From Private Library and Bookstore to Communist Party: Yun Daiying's Social Engagement and Political Transformation, 1917–1921

Abstract

The early Chinese Marxist, communist leader and martyr, Yun Daiying was an avid reader and collector of books. His intellectual and political endeavors started with reading and collecting various books and magazines on current affairs and social sciences from home and abroad. Yun Daiying founded his own private library in 1917 and expanded it into a public library while he was a student of Wuchang National Normal University. Later Yun established a reading club christened the “Mutual Aid Society” under the disparate influences of Kropotkin, Mushanokōji Saneatsu, and the YMCA. Yun's founding of the Beneficent Group Bookstore in 1920 epitomized his ideal of combining reading and the book trade with the dissemination of new knowledge and the reconstruction of society from the bottom up. Yun kept his distance from the other Comintern-influenced Wuhan Marxists, and it was rather upon the organizational foundation of the Beneficent Group Bookstore that Yun Daiying co-founded a more radical “Co-Existence Society”, whose members were eventually converted to communism in 1921.

Keywords:

• Yun Daiying
• Lin Yu'nan
• Liqun shushe
• May Fourth
• Comintern

Notes

¹I would like to thank Professor Tian Ziyu of Hubei University and Professor Li Liangming of Huazhong Normal University, two leading scholars whose works focus on Yun Daiying, for their kind assistance during my research in Wuhan in the summer of 2009 and their generous sharing of insights and sources. I also would like to thank Professor Rebecca Nedostup and Professor Qiong Zhang for their comments and encouragement when the paper was presented to the 124th annual meeting of the American Historical Association in 2009. Thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Modern Chinese History, who helped improve the paper. The research on this paper was supported by the Academic Support Fund of Allegheny College and the Jonathan and Nancy Helmreich Research Fund.

²See Tse-tsung Chow, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), 176–82; Xie Zhuohua, ed., Zhongguo tushu he tushuguan shi [A History of Books and Libraries in China] (Wuchang: Wuhan daxue chubanshe, 1987), 235–36. For the rise and spread of print capitalism in modern China, see Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005); and Kai-wing Chow, Printing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, revised paperback edition 2007). For book trade, see Cynthia J. Brokaw, Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Period (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007).

³Tian Ziyu, Wuhan wusi yundongshi [A History of the May Fourth Movement in Wuhan] (Wuhan: Wuhan chubanshe, 2009), 174.

⁴For this provincialized approach to the May Fourth movement and early Chinese Communism, see Wen-hsin Yeh, Provincial Passages: Culture, Space, and the Origins of Chinese Communism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996); and Hans J. van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920–1927 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). For the research on Yun Daiying, see Li Liangming and Zhong Detao, eds., Yun Daiying nianpu [A Chronology of Yun Daiying] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 2008); He Xianglin and Li Liangming, eds., Jinian Yun Daiying danchen 110 zhounian xueshu taolunhui lunwenji [A Collection of Essays for the Commemoration of the One Hundred and Tenth Birthday of Yun Daiying] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 2006); Li Liangming et al., eds., Yun Daiying danchen yibai zhounian ji xueshu taolun hui lunwenji [A Collection of Essays for the Commemoration of the Hundredth Birthday of Yun Daiying] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 1996); Tian Ziyu et al., Yun Daiying zhuanji [A Biography of Yun Daiying] (Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1984), 55.

⁵For Arif Dirlik's influential view on this issue, see his The Origin of Chinese Communism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 9–11.

⁶Chow, The May Fourth Movement, 36. One student of Yun Daiying's recalled that the Mutual Aid Society was an “kewai dushuhui”, extra-curricular reading society. See Liu Yeqing, “Huiyi Yun Daiying laoshi” [In Remembrance of Professor Yun Daiying], in Huiyi Yun Daiying [In Memory of Yun Daiying], ed. Renmin chubanshe bianjibu (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1982), 293. For the influence of Kropotkin in China, also see Arif Dirlik, Anarchism and Chinese Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 155. For Kropotkin's influence on Mao Zedong, see Hung-Yok Ip, “The Origins of Chinese Communism: A New Interpretation”, Modern China 20, no. 1 (1994): 38.

⁷Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 9.

⁸Tian, Wuhan wusi yundongshi, 72–74.

⁹Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 26, 34.

¹⁰Yun, Yun Daiying riji [The Diary of Yun Daiying] (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1981), 40.

¹¹Ibid., 79.

¹²For the social and democratic support for human rights and democratic institutions in Republican China, see Frank Dikötter, The Age of Openness (University of California Press, 2008), 20–21.

¹³James E. Sheridan, “The Warlord Era: Politics and Militarism under the Peking Government” in The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12 Republican China 1912–1949, Part 1, ed. John K. Fairbank (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 285–87.

¹⁴McCord, The Power of the Gun, 82, 93. For instance, the Draft Hunan Provincial Constitution [Hunansheng xianfa caoan] promulgated by the Zhao Hengti regime in January 1922 did include some “bourgeois style democratic and liberal rights” (zichanjieji xingzhi de minzhu ziyou quanli), according to Li Weihan, a veteran Communist revolutionary, and thus provided Mao an opportunity to pursue a “legitimate struggle” (hefa douzheng). Li Weihan, “Huiyi Xinmin xuehui” [In Memory of the New Citizen Society], in Wusi shiqi de shetuan [Societies and Groups during the May Fourth Period], ed. Zhang Yunhou et al. (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1979), 617.

¹⁵A very interesting discussion of the book collectors of the Ming and Qing eras can be found in Joseph P. McDermott, A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006), 83–118.

¹⁶Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 63.

¹⁷Ibid., 545.

¹⁸Ibid., 584.

¹⁹For the founding of the YMCA in China, see Shirley Garret, Social Reformers in Urban China: The Chinese Y.M.C.A. 1895–1926 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), 112.

²⁰Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 389.

²¹Wei Yixin, “Xinzhong kaimo diyiren” [The Number One Role Model in My Mind], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, ed. Renmin chubanshe bianjibu, 116; Zheng Nanxuan, “Yongyuan de jingyang” [Everlasting Admiration], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, 124, 129. For Yun's religious spirit, also see Xia Hai (Shakhar Rahav), “Cong jiaotiao dao shijian: xifang xuezhe duiyu Yun Daiying yanjiu de jianjie yiji wo duiyu Huzhushe de laiyuan yu shijian de kanfa” [From Dogma to Practice: A Brief Review of Western Studies on Yun Daiying and My Views on the Origin and Practice of Mutual Aid Society], in Jinian Yun Daiying danchen 110 zhounian, 66.

²²For the Anarchists’ emphasis on morality, see Martin Bernal, “The Triumph of Anarchism over Marxism, 1906–1907” in China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900–1913, ed. Mary C. Wright (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968), 138. For its implicit relationship with Neo-Confucianism, see Peter Zarrow, Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 243.

²³Zhang et al., eds., Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 118–19; Liu Renjing, “Yongmeng wei geming er fendou de zhanshi” [A Brave Soldier Fighting for Revolution], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, 178.

²⁴Liao Huanxing, “Wuchang Liqun shushe shimo” [The Beginning and End of the Beneficent Group Bookstore in Wuchang], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, 254.

³⁰Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 156–57.

²⁵Wei Yixin, “Xinzhong kaimo diyiren”, 118.

²⁶Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 395–400.

²⁷That Yun was asked to sell La Renaissance and New Youth by their publishers was mentioned in “Liqun shushe” [Beneficent Group Bookstore], Huzhu [Mutual Aid], no. 1 (October 1920), cited in Zhang et al. eds., Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 125.

²⁸Li Liangming and Sun Zexue, Hubei xinminzhu geming shi: zhonggong chuangjian yu da geming shiqi juan [A History of the New Democratic Revolution in Hubei: Volume on the Foundation of the Chinese Communist Party and the Great Revolution] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 2008), 27; Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 9, 94.

²⁹Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 590.

³¹Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 537, 575.

³²Ibid., 555.

³³Ibid., 660.

³⁴Ibid., 561.

³⁵Yun Daiying, “Zhi Wang Guangqi xin” [Letter to Wang Guangqi], in Yun Daiying wenji [Collected Works of Yun Daiying] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1984), 109. The Letter can also be found in Yun Daiying riji, 621–25.

³⁶Hans J. van de Ven, “The Emergence of the Text-Centered Party” in New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution, ed. Tony Saich and Hans J. van de Ven (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1995), 5–27. Hans J. van de Ven argues that despite the cliché that the May Fourth Movement led to the founding of the CCP, the movement actually played no role in early CCP debates and the correlation between the movement and the Party was established as late as the 1930s.

³⁷Yun Daiying, “Zhi Wang Guangqi xin” [Letter to Wang Guangqi], in Laihong quyan lu [Collection of Yun Daiying's Letters], ed. Zhang Yu et al. (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1981), 109.

³⁸Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 9. For Huang Lingshuang's advocacy of assassination and violence, see Huang's articles included in Ge Maochun et al., eds. Wuzhengfu zhuyi sixiang ziliao xuan [Selection of Materials on Anarchist Thought] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1984).

³⁹Zhou Zuoren, “Riben de xincun” [The New Village in Japan], Xinqingnian [ New Youth] 6, no. 3 (1919): 266.

⁴⁰Tian Ziyu, Wuhan wusi yundongshi, 169.

⁴¹“Liqun shushe” [Beneficent Group Bookstore], in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 126.

⁴⁵Ibid., 118.

⁴²Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 162.

⁴³Ibid., 161.

⁴⁴Yu Jiaju has been the object of much research interest in mainland China, see Zhang Kaiyuan and Yu Zixia, eds., Yu Jiaju yu jindai zhongguo [Yu Jiaju and Modern China] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 2007).

⁴⁶Yun Daiying, “Gongtong shenghuo de shehui fuwu” [The Social Service of Shared Life], in Yun Daiying wenji, 120.

⁴⁷Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 610.

⁵¹Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 161.

⁴⁸Tian Ziyu, Wuhan wusi yundongshi, 172.

⁴⁹“Liqun shushe” in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 124.

⁵⁰Yun Daiying, “Yun Daiying's Letter to Hu Yeyu”, Huzhu, no. 1 (October 1920), cited in Yun, Laihong quyan lu, 87.

⁵²Yun Daiying's letter to Zong Baihua, dated 22 February 1920, in Laihong quyan lu, 69.

⁵³Wu Huazi, Women de shibiao [Our Teacher and Role Model], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, 134.

⁵⁴Hu Zhixi “Mianhuai Yun shi” [In Memory of Professor Yun], in Huiyi Yun Daiying, 173.

⁵⁵Hu Shi, “Gongdu huzhu tuan de wenti” [The Problems of the Work-Study-Mutual Aid Corps], Xinqingnian 7, no. 5 (1920): 1–4.

⁵⁶For the detailed plan of the Corps, see Li Dazhao et al., “Gongdu huzhu tuan mukuan qishi” [Fund Raising Advertisement of the Work-Study-Mutual Aid Corps], Xinqingnian 7, no. 2 (1920): 185–88.

⁵⁷Bao Huiseng, Bao Huiseng huiyilu [The Memoir of Bao Huiseng] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1983), 47.

⁵⁸“Liqun shushe” in Huzhu, no.1 (October 1920), cited in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 136.

⁵⁹Fang Zhenyi, “Yun Daiying he ta chuangban de Liqun shushe” [Yun Daiying and His Beneficent Group Bookstore], Bianji zhiyou [Editorial Friend], no. 4 (1989): 92.

⁶⁰One “Yuan Shikai” Chinese silver dollar in 1920s Beijing had a purchasing power equal to 43.85 RMB yuan today. And in 1924, a Beijing rickshaw puller on average needed 5.73 silver dollars per month to support himself, and 11.62 dollars to support a family. See Chen Mingyuan, “Ershi shiji shangbanye zhongguo gedi yinyuan goumai li” [The Purchasing Power of the Silver Dollar in China in the First Half of the 20th Century], http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_42442_27294.html?k=e1eaf3de3726b904c923a0661d8b13f3 (Accessed 20 August 2009).

⁶¹The value of copper cents and copper dollars varied from time to time and place to place. Based on the data I collected from the Internet, one silver dollar was equal to 130 copper dollars, which could be equal to 10 or 20 copper cents in Changde County of Hunan Province by 1915, and 360 copper dollars in 1932. See the Website ‘Historical Records of Change’: http://zyk.cdcity.gov.cn/wzgg/cddsb/cddsb-2007-nj2006-3805.htm. Bao Huiseng's memoir suggested an exchange rate of one silver dollar against 330 copper dollars in 1921 Hankou. See Bao, Bao Huiseng huiyilu, 76. It is noticeable that in Hubei Province, silver dollars and strings of copper cents were all issued in the form of paper banknotes by the Hubei Official Money Bureau, founded in 1897, and the circulation of Qing bank notes was terminated in 1923. See Zhuo Kun, “Qingmo minguo shiqi Xiangyang liutong de huobi” [The Currencies Circulated in Xiangyang at the end of the Qing Dynasty and Republican China], Xiangfan Evening Paper, http://www.hj.cn/html/Culture/Found/KGZS/2007-2/6/072616372728505.html. (Accessed 20 August 2009).

⁶²Tian Ziyu, Wuhan wusi yundongshi, 172.

⁶³“Liqun shushe”, cited in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 127.

⁶⁴Ibid., 128.

⁶⁵Yun Daiying, “Zhi Zong Baihua xin” [“Letter to Zong Baihua”], in Xuedeng [The Learning Light] supplement of Shishi xinbao, February 23, 1920.

⁶⁶“Liqun shushe”, cited in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 128–29.

⁶⁷Gao Xincheng, Zhongguo tushu faxingshi [A History of Book Distribution in China] (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2005), 266.

⁶⁸Wang Xingfu, Linshi san xiongdi: Lin Yuying, Lin Yu'nan, Lin Biao [Three Brothers of the Lin Family: Lin Yuying, Lin Yu'nan, and Lin Biao] (Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 1995), 21.

⁶⁹Yu Chuantao, “Ziqiang aiguo de qianbei xueren” [Patriotic Scholars of the Old Generation], in Yu Jiaju yu jindai zhongguo, 263.

⁷⁰Tian Ziyu et al., Yun Daiying zhuanji, 55.

⁷³Yun Daiying, “Weilai zhi meng” [The Dreams of the Future], in Yun Daiying wenji, 230.

⁷¹“Liqun shushe”, cited in Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 130. For a detailed discussion of the foundation and management of the Commercial Press and Zhonghua Books, see Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 203–56.

⁷²Yu Yuting and Shu Xingwen, “Wuhan tushu he wenhua yongpin ye de huigu” [Reflection on Wuhan's Book and Cultural Products Industry], in Wuhan wenshi ziliao [Cultural and Historical Materials of Wuhan], ed. Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Wuhanshi weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui, no. 6 (1982), 183.

⁷⁴Ibid., 231.

⁷⁵Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 216.

⁸⁰Xia Zhixu, “Wuhan dangzuzhi dui qingnian xuesheng de yingxiang” in Zhonggong chuangshiren fangtan lu [Interviews with Founders of the Chinese Communist Party], ed. Wang Laidi (Hong Kong: Mirror Books, 2008), 239.

⁷⁶Bao, Bao Huiseng huiyilu, 46.

⁷⁷Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 165.

⁷⁸Fang, “Yun Daiying he ta chuangban de Liqun shushe”, 92.

⁷⁹Zhang et al., ed., Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 205.

⁸¹Wu Defeng, “Dang chengli qianhou Wuhan diqu de yixie qingkuang” [The Situation of the Wuhan Region around the Time of the Foundation of the CCP], in Yida qianhou [Before and after the 1st Party Congress of the CCP], ed. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan xiandai shi yanjiushi (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1980), vol. 1, 357.

⁸²Ibid.

⁸³Wu Defeng, “Wuhan jiandang qianhou de qingkuang” [The Situation of Wuhan around the Founding of the CCP], in Zhonggong chuangshiren fangtan lu, 232.

⁸⁴Yun Daiying, “Zhi Zong Baihua xin” [Letter to Zong Baihua'], in Xuedeng [The Learning Light] supplement of Shishi xinbao, February 23, 1920.

⁸⁵Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 171.

⁸⁶For the debates and a thorough study of the history of the Young China Association, see Wu Xiaolong, Shaonian zhongguo xuehui yanjiu [A Study of the Young China Association] (Shanghai: Shanghai sanlian shudian, 2006).

⁸⁷Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 172–73. Yu, “Ziqiang aiguo de qianbei xueren” in Yu Jiaju yu jindai zhongguo, 263.

⁸⁸Tian Ziyu, Wuhan wusi yundongshi, 173–74. Also see Tian Ziyu et al., Yun Daiying zhuanji, 42–44.

⁸⁹Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 164.

⁹⁰Edgar Snow, Red Star over China (New York: Random House, 1938), 137. It is also possible that Mao was actually referring to the Culture Bookstore he founded in 1920 but downplayed its commercial character in the interview.

⁹¹Yi Lirong, “Huiyi Changsha wenhua shushe” [In Reminiscence of Changsha's Cultural Bookstore], in Yida qianhou, vol. 1, 248.

⁹²Luo Zhanglong, “Huiyi dang de chuangli shiqi de jige wenti” [Recalling Several Issues during the Foundation of the CCP], in Yida qianhou, vol. 1, 199.

⁹³Zhonggong zhongyang dangshi yanjiushi trans., Liangong (Bu), gongchan guoji yu zhongguo guomin geming yundong [SUCP, the Comintern and Chinese National Revolutionary Movement] (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 1997), 28.

⁹⁴Bao Huiseng insists that the Chinese Communist Party was established in Shanghai in 1920, and that the Shanghai cell worked as a de facto central party organ. Bao likes to call it “provisional party central” in his memoirs. See Bao Huiseng, “Bao Huiseng de yi feng xin” [A Letter of Bao Huiseng], in Yida qianhou, vol. 2, 435.

⁹⁵Bao, Bao Huiseng huiyilu, 20.

⁹⁶Ibid., Bao Huiseng “Gongchandang diyici quanguo daibiao huiyi qianhou de huiyi” [Reminiscence of the Time around the Founding of the CCP], in Wusiyundong zai Wuhan shiliao xuanji [Selected Materials about the May Fourth Movement in Wuhan], ed. Zhang Yinghui and Kong Xiangzheng (Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1981), 336.

⁹⁷Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 646–47.

⁹⁹Yun Daiying, “Letter to Liu Renjing” in Laihong quyan lu, 39–40.

⁹⁸Yun Daiying, “Zhi Hu Yeyu” [Letter to Hu Yeyu], in Yun Daiying wenji, 246.

¹⁰¹Harold R. Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, 2nd rev. ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961), 61.

¹⁰⁰The Russian historian Alexander Pantsov has exaggerated the attraction of Russian Marxism and Bolshevik revolution to the Chinese revolutionaries in the post May Fourth period. See Alexander Pantsov, The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution 1919–1927 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000), 23–38.

¹⁰²Wu Ziqiang, “Chen Tanqiu lieshi zai Wuhan”, Wuhan wenshi ziliao, no. 3 (1981): 59.

¹⁰³Tu Wenxue, ed., Wuhan tongshi: zhonghua minguo juan [A General History of Wuhan: 1912–1949] (Wuhan: Wuhan chubanshe, 2006), 107.

¹⁰⁴This is based on my conversation in Wuhan in the summer of 2009 with Professors Li Liangming and Tian Ziyu.

¹⁰⁵“Junxin xiaoxue de chengli” [Founding of the Junxin Elementary School], in Wusiyundong zai Wuhan shiliao xuanji, 256–57.

¹⁰⁶Professor Chen Zhirang (Jerome Chen) describes the years 1920 and 1921 as Hubei's years of mutiny because of the unstable political situation. See Chen Zhirang (Jerome Chen), Junshen zhengquan — jindai zhonguo de junfa shiqi [Militarist-Gentry Regimes: The Warlord Era of Modern China] (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2008), 72.

¹⁰⁷Wu, Shaonian zhongguo xuehui yanjiu, 117–18.

¹⁰⁸Zhang and Kong, eds., Wusiyundong zai Wuhan shiliao xuanji, 291.

¹⁰⁹Tian Ziyu, “Wuhan diqu dui Makesi zhuyi zai zhongguo chuqi chuanbo de gongxian” [The Role the Wuhan Region Played in the Early Dissemination of Marxism in China], in Zoujin shilin [Walking into the Forest of History] (Wuhan: Changjiang chubanshe, 2009), 253.

¹¹⁰An early co-founder of the CCP, Zhang Shenfu told his interviewer how the CCP expanded among radical youths through personal friendships and Chen's recruiting efforts. See Vera Schwarcz, Time for Telling Truth is Running Out: Conversations with Zhang Shenfu (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1992), 94–101. Chen Duxiu's influence on Chen Gongbo's having joined the CCP can be found in C. Martin Wilbur, “Introduction” in Chen Gongbo, The Communist Movement in China, ed. C. Martin Wilbur (New York: Octagon Books, 1979), 8.

¹¹¹“Junxin dahui jilue” [Minutes of the Conference in Junxin Elementary School], Wo'mende [Ours], no.7 (October 1921), cited in Zhang and Kong, Wusiyundong zai Wuhan shiliao xuanji, 302.

¹¹²Ibid.

¹¹³Ibid.

¹¹⁴Zhang et al. ed., Wusi shiqi de shetuan, 511.

¹¹⁵Li and Zhong, Yun Daiying nianpu, 194–95, 359.

¹¹⁶Chen Yung-fa, Zhongguo gongchan geming qishinian [The Seventy Years of the Chinese Communist Revolution] (Taipei: Linking Books, 2001), 29.

¹¹⁷For the role of books in political dissent and cultural independence, see David D. Hall, Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), 51.

¹¹⁸Wang Fansen, “Evolving Prescriptions for Social Life in the Late Qing and Early Republic: From Qunxue to Society” in Imaging the People: Chinese Intellectuals and the Concept of Citizenship, 1890–1920, ed. Joshua A. Fogel and Peter G. Zarrow (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe: 1997), 260.

¹¹⁹See Gao Ruiquan, ed., Zhongguo jindai shehui sichao [The Waves of Thoughts in Modern China] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2007), 335.

¹²⁰Mao Zedong “Minzhong de da lianhe” [Great Union of the People], in Mao Zedong zaoqi wengao [Early Writings of Mao Zedong], ed. Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi [Party Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China] (Changsha: Hunan chubanshe, 1990), 373.

¹²¹Yun Daiying, “Zenyang chuangzao shaonian zhongguo” [How to Create Young China], Shaonian zhongguo [Young China ] 2, no. 1 (July 15, 1920).

¹²²Yun, Yun Daiying riji, 622. The May Fourth focus on society and social issues has recently been delineated in Yang Nianqun, Wusi jiushi zhounian ji: yige wenti shi de huisu he fansi [In Commemoration of the May Fourth Movement at its 90th Anniversary: A Review and Reflection on “A History of Problems”] (Beijing: Shijie tushu chuban gongsi, 2009).

¹²³Brokaw, Commerce in Culture, 271. “Shehui suo gongyou” was emphasized in the flyer of the Culture Bookstore, dated 10 November 1920 and titled “Wenhua shushe tonggao haoxue zhujun” [The Culture Bookstore Informs Gentlemen Who Love Learning], in Xinmin xuehui ziliao [Source Materials of the New People Society], ed. Zhongguo geming bowuguan (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1980), 261.

¹²⁴Martin King Whyte, Small Groups and Political Rituals in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 35.

¹²⁵Studies on politics and education in late Qing/early Republican China can be found in Stephen C. Averill, “The Cultural Politics of Local Education in Early Twentieth China”, Elizabeth Vander Ven, “It's Time for School: The Introduction of the New Calendar in Haicheng County Primary Schools, Northeast China, 1905–1919”, and Liyan Liu, “Cai Hesen: A Provincial Scholar Becomes a Young Radical”, Twentieth Century China 32, no. 2 (April 2007). For the radicalization of students in teachers' schools in the 1930s, also see Xiaoping Cong, Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation–State, 1879–1937 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007), 160–82.