Li Dazhao or Li Ta-chao (October 29, 1889 – April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual and revolutionary who participated in the New Cultural Movement in the early years of the Republic of China, established in 1912. He co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Chen Duxiu in July 1921. He helped build a united front between the CCP and Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Party (KMT) in early 1924. During the Northern Expedition, Li was arrested and then executed by warlord Zhang Zuolin in Beijing in 1927.
Biography
Early life
Li was born into a peasant family in Laoting County, Hebei (previously Zhili) province in 1889. His childhood was miserable. His father died a few months before he was born, and his mother died when he was a baby. At the age of ten, Li married Zhao Renlan, who was nearly six years older; Li's foster grandfather arranged the marriage for Li's protection. He received his traditional education in three village schools in Laoting County for a decade.<ref>Tangshanshiweidangshiyanjiushi, Li Dazhao yu guxiang (Li Dazhao and his hometown), Beijing: Zhongyangwenxianchubanshe, 1994, pp. 1-90.</ref> He started his modern education at Yongpingfu Middle school in 1905. From 1907 to 1913, he completed his college education at Beiyang College of Law and Politics in Tianjin. From 1914 to 1916, Li studied political economy at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan before returning to China in 1916. While there he lived in a YMCA dormitory and participated in Bible studies at the church of Yasuzo Shimizu. He did not finish his learning as he was expelled by Waseda due to his long absence from his classes for his active participation in the campaign against Yuan Shikai's imperial endeavors, during which he even returned to Shanghai in early 1916.
Head Librarian and Professor at Peking University
After returning to China, Li served as an editor in Beijing for a few newspapers on which he published numerous articles to promote democracy, freedom, constitutional rule, and national resurgence. As a leading intellectual in the New Culture Movement, he lashed out at China's feudal tradition, criticized the old tyrannical past, and strongly endorsed the representative system. In January 1918, Li was hired by Cai Yuanpei to be the head of the library at Peking University (Beijing University) and a couple of years later he became a professor of politics, history, and economics there. He taught many different courses not only at Beijing University, but also at four other universities in Beijing. He was invited as a speaker by associations, colleges, and other organizations throughout China. At Beijing University, he influenced students during the May Fourth Movement of May 4, 1919; this including Mao Zedong, who worked as an assistant in the library's reading room. In a number of ways, "Li's urgent calls for democracy, science, and constitutional rule are an essential component of the brilliance of the May Fourth Movement."
More importantly, Li Dazhao was a prominent leader during the May Fourth Movement; he advised and coached young students in Beijing to take action against the Beiyang government and to protest against the imperialist powers' decision at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to transfer the former German colonial privileges in Shandong to the Japanese Empire. During this time he published productively on a variety of topics championing new and progressive ideas, and became China's earliest self-converted communist. He was one of the earliest scholars to explore the Bolshevik government in the Soviet Union as a possible model for his own nation. Throughout his life, Li maintained cordial relationship with other New Culture Movement figures such as Hu Shi and Lu Xun, even though they had diverse scholarly opinions and assumed different political stances.
Co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party
By many accounts, Li was a nationalist and believed that the Chinese nation could enjoy a renaissance by accepting a new culture, by rejuvenating its people, and by remolding its civilization. It is interesting to note that Li admired America for years but changed that attitude to be a pro-Russian intellectual in 1919. Like other intellectuals of his time, Li's thinking was impacted by diverse elements such as Kropotkin's anarchism. After the May Fourth Movement, he and other intellectuals started to turn to Marxism. The success of the Bolshevik Revolution was a factor in remolding his political views.