From the May Fourth Movement to Communist Revolution: Guo Moruo and the Chinese Path to Communism

168 Pages·2007·4.26 MB·English

by  Xiaoming Chen

FROM THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT
TO COMMUNIST REVOLUTION
SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Roger T. Ames, editor
FROM TH E
MAY FO URTH M O VEM ENT
TO C O M M U N IST REVO LUTIO N
Guo Moruo and the Chinese Path to Communism
Xiaoming Chen
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
Statb University of Nbw York Press
Albany
© 2007 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chen, Xiaoming, 1956-
From the May Fourth Movement to Communist Revolution : Guo Moruo and the Chinese path to
Communism / Xiaoming Chen.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-7914-7137-1 (alk. paper)
1. Communism—China. 2. Guo, Moruo, 1892-1978. 3. China—History—May Fourth
movement, 1919 I. Tide.
HX418.5.C45262 2007
335.43'45—dc22 2006027522
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my son Michael

Contents
®
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
CHAPTER I
Toward Individual Emancipation and Personal Moral/Spiritual Salvation 11
From the May Fourth Individualist Rebellion to the Marxist Cause of
Individual Emancipation 11
A May Fourth Individualist Awakening 11
From the May Fourth Individualist Awakening to a Marxist Radical
Approach to Individual Emancipation 31
Striving for Personal Moral/Spiritual Salvation: From a May Fourth
Confucian Focus to a Communist Confucian Battle 41
A May Fourth Focus 41
Shifting the Focus 48
CHAPTER 2
Toward National Salvation 53
May Fourth Love and Concern for the Motherland 53
The Mid-1920s: Dedication to Saving China through Communist Revolution 61
CHAPTER 3
Toward the Liberation of Mankind 71
A May Fourth Cosmopolitanist Ideal of Datong: A Pastoral/Primitive Paradise 71
The Datong Ideal 71
CONTENTS
The Cosmopolitan World and the Individual and the Cosmopolitan Wotid
and the Nation 79
The Cosmopolitanist Ideal and a "Mentality of Extremes" 81
The Means to Achieve the Ideal: Leftist Radicalism to Save the World? 82
The Mid'l 920s: Finding a Modern "Scientific” Echo of Datong in
Marxism and Committing to Revolution 86
Attracted to the Marxist Cosmopolitanist Ideal 86
Committing to Marxist/Leninist Revolution as the Means to Achieve
the Cosmopolitanist Ideal 89
CHAPTER 4
Toward a Solution to Modem Chinas Intellectual Crisis 91
A May Fourth Solution to the Intellectual Crisis 92
Defending the Best of Chinese Tradition 92
Combining the Best of China with Modern Western Science and
Goetheanism 94
A May Fourth Synthesis of the Best of the East and West as a
Solution to the Intellectual Crisis 97
The Mid-1920s: Solving Chinas Intellectual Crisis through the
Combination of Confucianism and Marxism/Leninism 98
Redefining the Best of the East and West 98
The Formation of a Confudan/Marxist/Leninist Communist Synthesis 101
Conclusion 109
Notes 113
Bibliography 143
Index 151
Illustrations
Figure 1. Guo Moruo s father and mother 66
Figure 2. Guo Moruo in 1897 with his parents and siblings in
their hometown 67
Figure 3. Guo Moruo in 1910 in middle school in Chengdu 67
Figure 4. Guo Moruo with the faculty and students of the Medical
School of Kyushu Imperial University at Fukuoka, Japan 68
Figure 5. Guo Moruo and some of his fellow Chinese students in Japan 68
Figure 6. Guo Moruo in 1919-1920 69
Figure 7. Guo Moruo and his Creation Society colleagues 69
Figure 8. Guo Moruo, Tomiko, and three of their children in 1923 70
Photos courtesy of the Guo Moruo Museum in Beijing. Used with permission.