Chapter 1, The Introduction of Marxism 41 H ajim e), w ere tran sla te d into C hinese. A shift of in terest to a m aterialist in terp retatio n of history becam e p o pular am ong Chinese radical intellectuals. Li Dazhao, for example, now wrote:
In their study of social phenomena, the historical materialists assert that the economic phenomenon is the most important. Among all material conditions of history, the economic phenomenon is the most powerful to bring about changes. Thus it is the most important material condition in history. Without the change [of economic conditions], other [social] phenomena can not change.... For this reason, many people maintain that the materialist conception of history is better seen as an economic conception of history 76
M arx's theory of the class struggle and its role in history were presented thus:
The classes denoted by Marx are classes whose economic interests stand in opposition. The class differentiation is between the propertied class on the one side, which possesses the means of production like land and capital, and on the other side, the "wuchan jieji"[the class without property] which does not own any means of production like land or capital; on the one side stand the oppressors and plunderers, on the other, the oppressed and the plundered. These two classes exist in all periods of history [sic] and [their struggle is] manifested in various ways7?
76 Li Dazhao, "Wo de Makesi zhuyi guan" [My Views of Marxism], LDZCW, vol. 2, pp. 51-52.
77 ibid., p. 62. While Li Dazhao's account runs reasonably close to the Communist Manifesto's simplified version of Marxist thought, it already sets the tone for a continuing Chinese Marxist conflation of industrial proletarian and toiler. Liang Qichao, we have seen, distinguished the two senses and said China had only toilers (who were jobless rather than propertyless); Marxists continued to ignore this point. See Liang, "Wuchan jieji yu wuye jieji" [The Proletarians and the Jobless Class], CWEIDS-CE, no. 42, pp. 1-2.
Repeatedly Li stressed that Marxism studied societies in a vertical [zong] as well as a horizontal [heng] way. Vertically, Marx treated societies as p a rt of a historical developm ent. H orizontally, the society as a w hole w as b ased on an econom ic s tru c tu re.78 E conom ic developm ent was the precondition of historical developm ent.79
The m ost significant developm ent of C hinese M arxism during this period was an attem pt to apply historical m aterialism to the study of Chinese history and society. Li Dazhao, for instance, tried to find an econom ic reason for the specifically C hinese social an d historical developm ent. The total collapse of Confucianism in m odern China, Li claim ed , w as the re s u lt of the collapse of its socio-econom ic foundation, C hina's traditional agricultural economy, being destroyed by W estern m o dern in d u stry.80 Li also tried to deduce the economic activities of C hinese prim itive society from a "m aterialist" stu d y of
78 Li Dazhao, "Makesi de lishi zhexue yu likaier de lishi zhexue" [Marx and H. Rickert's Philosophy of History], LDZCW, vol. 2, pp. 346-347.
79 Li Dazhao, "Weiwu shiguan zai xiandai shehuixue shang de jiazhi" [The Value of Historical Materialism in Modern Sociology], LDZCW, vol. 2, p. 367.Li Dazhao, "Marx and H. Rickert's Philosophy of History", LDZCW, vol. 2, pp. 346-347.
80 Li Dazhao, "Yiu jingji shang jieshi zhongguo jindai sixiang biandong de yuanyin" [An Economic Explanation of the Ideological Change in Modem China], LDZCW, vol. 2, pp. 179.
Chapter 1, The Introduction of Marxism 43
ancient C hinese pictographic characters and the linkages betw een objects and activities to be found in them .81
Am ong the KMT intellectuals, Dai Jitao published "An Economic In terp retatio n of the Reasons for C hina's D isorder" (1919), trying to connect the social disorder after the 1911 Revolution w ith the people's "shenghuo w enti" [problems of life]. Dai believed that these problems of life w ere caused by the im port of foreign m achines which dam aged th e tr a d itio n a l c o m b in a tio n of fa m ily -b a se d a g ric u ltu re an d m a n u fa c tu re .82 H u H anm in published, as articles, "A C ritique of the C ritiques of H istorical M aterialism "83 and "A M aterialist Study of the H istory of Chinese Philosophy" (1919-1920).84 All these articles tried to find a m aterialist explanation of the social, political and cultural changes in Chinese society.
81 Li Dazhao, "Yuanren shehui yu wenzhi shuqi shang zhi weiwu de fanying" [The Materialist Reflection of Primitive Society in (Ancient Chinese) Characters and Books], LDZCW, vol. 2, pp. 249263.
82 Dai Jitao, "Cong jingji shang guancha zhongguo de luanyuan" [An Economic Interpretation of the Reasons for China's Disorder]", in Jian She (The Constructions), vol. 1, no. 3,1919, pp. 1-10. Like Lenin's theory of imperialism, Dai held that China's social problems were caused by external factors — for Dai, the import of foreign machines.
83 Hu Hanmin, "Weiwu shiguan piping zhi piping" [A Critique of the Critiques of Historical Materialism], Jian She, vol. 1, no. 5, 1919, pp. 1-45.
84 Hu Hanmin, "Zhongguo zhexueshi zhi weiwu de yanjiu" [A Materialist Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy]", Jian She, vol. 1. no. 3. 1919. DD. 1-31. no. 4, 1920, pp. 33-69.
The m ost controversial one m ay be H u H anm in's "A M aterialist Study of the H istory of Chinese Philosophy", in which H u interpreted social and ideological change in the C hinese Spring and A utum n Period as a result of the disintegration of the ancient well-field system. This m ight be am ongst the earliest attem pts to reconsider Chinese ancient history in the light of m aterialist conception of history. The article, how ever, w as criticized by H u Shi, w ho denied the actual existence of the w ell-field system.85 C ontroversy thus focused not on w hether historical m aterialism could be used for the study of Chinese history, but on how to use the ancient Chinese historical records.86
D uring this period, we also find am ong Chinese pre-com m unist intellectuals som e im p o rtan t d ep artu res from historical m aterialism . Li D azhao, for exam ple, w as certainly aw are of M arx's idea that no social order ever disappeared before all the productive forces for which there w as room in it h a d been developed. H e even gave his ow n exam ple by saying th at "it is absolutely im possible and ineffectual to break the shell of an egg before it has m atured" .87 But he seemed quite u n h a p p y ab o u t this "fatalistic" colour of historical m aterialism and said th at one of the w eak points of historical m aterialism w as its "d eterm in ist tendency". Li — here p erhaps influenced by Lenin and the C o m in te rn — took the Second In tern a tio n al as an exam ple:
85 See Jian She, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-28, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 29-38, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 39-76. 86 Hu Shi, for example, believed that historical materialism could be applied to
the study of Chinese history without postulating the well-field system. See Hu Shi's letter to Liao Zhongkai, in Jian She, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 152.
Chapter 1, The Introduction of Marxism 45
because of their belief in this fatalistic theory, he said, the Marxist socialist parties [in Europe] had proposed nothing, taken no action and only waited for the natural maturation of the productive forces. As a result, the modern socialist parties in various European countries were facing serious crisis.88
In a controversy with Hu Shi, known as the Controversy on Isms and Problems which occurred immediately following the publication of "My Views of Marxism", Li admitted that the fundamental question was the solution of economic problems. But he also claimed (with Lenin):
If we only believe in the historical materialist theory that economic change is inevitable and do not pay any attention to class conflicts, if we take no action to unite workers for practical struggle, this economic change can never come true.8^
Generally speaking, Marxist historiography in China during the period we are discussing remained at a "philosophical level". The strong cosmopolitanism among Chinese radical intellectuals made them believe in the universal validity of Marxism; they had not yet systematically and carefully tested its compatibility with Chinese historical facts, neither had they been aware of the difference between Marx's general theory of history and his specific explanation of the oriental societies. Li Dazhao should have followed up Marx's reference to the AMP because he quoted Marx as saying that the Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal and the modern bourgeois modes of production
88 ibid., p. 64.
w ere stages of the evolution of economic stru ctu re.90 But — like m any others all over the w orld — he seem ed not to have paid any particular attention to the special significance of the term "AMP". Dissatisfaction w ith h isto rical m aterialism w as not for its in co m p atib ility w ith Chinese history b u t for its internal "structural im perfections". Chinese M arxists w anted to m odify the "fatalist colour" of M arx's economic determ in ism w ith idealist free will and M arx's theory of the class struggle w ith K ropotkin's theory of m utual aid. They w anted to do this so as to create m ore room for the C hinese to launch a socialist revolution in China w here, by any criterion of classical Marxism, there w ere no conditions for such a revolution. Historical m aterialism in its classical form m ight p ro v id e a new p h ilo so p h y to help C hinese M arxists to understand the w orld, b u t it certainly did not give them an ideological w eapon for changing their w orld. It was Leninism which m ade Chinese desire for a revolutionary change come true.
90 Li Dazhao, "My Views of Marxism", op. cit., p. 63. Li's translation is from Japanese and therefore his Chinese reads slightly different from the English version.