Benjamin I. Schwartz And His Early Study On Chinese Communism

Professor Benjamin I. Schwartz (1916-1999), a late remarkable historian and specialist on China issues, was one of the leading figures in the field of Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Professor Schwartz's principal academic areas include Chinese intellectual and politic history from the ancient to the modern China, and his research began with his landmark doctoral dissertation and first book, Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao, which marked all his research and influenced the tendency of Chinese Studies in American. Till now this book is still identified as a pioneer of comparative studies on communist movement. His breadth of perspective, strong skill of 12 languages, as well as profound accomplishments on religion and intellectual history, made his thought on Chinese Communism especially profound and original.It's essential for the Marxist subject to study the rise of Communism in China, so the studies of Chinese Communism by Schwartz are not only the objective of Chinese Studies Abroad, but also shoule be interested by Marxist subject. It's not only about a wise man but also helps us understand American views about Chinese Communism and improve the political and scholarly communication between China and the United States, if we consider his pioneer position on the studies of Chinese Communism in the United States and his influence. Through probing into Schwartz's early studies on Chinese Communism, we could understand more about the origin, the characteristics and the trend of American study on Chinese Communism, and also help extend the field of comparative studies on Marxism .This is a meaningful job.From the viewpoint and methodology of the Historical Materialism, this paper will take the book Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao, as a classic example for analyzing the American studies of the early history of Chinese Communism, aiming at exploring its background, motivation and views, as well as summarizing its pattern, methodology, characteristics and remarking on its gain and loss. Hopefully this study would provide some useful inspirations to the related field of Marxism subjects in China.The full text altogether divides into five parts:First part, introduction. Based on a massive, widely collections of Schwartz's personal information, this part will give a brief introduction about Schwartz's life experience, academic achievements as well as his influence in both domestic and foreign land.Second part, Benjamin I. Schwartz, a China-study expert starting with the study of Chinese communism. Through his experience this part will explain his motivation for studying Chinese Communism and give a broad account of basic characteristics of the study of Chinese Communism in the U.S. in early 20th century. Third part, Schwartz's early study on Chinese communism. Including his main views on Chinese communism, on the leader- mass relationship, on the doctrines which appeared during the origin and development of Chinese Communism, and on Mao Zetong's Strategies, this part will analyze Schwartz's main ideas of communism development in China.The forth part, the unique pattern, methods and characteristics applying to his studies of Chinese communism. Schwartz's early study on Chinese communism could be considered as a comparable full system, and then we could borrow some inspirations from him for our studies on Chinese Communism after we summarize his unique research patterns and methodology.The fifth part, the contribution and insufficient of Schwartz's early study on Chinese communism. This part is an evaluation on Schwartz's Communism study. Schwartz established a pattern which applied positivism to the study of Chinese Communism, and made a pioneering contribution to this field in the United States with a compound of methods. Meanwhile he was influenced by Western-centered approach, and showed shortcomings such as placing more emphasizes on intellectural & cultural studies than economics and social elements. We should try to find out what are the valuable achievements we can learn from the Chinese Studies overseas, and what are those we should ignore.