leadership and also withdrew from the party.
Party participation
What Chen focused on was something conceptual. After China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, he was determined to reform China. He then participated in the revolutionary activities held by leaders like Kang Yauwei and Liang Qichou. In the early 20th century, he even founded revolutionary organizations to advocate the need of innovative political reforms and the mission to rescue China.
Under the leadership of Li Dazhao and Chen, CPC became part of the Comintern. Under the direction of Comintern, Li and Chen were inducted into the Kuomintang in 1922. Chen followed Comintern policy in 1925-27 revolution but he was in fact opposed the startegy of subjecting the CCP to the Guomindang by handing over membership lists of the CCP. However he has to follow the party discipline until the establishment of Shanghai Commune of 1927.
After the accomplishment of Northern Expedition of 1926 and the conquest of Shanghai among the warlords, the contradictions between the CCP and Guomindang grew acute. At that time, Guomindang launched a massive wave of repression against the CCP and the workers of Shanghai that saw a wave of terror spread across the city. This wave of terror widespread when Goumindang possessed lists of the CCP membership handed over to them by the party. Chen was presented to the party membership as having been responsible for the debacle.
After expelling from the CCP, Chen joined the International Left Opposition in 1929 when he discovered that Leon Trotsky's criticisms of the Comintern Strategy in China were substantially identical to his own. In 1932 he was arrested by Kuomintang for being the founder of an illegal party. He was released five years later and kept silent ever after.Chen passed away inSichuan in 1942.
Evaluation of Chen Duxiu on journalism
Chen had many experiences in promoting different ideas to China through media during the most chaotic period of 19thC in China. He exerted great influence on the development of freedom of speech & expression, as well as journalism in China. Before turning to Marxism, Chen promoted science & democracy. He believed that people had the freedom of expression. Therefore, he founded newspapers to express his points of view about culture, politics etc in China. With his work, he was able to set the examples to youth that all people can express opinions and tell the truth through media. Since Chen’s newspapers were so popular, this impact was great and widespread. Many students and literates were encouraged to found their own newspaper and express.
For example, in 1918-10, students in Beijing University namely, 鄧中夏、許德珩 etc founded the ‘國民’ magazine publisher and invited 李大釗 as consultant. In 12-3, 羅家倫、傅斯年asked help from Chen and founded ‘新潮社’.
On the other hand, the journals Chen wrote tried very best to reveal the truth. At that time, failures of Chinese government and the colonial expansion of other powers had put China in a very difficult time. The political, social and cultural orders were in chaos. However, this truth was hidden by the government to avoid resistance. The government shut down many newspapers who promoted freedom of speech and who exposed the angry truth.
For example, the Shanghai’s local government forbade the sales of 國民日日報 in 1903. even the trial in Shanghai supported the ban. After that, Chen had twice planned to found 愛國新報. He failed because of the great pressure from different groups. Although the situation was so harsh, he continued to tell the truth in Anhui Suhua Bao (《安徽俗話報》) afterward. His spirit of telling public the truth and the issues concerning public interest, no matter the pressure, was important and influential.
Bibliography
1. 楊碧川 . 1999 . 陳獨秀—中共創黨人 . Taiwan: 一橋出版社
2. Xj Jinfang (Eds).2002. Chen Duxiu and the 20th century’s Research, Ideology and Culture . Nanjing: the 7th Chen Duxiu Research Symposium of China
3. 沉寂 . 2003 . 陳獨秀研究 (第二輯) . 安徽: 安徽大學出版社
| Preceded by: none | Chairman of the Communist Party of China | Followed by: Mao Zedong |
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