La Jeunesse And The Dissemination Of Historical Materialism

As one of the most influential newspapers in modern Chinese history,the writing team behind La Jeunesse consisted of a group of advanced intellectuals who were committed to spreading new ideas.Influenced by the domestic factors such as national rejuvenation and the international factors such as the October Revolution and the World War I,these well-educated intellectuals,changed the theme of the journal from single-minded propaganda of science and democracy to the dissemination of Marxist theory foundation and soul--historical materialism.By combing the texts that have diffused historical materialism since the fouding of La Jeunesse,it can be seen that its relevant interpretations by those early intellectuals such as Chen Duxiu,Li Dazhao,Jiang Guangci,and Li Da mainly focused on the following principles of historical materialism--productivity determining production relationships,the economic base determining the superstructure;the objective law,the subjective initiative,and the class struggle.At the same time,La Jeunesse was founded in a period when all kinds of ideological trends were competing.When historical materialists spread their historical materialism in the journal represented by La Jeunesse,they would inevitably struggle with other non-materialist historical trends.Among them,the most symbolic controversies are those of “problems and doctrines”,“socialism”,“anarchism”,and“science and outlook on life”.It was in these debates that Chen Duxiu,Li Dazhao,and others extended their propaganda of historical materialism from La Jeunesse to Weekly Review,Reformation,and other magazines,in order to consolidate the ideological status of historical materialism in the process of refuting non-materialist views of history.On the one hand,La Jeunesse became a typical platform for the dissemination of historical materialism in early China,because it had three transmission sources such as Japan,Europe and America,and Soviet Russia,which provided cultural support for the early intellectuals to introduce the Western historical materialism into China comprehensively and systematically.On the other hand,it maximized the propagation effect of historical materialism in China by its novel special column,its characteristic positioning of young students as the core audience,and the powerful language carriers formed by the vernacular movement.Through exploring the whole course of spreading historical materialism in La Jeunesse,we can know that it has made great contributions in improving the theoretical level of the early historical materialism theorists,expanding the size of its audience,and laying the thought foundation for the establishment and development of the Communist Party of China.It provides a profound enlightenment for the Communist Party of China to carry out the propaganda of historical materialism in the21 st century.To wit,the research and propaganda of historical materialism must be combined with the times.Party newspapers and periodicals are the platforms for the propaganda of the scientific theories,and the young students are the key propaganda objects.