Chapter 14 return to beijing

Mao Zedong returned to Beijing.The four months in Beijing were his season of harvest, although it was not satisfactory. Mao Zedong was sent northward by the Xinmin Society, and he was the head of a 100-member petition group to expel Zhang.Mao Zedong also accepted the task of "Ta Kung Pao" and other newspapers, and this time he was no longer penniless. After staying in Wuhan for 10 days—Mao Zedong inspected the local situation here—the party arrived in Beijing just in time to attend an anti-Zhangist rally held in the Xiangxiang Guild Hall with more than a thousand people.Mao Zedong came to the venue with a slogan: "If Zhang's poison is not cured, Hunan is hopeless."

Mao Zedong rented out the old and dilapidated Fuyou Temple, which is located on Beichang Street near the Forbidden City.He sleeps in the unheated main hall, under the watchful eyes of gilded gods.The place where he reads and writes at night is an incense table, and the flickering flame of the oil lamp reflects it into strange shadows.Next to the incense table is a mimeograph --- a sacred object for political activities in the new era.Here is the printing workshop of what the young politician from Hunan proudly calls the "People's News Agency". Mao Zedong's expulsion plan did not make much progress.Beijing's world was wider, and it was concerned with bigger issues: the corruption of the "National" government ruled by the great warlords; the drastic changes in the international situation after Versailles; the repercussions of the Bolshevik Revolution; and the spread of May Fourth thought.Mao Zedong walked around the streets, but when he mentioned the Hunan incident, he got dismissive looks.

The first thing that Mao Zedong gained from this trip to Beijing was Miss Yang.Yang Kaihui is eight years younger than Mao Zedong. She is a slender girl with a round face and fair skin.When Mao Zedong came to Beijing last time, he had already sprouted love for her, and now their affection has deepened. A month after Mao arrived in Beijing, Professor Yang died, which seemed to open the way for the combination of Mao and Yang Kaihui. This is "Occasionally Feeling" written by Yang Kaihui in October 1928.The poem expresses her longing for Mao Zedong: "The sky is overcast and traces back to the (Suo) wind, and the cold penetrates into the bones. I am thinking of a person who travels far away, and the waves rise and fall. Has the foot disease recovered? Is the cold clothes prepared? I am alone. Mian (who) loves and protects, is it also miserable? Letters can’t be communicated, and I want to ask Wu (human language). I hate Wushuang and fly to He, fly to see people, but people can’t see them, (confused) There is no end to time.”

The couple began their "trial marriage" [18], which Professor Yang did not approve of, but they did not share a common residence in Beijing.They met next to the statue in the Beichangjie Temple where Mao Zedong lived, or went to the warm and comfortable Yang's house.In spring, they rode horses to the West Mountain and met in a secluded place.Their first child appears to have been born less than a year later that spring. Inspired by the spirit of the May Fourth Movement, the combination of Mao Yang is the crystallization of free love, which is extremely rare in old China.The wedding ceremony held in Changsha a year later was just a formality, and few people remembered it. Even Mao Zedong himself could not recall the exact date of the wedding when he talked with Edgar Snow in 1936.

Ms. Zhao in Changsha did not live to honor the May 4th moral code, and Ms. Yang's struggle made this spirit manifest in the political movement.The dead Ms. Zhao made Mao Zedong full of indignation, while the living Ms. Yang made him ecstatic.Ms. Zhao left the world forever, while Yang Kaihui injected new vitality into Mao Zedong's spirit, and assisted Mao Zedong in the 1920s to fight with pens and live ammunition. Also on the incense table in that temple, Mao Zedong read the "Communist Manifesto" (Chinese translation, he eagerly searched and read all kinds of relevant materials translated into Chinese).This time, the thoughts of Marx and Engels deeply moved him.Partly because the Communist Manifesto — the Chinese translation of the first part of which appeared in China in November 1919 — was the most influential Marxist work in China at the time.Partly because of the introduction of Professor Li Dazhao and others after the Russian Revolution, Marxism shined new light in front of the Chinese people.

In August 1920, the Shanghai Socialist Research Institute published the first full Chinese translation of the Communist Manifesto, translated by Chen Wangdao. Soviet Russia became Mao's guiding light, what France was to the British radicals in 1790.His mastery of Marx's theory was gradual, but the success of the Bolsheviks touched his heart deeply. He showed his enthusiasm for New Russia in a conversation with a young woman.The woman said: "Communism is good, but it will take a lot of people's heads." Mao Zedong replied excitedly: "Heads fall to the ground, beheads, of course, of course, but you must know how good communism is! At that time, the country was not Stop interfering with us, you women are free, and marriage problems will no longer bother you.” [19]

For Mao, Marxism was an idea that explained how history progressed from one stage to the next. Mao Zedong did not think much about the social prospects that the revolution would bring, nor did he pay attention to the most difficult and crucial issue of seizing power.However, in 1920 he had established his belief in Marxism and believed that China's fate was tied to a Russian-style revolution. Only in this way can the country be saved and backwardness overcome, the energy of the people can be released, and the ideals of the May Fourth heroes can be realized in society. Far from spreading like an order or a disease from one historical setting to another, Marxism is reborn in new circumstances.The same is true of Mao Zedong's acceptance of Marxism.When he became a reader of "New Youth" in 1919, his understanding of Marxism had been planted in his heart.News from St. Petersburg made Marxism the hope of the Chinese revolution.The assimilation of the theories of Marx, Engels, and Lenin was only the third stage in the evolution of Mao Zedong's thinking.

"There are three books that are particularly deeply engraved in my heart," Mao Zedong said of his second winter in Beijing, "which established my belief in Marxism" [20].In addition to the "Communist Manifesto", these three books also include a book by Kautsky and Kirkapp's "History of Socialism".The latter two books gave Mao Zedong not very pure Marxism. [twenty one] However, Mao Zedong had already established his "belief".From the summer of 1920 he considered himself a Marxist and never wavered afterwards.Anarchism, reformism, and utopianism were squeezed from the core of his political thought.

Mao did not devour Marx overnight and turn himself into a pure Marxist, as is clear from his continued engagement in the Hunan Autonomy Movement.One of the reasons he left Beijing in April was that he could do nothing for Hunan's self-government here. Yang Kaihui returned to Changsha with her mother after her father died.Mao Zedong thought secretly, and once the political situation in Hunan became more stable, he would take time to get together with her. At that time, he also hoped to discuss his new Marxist beliefs in detail with Professor Chen Duxiu.Mao Zedong sold his winter coat to buy a train ticket and set off for Shanghai with a lot of uncleared thoughts in his head.

Mao Zedong's wife Yang Kaihui. Born in 1901, joined the Communist Party of China in 1921, and followed Mao Zedong to engage in revolutionary activities in Changsha, Shanghai, Shaoshan, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other places.After the failure of the Great Revolution, he stayed in his hometown Itakura and insisted on the party's underground work. He was arrested by Hunan warlord He Jian in 1930, and died heroically on November 14 of the same year at the age of 29.Mao Zedong, who was far away from Guanshan, was in inexplicable pain when he heard the news, and said in grief and indignation: "Kaihui's death will not be redeemed."

Mao Zedong was in a difficult situation. He washed and ironed clothes for Taipan and wealthy compradors and had to go back and forth.He works as a laundromat, and his monthly salary is 12 to 15 yuan.Among them, about eight yuan was used for the fare, because he had to travel between the laundry shop, private house and hotel.If it is said that he seldom smiled at Shanghai in his later life, we can easily understand why. Mao Zedong looked to Chen Duxiu for guidance on the Hunan issue, but the revolutionary professor had more important things to do.Russian advisers sent by the newly formed Comintern had arrived in China to discuss with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu the specific matters concerning the establishment of a Bolshevik organization in China. That spring, Chen Duxiu was by far the most known influence on Mao Zedong's Marxist thinking. "At this possibly critical period in my life, I was deeply impressed by Chen Duxiu's words to express his beliefs." [22] Mao Zedong later said of this former Beijing anti-traditional fighter.Undoubtedly, the hardships of the laundromat furthered Mao's acceptance of Marxism and helped him better understand what Marx meant by the word "proletarian." Mao Zedong went to the pier to see off the Hunan students who went to France for work-study programs. The sun was shining on the rippling Huangpu River, and the humid air was filled with the sound of loading and unloading ships and sirens.Mao Zedong was wearing a long gray cloth gown that had been washed white in the laundromat he employed. Before setting sail, members of the Xinmin Society held a meeting in Shanghai's Bansong Garden.Mao Zedong made a speech, and he put forward the slogan of "transforming China and the world".The meeting decided to appoint him back to Changsha as the person in charge of the Hunan Work-Study Movement.After taking a group photo solemnly, everyone walked slowly along the Wusong Port to the French cargo ship. Some girls set off with the group.Enabling girls to participate in the movement was an important contribution of Mao Zedong.He once said to a Hunan friend who was leading a group of girls: "If you attract one person, you will save one more person." [23] His sympathy for women's plight once again fully reflected his hatred of old China. A student expressed regret that Mao Zedong did not go to France. Mao Zedong replied: "It is impossible to start the revolution until you return." [24] Standing alone on the slope, Mao Zedong watched his friends enter the fourth-class cabin at the stern one by one.Before he turned and walked back into the city, he shouted: "Study hard, save the country."[25] The civil war in Hunan continued continuously.But by the summer of 1920, the war ended with the defeat of Zhang Jingyao and the rise of the more enlightened Tan Yankai.In this new climate of freedom Mao returned to Changsha with a full political agenda. The person appointed by Tan to be the principal of the turbulent First Normal School happened to be Mao Zedong's former teacher, and the educator soon appointed Mao Zedong as the principal of the primary school affiliated to the First Normal School. *When he edited "Xiangjiang Review", he taught in a vocational school.While Cai Hesen and other Hunan luminaries were working in France, Mao Zedong was the undisputed leader of the Xinmin Society. * Mao Zedong wrote a slogan on the gate of the school: "The world is ours, and it is up to everyone to do things." ("When Mao Zedong was young", published in "Business Daily", Cambodia, 1967? Juan 01? When I edited "Xiangjiang Review", I used to take the class here.While Cai Hesen and other Hunan dignitaries were busy in French factories, Mao Zedong was the undisputed leader of the Xinmin Society. The remuneration of Xiuye ​​Primary School is generous, and the position of principal has a certain prestige.Mao Zedong soon showed that he had more than a frugal side.He and Yang Kaihui lived in a house near Qingshuitang. This was a wealthy man's house built in a garden, quiet and elegant.The rent is 12 yuan per month, which is the same as what he earned when he worked in the Shanghai laundry, and more than 50% of what he earned when he worked in the library of Peking University.On the surface, Mao Zedong has already entered the upper class of Changsha. The years 1920-1921 were a period of convergence in Mao Zedong's thought and action, which brought new purpose to his political life and brought some pain to his relatives. Mao Zedong pushed the spirit of the May Fourth Movement forward.He founded the Youth Library and (with others) re-established the Hunan Student Union. ［26］ Within a few weeks of returning to Shaoshan, he sent the torch of new culture to his hometown and established an education promotion association.He wrote articles and served as editor in Hunan Popular Daily.It was a semiofficial educational newspaper that turned to the left when Mao Zedong's friend He Shuheng took over as its editor. With the help of a female classmate with whom he had a good relationship—she was also one of Professor Yang’s best students—Mao Zedong founded the Cultural Publishing House[27] to spread the seeds of left-wing culture in Hunan. "Hunan people are starving their brains more than their stomachs," he wrote in "The Origin of Cultural Publishing House". Mao Zedong rented three rooms at Xiangya Medical College with low rent as the site of the Cultural Book Club, and received financial support from Yang Kaihui's mother.He even invited Tan Yankai, a warlord who was good at calligraphy, to write a signboard for the bookstore and attend the opening ceremony.At the opening ceremony that afternoon, the two enemies shook hands and talked happily. [28] The book club did well, and soon seven branches were established in other towns.The best-selling books in the early days included (all in Chinese) "History of Socialism", "Introduction to Marx's "Das Kapital"", "Research on New Russia", etc., and magazines included "New Youth", "New Life", "New Education " and "Labour World". Mao Zedong added pro-Soviet content to the main thrust of the May Fourth Movement.Together with He Shuheng, editor-in-chief of Popular Daily, he founded the "Russian Research Association" and initiated the work-study program in Russia.Under the influence of Marxist beliefs, Mao Zedong tried to organize labor unions.On the advice of the Comintern—advice sent to him by letter from Peking and Shanghai—he began to organize communist groups.At the same time, he also organized the Socialist Youth League, a peripheral organization of the Communist Party. * * Liu Shaoqi was an early member of the Socialist Youth League at the time, and later went to the Moscow Far Eastern Labor University in the Soviet Union for a work-study program.This hard-working teenager comes from a landlord family in Ningxiang County. He graduated from the First Normal School five years after Mao Zedong.When Mao Zedong went to Beijing for the first time, they met and discussed the work-study program. In May 1921, He Shuheng was dismissed by the Provincial Department of Education, and the radicals of the "Popular Daily" were also fired.Mao Zedong hired many of them as teachers in Xiuye ​​Primary School.In the resistance struggle, if the students are the backbone, then the primary school teachers are like a red thread connecting them with Mao Zedong's Marxist thought camp, which has been expanding its influence. The First Normal University itself played a vital role in spreading Marxism.Mao Zedong recruited new followers among the students in the school; relied on the salary of the school to maintain the livelihood of a small number of student leaders; used the spacious event venue of the alumni association to hold meetings, and gave each participant 10 yuan as a gift in the name of the Cultural Book Club , It also allows young people to easily enter and exit the library, just like entering and exiting a bus station.The First Normal School was like a big family to Mao Zedong, a budding communist. Mao Zedong's family was also absorbed.Mao Zedong’s father died of typhoid fever in 1920 at the age of 52——Mao Zedong rarely mentioned this matter, except that almost no one attended his father’s funeral [29]——Mao Zedong quietly took over the funeral from his father. everything.He arranged for his second brother Mao Zemin to enter the First Normal School, his third brother Ze Tan to study in a good middle school, and his step-sister Ze Jian to a normal school in nearby Hengyang City. The three soon joined the Communist organization, under the direct leadership of Mao Zedong, who, like a father, sent them around from time to time. Mao Zedong was no longer fighting alone.He maintained correspondence with comrades in Shanghai, Beijing and France.He has become a big fish in this small pond in Changsha, and he has reliable contacts all over Hunan.He has his own small family, and his wife soon became pregnant. A series of articles written by Mao Zedong in 1920 were mainly in favor of Hunan's autonomy. [30] Is this Mao Zedong's final support for regionalism?Yes.From his vigorous articles, we can see what kind of person Mao Zedong was. In 1920, Mao Zedong published his proposal for "Hunan Transformation" in a newspaper. When he was still working in a laundry in Shanghai, he got in touch with a Hunan activist who hosted the "Tianwen" weekly magazine and the Hunan Reform Promotion Association.Now that Tan Yankai was governor, Mao Zedong and others hoped that he would guarantee Hunan's autonomy and "not lure wolves (the Beijing government) into the house." Mao Zedong's articles on this issue are an extension of his previous liberal thinking, and are not yet Marxist (these articles are not included in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong").He also did not establish social goals for an independent Hunan in the future, but only freed Hunan from the burden on its back. Mao Zedong's discussion on Hunan's autonomy issue is the application of his own anti-imperialist thinking.He referred to places "outside Hunan" as "foreign countries".He called for the establishment of "twenty-seven small Chinas" because "big China thinking" was a sin that hindered the "natural development" of civilian life. Admittedly, the reason why Mao Zedong was in favor of self-government for the 27 provinces behind closed doors was because he believed that a stronger and more prosperous China would exist only if the small constructions in each province were successful. And the path of union". However, for an already radical believer in national supremacy, the switch to provincial self-government was undoubtedly shocking--some of his friends on the left also thought it was a mistake on his part. He wrote sadly: "In the four thousand years of history, the people of Hunan have never stretched their waists or breathed out. The history of Hunan is just a dark history, and the civilization of Hunan is just a gray civilization! China's burden cannot be the result of its natural development." Beijing, along with its weak "National" government (along with its harsh winters and discrimination against southern dialects), came under attack from Mao Zedong. By the spring of 1921, Mao Zedong had lost all enthusiasm for Hunan's independence and self-government.Changes in warlords have also shaken this radical ideal.Tan Yankai was replaced in September 1920, and the new ruler favored self-government but opposed any attempt to liberate the populace through self-government. A few weeks later, Mao Zedong took the lead in storming the provincial assembly, tearing down the banners and flags hanging from the elegant walls.He recognized the limits of reform politics and wanted to organize outside the existing political structures. In July 1920, members of the Xinmin Society who went to France for a work-study program held a meeting in Montdarni, France.This is a group photo of the participating members, including: Xiang Jingyu, Xiao San, Cai Chang, Cai Hesen, Xiao Yu, Luo Xuezan, Chen Shaolin, Zhang Kundi, Ge Jianhao, Ouyang Ze, Yan Changyi, and Li Weihan. Xiao Yu met Mao Zedong after returning from a work-study program in France.They talk through the night, teary-eyed, and discover a gulf between them.Mao Zedong was a pro-Soviet Russian faction, but Xiao Yu was not.Whereas Mao favored power, Xiao Yu worried that it would jeopardize individual liberty. Mao Zedong was determined to organize the people to seize power, while Xiao Yu was still a bookish scholar.He said to Mao: "The struggle for the world like Liu Bang and Xiang Yu (the two political enemies of the Han Dynasty) looked to Jesus Christ and Shakyamuni like street urchins fighting over an apple." Mao Zedong simply retorted: "It is a pity that you do not agree with Karl Marx's theory." [31] The fraternal unity of the Xinmin Society has since become a thing of the past. On a heavy snow day in early 1921, the Xinmin Society held a three-day conference at the Wenhua Publishing House.At the meeting, Mao Zedong emphasized the goal of "reform" and opposed "reform".He favored the adoption of Russian-style revolutionary methods, and opposed the improved methods "through decades of education". Most of the people who returned from France opposed his point of view, and some people who continued to study in France also wrote letters against this point of view.He seemed to have suffered a setback, so he announced at the meeting that the Xinmin Society had "completed its historical mission." But, in a sense, he won his own struggle.He shifted his base, he brought members with similar views into the Socialist Youth League, and regarded Xinmin Society as a waste. Participants in the May Fourth Movement had split into two factions, an outcome that separated Mao Zedong from Xiao Yu. The polemic in New Youth in 1919 had already summed them up: "Talking about the doctrine" or "researching the question"?Do intellectuals use rational analysis to study specific issues, or do they take certain actions under the guidance of an ideology? [32] The May Fourth Liberals led by Professor Hu Shi insisted on studying specific issues and stayed away from political life, while the Marxist faction headed by Professor Li Dazhao adhered to "ism".Mao Zedong was undoubtedly on the side of "isms"*, and he wanted a split.If associating the May Fourth tradition with a specific thought-form meant a split, that split was a very good thing. * Hu Shi avoided talking about ideology and demanded the establishment of a "good government".How similar is this to Mao Zedong's ideal eclecticism when he wanted Sun Yat-sen to be president, Kang Youwei to be prime minister, and Liang Qichao to be foreign minister to form a government. ——Annotation Another differentiation is imminent.In 1920, anarchism took the time to "come in".Sensitive young people who believed in absolute freedom formed their own organizations: the Hunan Shiyu Society, the Health Society, the Youth Association, and (most influentially) the Labor Union.Mao knew the tenets of anarchism well enough to captivate him in Beijing in 1918-19, but now that the Marx in him had ousted Kropotkin, he fought the labor unions fiercely. Mao Zedong used Marxist-Leninist books such as Engels' "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science" as weapons to attack representatives of anarchism.He confuses the opponent and laughs at the folly of the anarchists who want to "abolish the state within 24 hours."Whenever one person was won from the anarchist camp, Mao Zedong introduced him to the well-organized Socialist Youth League. Solitary and alienated in Beijing, Mao was inclined to embrace anarchism.Now, he is striding forward as the main leader of the Changsha leftist forces and sees anarchism as something to be tolerated.