Exploration of the Origin of the Correlation and Difference in the Early Propagation and Study of Marxism between China and Japan in the Context of Modernization

Modernization is the common context for the early propagation and research of Marxism both in China and Japan. Modern socialism in Japan came on the scene as the “antithesis” of statism in the frame of the binary opposition between state and society, representing the problem awareness and modern standpoint of reflecting and criticizing the state from the perspective of society. Marxism as scientific socialism is no exception. The propagation and research of Marxism in modern Japan is mainly rooted in the need of modernization and the critical consciousness to the modernization. Modern Japanese intellectuals directly translated the works of Marx and Engels. This led to a profound influence on the early propagation and development of Marxism in China. Although modern Japanese intelligentsia played the role of “transit station” and “translator” in the early dissemination of Marxism in China, we could not conclude that the early propagation of Marxism in China was entirely the copy or transfer of Marxism in modern Japan. The early Chinese Marxist intellectuals, such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, had formed the independent consciousness of issues and systematic understanding of Marxist theory before and after the founding of the Communist Party of China. Marxism in modern Japan had the characteristic of strong consciousness of nation and state, as well as the distinctive academic feature. By contrast, the early propagation of Marxism in China stressed Marxism as the thought system generated in the historical practice. Chinese early Marxists claimed that the study of thought should convert to statecraft and pragmatism, which resulted in emphasis on the transition from the theory to the practice by the propagandization and education of Marxism, especially attaching importance to the exertion of the initiative of the people in history.