Yang Dongchun

Yang Dongchun was born in April 1900 in Liling, Hunan Province. In his youth, he participated in the May Fourth Movement and in 1919 entered the preparatory program at Peking University. During his studies, he took part in founding organizations such as the Peking University Mass Education Lecture Corps, workers’ tutorial schools, and the Marxist Study Society, contributing to the dissemination of Marxism in China. In the early 1920s, he was involved in the labor movement and worked with railway workers through the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Organization. In 1923, he joined the Chinese Communist Party in Changsha.^[2]

In 1927, following the failure of the First United Front, Yang went to Japan, where he studied Marxist philosophy and engaged in translation work, publishing works such as On Feuerbach to promote materialism and dialectics. He returned to China in 1930 and continued his work in education and translation.^[3] He served as a professor at Sun Yat-sen University and later became president of Guangxi Normal Junior College, where he taught social sciences and promoted progressive ideas. Due to political pressure from the Kuomintang authorities, he resigned in 1934 and moved to Shanghai, where he engaged in writing and patriotic advocacy.^[4]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yang actively participated in the anti-Japanese resistance movement under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. He held positions such as senior adviser to the Hunan provincial government and head of education at the Guangxi Local Administrative Cadre School, where he helped train personnel for the resistance.^[5] After the New Fourth Army Incident, he relocated to Hong Kong and later to Chongqing, continuing his political and intellectual activities. Around the end of the war, he served as a professor at institutions including Wuhan University, Sichuan University, Xiamen University, and Huaxi University, and also worked in Hong Kong as acting president of Tat Tak College.^[6]

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Yang traveled from Hong Kong to Beijing and accepted assignments arranged by Zhou Enlai. He successively served as president of Guangxi University, president of Central China Normal Institute, and Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. In 1974, he was appointed director of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History.^[7] He was also a member of the Central-South Military and Administrative Committee and the Central-South Administrative Committee. In 1953, he joined the China Association for Promoting Democracy and later served as a standing committee member and secretary-general of its fourth central committee and as vice chairman of its fifth central committee.^[8]

Yang devoted much of his career to united front work and the promotion of Marxist theory. During the Cultural Revolution, he advocated for the protection of intellectuals and continued to express his views grounded in Marxist principles. He died in Beijing in September 1979 at the age of 79.^[9]

Yang Dongchun authored and translated numerous works on history, philosophy, and culture. His major translations include On Feuerbach, Ancient Society by Lewis H. Morgan, and selected philosophical writings of Joseph Dietzgen. His original works include Lectures on Chinese Intellectual History, Outline of Chinese Cultural History, and textbooks on Chinese history. He also edited important compilations such as Selected Materials on Literature and History and Memoirs of the Xinhai Revolution.^[10][11]