​Qu Hongmei: Marx’s Moral Paradox and Chinese Solutions in the Early 20th Century

 The Author: Professor Qu Hongmei, doctoral supervisor in School of Philosophy and Society of Jilin University, is also a researcher of Center for Fundamentals of Philosophy of Jilin University. 

Keywords: early Marxists in China; Marx; moral paradox; historical materialism; Heading notes: Major projects funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education(17JJD720002); major projects of the National Social Sciences Fund.  

Within the Western academic field, there are many who argue that Marxism did not play an important role and value in China's early revolution and practice. Some scholars and practitioners even argue that "Chinese intellectuals and philosophers who believe in Marxism do not really understand the Marxism that arose out of the European cultural tradition." The main argument of them is that the inherent mindset and framework of Chinese culture hinders Chinese people to understand the Marxism, which is from another cultural system. This view was very popular in the early days of Marxism's entry into China. However, the process of modernization and the gradual development of Western learning in China even before the twentieth century had laid the cultural and conceptual foundations for the acceptance of Marxism by Chinese intellectuals. More importantly, Chinese intellectuals have always had an ability to understand and assimilate foreign cultures using their own cultural roots. We can see this ability manifested in Liang Qichao, who was the first to introduce Marxism into China. In the article "Socialism in China", Liang Qichao pointed out that "socialists, newly produced over the last hundred years ...... the ancient Chinese well-field system, stand in the same place with the socialism of modern world, most normal people can say something about it, no more to say.” Given that, early Chinese Marxists were able to accept and correctly understand Marxism in both theory and reality. As Nick Knight says: "The efforts of Chinese philosophers to understand, develop and apply Marxism are of great significance, making an important contribution not only to the understanding of Marxist history and the Marxist movement in China, but to the history of Marxism in general." 

At the beginning of the 20th century, those intellectuals who were both familiar with the Chinese traditional culture and the theory of "natural rights" and "social evolution," "the concept of freedom, equality, fraternity" began to contact with the thought and literature of Marxism. They were sensitive to Marx's theory of moral, and they put forward the understanding and evaluation with their own characteristics. To review and analysis these early Chinese marxists' understanding of Marx's moral theory, can help us to understand the initial development process of marxism, and help us understand Marx moral theory in the meantime, because the main theoretical problem faced by the early Marxists still exists today.