Chen Duxiu
People often say, "Character is destiny." This sentence is particularly appropriate for Chen Duxiu, a famous figure in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. Chen Duxiu's life was ups and downs: as the founder of the CCP, he broke away from the CCP, and when the Kuomintang wanted to use his reputation to show favor, he dismissed it; as an important participant in Trotskyism, he finally announced his separation from the organization. Chen Duxiu's mixed life has a lot to do with his character. As an important historical figure, his stubborn character not only promotes the progress of history, but also affects his personal destiny. In the late period of the
New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu accepted Marxism and, together with a group of progressive intellectuals such as Li Dazhao, spread Marxism in China and founded the Communist Party of China. As the leader of the party, Chen Duxiu promoted the realization of the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and participated in leading the "May 30th" Movement and the First Great Revolution. The victory of the third armed insurrection of Shanghai workers, which he directly participated in and guided, brought his revolutionary history to the glorious culmination. In the late period of the Great Revolution and after the failure of the Great Revolution, Chen Duxiu was expelled from the CCP.
Chen Duxiu's success or failure was determined by various factors such as the state of Chinese society, the characteristics of the Chinese revolution, the comparison of forces between ourselves and the enemy, especially the influence of the Communist International, but it was also related to his persistent personality.
In March 1919, under Lenin's initiative, the Communist International was established in Moscow. The Communist International, formed in a dangerous environment, needs to have unified leadership over its various organizations in order to exert its combat effectiveness. The Communist International is closely related to the interests of the Soviet Union. To a certain extent, the CPSU is the Communist International. The Chinese Communist Party received strong support from the Communist International in its formation and early work. However, the Communist International, based on the interests of the Soviet Union, valued the Kuomintang and despised the Communist Party in the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and even compromised and retreated to the Kuomintang when there was a serious crisis in the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in order to retain the Kuomintang’s anti-imperialist and its agents in China. The struggle to reduce the external pressure on Soviet Russia.
Regarding the three most important issues of the Chinese revolution, namely the leadership issue, the armed issue, and the peasant’s land issue, Chen Duxiu insisted on his bourgeois democratic revolutionary viewpoint, believing that the Chinese working class was “naive” and the peasants were “unscrupulous” and the proletariat seized There is no “possibility” nor “necessity” in power. To help the Kuomintang, which represents the bourgeoisie, gain power and develop capitalism, when capitalism matures and the working class grows stronger, the era of socialist revolution will come. In this way, Chen Duxiu and the Communist International entered a dead end where they reached the same goal by different routes, causing the failure of the Chinese Revolution.
The Communist Party of China is still in its infancy, and hastily plunged into the torrent of the great revolution. It lacks theoretical preparation and practical experience, lacks the art of leadership, is unable to use Marxism to solve China's practical problems, and is not good at identifying enemies that appear in various faces. The CCP can only explore in practice. The most important thing is that the CCP must conscientiously sum up its experience and lessons and continue to move forward. It was precisely at this point that Chen Duxiu's persevering personality fully manifested, making him eventually abandoned by the CCP. After the failure of the
Great Revolution, the Communist International, the Communist Party of China and Chen Duxiu were all reflecting and thinking. Chen Duxiu said that she was in deep depression and "feeling helpless for a while." The Communist International believes that the CCP, especially its leaders, violated international directives and bears unshirkable responsibility for the failure of the Great Revolution. Chen Duxiu believes that it is precisely the implementation of the international policy that he has such an end. For example, after the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" in 1926, Chen Duxiu advocated isolating and attacking Chiang Kai-shek. The communists withdrew from the Kuomintang and practiced non-party cooperation, but were rejected by the Communist International. Borodin also rushed to Guangzhou to talk with Chiang Kai-shek and agreed. Restrict the activities of Communists in the Kuomintang.
's understanding of the responsibility for the failure of the Great Revolution made Chen Duxiu very dissatisfied with the Communist International. Chen Duxiu was suspended at the August 7th meeting in August 1927, and the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Moscow in June 1928 was not notified to attend the meeting.
At this time, Chen Duxiu came into contact with Trotsky's discourse on the Chinese Revolution, especially the lessons about the failure of the Great Revolution, which coincided with his own views. Chen Duxiu praised "Comrade Trotsky's lesson on the failure of the past revolution is 100% correct." Since then, Chen Duxiu has joined the Trotskyists and has repeatedly proposed that during the low tide of the revolution, we "should put forward the general democratic slogan, such as "abolishing unequal treaties" in addition to the'eight-hour work system' and'confiscation of land'. "Oppose the military dictatorship of the Kuomintang", "convene the National Assembly", etc." He regards the convening of the National Assembly as the party’s central task at this stage.Service. Because Chen Duxiu's views had deviated from the guidelines and policies set by the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and he had participated in Trotskyist activities in organization, and refused to listen to advice, he insisted on his own way. In November 1929, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China expelled him from the party.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the CCP adhered to the national united front against Japan and paid attention to Chen Duxiu, and proposed three conditions for cooperating with Chen Duxiu in the fight against Japan: 1. Publicly abandon and resolutely oppose all theories and actions of the Trotskyists, and publicly declare that it will be separated from the Trotskyist organizations Relations, acknowledging the mistake of joining the Trotskyists in the past; second, publicly supporting the party’s anti-Japanese national united front policy; third, expressing the sincerity of such support in actual actions.
Chen Duxiu was very dissatisfied after learning about the "three conditions", saying, "I don't know where I came from, Xi has regrets", but he did not comment on the contact between his close friend Luo Han and the CCP. In November 1937, after Wang Ming and Kang Sheng returned to Yan'an, the opposition party cooperated with Chen Duxiu and abused and attacked Chen Duxiu as a spy who took the Japanese money. This angered Chen Duxiu, who regarded Wang Ming and Kang Sheng's wrong behavior as the will of the central government and held a grudge. Since then, he has moved further and further away from the CCP until he parted ways.
After the September 18th Incident, Chen Duxiu published a large number of articles violently criticizing the Kuomintang, especially accusing the Kuomintang of its ineffective response to Japanese aggression, and calling on the people to abandon their illusions and save themselves, which aroused the Kuomintang’s hatred of him. On October 15, 1932, the Kuomintang arrested this "communist leader who has not returned."
Chen Duxiu is a tough guy who has been engaged in political activities all his life and has gone through hardships. He has been arrested five times, never feared. He started academic research in prison and wrote with great concentration, hoping to "create the crystallization of new politics and academics in the past 50 years to thank the people of the country."
After Chen Duxiu was imprisoned, many people visited him. In July 1935, when Liu Haisu, a master of traditional Chinese painting, visited him and asked for an inscription, he wrote the couplet "Whether we are ashamed and calm, and when we are in a difficult situation," he gave the couplet with his magnanimous state of mind and integrity. In August 1937, due to the urgency of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang released Chen Duxiu. After
was released from prison, Chen Duxiu enthusiastically devoted himself to the cause of the War of Resistance against Japan. Although he was impoverished, he maintained a cautious attitude towards all forces. Kuomintang members Ding Mo, Hu Shi, Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, Zhu Jiahua, etc. have all approached him, perhaps as a high-ranking official or as a gift, but he refused one by one. Chen Duxiu said that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to win him over, and it was really "a whimsical", "Chiang Kai-shek killed many of my comrades and also killed my two sons. He and I don’t share the heavens. Now the enemy is currently cooperating with the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Since the country needs him to resist Japan, I don't object to him." Chen Duxiu only supported the government's resistance to the Japanese War, and had nothing to do with the Kuomintang in other respects.
Trotskyists Zheng Chaolin, Wang Wenyuan, Peng Shuzhi, Chen Qichang and others debated with Chen Duxiu on the anti-Japanese issue. Someone asked him to reorganize the Trotskyist organization, and Chen Duxiu replied, "Each side of the road." In November 1937, he wrote to Chen Qichang, the Shanghai Trotskyist Interim Committee and others, saying: "I only pay attention to my own independent thinking and do not accommodate anyone's opinions...I don't represent anyone. I am no longer affiliated with any party. Under the orders of anyone", "I am not afraid of isolation." After being released from prison, Chen Duxiu left Trotskyists in organization. Z2z
was released from prison for one year. Chen Duxiu was deeply disappointed in his contacts with various parties. He became a lonely man. He was forced to move to Jiangjin, a small closed city in the upper reaches of Chongqing in August 1938. He died of illness in May 1942 at the age of 64.
Chen Duxiu admitted in his later years that his "personality is not suitable for being an official" and that "most of the careers I have done in half my life seem to have failed. However, I do not admit failure." He even said something like this: "I don’t understand any theory. I will never worry about turning to the left or right. I will definitely try to be biased. I will absolutely abandon the golden mean. I will never say anything like tofu and cabbage. It is extremely correct, and willing to say extremely wrong, absolutely unwilling to say right and wrong.” Chen Duxiu's personality traits enable him to go hard, overcome obstacles, and never stop until he achieves his goal, thus creating the New Culture Movement. It has achieved the founding and early development of the Communist Party of China, as well as its outstanding qualities of indomitability, determination and straightforwardness. But this kind of personality has another side, that is, it is often accompanied by self-righteousness and self-serving. On this side, Chen Duxiu lost his introspection and review of the lessons of the failure of the Great Revolution, lost his judgment on Trotskyist theory and organization, and lost the opportunity to do his best for the party and people's cause he participated in.
-Excerpted from "Yanhuang Chunqiu", Issue 5, 2016
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