1.2 Education

Chen had not received any formal institutional education in his very young age. Due to his father's early death, Chen was mainly educated by his rigorous grandfather. Under his grandfather's nourishment, Chen studied the Four Books (四書) and the Five Classics (五經), which helped him develop a critical mind towards different issues. He tended to challenge the established ideas and traditions rather than conform to them blindly. Chen was nurtured by his elder brother when his grandfather also passed away. Chen’s mother at that time made Chen determined to become a scholar via public examinations.

In 1896, Chen passed the imperial examination at the country level (鄉試). However, he failed the imperial examination at the provincial level (省試) a year later.

In 1900, Chen left his hometown and went to Shanghai. He had not returned to his hometown for more than 40 years until he was buried there after his death.

In 1901, Chen arrived in Japan. Japan was the base camp of the Reform Movement and some other think tanks of the time. Chen began to learn more Western democratic ideas.

1.3 The Qing Dynasty

The failures of the Qing government and the colonial expansion of other powers had put China in a very difficult position. The political, social and cultural aspects of China were in chaos. However, the truth was hidden by the government to avoid resistance. The government shut down many newspapers which had promoted freedom of speech, including Chen's.

1.4 Political participation

Chen was a leading politician in China. After China was defeated by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Chen was determined to carry out reforms in China. Chen was one of the founders and leaders of the Communist Party. He also participated in different revolutionary activities and established a number of revolution alliances on his own.

Chen was involved in the Anti-Russian Movement (拒俄運動) in 1903. He formed the Anhui Patriotic Association (安徽愛國會) and afterwards the Yuewang Hui (岳王會) in 1905 and became its chairperson. He was one of the active participants in Wuchang Uprising (武昌起義) in 1911. He was forced to flee to Japan after the "Second Revolution" in 1913 because of his opposition to Yuan Shikai (袁世凱). He was also one of the main leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919.

Chen was one of the founders of the Communist Party in 1921 and was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Bureau . Under the leadership of Li Dazhao and Chen, the CPC developed a close relationship with the Comintern. At the direction of the Comintern, Li and Chen were inducted into the Kuomintang in 1922. Chen followed Comintern policy in the 1925-27 revolution but concluded the Comintern's policy of allying with the Kuomintang was the cause of the defeat of the revolution. In 1927, due to Chen's strong disapproval of the Comintern, Communist International [1], he was dismissed from party leadership.

He joined the International Left Opposition and was either expelled or withdrew (accounts of his departure vary) from the CPC in 1929. Chen discovered that Leon Trotsky's criticisms of the Comintern's strategy in China were substantially identical to his own. In 1932, Chen was arrested by Kuomintang for being the founder of an illegal party. He was released five years later. He was released five years later and kept silent ever after. Chen passed away in 1942 in Sichuan.

1.5 Literary Work

1.5.1 Writing style

Chen felt his articles reflected the needs of society. He believed that the progress of society cannot be achieved without those who accurately report social weaknesses and sicknesses.

Chen‘s articles were always expressive. He criticized the traditional Chinese officials as corrupt and guilty of other wrongdoing. He was always being attacked and persecuted by the conservatives and had to flee to Japan for four times.

Chen’s articles strove to attract publicity, and often arouse discussion by using hyperbole. For instance, he emphasized his sadness about the backwardness and corruption in China, so that people suffering would be wiling to send him their opinions. In the New Youth, he even wrote different articles by using different nicknames to form a ‘discussion’, so that the public could be aroused.

Chen’s newspapers emphasized the responses from the audience. For instance, there were forums and citizens columns in New Youth. On average, there were 6 letters from the public in each publications. Whether praise or strong opposition, Chen encouraged all to write. Chen thought that teamwork was very important in journalism. So he asked help from many talented authors and journalists, including Hu Shih and Lu Xun.

1.6 Media Experience

1.6.1 Anhui Suhua Bao

On March 31, 1904, Chen founded Anhui Suhua Bao (安徽俗話報) which was the a newspaper that he established with Fang Zhiwu (房秩五) and Wu Shou (吴守) in Tokyo to promote revolutionary ideas using vernacular Chinese, a language which was simpler and easier to read for the general public. Chen was the chief secretary of the newspaper at that time. Initially, only a thousand copies were published. However, in less than half a year, it increased to threefold and the paper was ranked at the top among other vernacular Chinese newspaper publications. During 1904 and 1905, a total of twenty-three periodicals were published. Each had 40 pages for each publication, about 15000 words. However, the paper was barred from publishing in 1905 due to political reasons.

Chen's has three main objectives in publishing Anhui Suhua Bao (安徽俗話報):

• To let his villagers (Anhui) keep abreast of the politics of Qing Dynasty.
• To inject knowledge to the readers through vernacular Chinese.
• To promote the revolutionary ideas to the public.

Chen found out that Chinese often ranked families at a prior position than the country. Furthermore, most of them were in his view too superstitious. Thus, Chen tried to urge Chinese people to participate in politics through the publication of Anhui Suhua Bao (安徽俗話報). After the sixteenth publication, the newspaper added extra 16 topics, including military, Chinese philosophy, hygiene, astronomy, etc. Almost all of the added topics were written by Chen. His pen-name was Sanai (三愛). At least 50 articles were published under this name.

1.6.2 Other publications

The Shanghai’s local government forbade the sales of Guomin Ribao(國民日報) on December 1st, 1903. After that, Chen had twice planned to found AiGuo Xinbao (愛國新報). He failed because of great pressure from different groups. He continued to express his discontent towards the government. For instance, when Anhui Suhua Bao (安徽俗話報) was published on March 31st 1904, Chen was responsible for all editing and distribution.

On November 27th 1918, Chen started another magazine, the Weekly Review (每週評論) with Li Dazhao(李大釗) so as to criticize politics in a more direct way and to promote democracy, science and new literature ( baihua). Later, he founded New Youth (新青年). This publication was known for his argumentative essays. He also edited Tokyo Jiayin Magazine (甲寅雜誌) and Science Magazine (科學雜誌). Later, he became the Editor-in chief of Minli Bao (民立報)and Shenzhou Daily (神州日報).

From 1918 to 1910, students at Beijing University, namely Deng Zhongxia (鄧中夏) and Xu Deheng (許德珩) founded the Guomin magazine (國民雜誌) and invited Li Dazhao (李大釗) as consultant. From 1912 to 1913, Chen asked for assistance from Luo Jialun (羅家倫) and Fu Sinian (傅斯年) and they founded Xinchao She (新潮社).

1.6.2.1 Tokyo Jiayin Magazine

In early 1914, Chen went to Japan and was an editor and wrote critical articles in the Tokyo Jiayin Magazine (甲寅雜誌) for Zhang Shizhao (章士釗). Chen once wrote an article entitled "Self consciousness on patriotism"(愛國心與自覺) which conveyed a strong sense of patriotism and instigated people to fight for their freedom. It spread the idea that those who love their country would spare no pains to protect the country and strive for the rights which the people deserve. This group of people should work together towards the same goal harmoniously. The article was threatening to the central government as it tried to arouse the self-consciousness of the Chinese people. This preliminary magazine was released for 10 issues in total before it was stopped from publishing. The magazine was resumed in 1925 in Beijing with the new name " Tokyo Jiayin Weekly " (甲寅周刊).

1.6.2.2 New Youth magazine

In 1915, Chen started an influential monthly periodical in Shanghai, The Youth Magazine (青年雜誌), which was renamed New Youth (新青年) and subtitled La Jeunesse in 1916 to 1919. Chen was the chief editor of this periodical. It was published by Qunyi shushe (群益書社) and stopped in 1926. The magazine mainly advocated the use of plain language, socialism and Marxism and strongly against feudalism.

Chen in fact had became the Chinese lecturer of Chinese literature and also the president of the school of Arts in Peking University（北京大学） since 1917. Having the approval from the principal of the Peking University, Chen collected writings of Li Dazhao(李大釗), Hu Shih(胡適), Lu Xun(鲁迅) and Qian Yuan (錢沅) etc. In order to expand the editorial department, New Youth was moved to Beijing. And in February of the same year, Chen used New Youth in promoting science, democracy and new literature, as well as against paleography and old literature. They advocated the use of scientific means and rational proofs in judgement and the achievement of political, economic, social and ethical democracy as their goals.

1.6.2.2.1 The Development of New Youth

New Youth magazine

New Youth was divided into different phrases:

• 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.

• 1919 to 1921: (until the formation of the Communist Party), its nature turned from democratic to socialist, aiming at promoting Marxism.

• 1921 to 1926: it became the theoretic base for the Communist Party.

1.6.2.2.2 Poetry

In 1918, New Youth published some new poems of Hu Shih (胡適)and Liu Bannong (劉半農), which were written in vernacular Chinese in order to conform with the above advocacy. Later on, all the articles in New Youth were written in vernacular Chinese and new punctuations marked his pioneer role in vernacular Chinese magazine publication.

1.7 Crisis with Cai Yuanpei

In the second edition of New Youth, Chen published Cai Yuanpei’s speech, that is the Speech of Freedom of Religion (蔡元培先生在信教自由會之演說). He at that time criticized Chen for his misinterpretation about his speech on religion. As he puts it, “ The publication of my speech on New Youth committed a number of mistakes.” Fortunately, Cai did not become angry with Chen and the publication was then amended before publishing.

1.8 Crisis with Hu Shih

This crisis was about the political stand of New Youth. Hu Shih insisted that New Youth should be politically neutral and the publication should be more or less concerned with Chinese philosophy. However, Chen attacked his rationale by publishing "Politics Talk" (談政治) in the 8th edition. At that time, Chen was invited by Chen Jiongming (陳炯明) to be the Education officer in Guangzhou in mid- December of 1920.

He decided to assign the publication to Mao Dun (茅盾), who belonged to the Shanghai Communist Party . Hu Shih was dissatisfied with this and their partnership then crumbled. Later, Chen wrote Hu Shih about his dissatisfaction with Hu’s intimacy with the research faculty. He mentioned, "Please note your close relationship with the research faculty".

Others feel that the faculty is advocated by Liang Qichao (梁啟超), a the supporter of the Tuan Ch'i-jui (段祺瑞) government and their anti- new wave ideology. All of this made Chen greatly dissatisfied.

1.9 Anti-Confucianism

Chen suggested six guiding principles in an article called "Warning the teenagers" (敬告青年) in New Youth, which aimed at removing the old beliefs of Confucianism:

1. To be independent instead of servile
2. To be progressive instead of conservative
3. To be aggressive instead of retrogressive
4. To be cosmopolitan instead of isolationist
5. To be utilitarian instead of impractical
6. To be scientific instead of visionary

New Youth is one of the most influential magazines in the early modern Chinese history. Chen indoctrinated many new ideas such as individualism, democracy, humanism and scientific methods which compensate the removal of Confucianism in Communism.

Seen in this light, New Youth then became in a position to provide the alternative intellectual influence for many young people. Under the banners of democracy and science, the traditional ethics represented by Confucianism became the target of attack from New Youth. In the first issue, Chen called the young generation to struggle against the the Confucianism by "theories of literaturial revolution" (文學革命論), explained in details in the next section.

To Chen, Confucianism should be rooted out because:

1. 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
2. It recognized the familial values but not the individual as the basic unit of society
3. It upheld the inequality of the status of individuals
4. It stressed filial piety which made man subservient and dependent
5. 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 magazine became the seed of the May Fourth Movement.

1.10 Chen's contribution to Chinese journalism

Chen has made many contributions in the field of Chinese journalism . He insisted on telling the truth to the Chinese people and strengthening the Chinese media for later generations. By establishing the newspapers and magazines concerning political issues, Chen had provided a main channel for the general public to express their ideas or discontent towards the existing government. Chen believed that the purpose of mass media is to reveal the truth. At a young age, Chen had already established Guomin Ribao (國民日報), promoting the inefficiency of the Qing Dynasty. With a view to the things mentioned above, his contribition was said to be influential to journalism as a whole.

To sum up, Chen was a famous revolutionary advocator and journalist in the modern Chinese history. His experiences in newspapers had born profound impacts in the jounalistic arena in China.

2 External links

• Chen Duxiu and the Fourth International. (English)
• Trotskyism in China (English)
• Articles on the Anhui Suhua Bao 《安徽俗話報》 (Chinese)
• Chenstudy.com (Chinese)

3 Reference

• Benton, Gregor, ed. Chen Duxiu's last articles and letters, 1937-1942. University of Hawaii Press, 1998. BooksEnthsiast.com

Preceded by: none

Chairman of the Communist Party of China

Followed by: Mao Zedong

Chen Duxiu Chen Duxiu Chen Duxiu

<Hide>