The Translation & Introduction Of Marxian Economics In China During 1919-1949

The period from 1919 to 1949 is a phase of systematical introduction of Marxian economics into China. Chinese economic theory met with a splendid phase of development, reaching an unprecedented altitude in its own history.During this period original Marxian economic works and popular books about those Marxian economic works were massively translated and spread around. After the Chinese Communist Party came into existence in 1921, the introduction of Marxian Economics into China entered into a new stage. In the 1920s, most of the Marxian economic thoughts were translated from Japanese. But at the end of the 1920s, translations from Russia gradually increased, and overtopped translations from Japanese originals. The failure of the Great Revolution in 1927 allowed Chinese people to start to analyze the character of social economy of the time with Marxian economic theory. This was the starting point to apply Marxism to study Chinese economic problems, and that marked the germination of Marxian economics in old China. The period in the 20s and 30s was characterized by the translation of Marx's basic principles and main works. In the 1940s, soviet socialistic economics instructed by Marxian economics became the theme of translation, and Chinese people began to directly absorb nutrition from German and Russian originals, and translations from Japanese originals declined. The Chinese version of History of Surplus Value Theory was published in June 1949. Thus Marx's main economic works had been all translated and published on the eve of the founding of new China. This study intends to sort out the translated works on Marxian economics from 1919 to 1949, to give a brief introduction to or review of some of the key works; and to summarize characteristics of translations in different stages and their influence on Chinese economic thought.