Chen Duxiu

Chinese revolutionary and thinker. Born in Huaining, Anhui Province. Studied in Japan and graduated from the Tokyo Higher Normal School, where he joined the China Tongminghui. After returning to China, he published a colloquial newspaper. He participated in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, but fled to Japan for a time. In 1915, he returned to Shanghai and founded the Youth Magazine (which he renamed New Youth the following year). In 1916, he became a professor at Beijing University. In 1918, he and Li Dazhao founded the Weekly Commentary, advocating a new culture and promoting Marxism, and became a radical democrat during the May Fourth Movement. In 1920, he organized a communist group in Shanghai, and when the Chinese Communist Party was established in July 1921, he was elected General Secretary of the Party due to his reputation during the May Fourth Movement.

In the latter stages of the First Civil Revolutionary War, a right-wing opportunist ideology represented by Chen Duxiu led to the formation of a surrenderist line within the party, which resulted in Chiang Kai-shek's April 12 coup d'état (Shanghai coup d'état). He was relieved of his position as General Secretary at an emergency meeting of the Communist Party on August 7, 1927, but continued to pursue erroneous policies. He later became disillusioned with the prospects of the revolution and became a dissolutionist, while also forming an anti-Communist organization in collusion with Trotskyists. He was expelled from the Communist Party in November 1929. In December of the same year, he spoke with 81 people, including Peng Shuzhi, and published a "Political Opinion Paper," opposing the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army. He was captured and imprisoned by the Kuomintang in 1931, and after his release in August 1937, he devoted himself to attacking the Communist Party, until he died of illness in 1942. For a long time, he was notorious as a traitor, but in the 1980s, some people began to say that his merits and demerits should be evaluated objectively.

[Ryuzo Yamashita]

Hiroko Sakamoto (ed.), New Edition: The Original History of Modern Chinese Thought, Volume 4: World War and Nation Formation (2010, Iwanami Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の革命家、思想家。安徽(あんき)省懐寧(かいねい)出身。日本に留学し、東京高等師範学校速成科を卒業。東京で中国同盟会に入り、帰国後、口語(こうご)の新聞を発行した。1911年の辛亥(しんがい)革命に参加したが、一時、日本に亡命、1915年上海(シャンハイ)に帰り『青年雑誌』を創刊（翌年『新青年』と改題）。1916年北京(ペキン)大学教授となる。1918年に李大釗(りたいしょう)と『毎週評論』を創刊して新文化を提唱し、マルクス主義を宣伝して、五・四運動時期の急進的民主派となった。1920年上海で共産主義グループを組織し、1921年7月に中国共産党が成立すると、五・四運動時期におけるその名声により党の総書記に選出された。

　第一次国内革命戦争の後期、陳独秀の代表する右翼日和見(ひよりみ)主義思想によって党内に投降主義路線が形成され、その結果、蒋介石(しょうかいせき)の四・一二クーデター（上海クーデター）を許すに至った。1927年8月7日の共産党緊急会議で総書記の職務を解かれたが、なお誤った政策をとり続けた。その後、革命の前途に失望し解党主義者となるとともに、トロツキストと結託して反共産党組織をつくった。1929年11月共産党から除名。同年12月彭述之(ほうじゅつし)など81名と語らい「政治意見書」を発表、中国共産党と紅軍に反対した。1931年に国民党に捕らえられて入獄、1937年8月釈放後はもっぱら共産党攻撃を行い、1942年に病死した。長らく変節者として悪名高かったが、1980年代に至り、一部にその功罪を客観的に評価すべきだという意見も出た。文集に『独秀文存』などがある。

［山下龍三］

『坂元ひろ子編『新編　原典中国近代思想史　第4巻――世界大戦と国民形成』（2010・岩波書店）』

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