Chapter 28 Chapter 27 Li Dazhao and Yoshino Sakuzao——Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchanges During the May Fourth Movement

The rise of the May Fourth Movement in China in 1919 coincided with the upsurge of the Taisho Democratic Movement in Japan.During this period, the ideological and cultural exchanges between China and Japan influenced each other, the democratic and progressive forces of the two countries supported each other, and young students from the two countries also visited and talked with each other.One of the main leaders of the May 4th Movement in China, Li Dazhao, a professor at Peking University, and Sakuzo Yoshino, a theoretical instructor of the Taisho Democratic Movement in Japan and a professor at the University of Tokyo, were the main advocates of cultural exchanges between China and Japan during the May 4th Movement.

Li Dazhao (1889-1927 A.D.), courtesy name Shouchang, was born in Leting, Hebei.Since childhood, he was diligent and studious, and was admitted to Tianjin Beiyang Law and Politics School in 1907.At that time, the school hired more than 10 Japanese teachers including Sakuzo Yoshino and Yoshiyuki Imai to teach.Although Sakuzo Yoshino has only been teaching at the school for more than a year, Li Dazhao has always cherished this friendship between teachers and students.According to the memory of Takeo Ito, a student Yoshino taught at the University of Tokyo: In the autumn of 1921, when he visited Li Dazhao in the library of Peking University, the first sentence Li Dazhao met was: "Is Mr. Yoshino in good health? I am a teacher who taught in Tianjin. students.” During his studies at Beiyang College of Law and Politics, Li Dazhao once wrote an article in the monthly “Yan Zhi” edited by him, introducing the deeds of Zhu Shunshui, a survivor of the late Ming Dynasty in Japan, and praised Zhu Shunshui’s patriotic spirit and contribution to Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.

In the winter of 1913, with the help of his friends, Li Dazhao traveled to Japan to study abroad. The following year, he entered the political economy department of Waseda University in Tokyo.Through classroom lectures and extensive reading of various social science books and newspapers, especially influenced by the democratic and socialist ideas of Yoshino Sakuzo, Kotoku Shusui, Abe Isuo, Kawagami Hajime, etc., he became a radical democrat and later. The switch to communist had a big impact.During his study in Japan, Li Dazhao actively participated in the anti-imperialist and patriotic struggle of the students studying in Japan. In 1915, the students studying in Japan held a rally against the Twenty-one Articles proposed by Japan and Yuan Shikai’s dictatorship and traitorous country. Power on the "Warning Book to Parents of the Nation". In May 1916, he resolutely abandoned his studies and returned to China to devote himself to the domestic revolutionary struggle. In January 1918, Li Dazhao served as the director of the library of Peking University, and later served as a professor of the Department of Political Science and the Department of History.

Yoshino Sakuzo (1878-1933 AD), a native of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1904. From 1907 to 1909, he was employed as a teacher at Tianjin Beiyang School of Law and Politics, where he had extensive exposure to Chinese society and culture. From 1910 to 1913, he went to study in Europe and the United States. After returning to China, he served as a professor at the University of Tokyo, advocating people-oriented ideas, and became an important theoretical guide for the Taisho Democratic Movement centered on opposing warlord autocracy and supporting constitutionalism.

In December 1918, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu founded "Weekly Review", one of the most influential progressive publications during the May Fourth Movement, in Beijing.In the same month, Sakuzo Yoshino initiated the establishment of the Dawn Society, an important progressive group of the Taisho Democratic Movement in Tokyo. As soon as the "Weekly Review" was published, Li Dazhao sent it to Sakuzo Yoshino and the Dawn Society in Japan, and published the letter Yoshino sent from Tokyo hoping to "support each other from a distance". The article "New Trends in Japanese Political Thought" was published on No. 7 of "Weekly Review", which introduced in detail the process of Yoshino Sakuzo's debate with the Roninkai and the organization of the Dawn Society.No. 9 published Li Dazhao's article "Zhu Liming Society" written by Li Dazhao to promote and support the Liming Society. On the 12th, he published his article "The Fierce Battle Between the Old and the New Trends of Thought," affirming that Liminghui is the representative of the new trends of thought in Japan.Liberation, the publication of the Dawn Society, was launched in May 1919. Yoshino immediately sent it to Li Dazhao. Ten days later, the full text of the manifesto of the first issue of Liberation was translated and published on No. 23 of "Weekly Review".After the publication of Liminghui's speech collection, Yoshino also sent it to Li Dazhao soon.Regarding the erroneous tendencies within the Dawn Society, especially some people's compromise and agreement with aggressiveness, Li Dazhao also put forward sincere and sharp criticisms in the article "Advice to the Dawn Society".

During the May 4th Movement in 1919, the Japanese imperialist government and most Japanese newspapers and magazines slandered and cursed the anti-imperialist patriotic movement of the Chinese people.But Yoshino Sakuzo and other Japanese progressives dared to stand up, uphold justice, openly expressed sympathy and support for the Chinese people's May 4th anti-imperialist patriotic movement.After news of the May 4th Movement reached Japan, Sakuzo Yoshino immediately wrote a letter of support to a certain gentleman at Peking University, who was probably Li Dazhao.The letter wrote: The aggressive Japan is not only opposed by the youth of your country, but also by us. "Invading Japan is about to disintegrate. In the future, a peaceful and humane Japan will definitely support the youth of your country."This letter was once quoted by the All-China Student Federation in its letter to the Japan Akatsuki Society, and praised Yoshino's messenger, "the people in our country are really grateful for it", and it is also what the Chinese people want to say in their hearts.

During the May 4th Movement, Yoshino Sakuzo also published a series of political articles in Japanese publications such as "Central Public Forum", "New Man", "Liberation", and "Oriental Times", expressing his enthusiastic support and excellence for the May 4th Movement in China. experience.For example, "Don't Abuse the Actions of the Beijing Student League" published in the June 1919 issue of "Chuo Koron" strongly refuted the various accusations made by some Japanese newspapers and periodicals against the Beijing student movement.In the article "About Peking University Student Unrest" published in the June issue of "New People", he also linked the May 4th Movement with the New Culture Movement, cheering that "this is the beginning of the Chinese people's progress towards the goal of enlightenment."It also clearly pointed out that the Japanese warlords and bureaucrats who supported the Chinese traitors were the common enemy of the Chinese and Japanese peoples.In the articles in the July issue of "Chuo Koron" and "Touhou Shiron" in the July issue, Yoshino severely criticized the Japanese government's policy of militarism invading China, explaining that the people of Japan and China can only fight against the bureaucratic warlords of the two countries. In order to realize the thought of true goodwill.Many of Yoshino's viewpoints are consistent with Li Dazhao's.The sincere friendship between them was also deepened in mutual solidarity.

During the May 4th Movement, in order to promote mutual understanding and exchange of ideas between the Chinese and Japanese people, Sakuzo Yoshino and Li Dazhao jointly initiated and organized the exchange of visits between Chinese and Japanese professors and students centered on Peking University and Tokyo University.On June 5, 1919, at the Lecture Meeting of the Dawn Society, Sakuzo Yoshino first proposed to invite one professor from Beijing and two or three students to come to Tokyo, Japan for a sincere talk.He wrote a letter to Li Dazhao, and soon received a reply from Li Dazhao, actively responding to Yoshino's suggestion and warmly inviting him to visit China.Sakuzo Yoshino believes that the program of youth exchanges between Japan and China is not only a matter for a few of our comrades, but hopes that it will become the work of the general public in the future.However, due to the obstruction of the Japanese government, the plan of Yoshino Sakuzo and a delegation of professors and students from the University of Tokyo to visit China failed to materialize. In the autumn of 1919, Ryusuke Miyazaki, a student of Yoshino, son of Miyazaki Toten and one of the founders of the University of Tokyo Newcomers Association, visited China and visited Beijing and Shanghai.When he was in Beijing, he met and exchanged with Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and other progressive people.At that time, Li Dazhao wrote two personal letters to Miyazaki Ryusuke and one letter to Yoshino Sakuzao, which are still treasured in Miyazaki's home.

The visit to Japan by Peking University professors and students, initiated by Sakuza Yoshino and strongly supported by Li Dazhao, finally came to fruition in May 1920.Those who went to Japan were Peking University professor Gao Yihan and students Huang Rikui, Kang Baiqing, Fang Hao, Xu Yanzhi and Meng Shouqian.They were basically active members of Peking University student progressive groups such as the Young China Society, the National Magazine, and the Xinchao Society that Li Dazhao guided and supported.Li Dazhao also wrote a letter of introduction to Miyazaki Ryusuke for them.After the visiting delegation of Peking University teachers and students arrived in Japan, they had extensive contacts and exchanges with many progressive groups, student organizations, famous scholars, writers, journalists, socialists and trade union activists in the Taisho Democratic Movement in Japan at that time.In Tokyo, they attended the Commemorative Meeting of May 7 National Humiliation (the date of Japan’s 21st ultimatum) held by Chinese students studying in Japan, the Dinner Party of the University of Tokyo’s Newcomer Party, the lectures of the Debate Department of the University of Tokyo and the 17th Meeting, Waseda University Lectures of the Builders' Union.In Kyoto, a meeting was held with the teachers and students of Doshisha University. They also attended the welcome meeting hosted by the Six Days Club, a civil society organization in Kyoto. Representatives of various student groups and labor groups in Kyoto participated. There was thunderous applause and handshakes at the meeting place. , the atmosphere is warm and harmonious.The visiting delegation of teachers and students of Peking University aroused great repercussions in Japan.Wherever they went, they publicized the truth of the May 4th Movement in China and opposed imperialism and their country's warlords and bureaucrats. They expressed their desire to strengthen the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people, and won the understanding and sympathy of Japanese progressives and Japanese young students.At the same time, I also heard and witnessed the development of the Japanese democratic movement and the spread of socialist ideas, which promoted the exchange and communication of progressive ideas between China and Japan, and strengthened the friendship between the two peoples.After the Peking University visiting group returned to China, Sakuzo Yoshino published the article "The Japan-China Student Support Movement" in the June 1920 issue of "Chuo Koron", speaking highly of the significance of this exchange activity, pointing out: "Now Japan and China There is a great gap in spirit, and the exchange of ideas between young students is very necessary, which is the real friendship between the two nations."

The history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan during the May 4th period and after that shows that since the 1890s, Japanese militarists have taken China as the main target of aggression and launched wars of aggression against China, which brought great harm to both the Chinese and Japanese people. Great misery and suffering.However, no force can stop the friendship and cultural exchanges between the Chinese and Japanese peoples.The cultural exchanges between China and Japan have laid a solid foundation for the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples from generation to generation.Through the long-term and arduous efforts of the two peoples, the Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations were finally restored in 1972, and the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed in 1978, which opened up broad prospects for exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields.Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges ushered in an unprecedented new upsurge.