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Intellectual Activism in China During the 1940s: Wu Han in the United Front and the Democratic League`*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Mary G. Mazur
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Extract

The relationship of the intellectual in China to society and state has been a complex problem throughout this century. An individual's relationship to the state in China is influenced by separate – and often contradictory – sources from within their individual social context, and from traditional political culture. Not the least of these influences was the ancient moral responsibility of the literati to critically advise the emperor on the rule of the country. During the unrelenting crises of the 1940s, people had heightened political concern, and many became politically active. Even those formerly aloof from politics became involved for the first time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 133 , March 1993 , pp. 27 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1993

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References

1. Born 1909, Zhejiang, Yiwu county and died 1969 in a Beijing prison, incarcerated for political reasons.

2. For the oral history research in this study see Mazur, Mary G., “Studying Wu Han: the political academic,” Republican China, Vol. XV, No. 2 (04 1989), pp. 17–39Google Scholar. Interviewees (more than 80 individuals) included Wu's academic colleagues, students, family members, fellow Democratic League members, Communist Party members and superiors, fellow villagers and others.

3. On the origins of the United Front in China, the basic secondary work on United Front policy remains Van Slyke, Lyman P., Enemies and Friends, the United Front in Chinese Communist History (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; see also Seymour, James, China's Satellite Parties (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987)Google Scholar and Shum, Kui-kwong, The Chinese Communists' Road to Power: the Anti-Japanese National United Front, 1935–45 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

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6. Zhongguo minzhu zhengtuan da tongmeng; this translation follows Alitto, Guy, The Last Confucian: Liang Shunting and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity (Berkeley: University of California, 1979)Google Scholar; in Chinese the Democratic League was the Zhongguo minzhu tongmeng.

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8. Ibid.; Yuan Fuzhi, interviews, 16 and 17 January, 1986, Guangzhou; for another classmate participant's description of the student tide in Wuhan and the three women see Zhixu, Xia, “Wusi de langhua” (“The spray from May Fourth”), Wusi yundong huiyi lu (Reminiscences of the May Fourth Movement) (Zhonghua shuju, 1959), pp. 54–55Google Scholar. Xia Zhixu was a member of Dong Biwu's Women's Reading Group at the Hubei Women's Normal School. See also Zhuanchang, Hu, Dong Biwu zhuanji (Biography of Dong Biwu) (Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1985), pp. 49–58Google Scholar; Huaxia funu mingren cidian (Dictionary of Famous Chinese Women) (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 1988), pp. 828–29Google Scholar for Yuan Fuzhi and pp. 373–74 for Li Wenyi. For Dong Biwu, see Zhuanchang, Hu, Biography of Dong Biwu, and Boorman, Howard L. and Howard, Richard C., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, hereafter BDRC, Vol. Ill, pp. 341–44; Klein, Donald W. and Clark, Anne B., Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921–1965, hereafter BDCC, pp. 874–880Google Scholar. For Hanjun, Li see BDCC, pp. 498–99Google Scholar; Tanqiu, Chen, BDCC, pp. 136–39Google Scholar. For brief secondary treatment of these Wuhan groups see Dirlik, Arif, The Origins of Chinese Communism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 166–68Google Scholar and van de Ven, Hans J., From Friend to Comrade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 72–73Google Scholar.

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10. Ibid.; Li Wenyi.

11. Yuan Fuzhi.

12. Li Wenyi. The expression “democratic movement” was used to indicate the broad, amorphous movement which many intellectuals identified with during the 1940s; for example, “Kunming Minzhu zhoukan she laixin” (“Letters from the Kunming Democratic Weekly Press”), Shanghai, Minzhu zhoukan 11 (15 11 1945), p. 242Google Scholar.

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23. Li Wenyi; “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

24. Wei Ying, interview, 24 April 1986, Beijing; Wang Kang, interview, 10 June 1987, Beijing; Yan, Li; “Autobiography of Wu Han.” For Yiduo, Wen see BDRC, Vol. III, pp. 408–411Google Scholar.

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28. Qimin, Li, History of Chinese Democratic Parties, p. 74Google Scholar.

29. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; TengSsu-yu, interview, 6 August 1985, Bloomington, Indiana; Li Yan; Ergang, Luo, “Huai Wu Han (Xu er)” (“Thoughts of Wu Han – a second preface”) in Shuangbi, Su and Hongzhi, Wang, Wu Han zhuan (A Biography of Wu Han) (Beijing chubanshe, 1984), pp. 6–12Google Scholar.

30. “Zhongguo minzhu tongmeng gangling caoan” (“Draft programme of the Democratic League of China”), Tongmeng wenxian, 19 September 1944, pp. 26–30.

31. Yuzhi, Hu and Wenyi, Li, “His heart open and upright,” pp. 4–8Google Scholar; Qimin, Li, History of Chinese Democratic Parties, p. 74Google Scholar; Wang Kang. Translation of Shidai pinglun as Time Review is from the paper's masthead.

32. Han, Wu, “Zhi ren yu zhi fa,” Ziyou luntan (03 1944)Google Scholar.

33. For Zedong, Mao, “On Coalition Government” see Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 205–270Google Scholar.

34. Both quotations from Zedong, Mao, Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 205Google Scholar. See Slyke, Lyman Van, “The Communist movement, 1937–1945,” in Eastman, Lloyd et al. , The Nationalist Era in China, 1927–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 232Google Scholar, for a discussion of the two levels of meaning in the language of “On Democracy” (1939): Anglo-American liberal democracy and authoritarian, class-based democracy. This is also true of “On Coalition” which Van Slyke discusses, ibid., pp. 284–85, with the added condition of the new CCP constitution (1945) in which Mao was placed as the “unquestioned leader” of the Party. The differing concepts of democracy in the United Front in different parts of Communist and Nationalist China and the shift away from Anglo-American liberal democracy toward the more authoritarian, class-based variety is important in understanding the 1947 change in the United Front and in the way it was perceived.

35. Ibid. pp. 209, 238.

36. Ibid. p. 259.

37. “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

38. Ibid.; Yuzhi, Hu and Wenyi, Li, “His heart open and upright,” pp. 4–8Google Scholar; for organization of branches in other schools see Deming, Hong, “‘Yier yi’ yundong fasheng zai Kunming de biran xing he ta de jiben jingyan,” (“The inevitability of the ‘December First’ Movement taking place in Kunming and its main events”) in Tian, Cheng, Ping, Wei, and Yong, Ding (eds.), Yieryi yundong lunwenji (Selected works on the December First Movement) (Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 1987), pp. 34–37Google Scholar. According to the entry for “Minqing,” the shortened Chinese name for the Democratic Youth League, in Cihai (Shanghai, 1979), p. 4136Google Scholar, after 1949 the majority of the members transferred to join the Zhongguo xin minzhu zhuyi qingnian tuan, which later became Hu Yaobang's group.

39. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Yuzhi, Hu and Wenyi, Li, “His heart open and upright,” pp. 4–8Google Scholar.

40. Zhongguo gexiao dangpai xiankuang (Present Circumstances of China's Minor Parties), n.p., August 1946, p. 16.

41. “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

42. Israel, John, “The December First Movement,” unpublished manuscript, part of a forthcoming history of South-west United UniversityGoogle Scholar.

43. Wei Ying, interview, 24 April 1986, Beijing; Wei Ying, Wen Yiduo's son, was present in Kunming with his father during the incident. John Israel, “The December First Movement,” describes the incident in detail; Deming, Hong, “The December First Movement,” especially p. 47Google Scholar. For additional background on the December First Movement see Pepper, Suzanne, Civil War in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 44–52Google Scholar.

44. “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

45. Fei Xiaotong, interview, 20 March 1986; Guangdan, Pan, Yiduo, Wen, Xiaotong, Fei and Han, Wu, “Zhi Maxieer teshishu” (“Letter to Special Envoy Marshall”), Minzhu zhoukan (Kunming), Vol. 2, No. 23, (12 01 1946)Google Scholar. For the League's position on the National Assembly see Tuan-sheng, Chi'ien, Government and Politics, pp. 320–24Google Scholar.

46. Pan Guangdan et al., “Letter to Special Envoy Marshall.”

47. Han, Wu, “Ku Yiduo” (“Grieving for Yiduo”), Shanghai zhoubao, No. 46 (18 07 1946)Google Scholar.

48. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Yifan, Shen, “Chentong daonian Wu Han tongzhi” (“With deep grief in memory of Comrade Wu Han”) Beijing mengxun, Vol. 2 (1979), pp. 26–28Google Scholar.

49. See The China White Paper, August 1949 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1967), pp. 627–632Google Scholar; “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

50. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Qian Jiaju letter to author, 14 July 1990. Qian was a colleague of Shen Junru and critic of Zhang Shenfu. For Zhang Shenfu's viewpoint see Schwarcz, Vera, Time for Telling the Truth is Running Out, Conversations with Zhang Shenfu (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992)Google Scholar. According to Schwarcz, Liu Qingyang was Zhang's common law wife for 28 years (p. 76); see also pp. 177–78. On p. 188 Schwarcz refers to a “power struggle for leadership” between Liu Qingyang and Wu Han in the Beiping Democratic League; this recollection of Zhang Shenfu's, in the 1980s, differs from Wu Han's description written in 1955 some six years after the event.

51. “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

52. Ibid.

53. Han, Wu, “Lun minzhu zhengzhi” (“On democratic government”), Minzhu zhoukan, ban, Huabei (Democratic Weekly, North China edition), 16 10 1946, pp. 12–13Google Scholar.

54. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; the voice in this section is that of Zhao Xiaoxiong, interview, 1 March 1990, Beijing.

55. Pepper, , Civil War in China, pp. 80–93Google Scholar, for the student movement.

56. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; space does not permit detailing Wu's activities in these protests; for these events generally, see Pepper, , Civil War in China, pp. 52–78Google Scholar.

57. Ibid. p. xviii; Slyke, Van, Enemies and Friends, p. 198Google Scholar.

58. Quotation from “Autiobiography of Wu Han”; Han, Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang zhuan (Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang) (Xin Zhongguo shuju, 1948)Google Scholar.

59. For these farewell meetings see Kuizhong, Mu, “Huiyi Ye Jianying tongzhi yu women de liangci zuotanhui” (“Remembering Comrade Ye Jianying and our two meetings”), Beijing mengxun, No. 3 (1981)Google Scholar; Yifan, Shen, “Yici nanwang de gaobie yanhui” (“A farewell banquet difficult to forget”), Beijing mengxun, No. 3 (1981)Google Scholar.

60. Tongmeng wenxian, pp. 357–360, 362.

61. “Autobiography of Wu Huan”; Yuzhi, Hu and Wenyi, Li, “His heart open and upright,” pp. 4–8Google Scholar.

62. Tongmeng wenxian, pp. 365–378; see also Slyke, Van, Enemies and Friends, p. 199Google Scholar.

63. Yuan Xizhi and Rong Zaozu, interview, 30 June 1987, Beijing.

64. “Zhonggong zhongyang fabu jinian ‘Wuyi’ laodong jie kouhao” (“Chinese Communist Central Committee Statement commemorating the Labour Day slogan ‘May First’”) Tongmeng wenxian, pp. 419–421.

65. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Zhang Wensong, interview, 6 June 1987, Beijing. Zhang Wensong, an underground CCP worker in north China at this time under Liu Ren's direction, after the establishment of the PRC became a member of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and a colleague of Wu Han's in the municipal government.

66. “Autobiography of Wu Han.”

67. Han, Wu, “Lun Wuxu bianfa” (“On the Wuxu reforms”), Zhongjian banyuekan (China Reconstruction semi-monthly), Vol. 3, No. 3 (10 09 1948)Google Scholar; “Jindai Zhongguo shehui bianyi” (“Social change in contemporary China”), Yanjing xinwen (Yanjing News), Vol. 14, No. 27 (1948)Google Scholar.

68. Ibid. Wu Han's critical estimate at this stage of the value of the mediator position can be contrasted to Zhang Shenfu's controversial and naive article that same autumn, “An appeal for peace,” Guancha (23 October 1948) which, according to Schwarcz, brought him criticism from all sides. For this see Schwarcz, , Time for Telling the Truth, pp. 190–98Google Scholar. Although Zhang was in Beiping, he seems to have been completely unaware of the military situation on the front and its political implications, and of the threatening situation for many intellectuals in Beiping all around him.

69. “On the Wuxu reforms.”

70. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Fei Qing was Fei Xiaotong's brother.

71. Ibid.

72. Han, Wu, “Wo fenhen! Wo kongsu!” (“I detest! I denounce!”), Renmin ribao, 7 07 1957Google Scholar . This later period is beyond the scope of this paper.

73. “Autobiography of Wu Han”; Li Wenyi.

74. Tongmeng wenxian, p. 505.