Biography of Chen Duxiu

Author: Ren Jianshu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-05-01
Features: Chen Duxiu is a very worthy historical figure to study, as well as a person of considerable charm who is not easy to grasp. Recently, some local Party history experts gathered at Tongji University for a symposium to discuss and study Ren Jianshu's Biography of Chen Duxiu, unanimously agreeing that the book is one of the highest-level academic works on Chen Duxiu to date. How should one correctly evaluate the right and wrongs of Chen Duxiu's life? The attending experts believed that The Biography of Chen Duxiu (published by Shanghai People's Publishing House) begins with Chen Duxiu's family background and childhood, objectively introducing his youth, the Xinhai Revolution, the May Fourth New Culture Movement, the Kuomintang-CCP cooperation, the Northern Expedition, the Great Revolution period, the Trotskyist period, the War of Resistance, and Chen Duxiu's later years. The book blends narration with commentary. The Biography points out that Chen Duxiu founded New Youth, raised the banners of science and democracy, launched the New Culture Movement, and fiercely criticized old rituals and old culture, playing a significant enlightening role and promoting the epoch-making May Fourth Movement, which is why Mao Zedong called him the commander-in-chief of the May Fourth Movement. After being tempered by the May Fourth Movement, Chen Duxiu quickly transformed into a Marxist and, in the early years of the 20th century, along with Li Dazhao and others, founded the Communist Party of China, becoming one of its main founders. The experts said that The Biography fully affirms Chen Duxiu's historical achievements during this period, being realistic and objective. Of course, regarding Chen Duxiu's mistakes, the book also conducts an objective examination and analysis, especially regarding his expulsion from the Communist Party and his transformation into the leader of the Trotskyist faction. The Biography points out that at this time, Chen Duxiu opposed both the Communist Party and the reactionary politics of the Kuomintang, while also facing criticism from the Communist Party and suppression from the Kuomintang. After the September 18th Incident, he mainly opposed the Kuomintang's reactionary policy of "prioritizing internal stability over external defense" and once advocated a joint anti-Japanese alliance with the CCP. When the War of Resistance broke out, he was imprisoned for five years before being released. Afterward, he opposed the Trotskyist faction's stance on the war and broke ties with them, firmly mobilizing the people to fight a decisive battle against Japanese imperialism. How to correctly evaluate Chen Duxiu's Trotskyist issue, The Biography presents facts, neither "knocking Chen Duxiu off a cliff" nor indulging in arbitrary praise. The experts believed that Professor Ren dared to enter this "forbidden zone," commenting on Chen Duxiu's Trotskyist issue with fairness and objectivity, which was truly not easy. Professor Ren Jianshu is a researcher at the Institute of History, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, specializing in modern Chinese history. At the meeting, he spoke, saying that in the late 1980s, he had written the first volume of The Biography of Chen Duxiu, and The Biography was written after his retirement, when he had never had such free time as now. He was so idle that he felt restless and lost, perhaps a sense of loss common among retirees. Encouraged by friends, he revisited past materials, writing, erasing, resting, and then writing again. To gather more materials on Chen Duxiu, he visited many elderly people and went to libraries in Anhui, Sichuan, Guangdong, and other places. Many experts said that Professor Ren is rigorous in his scholarship, meticulous to the extreme, and went to great lengths to obtain any materials related to Chen Duxiu, so The Biography is rich in historical evidence, laying a solid foundation for his arguments.