The “August 13” Battle of Songhu broke out, and Japanese planes bombed the capital of the National Government, Nanjing. The war situation was tight and the country was in turmoil. The Kuomintang intended to release a group of political prisoners. Chen Duxiu was released ten days after August 13. Faced with the national crisis, Chen Duxiu devoted himself to the struggle for national resistance. However, he never expected that his enthusiasm would be met with ridiculous personal slander. He was so angry that he could not understand it.
The old fighter was released from prison to work for his homeland
Chen Duxiu was finally released from his cell and freed. The news came out and immediately caused a shock. In its “Short Review” of the same day, the Ta Kung Pao said, “We welcome the old fighter’s release from prison to work for his country!” At this time, some Trotskyists asked him to return to Shanghai to reorganize the Trotskyist organization, and he solemnly told them that there was no way out of such a dogmatic sectarian organization. He was also advised to go to Hong Kong, but he immediately said that since he “supported and participated in the war, he had to be in the war zone anyway.” In his first interview with a journalist after his release from prison, he made it clear that “the present anti-war movement is a political movement, can I not participate in the anti-Japanese movement?”
On September 9, 1937, Chen Duxiu left Nanjing by ship for Wuhan. After arriving in Wuhan, he immediately devoted himself to the propaganda work of the national anti-war movement. According to the relevant documents, he delivered speeches at Wuchang Chinese University, Wuchang Art College, Hankow City Girls’ High School, Hankow YMCA and Wuhan University in a month and a half.
This legendary old fighter, with his elegance still intact, was warmly welcomed in every place he visited. The Dagong has a documentary and fascinating passage on this: “Outside the gate stood two black-clad policemen, armed with guns, preventing a black mass from entering. …… On and off the stage, people were gathering everywhere in such a dense mass that even the wind could hardly get through. The frenzy of the …… crowd made him slightly excited, and his dry face flushed red. He is old, the top of his head bald half, hair has been spotted white, with a short beard. …… stubborn bones at all times showed, a gray robe, lost the light of the leather shoes, still a cold manners.”
These speeches of his strongly explained the nature and significance of the war against Japan, pointing out that it is now “the most acute stage of the national liberation movement” and that “except for those who are willing to be traitors”, all the people of the country should commit themselves to the war against Japan. In particular, he mentioned the need to reform political institutions during the war of resistance, to enable the people to enjoy political freedom and to improve their lives. In many ways, these views were in common with the “Ten Programmes for Anti-Japanese Salvation” formulated by the CPC Central Committee.
There were serious differences of opinion within the Trotskyists about the war against Japan. Some manic Trotskyists mechanically applied Lenin’s theory of “the last great inter-imperialist war” and adopted a defeatist approach to the war, trying to take advantage of the opportunity to overthrow the government and start a so-called revolution. Chen Duxiu sternly refuted this and stated with certainty: “This war against Japan in China cannot be seen as a war between the government of Nanking and the government of Tokyo, but all the people of China should put forth their strength to aid the war against Japan.”
Chen Duxiu’s anti-war remarks naturally aroused their disgust. Liu Jialiang, secretary of the Shanghai Trotskyist Provisional Committee, was furious and said, “There is no hope for this standard opportunist. It is only a matter of time before we break with him.” Chen Duxiu had long had differences of opinion and conflicts with the young Trotskyists. Two years earlier, while still in prison, he had been under siege and even expelled from the Trotskyists by them for advocating a united resistance to Japan.
He was in favor of the policy of the anti-Japanese national united front. Soon after his release from prison, he met with Ye Jianying, the head of the Chinese Communist Party office in Nanjing, and said, “My opinion does not represent anyone except Chen Duxiu. I want to speak for the majority of the Chinese people and do not want to be bound by any party.”
Bao Huisheng recalled that Chen Duxiu himself told him that he was no longer “a Trotskyist and wanted to make a statement.” On November 21, in a letter to another important Trotskyist, Chen Qichang, he formally declared, “I only focus on my own independent thoughts and do not accommodate the opinions of anyone. I am not affiliated with any party, I am not under the command of anyone, and I am responsible for my own opinions.” It is obvious that he had automatically withdrawn from the Trotskyists.
Chen Duxiu (left) in Shanghai with Peng Shuzhi, who later became the leader of the Chinese Trotskyists
Zhang Wentian’s telegram of instruction from Mao Zedong to Lin Boqu
Chen Duxiu’s anti-war remarks after his release from prison soon attracted the attention of the CPC Central Committee, and on November 20, 1937, the Yan’an newspaper Liberation published the op-ed “Where is Mr. Chen Duxiu going? The article expressed a rather friendly attitude: it was “glad” that Chen Duxiu had regained his freedom and hoped that he would “revive the spirit of an old warrior and join the revolutionary ranks again”. Although the article still condemned the Trotskyists and criticized Chen Duxiu in scathing terms, it did, after all, treat Chen Duxiu differently, arguing that Chen’s anti-war rhetoric was “very different from the ideas of the Trotskyists in China.”
It was also during this period that Zhou Enlai, when receiving Chen Duxiu’s friend Luo Han in Wuhan, said, “The so-called Chinese Trotskyists are in fact also very complicated. …… I can roughly divide them into four factions, one of which is in favor of anti-Japanese resistance, and to which you and Duxiu belong.” And he said, “In the future, the word ‘bandit’ can be discontinued for the people of Chen Duxiu’s faction.”
While Chen Duxiu departed from Nanjing for Wuhan, Luo Han came from Wuhan to the Eighth Route Army office in Nanjing. Luo Han was an early member of the Chinese Communist Party, then transformed into a Trotskyist, and then broke away from the Trotskyists in 1932. He had received help from Ye Jianying and Li Kenong, the heads of the CCP office in Nanjing, to rescue former hard-luck friends of the Trotskyists. He was touched by “such friendship and enthusiasm”. Therefore, in the midst of the national tragedy, he wanted to do his part for the “United Resistance against Japan”. Rohan brought up to Ye Jianying and Bo Gu the old proposal of Chen Duxiu and others to “cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party against Japan” during the January 28th Incident. Ye and Bo were extremely pleased to hear this and told Luo Han that they would immediately inform the CPC Central Committee by telegram. At the same time, Luo Han was instructed to go to Yan’an to meet with the comrades in charge of the Central Committee. However, due to heavy rains and floods, the road was blocked. Luo Han could not go further than Xi’an.
At the office of the Eighth Route Army in Xi’an, Chen Duxiu was warmly received by Lin Boqu and Wang Ruofei. Both Lin and Wang had worked with Chen Duxiu during the Revolutionary period and were inwardly happy to have Chen Duxiu back on the same front. Lin Boqu hoped that Rohan would be patient and persuasive, and said, “Chen Duxiu has indelible merits in the history of culture and a different status than others in the history of the Party, and if he could give up certain preconceptions and return to work on one front, it would be extremely necessary for the nation and society.” Wang Ruofei also expressed his willingness to go south with Luo Han to meet Chen Duxiu if he was not busy with his work.
In Yan’an, the CPC Central Committee soon learned of Chen Duxiu’s attitude and intentions. On September 10, Zhang Wentian and Mao Zedong, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, called Lin Boqu “Instruction on the Principles for the Trotskyists” and said: “Please tell Lohan our principles for the Trotskyists as follows.
(A) We do not refuse to contact those who have made mistakes in the past but now sincerely repent and are willing to resist Japan, and we wholeheartedly welcome their conversion.
(B) We are also willing to unite with the Trotskyists, such as Chen Duxiu, against Japan when they can fulfill the following three conditions (a) To openly renounce and resolutely oppose all the doctrines and actions of the Trotskyists, and openly declare that they have disassociated themselves from the Trotskyist organizations and admit their past mistakes in joining the Trotskyists; (b) To openly express their support for the policy of the anti-Japanese national united front; (c) To express in their practical actions the sincerity of such support.
(c) As for other relations, they can be considered after the above three conditions have been fulfilled.”
Just when Rohan left for Xi’an, Chen Duxiu had already made contact with Bogu and Ye Jianying in Nanjing. When Luo Han returned to Nanjing from Xi’an, Bogu told Luo Han that, according to his observation, “Duxiu’s views are seldom the same as Trotsky’s, so recently the Central Committee has not considered Trotsky and Chen as one faction in its publications.” He also instructed that he could “verbally convey” Zhang Wentian and Mao Zedong’s three articles. Bo Gu intended to go to Wuhan to meet with Chen Duxiu, but considering his own shallow age, it would be “best to wait for Enlai to go south” if he wanted to have a successful talk.
After Luo Han introduced his trip to Xi’an and the three articles of Zhang and Mao, Chen Duxiu wrote a letter in his own handwriting and drew up a seven-article program for Luo Han to pass to Bogu and Ye Jianying after he returned to Nanjing. Such interactions and contacts had shown a benign trend of development.
Wang Ming accused the CPC Central Committee of ignoring the danger of the Trotskyists
On November 29, 1937, Wang Ming, Kang Sheng and others returned to Yan’an from Moscow. Wang Ming was an executive member of the Comintern, a member of the Presidium and an alternate secretary of the Secretariat. Wang Ming was a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, a member of the Presidium and an alternate secretary of the Secretariat.
On that day, Zhang Wentian, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and other leaders of the Central Committee almost all went to the airport to greet him. Mao Zedong delivered a welcome speech, saying, “Welcome to the gods who came down from Kunlun Mountain, welcome to our beloved international friends, welcome to our comrades who have returned from the Soviet Union. It is a great joy for you to come back to Yan’an. This is called ‘joy from heaven’.” Wang Ming was not at all modest and simply boasted that he had been sent back by the Communist International, by Comrade Stalin.
Wang Ming’s work in the Comintern was satisfactory to Stalin and the Comintern. Wang Ming’s dispatch back was to strengthen the Comintern’s supervision of the Communist Party of China’s anti-Japanese national united front. Although the Comintern had practically recognized Mao’s leadership in the Chinese Communist Party, Stalin was still at ease with the principle of independence that Mao had emphasized.
The Soviet government, especially Stalin, was concerned with the so-called frontal battlefield of the Kuomintang and did not care much about the guerrilla war against Japan led by the Chinese Communist Party. They always feared that the principle of independence would anger Chiang Kai-shek and cause the Sino-Japanese battlefield to fail to hold up Japan, thus distracting the Soviet Union from dealing with Hitler on the western front and putting the Soviet Union in a situation where it would be confronted on two sides. Wang Ming’s mission was to urge the CCP-led armed forces to submit to Chiang Kai-shek’s unified command.
In the Soviet Union at that time, the so-called “Trotskyist gang” was under heavy attack, and Wang Ming and Kang Sheng had been the backbone of the “anti-Trotskyist purge” in the Soviet Union. Looking at this political background, it is easy to understand why Wang Ming played the role of a two-faced person after his return to China. On the one hand, he proposed that “everything should be done through the united front and everything should be obeyed by the united front”, which was already too right; on the other hand, he brutally rejected Chen Duxiu and even arbitrarily called him a Trotskyist! On the other hand, he brutally rejected Chen Duxiu and even arbitrarily called Chen Duxiu and other traitors as Trotskyists, not only left, but also a fierce and overbearing look.
At a meeting of the Central Politburo, the issue of Chen Duxiu and others joining the United Front was discussed. Wang Ming took advantage of the issue and severely criticized the Central Committee for Chen Duxiu’s three articles. He said: We can cooperate with anyone against Japan, only the Trotskyists are the exception. Internationally we can cooperate with bourgeois politicians warlords and even anti-communist executioners, but not with Trotsky’s adherents. In China we can cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinate anti-communist agents and others, but not with Chen Duxiu. He even denounced Chen Duxiu in a stern voice as a “traitor”, “Trotskyist” and “murderer”.
Someone at the meeting pointed out that there was a difference between Chen Duxiu and Trotsky, and furthermore, where was the evidence that Chen Duxiu was a Trotskyist traitor? Wang Ming said, “Stalin is thundering against the Trotskyists, and we are trying to contact the Trotskyists. If the matter were to come to Stalin’s knowledge, the consequences would be unthinkable.” He added: “There can be no benevolent notions against the Trotskyists, and Chen Duxiu should be described as a Japanese spy, if not a Japanese spy.”
To bluff his way through the meeting, he also droned on about the Soviet struggle to purge the Trotskyists. He said that any member of the Communist Party, no matter how great his merits, could become a traitor and a traitor to the Party if he had anti-Party tendencies. The liquidation of these traitors purified the Communist Party, and it was on this point that Stalin developed Leninism. He emphasized that there were a large number of Trotskyists and anti-Party elements in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; was there peace and quiet in our Party? There must also be many Trotskyists and other anti-Party elements hidden in our Party. Therefore, we must not resume cooperation with Chen Duxiu, but step up our anti-Trotskyist efforts.
Wang Ming had come to Yan’an with the imperial sword, and behind him stood the huge figure of Stalin. His attitude directly influenced the decisions of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and therefore Chen Duxiu’s return to the united front was naturally aborted. Wang Ming never repented of his evil deeds for the rest of his life, so much so that when he was about to reach the edge of the Yellow Spring, he said with no small amount of satisfaction: “At the end of 1937, after I returned to Yan’an, I learned that Mao had reached an agreement with Chen Duxiu’s representative, Luo Han, and therefore Mao allowed all the members of the To-Chen group to regain their Party membership (since I had returned to Yan’an, the ‘restoration of membership’ was not realized).”
The flawed article on Kang Sheng’s false accusations
A few days before the Central Politburo meeting, Wang Ming’s article “The New Stage of Japanese Aggression and the New Period of China’s Struggle” was published in Liberation. In the article he said alarmingly that the Japanese detective agencies, “first of all, absorb cadres who do such despicable and sinister work from among the hidden Trotsky-Chen Duxiu-Luo Zhanglong bandit elements. ” Wang Ming blowing shadow and dust, to the wall of fiction, hard to give Chen Duxiu and other charges of Japanese spies, its intentions are sinister and malicious.
At this time, “Liberation” published “the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court of the USSR on the treason case of the “Rightist and Trotskyist League”, declaring that Bukharin, Likov and others were “German spies” and “Japanese spies The verdict declared that Bukharin and Li Kov were “German spies” and “Japanese spies” and “received 250,000 gold marks per year”. Thus, Kang Sheng followed in the footsteps of the Japanese and published in Liberation, Vol. 1, No. 29 and 30, “The Trotskyist Bandits Who Eradicated the Japanese Detectives as Public Enemies of the Nation”, with a full text of 16,000 words, in which he falsely accused Chen Duxiu of the following: “In 1931, the ‘September 18’ Incident, the Japanese imperialists At the same time, the Japanese detective agency in Shanghai, through the introduction of the pro-Japanese faction Tang Younon, held negotiations with the ‘Central Committee’ of the Trotskyist bandits organized by Chen Duxiu, Peng Shuzhi and Luo Han. At that time Tang Younon represented the Japanese detective agency, while Chen Duxiu and Luohan represented the organization of the Trotskyist bandits. The result of the negotiation was that the Trotskyist bandits ‘would not hinder the Japanese invasion of China’ and that Japan would give Chen Duxiu’s Trotskyist ‘Central Committee’ a monthly allowance of three hundred yuan, which would be increased when it became effective. This traitorous negotiation established that the Japanese allowance was received by Luo Han, the organizing minister of Chen Duxiu’s Trotskyist Central Committee, and so the Chinese Trotskyist bandits and Trotskyist bandit leaders, playing different roles on various fronts under the direction of the Japanese, sang their double act of helping Japan invade China.”
Kang Sheng followed Wang Ming closely, and in order to weave evidence of Chen Duxiu’s collaboration with the enemy, he went so far as to use the technique of novelist’s words, boldly imagining and making presumptions, creating out of thin air a shocking and unjust case.
Such a big lie, of course, is full of loopholes and difficult to explain itself. In the same article, Kang Sheng said: “The Japanese invasion monthly allowance of 50,000 yuan for the Trotskyist bandit Zhang Mutao,” the task is “to destroy the anti-Japanese national united front. The breakthrough finally came when Chen Duxiu’s reputation was compared to that of the unknown Zhang Mutao, who was bought by the Japanese at a vastly different value. Chen Duxiu is only 300, while Zhang Mutao is 50,000. Kang Sheng concealing his heart and deceiving himself, deceiving the sky and harming others, is already absurd and nonsensical.
The article said “joint cooperation negotiations”, neither the date nor the place of negotiation, and the most cunning intention is to end a Tang Younon, check this public has died two years ago, since the person is dead, dead without proof, the fabrication of lies with more arbitrary, but also more able to achieve the sinister purpose of creating something out of nothing.
In the article, the main content of the so-called “negotiation on joint cooperation” is “not to hinder Japan’s invasion of China”. Please note that this phrase is in quotation marks, which means that it is the text of the agreement signed by the Japanese side. As almost everyone on earth knows, some key members of the Japanese government still do not recognize “Japan’s invasion of China”. It is strange, then, how the Japanese militarists of seventy years ago could use such an exciting word as “invasion”.
It is difficult for all sectors of society to keep silent for the sake of justice and friendship
As soon as the charge of being a Trotskyist traitor came out, Chen Duxiu immediately aroused reactions and doubts among the public. How could such an intellectual with strong national sentiments sell himself out to the Japanese imperialists for a low price of 300 yuan a month, and make himself a sinner for all time?
On March 15, 1938, nine people, including Fu Rulin, Duan Xipeng and Gao Yihan, sent an open letter to the Wuhan Ta Kung Pao, defending Chen Duxiu in a righteous manner. Dagong Bao was the first to publish the full text of the letter.
However, recently we have seen that the publications of the Communist Party, such as “Mass” and “Liberation” and the “Xinhua Daily”, have falsely accused Mr. Chen Duxiu of being a traitor and a bandit, and of having received Japanese subsidies to carry out espionage work, which is beyond reason. This is beyond reason. If the title of traitor and bandit can be applied to Mr. Duxiu, then everyone can arbitrarily apply it to others. I am now living in Wuhan, and I have seen and heard from Mr. Duxiu from time to time, so it is difficult to keep silent about this unfounded slander against him, for the sake of justice and friendship. I understand that all of Mr. Duxiu’s friends at home and abroad, as well as fair-minded people throughout the country, share his feelings.
I hereby request you to publish this letter in your newspaper.
Fu Rulin, Duan Xipeng, Gao Yihan, Tao Xisheng, Wang Xingkong, Zhou Fuhai, Liang Hancao, Zhang Ximan, Lin Gengbai”
Immediately afterwards, the Wuhan Daily News, Sweeping News and some publications also published nine people’s “open letters” one after another. Among the nine, except for Wang Xing Gong, who was the president of Wuhan University, the other eight served within the Kuomintang and the Kuomintang government and were influential celebrities at that time. Among them, only Wang Xing Gong and Gao Yi Han were close to Chen Duxiu, while the others were only casual friends of Chen Duxiu. However, they knew Chen Duxiu’s personality and character, so they took the initiative to defend Chen Duxiu for the sake of morality and responsibility.
After the publication of the Open Letter, Zhang Ximan wrote a letter to Xinhua Daily, saying, “Why do I dare to take responsibility for defending Mr. Duxiu? It is because I visited him several times after he was released from prison. From his resolute attitude in resisting the Japanese invasion and his ardent expectation of the great mission of the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association created by me and the joint efforts of the two friendly countries of China and the Soviet Union to purge the East of pirates, it can be proved that he is at least a patriotic scholar.” The letter also said: the national tragedy, all patriots, should understand each other, learn from the pain, “can not be a little bit of will, repeat the mistakes of the past, flesh and blood, the people and the country.”
The “Open Letter” provoked reactions from the community, and many people questioned Wang Ming and Kang Sheng. The article said that Kang Sheng’s disinformation article was ridiculous and shameful, and that the so-called 300 yuan allowance was pure nonsense, “because Mr. Chen’s status in China is very high and he has many friends, so he can get by by selling articles or having friends send him some money. ‘ to live? The ‘three hundred yuan allowance’ sold his character and his life. Would Mr. Chen, as a scholar and statesman, at the age of over fifty and well experienced in the world, have been so foolish?”
Chen Duxiu made up his mind that he would come to court to settle the score
After the publication of the “Open Letter” by nine people, Wang Ming and Kang Sheng played deaf and dumb and did not produce any corresponding evidence in response to the “Open Letter”. Wang Ming used the opportunity of holding the Yangtze River Bureau and leading the Xinhua Daily to publish a short commentary on “The Question of Whether Chen Duxiu is a Trotskyist Traitor” on March 17, suggesting forcibly that whether Chen Duxiu is a traitor or not “should be determined by whether Chen Duxiu publicly declares his separation from the Trotskyist traitor organization and opposes the Trotskyist traitor’s actions”, and repeatedly threatened Chen Duxiu The “public statement” and “public declaration” were repeatedly threatened.
Faced with the aggressive momentum, Chen Duxiu, who had been silent, became angry.
The next day, he wrote an “Open Letter to ‘Xinhua Daily'”, which he knew might not be published by Xinhua Daily, so he sent another copy to the “Sweeper”. The letter was published in full in the Wuhan Daily on the 19th and in the Sweeper on the 20th. The letter stated.
“After I was released from prison last September, I had a talk with Jianying and Bogu. After arriving in Wuchang, Biwu also visited me once and never discussed the question of whether I was a traitor or not. And according to Luo Han, they still want me to return to the Party.
Recently, when I read your newspaper, the “Mass Weekly” published in Hankow and the “Liberation Weekly” published in Yan’an, they suddenly said that I was receiving Japanese subsidies and acting as a spy. When I saw the short review of your newspaper this month, it dawned on me. It is clear from this short review that your concern is not whether Chen Duxiu is a traitor, but whether he can participate in the movement against the Trotskyists. If it is true that …… was paid by the enemy to act as a spy, it is a serious criminal matter, and the fact cannot be eliminated by declaring that one has left the traitorous organization and opposed traitorous acts. Whether a traitor is a traitor or not should be determined by evidence, not by whether or not Chen Duxiu openly declared that he had left the Trotskyist organization and opposed Trotskyist traitorous actions, as you have said. Apart from the real evidence, a statement or non-statement does not eliminate or establish the fact! Anyone who finds a traitor should only present evidence to the government, which will handle the case according to the law. Until the government authorities decide whether they are traitors or not, no private person has the right to decide that they are traitors, and no one is allowed to presume to accuse each other of being traitors as a means of propaganda for political struggle.”
After the publication of Chen Duxiu’s letter, the Xinhua Daily published “On Chen Duxiu’s Letter,” pointing out that Chen Duxiu “has been a prisoner of Trotskyist ideas up to the present day, and it is for this reason that he is unwilling to oppose resolutely the actions of the Trotskyist traitors, and it is for this reason that the Chinese people associate Chen Duxiu with the Trotskyist traitors, not without reason. “
In a letter to He Zhiyu, Chen Duxiu said, “I am not a novice in society, and society has its own public judgment. Their unjustified rumors and slander are not harmful to me, but they only expose their own ugliness. I have made up my mind to ignore them for the time being, but I will collect materials at any time and come to the court to settle the accounts, there is nothing else.”
In July 1938, he left Wuhan for Chongqing and later settled in Jiangjin, the last stop on the road of his life. Chiang Kai-shek sent Hu Zongnan and Dai Gan to visit him in order to provoke his relationship with the CPC Central Committee. They took out newspaper clippings of articles written by Fu Rulin, Duan Xipeng and others in defense of Chen Duxiu and handed them to Chen Duxiu, saying: “Fu Rulin and Duan Xipeng are Chen’s students and friends who have forgotten their years. …… domestic communist issue, from division to unity, from unity to fight, the current war, if the national policy can not be implemented, the future is really worrying. The first thing that I want to do is to get a good idea of what I want to do. He took the newspaper clipping, bypassed the sensitive issue of the relationship between the Communist Party and the State, and said calmly: “I have been slandered, but fortunately justice is in the hearts of the people, as evidenced by the newspaper clipping shown by Mr. Chen and others. The people listed as my defenders are well-known people in China, some from the Kuomintang, some from the non-Kuomintang, and some who are known as educators. I had intended to take the case to court, but I gave up when I saw the public notice of injustice on my behalf.”
Chen Duxiu said this and did this, but in the end he did not take the case to court, so did he really say, “Because I saw the public notice of injustice, I gave up. Or are there other unspeakable reasons. However, one thing is very certain, that is, in the national overall situation of the war, he grasped very accurately which is more important. He put aside his personal honor and reputation and went all out to save the country by fighting against Japan.
History finally restores a true and innocent Chen Duxiu
“Zeng Shen is not a murderer, slander three times and mother of mercy alarm.” The poem by the great poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty most truly expresses the abomination and horror of silence. In fact, many people, including the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party, knew very well that the so-called “Trotskyist traitors” were the biggest conspiracy and deception. However, in the context of the authority of the entire Communist International against the Trotskyists, who had become the target of the international communist movement, every branch and every member of the International had to and could only take an unreserved stand against the Trotskyists, and it was because of this solemnity that Wang Ming said that Chen Duxiu should be called a Trotskyist traitor, if not a Trotskyist traitor. Wang Ming was able to follow in the same footsteps, so that he could rise higher and higher. Many Trotskyists also knew that it was Wang Ming who prevented them from joining the anti-Japanese national united front. Wang Fanxi was very moved when he recalled in his Shuangshan Memoirs that Ye Jianying ran to rescue him from prison. He argued, “The Chinese Communist Party members were not uniformly hostile to the Trotskyist connection either.” “Only a very few such as the Chen Shaoyu (i.e., Wang Ming, author’s note) faction made anti-Trotskyism an important political capital.” In a situation where opposition to the Trotskyists was an important political element of the international communist movement, it is not surprising that the term “Trotskyist traitor” was used for decades. In the article “On the Strategy of Opposition to Japanese Imperialism”, the commentary30 continues to use the untrue words imposed on Chen Duxiu by Wang Ming and others: “After the defeat of the Chinese revolution in 1927, Trotskyists also appeared in China, who, in combination with Chen Duxiu and other traitors, formed a small counter-revolutionary organization in 1929, spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda of the kind that the Kuomintang had completed the bourgeois democratic revolution, and so on. It was entirely a despicable tool of imperialism and the Kuomintang against the people. The Trotskyists in China openly participated in the secret service organs of the Kuomintang. After the September 18 Incident, they accepted the Trotskyist bandits’ instructions ‘not to hinder the Japanese Empire’s occupation of China’, cooperated with the Japanese secret service organs, received allowances from the Japanese, and engaged in all kinds of activities in favor of the Japanese invaders.”
Across forty years of hardships, in February 1991, the Editorial Committee of the Central Document of the Communist Party of China re-revised the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, and in the same note, its contents have been significantly revised: “After the defeat suffered by the Chinese revolution in 1927, a small number of Trotskyists also emerged in China, who, in combination with Chen Duxiu and others, believed that the Chinese bourgeoisie was not interested in They believed that the Chinese bourgeoisie had already won a victory over imperialism and feudalism, that the bourgeois democratic revolution in China was over, and that the Chinese proletariat could only wait until the future to hold a socialist revolution, which at that time could only be a legal movement with the so-called ‘National Convention’ as its central slogan. Hence they were also known as the To-Chen Abolitionists.”
Please note that the new commentary has deleted such key expressions as “traitors” and “formed a small counter-revolutionary organization in 1929” from the old commentary, and more importantly, has deleted a large paragraph of the false accusation of “Trotskyist traitors The key phrases such as “traitor” and “formed a small counter-revolutionary organization in 1929” were deleted. Note 9 of On the Protracted War adds the following textual expression: “During the anti-Japanese war, the Trotskyists also advocated anti-Japanese propaganda, but attacked the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-Japanese national united front policy. The comparison of the Trotskyists with traitors was the result of the erroneous assertion, then prevalent within the Communist International, that the Trotskyists were connected with the spy organizations of the imperialist countries and that the Chinese Trotskyists were connected with the Japanese imperialist spy organizations.”
“Don’t say that slander is as deep as waves, and don’t say that relocated guests are like sinking sand. Though it is hard to pluck and sift, it is only when the sand is blown away that gold is seen.” Chen Duxiu’s belief that “justice lies in the hearts of the people” and “society has its own public judgment” has finally received a fair response after more than half a century of wind and rain. From “Trotskyist traitors” to “Trotskyists also advocate anti-Japanese propaganda”, all the charges imposed on Chen Duxiu by Wang Ming and others have been removed. This is the most authoritative political definition of Chen Duxiu and others to date.
Originally published in Essence of Literature and History, No. 2, 2003
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