Introduction
The founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was not primarily a product of ideological convergence, but of organizational consolidation. Radical youth embraced diverse doctrines – anarchism, socialism, and Bolshevism among them – but it was interpersonal networks, not theoretical synthesis, that enabled the formation of a unified party. This article investigates a central but understudied question in early CCP history: how did individuals with divergent ideological backgrounds coalesce into a centralized communist organization? Rather than emphasizing doctrinal debates, it foregrounds the human connections and local affiliations that translated competing visions into coordinated action.
A key to this process was the activist network surrounding the Zhejiang Provincial First Normal School in Hangzhou (HFNS). Unlike other regional groups, HFNS combined ideological experimentation with organizational experience. Its members carried anarchist-socialist ideas to Shanghai, gathered around the Weekly Review (xingqi pinglun, 星期评论) editorial board, and forged links with both Chinese socialists and Russian Bolsheviks. Crucially, some had prior experience with party formation, making the HFNS network unusually cohesive and action-ready. When Chen Duxiu began formal plans to build a party, this was the network he could most immediately rely on. By tracing the HFNS network’s cross-regional reach and strategic role in early CCP organizing, this article argues that the Party’s foundations rested less on ideological unity than on interpersonal trust and practical capacity.
This study engages with the prevailing historiography of the CCP’s early formation, which has largely emphasized three areas: the international transmission of Marxist-Leninist models, the leadership of elite figures, and local trajectories of radicalization. Scholars such as Arif Dirlik and Yoshihiro Ishikawa have shown how Bolshevik models and Comintern funding shaped the CCP’s formation.Footnote 1 Others have underscored the agency of early CCP leaders in the party’s founding, emphasizing the crucial roles of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao.Footnote 2 Some scholars have turned to provincial and institutional histories, tracing how radical students, educators, and intellectual circles across China turned toward communism in the wake of the May Fourth Movement.Footnote 3 These latter studies resonate with Andrew Walder’s theory that social movements are best understood through interpersonal interactions rather than structural factors such as class or political institutions.Footnote 4 While Walder’s theory advocates shifting from macro-structural descriptions to individual interactions, his case study leaves the micro-level aspects of individual motivations underexplored, as his primary sources rarely capture the mentalities of individuals.Footnote 5
Building on and extending these insights, this article reconstructs the HFNS network as part of an “intermediate zone” – a transitional space where early CCP members operated both inside and outside formal structures, maintaining hybrid commitments and informal organizing practices. While the early Party was officially founded in urban centers like Shanghai and Beijing, its development depended on provincial students and educators who brought with them local experiences, regional traditions, and practical skills. The HFNS network, which stretched from Hangzhou to Shaoxing and Shanghai, exemplifies these translocal dynamics.
Drawing on archival sources – including the Shanghai Municipal Police Files, British Foreign Office records, newspapers, and especially personal materials that reveal individual mentalities, such as diaries – this study explores how figures affiliated with HFNS became central to the Weekly Review, a key but understudied platform for early CCP coordination. Central to the later founding of the CCP were the activities of Chen Duxiu and the editorial boards of two Shanghai-based journals: New Youth and Weekly Review, particularly in 1920.Footnote 6 While New Youth is more widely recognized for becoming the Party’s central organ, Weekly Review played an equally crucial organizational role. Some sources even suggest that it, not New Youth, served as the real nucleus of CCP formation in Shanghai just before its foundation.Footnote 7 At the Comintern’s Second Congress in 1920, a Chinese representative described the Weekly Review as the “weekly publication of Shanghai’s socialist party,” labeling it “a Marxist political party.”Footnote 8 In 1929, a senior CCP leader also referred to the journal’s editorial board as one of the “cells” contributing to the Party’s formation.Footnote 9
Significantly, many key members of this editorial board were affiliated with the HFNS network. Shen Zhongjiu, Liu Dabai, and Chen Wangdao – Chinese language teachers at HFNS – joined the journal in early 1920. Although the editor-in-chief, Shen Dingyi, co-founded Weekly Review with Kuomintang (KMT) theorist Dai Jitao and did not teach at HFNS, he was regarded by students as an “external mentor” during the May Fourth Movement.Footnote 10 Later, students such as Shi Cuntong and Yu Xiusong, who would become Youth League leaders, also joined the editorial board. Under the influence of figures like Shen Dingyi and Shen Zhongjiu, they became actively involved in mutual aid and work-study programs.
By reconstructing the political trajectories of HFNS faculty and students from 1919 to 1921, this article shows that early CCP-building was not a linear realization of Leninist blueprints, but a contested and decentralized process. Organizational cohesion emerged not from doctrinal consensus but from dense social ties and regional activist culture. Rethinking the CCP’s origins through this lens invites a broader understanding of revolutionary subjectivity in modern China – one rooted in local experience, ideological plurality, and the enduring power of personal networks.
The Weekly Review editorial board and Bolsheviks in Shanghai
Influenced by the May Fourth Movement, Sun Yat-sen, who was preparing to restructure the KMT in Shanghai, recognized the potential of student and labor organizations and sought to integrate them as peripheral groups of the KMT.Footnote 11 Beginning in the summer of 1919, Dai Jitao and other veteran KMT members who accompanied Sun to Shanghai began introducing various socialist theories through the KMT’s publications in the city.Footnote 12 In the summer of 1918, Sun Yat-sen conveyed his congratulations to Vladimir Lenin and the newly formed Soviet government in Russia through overseas Chinese in America. The Soviet government, in turn, regarded Sun and the KMT as potential allies in China.Footnote 13 According to a report by the British diplomatic mission to China, Soviet representatives had contacted Sun and his followers in 1919. A Soviet envoy presented Sun with a letter encouraging him to initiate a Bolshevik revolution in China. Sun later established contact with the Far East Bureau of the Russian Communist Party through his secretary.Footnote 14
In December 1919 and early 1920, two representatives from Soviet Russia, A.S. Potapov and M. G. Popov, secretly paid multiple visits to Sun in Shanghai. In his report to People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, Potapov mentioned providing Sun with English pamphlets of the Soviet Constitution and Land Decree. Though Sun remained skeptical about the practical implementation of communism in Russia, he showed considerable interest in Bolshevism.Footnote 15 Among the political activists around Sun, Dai Jitao and Li Hanjun (李汉俊) stood out as the most enthusiastic in their study of socialism and had the deepest understanding of Marxism. Dai, in particular, had a far more sophisticated grasp of Marxism than most other intellectuals of the time.Footnote 16 As for Li, in 1919, the British Foreign Office identified him as one of the only two “Chinese Bolsheviks.”Footnote 17
While observing the labor strikes unfolding in Shanghai in June 1919, Dai Jitao keenly recognized workers’ growing political engagement. Eager to explore labor issues, he sought to provide both social and ideological guidance for future labor movements.Footnote 18 Closely following the development of socialist movements in Japan, Dai procured and introduced foreign socialist literature through Japanese bookstores and Korean independence activists within Shanghai’s concessions while maintaining correspondence with Japanese socialist leaders. In September 1919, he applied Marxist concepts of class struggle in his article “Observing China’s Chaos from an Economic Perspective” (cong jingji shang guancha zhongguo de luanyuan 从经济上观察中国的乱源), published in Jianshe (建设), a KMT publication in Shanghai. Then, in November, he translated and serialized Karl Kautsky’s “An Explanation of Marx’s Das Kapital” from its Japanese edition, which appeared in both Jianshe and the KMT’s Shanghai organ, the Republican Daily. However, Dai’s most influential contribution to advancing socialist theories, particularly Marxism, came through his collaboration with Shen Dingyi in founding the Weekly Review on June 8, 1919.
The inception of the Weekly Review took place at Shen Dingyi’s residence in Shanghai’s French Concession. Shen not only provided financial support for the publication but also personally managed its initial distribution efforts with the help of his family. In 1918, Dai Jitao met Shen Dingyi, both Zhejiang natives living in Shanghai. Dai, originally from Huzhou, and Shen, born into an official family in Shaoxing, quickly developed a close friendship. Furthermore, their homes in the French Concession were not far apart, allowing them to meet frequently to discuss new ideological trends and social issues. Through Dai’s introduction, Shen connected with a group of KMT-affiliated intellectuals in Shanghai who were actively involved in the New Culture Movement. He also had the opportunity to meet Sun Yat-sen, who praised him as “the most talented man in Zhejiang.”Footnote 19
Shen Dingyi distinguished himself as one of the few non-KMT figures among the core KMT circle in Shanghai. His relatively independent stance acted as a safeguard for the leftist inclinations of the Weekly Review. As Dai Jitao leaned towards the emerging voices represented by Chen Duxiu and Hu ShiFootnote 20, openly expressing sympathy and collaborative sentiments towards Soviet Russia in the pages of the Weekly Review,Footnote 21 the journal’s editorial board gradually distanced itself from Sun Yat-sen. Shortly after the launch of the Weekly Review, the secret connection between Sun and Duan Qirui, the warlord controlling the central government at the time, was made public. Dai Jitao strongly opposed Sun’s connection with Duan, confiding in Shen Dingyi that if the Sun-Duan coalition succeeded, they should sever ties with Sun and align themselves with the rising radical intellectuals.Footnote 22 Drawing on his experience in establishing autonomous political entities, Shen Dingyi envisioned a partnership with radical intellectuals as a cornerstone of China’s evolving political landscape. This vision was further reinforced by the involvement of Li Hanjun, an early proponent of founding a revolutionary party rooted in proletarian ideals.Footnote 23
The editorial board of the Weekly Review became a central hub for the formation of the communist organization, with Li Hanjun playing a crucial role in the process.Footnote 24 Upon returning to China in the winter of 1918 after completing his studies at Tokyo Imperial University, Li had been influenced by Japanese socialists during his time in Japan. He demonstrated a strong socialist inclination, advocating for the application of Marxist theory and drawing inspiration from the Russian Revolution to promote social and political change in China. By the summer of 1919, he had joined the editorial board of the Weekly Review. With his older brother being an early member and a staunch supporter of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary activities, Li quickly integrated into KMT circles upon his return to Shanghai, frequently visiting Sun’s residence.Footnote 25 Unlike Dai Jitao, Li was not only highly proficient in Japanese but also fluent in English, German, and French. This linguistic versatility allowed him to build close ties with Japanese and Korean socialists, Soviet representatives, and other socialist figures in Shanghai.Footnote 26
Intelligence collected by the Shanghai Municipal Police, along with reports from the British diplomatic mission to China, revealed a significant connection between Li Hanjun and Jack Lizerovitch, an agent associated with the Bolshevik mouthpiece Shanghai Life (Шанхайская Жизнь, 上海俄文生活报), which served as a covert channel for Soviet activities in China. Lizerovitch not only organized gatherings attended by Li Hanjun, Korean independence activists, and anarchists, but also secretly provided Li with communist publications and propaganda materials from Soviet Russia, Britain, and the United States. Li Hanjun would then select and translate sections of these materials for publication in the Weekly Review.Footnote 27 According to Potapov’s report, he had supplied Li Hanjun with English-translated pamphlets such as The Soviet Constitution and articles authored by Leon Trotsky, which Li translated into Chinese for inclusion in the Weekly Review.Footnote 28 Due to its deep involvement in Bolshevik activities in Shanghai, the Weekly Review, under Li’s leadership, became the primary domestic platform for disseminating information about the situation in Soviet Russia and fostering discussions about Marxism.
Personal engagement and the radicalization of HFNS students
The Weekly Review editorial board still lacked the necessary momentum to function as a true “cell” of the future CCP. Although the Marxist notion of the “proletariat” was gradually becoming the journal’s central theme, its main readership continued to be literate students. While these students were broadly part of the radical leftist youth, their ideological views were far from consistent – they represented a diverse and often contradictory mix. The radicalization of this group of students was not simply the result of external ideological trends but emerged through direct personal engagement with mentors, texts, and emotionally charged experiences.
At the heart of the Weekly Review, and influenced by Dai Jitao and Li Hanjun, Shen Dingyi, who already had a strong interest in anarchism, recognized a defining trend of the twentieth century: the emancipation of workers, peasants, and the proletariat. Shen Dingyi, who placed great importance on the youth, was deeply interested in the New Culture Movement in his hometown. Deeply invested in youth movements, he closely followed the New Culture Movement in his hometown. One notable example was the proposal to establish Zhejiang University, advocated by students and faculty at HFNS. Although the proposal ultimately failed to gain approval from the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly, the Weekly Review extensively covered the issue, arguing that instead of relying on the hope of attending a local university for social mobility, students should look beyond traditional education and explore new organizations and alternative ways of life.Footnote 29
To connect with young readers, after launching the Weekly Review, Shen Dingyi sent copies of the journal to various middle schools in Hangzhou.Footnote 30 HFNS even set up a department for selling books and newspapers related to new culture, with Shi Cuntong, who had enrolled at HFNS in 1917, serving as the journal’s on-campus sales agent.Footnote 31 By the second half of 1919, the Weekly Review had successfully gained traction within Hangzhou’s academic community. It became a key extracurricular reading material for HFNS students, and its editorial office was regarded as a “sacred ground for new ideas,” with some students making trips to Shanghai during school vacations to visit it. Shen Dingyi, in turn, was seen as an “external mentor,” with his influence extending through a network of allies, including his friends in Hangzhou, Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai, who helped circulate revolutionary discourse between Shanghai and Zhejiang.
The connections between Shen Dingyi, Shen Zhongjiu, and Liu Dabai were rooted in shared hometown origins and prior political involvement. All three men hailed from Shaoxing and were active in early Republican politics. In 1912, Shen Dingyi founded the Citizens’ Radical Party (gongmin jijindang, 公民急进党) in Shanghai to promote political reform and local autonomy. Within a year, the Citizens’ Radical Party had established branches in Zhejiang and other regions, with Shaoxing becoming a key stronghold.Footnote 32 In November 1912, the Shaoxing branch was founded, led by local youth like Shen Zhongjiu. Representing Shen Dingyi, Shen Zhongjiu took charge of overseeing the branch’s activities.Footnote 33 At that time, the Chinese Socialist Party – a more explicitly anarchist organization – also emerged in Shaoxing, counting Liu Dabai among its members. Influenced by anarchist communism, particularly the writings of Peter Kropotkin, the Chinese Socialist Party published journals like New World (xin shijie, 新世界), which advocated for radical social transformation.Footnote 34
In 1913, the assassination of veteran revolutionary Song Jiaoren triggered political turmoil, with both the Citizens’ Radical Party and the Chinese Socialist Party playing key roles in opposing Yuan Shikai’s ban on political parties and his self-declaration as emperor. After Yuan’s death in 1916, Shen Dingyi became chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly, with the support of Liu Dabai and Shen Zhongjiu.Footnote 35 However, the shifting political landscape in Zhejiang soon forced Shen Dingyi and his allies into exile. Despite this temporary setback, the social networks and political experience of Shen Dingyi, Shen Zhongjiu, and Liu Dabai laid a solid foundation for their future political activities.
By 1918, Liu Dabai was teaching Chinese literature at HFNS, and Shen Zhongjiu was editing the journal of the Zhejiang Provincial Education Association. On April 6, 1919, under Shen Zhongjiu’s leadership, the publication was renamed the Tides in Education (jiaoyu chao, 教育潮). The rebranded journal proclaimed in its inaugural declaration that “the new tide of the twentieth-century world is centered on humanity. It is rooted in human-centered ideologies, shaping a global movement centered on humanity.” Between 1919 and 1920, alongside the Weekly Review, the Tides in Education became the most influential New Culture publication among students in Hangzhou. For example, a student who enrolled at HFNS in 1918 began reading the Tides in Education every day in September 1919. After perusing Liu Dabai’s article “What Does It Mean to Be a Conscious Educator” in the third issue of the Tides in Education, he noted in his diary, “The role of an educator is profound, not only awakening individuals but also stirring the masses and influencing the future!”Footnote 36 When he read Shen Zhongjiu’s article “My Perspective on Life” in the fifth issue, he experienced a moment of enlightenment, remarking, “Suddenly, a new understanding dawned upon me, sparking introspection. I have reached a starting point and glimpsed a faint ray of light!”Footnote 37
In his article, Shen Zhongjiu envisioned a future society free from private ownership, built on mutual aid and the eradication of entrenched social habits. His goal was to dismantle the moral, political, legal, ideological, and religious afflictions that constrained society, paving the way for an era of freedom, communism, and scientific progress. To accelerate this transformation, Shen urged young readers to reform their daily lives and establish small communities to experiment with alternative ways of living. Yu Xiusong, then a student at HFNS, later recalled that “My Perspective on Life” had “awakened countless dreamers” and that he himself had been deeply influenced by the article.Footnote 38 Similarly, after reading “My Perspective on Life,” students from other middle schools in Hangzhou eagerly sought guidance from Shen Zhongjiu at the Provincial Education Association. In response, Shen gave them a copy of Kropotkin’s An Appeal to the Young and told them that society was unjust and bleak – that only through comprehensive reform could meaningful change be achieved.Footnote 39
Alongside editors Dai Jitao, Shen Dingyi, and Li Hanjun, regular contributors to the Weekly Review included Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai. Liu Dabai consistently published radical vernacular poetry in the journal, critiquing Confucianism and its teachings.Footnote 40 Issues 8 and 9 of the Weekly Review featured a special column titled “Where Should Women’s Liberation Begin?” which invited discussions from various contributors, including Liu Dabai and Shen Zhongjiu. Following recommendations from Shen Dingyi and Dai Jitao, Shen Zhongjiu soon published “The May Fourth Movement in Retrospect” in Jianshe, in which he predicted the rise of popular power and the replacement of the old “representative and leadership systems” with new social organizations.Footnote 41 Starting from issue 19, the Weekly Review began serializing Shen Zhongjiu’s “My Perspective on Life.”
Frequent appearances in new cultural publications, especially the Weekly Review, solidified Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai’s reputation as “trailblazers of the new culture,”Footnote 42 further enhancing their influence in Hangzhou. The principal of HFNS took Shen Zhongjiu’s advice and appointed Chen Wangdao (陈望道), who had recently returned from studying in Japan, as a faculty member. Starting in March 1919, Chen began publishing articles in the China Times (shishi xinbao, 时事新报), advocating for vernacular literature and innovative punctuation. Issue 3 of the Tides in Education featured a letter from Chen to Shen Zhongjiu, affirming their connection.Footnote 43 Subsequently, Chen and other HFNS faculty members contributed articles to various New Culture publications in Shanghai, including the Weekly Review.
On October 10, 1919, a group of students from Hangzhou First Middle School, together with two HFNS students, Shi Cuntong and Yu Xiusong, launched a publication titled Double Ten (shuang shi, 双十), promoting progressive ideals in the face of widespread criticism. Shen Zhongjiu, however, encouraged them to “enlighten the minds of students in Hangzhou, across Zhejiang Province, and eventually throughout the nation and the world” with “the radiance of the Double Ten.”Footnote 44 The publication was later renamed New Tides in Zhejiang (Zhejiang xinchao, 浙江新潮). With Shen Zhongjiu’s support, the students established their editorial and distribution office in a modest room at the Zhejiang Provincial Education Association.Footnote 45 In the inaugural issue, they outlined their vision for a new society rooted in “freedom, mutual assistance, and labor.” The second issue, published on November 8, 1919, prominently featured Shi Cuntong’s essay “Decry Filial Piety” (fei xiao, 非孝).Footnote 46
Shi Cuntong later recounted that he wrote this brief article in a state of profound distress, torn between his sense of filial duty to his father and his overwhelming despair.Footnote 47 The article proclaimed that while “the autocratic emperor has finally departed,” “autocratic parents still hold sway within the family,” urging young people to “awaken, instigate fundamental change, dismantle this oppressive family structure, and emerge as dignified, liberated individuals.”Footnote 48 The publication of the article ignited nationwide controversy and widespread criticism. Nevertheless, its content closely resembled an article by Liu Dabai published in the New World in 1912, during his time as a member of the Chinese Socialist Party. That earlier piece advocated even more radical views, promoting anarchist communism. Shi Cuntong was also undoubtedly influenced by Shen Zhongjiu’s short story “The Self-Determined Son.” This story, featured in issue 18 of the Weekly Review, portrays the predicament of a bank employee’s son who, upon seeing a newspaper advertisement for the “Work-Study Program in France,” resolves to quit his job and pursue studies abroad. His decision, however, faces fierce opposition from his father, who contends that education should serve the father’s interests rather than allowing the son to make independent choices. Their confrontation ends with the son’s defiant departure for France, rendering him an “unfilial son” in his father’s eyes.Footnote 49 A month later, Shi Cuntong’s “Decry Filial Piety” was published, creating a much greater sensation than “The Self-Determined Son,” despite the striking resemblance in plot and conclusion between the two works, making the connection too apparent to be coincidental. The original title of “Decry Filial Piety” was “I Am Determined to Be an Unfilial Son,”Footnote 50 a choice that Chen Wangdao explicitly attributed to Shen Zhongjiu’s influence on Shi’s writing process.Footnote 51 This demonstrates how Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai were able to introduce anarchist ideas into the minds of HFNS students.Footnote 52
In November 1919, the Zhejiang authorities dismissed the principal of HFNS and banned the New Tides in Zhejiang, citing the second issue’s publication of Shi Cuntong’s “Decry Filial Piety.” The essay was seen as promoting a revolution in family structures and challenging traditional ideas of filial piety and loyalty. This led to what became known as the “Unrest of HFNS” (Hangzhou yishi fengchao, 杭州一师风潮), a movement in January 1920 in which HFNS students launched a campaign against the Zhejiang authorities in defense of their principal and faculty, who supported the New Culture Movement.Footnote 53 After the unrest was resolved, people such as Shen Zhongjiu, Liu Dabai, and Chen Wangdao left Hangzhou for Shanghai, where they published the third issue of the New Tides in Zhejiang under the auspices of the Weekly Review. Meanwhile, at Shen Dingyi’s request, Shi Cuntong, Yu Xiusong, and other expelled HFNS students traveled to Beijing to join the Work-Study Mutual Aid Group.Footnote 54 By March 1920, with the dissolution of the Work-Study Mutual Aid Group, Shi Cuntong and Yu Xiusong returned to Shanghai. HFNS teachers and students began contributing to the Weekly Review, which quickly adopted a more radical tone. Soon, a group of them, often living together in Shanghai, helped shape the journal’s increasingly radical stance.Footnote 55 This growing coalition, which included figures like Li Hanjun, Dai Jitao, Shen Dingyi, as well as Marxists and anarchists from HFNS, played a key role in the early activities that led to the founding of the CCP.
The HFNS network and the early formation of CCP organizations in Zhejiang
In the 1920 New Year edition of the Weekly Review, a bold headline declared “A Red New Year,” accompanied by an exultant message: “A sudden burst of crimson pierces the darkness. What is this? It’s the new wave sweeping from the North Pole, surging from the Near East to the Far East.”Footnote 56 This “new wave” is unmistakably a reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In February, the British diplomatic mission to China reported a gathering at Shanghai’s Yong’an Hotel, attended by Li Hanjun, Jack Lizerovitch, and several other Chinese and Korean activists sympathetic to socialism. During this meeting, they discussed not only the possibility of launching a Chinese-language publication, Laodong zhe (The Worker, 劳动者), but also the potential for establishing a formal Bolshevik-style organization in China.Footnote 57 Acting as a liaison between Soviet Russia and radical intellectuals in ShanghaiFootnote 58, Lizerovitch wrote an article titled “The May Day” under the pseudonym J. Lizerovisteb in the “Special Issue Commemorating the Labor Day” of the Weekly Review on April 30, which was translated into Chinese by Li Hanjun. The article proclaimed, “The entire world is ailing, and only the working class can remedy this malaise.”Footnote 59
During this period, Dai Jitao, Shen Dingyi, and Shen Zhongjiu of the Weekly Review also established ties with Lizerovitch. Just before Lizerovitch’s article went to print, Shen Zhongjiu, drawing on his knowledge of Soviet Russia’s 1918 Constitution, analyzed it from an anarchist-communist perspective. He praised the Constitution’s principles of freedom, equality, mutual assistance, and humanitarian justice. Shen emphasized the importance of examining the ideology of the nascent Soviet government, arguing that the conflict between the working class and capitalism transcended national boundaries and was a global issue.Footnote 60 He also suggested that the student movement in China had peaked and called for a fundamental overhaul of political institutions.Footnote 61 In the “Special Issue Commemorating Labor Day” of the Weekly Review, Shen Dingyi, Shen Zhongjiu, Shi Cuntong, Li Hanjun, and Li Dazhao engaged in extensive discussions on topics such as “labor,” “class,” “strike,” and “mutual aid.” These articles, with socialist leanings, caught the attention of Soviet Russia and the Comintern. The head of the Eastern Bureau of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in Soviet Russia even requested Li Hanjun to send each issue of this “Socialist Newspaper in China” to Moscow.Footnote 62
In April 1920, Grigori Voitinsky’s mission to China marked the beginning of organized efforts by Soviet Russia and the Comintern in the Far East.Footnote 63 During that same month, Voitinsky and his translator held discussions with members of the Weekly Review’s editorial board.Footnote 64 It is, therefore, no surprise that Chen Duxiu, having engaged with the editorial board, saw its members as key allies when he traveled south to Shanghai on February 19, 1920, to meet with Voitinsky and lay the groundwork for the establishment of the Shanghai Communist Group. Subsequently, the editorial office of the New Youth shifted to Chen Duxiu’s residence in Shanghai, just a kilometer from the Weekly Review’s office, while Shao Lizi’s residence was even closer. This close-knit social circle, living together and engaging in frequent exchanges, became the core of the efforts that led to the founding of the CCP.Footnote 65
The collaboration between Shen Zhongjiu and fellow anarchists with the Bolsheviks, along with their interest in joining a communist party, was part of a strategy orchestrated by Soviet Russia and the Comintern. This relationship between Soviet Russia and Chinese anarchists began in 1919 and flourished primarily in major urban centers such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhangzhou.Footnote 66 Among these, the editorial board of the Voice of the People (min sheng, 民声), led by Liu Shifu, a key figure in the Chinese anarchist movement, was particularly prominent, with its members actively involved in various cities. After Liu’s death in Shanghai in 1914, his brother-in-law, Zheng Peigang (郑佩刚), emerged as a central figure in connecting various anarchist factions and establishing ties with the Bolsheviks in Shanghai. After 1917, Zheng relaunched the printing workshop that had previously produced The Voice of the People and started a new journal The Evolution (jin hua, 进化) to promote anarchist communism as well as Bolshevism.Footnote 67
The establishment of the “Socialist League” (shehuizhuyi tongmeng, 社会主义同盟) in Tianjin by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in 1920 was a significant milestone. This organization, primarily composed of anarchists from Beijing and Tianjin, was actually orchestrated by Soviet authorities. The leader, a Russian language teacher at Peking University, was, in fact, a Soviet spy. Upon returning to Shanghai, Chen Duxiu received a letter from the Socialist League and was introduced to Shanghai’s anarchists by Zheng Peigang. Through Chen’s network, Zheng established connections with anarchists in Zhejiang, including Shen Zhongjiu.Footnote 68 When these anarchists heard about the preparations to establish a communist party, they quickly saw it as an opportunity to unite anarchist factions across the country. Despite initial hesitations about collaborating with the Bolsheviks, some anarchists recognized the prevailing strength of Bolshevik power and chose to align temporarily with their ranks.Footnote 69
On April 2, 1920, Chen Duxiu, accompanied by Dai Jitao, Shen Dingyi, Shen Zhongjiu, and Li Hanjun, attended the inaugural meeting of the Shanghai Dockworkers’ Federation (Shanghai chuanwu zhanfang gongjie lianhehui, 上海船务栈房工界联合会). This marked Chen’s first notable appearance in the Shanghai press since his arrival.Footnote 70 The establishment of the federation, linked with anarchist principles and Soviet activities in the city, represented a significant development. Starting in February, workers from various shipping company warehouses, led by the federation’s initiator, gathered weekly at the Xinhua Esperanto School in Gongyi Alley on North Sichuan Road in the Shanghai International Settlement for Esperanto classes and lectures conducted by V. Stoppani, a correspondent from the Shanghai Life.Footnote 71 According to reports from undercover agents of the Shanghai Municipal Police, the individuals responsible for founding the Xinhua Esperanto School and inviting Stoppani were primarily members of the editorial board of the Voice of the People, with Zheng Peigang playing a central role.Footnote 72 Upon his arrival in Shanghai, Voitinsky, acting on the directives of the Comintern, initially targeted anarchists as the primary recruitment base. He focused his efforts on organizing a conference to bring anarchists and socialists together. Between June and August, he laid the groundwork for the “Revolutionary Bureau” (geming ju, 革命局) and the Socialist League, both embodying a united front approach. Some scholars argue that these entities were early precursors to the CCP. However, it was only when anarchists voiced opposition to the dictatorship of the proletariat that the “Revolutionary Bureau” dissolved, prompting Voitinsky to shift his focus primarily to Chen Duxiu.Footnote 73
Whether through the autonomous formation of the Party under the leadership of Chinese intellectuals like Chen Duxiu or through the Comintern-directed efforts via united front organizations, both paths to the founding of the CCP converged at the editorial board of the Weekly Review and intersected with the HFNS network. According to Yu Xiusong’s diary, on June 18, Shen Zhongjiu left the Weekly Review editorial board due to a personal dispute with Shen Dingyi.Footnote 74 Although he returned to his duties on July 7, he left for Hangzhou the following day. Meanwhile, Liu Dabai was conducting field research in rural Zhejiang.Footnote 75 At that time, those involved in the founding of the CCP believed that, in contrast to Bolshevism, Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai’s ideas were closer to socialism, and they were reluctant to commit to strict organizational discipline.Footnote 76 Despite their temporary absence from the founding activities of the communist organization in China, the process of establishing the party remained complex, with participants frequently joining and leaving. Shen Zhongjiu and Liu Dabai maintained close personal relationships with Chen Duxiu. In the autumn of 1920, Shen Zhongjiu, recommended by Chen Duxiu, began teaching at Hunan First Normal School.Footnote 77 Prior to his departure, Shen Zhongjiu was still one of the initiators of the communist organization in Hangzhou.Footnote 78
Shen Dingyi, Chen Wangdao, and Yu Xiusong remained actively involved in subsequent efforts to establish party and youth league organizations. However, the “Socialist Communist Party” mentioned in Yu Xiusong’s diary, as well as the Shanghai Socialist Youth League, which he led as secretary on August 22, 1920, still bore the hallmarks of a united front.Footnote 79 In November, Shen Dingyi, Yu Xiusong, and several former HFNS students founded the “Wu Society” (wu she, 悟社) in Hangzhou, marking the first expansion of communist organizations outside Shanghai. While the Wu Society leaned towards a focus on “self-cultivation,” its internal structure was “tightly woven,” with a preference for action over rhetoric, as evidenced by more than twenty meetings held within just a few months – a reflection of the Bolshevik emphasis on discipline and secrecy.Footnote 80 However, the involvement of the anarchist Liu Dabai, who had not formally joined the Communist Party, in the establishment of the Wu Society suggested that the group remained in a kind of middle ground, caught between an intellectual Marxist society and a Leninist political party.
In 1922, following the establishment of the Chinese Socialist Youth League, Yu Xiusong used the social networks cultivated at HFNS to establish the Youth League’s district committee in Hangzhou. This committee was based at Liu Dabai’s residence, where they launched the “Society for Marxist Studies” (makesi xueshuo yanjiuhui, 马克思学说研究会), with Shen Dingyi taking the lead in drafting its regulations.Footnote 81 Subsequently, Shen Dingyi and his colleagues launched a weekly journal, with the distribution department still operating from Liu Dabai’s home. This publication primarily focused on advocating for Zhejiang’s provincial constitutions and promoting the peasant movement, a stance that diverged from the initiatives of the CCP’s central committee. Although most of the HFNS students who followed Shen Dingyi’s revolutionary movement were assigned to the Hangzhou branch of the Youth League, they continued to hold on to their independent ideas and positions.
One of the key early actions of Zhejiang Bolsheviks was the peasant movement in Hangzhou’s rural areas. Shen Dingyi, along with the students and faculty of HFNS, were among the first Party and Youth League members to lead this movement. At the time of the CCP’s founding, there was no clear peasant policy. Party members in Zhejiang even criticized Chen Duxiu publicly for his narrow view of “labor,” which focused solely on urban workers while overlooking the exploitation of peasants, a form of exploitation also rooted in capitalism. Liu Dabai supported prioritizing rural labor and criticized Soviet Russia’s war communism for causing famine, arguing that it failed to treat peasants and workers equally.Footnote 82 Party members in Zhejiang believed that peasants were the true masters of China and that Bolsheviks should first go to the countryside to guide and organize the peasant movement. By taking a different path from the central committee of the Party, the Zhejiang Bolsheviks highlighted the diverse interpretations of the Bolshevik revolution among early CCP members. Nevertheless, this approach allowed the CCP to expand its influence in Zhejiang.
Conclusion
This article contends that the founding of the CCP was not the result of ideological convergence but the product of organizational cohesion forged through interpersonal trust, local activism, and cross-regional collaboration. By centering the largely overlooked network surrounding the Hangzhou First Normal School, it reveals how early CCP formation was driven by figures with divergent ideological backgrounds – from anarchist communism to socialist parliamentarianism – who nonetheless managed to coordinate their efforts through dense personal ties and shared activist experience.
Despite their earlier involvement in small-scale political initiatives, such as the Citizens’ Radical Party or the Shaoxing branch of the Chinese Socialist Party, HFNS-affiliated actors regrouped around the editorial board of Weekly Review. There, under the leadership of Shen Dingyi, they helped transform the journal into a central platform for socialist debate, Marxist education, and Bolshevik transmission. Through this venue, Soviet agents, Chinese anarchists, and student radicals converged, enabling Bolshevik ideas to circulate widely – even among those not initially aligned with Marxism.
Reconstructing the trajectories of HFNS teachers and students between 1919 and 1921, this study offers a bottom-up account of CCP formation rooted in informal networks and local institutional contexts. It introduces the concept of an “intermediate zone” – a space between formal party structures and unofficial activism – where hybrid ideological commitments and pragmatic organizing strategies coexisted. Rather than functioning merely as a conduit for Comintern doctrine, Weekly Review became a strategic node of negotiation, where diverse leftist tendencies interacted, adapted, and found common ground.
Ultimately, this article proposes a revised narrative of the CCP’s origins: one that displaces the myth of ideological purity with a history of improvisation, embeddedness, and coalition-building. By recovering the cross-regional influence and practical agency of the HFNS network, it redefines the Party’s early foundations as a contingent outcome of social entanglements, not theoretical clarity.
Financial support
This research is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (23CDJ041); the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Fund (2022EDS007); and the SJTU Party History Research and Promotion Fund (DSYJXJB2023-04).
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Appendix A. Key Members of the Weekly Review Editorial Board
Shen Dingyi 沈定一 (1883–1928), courtesy name Xuanlu 玄庐, was a prominent political figure and revolutionary. In 1912, he was elected to the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly and founded the Citizens’ Radical Party. In 1914, he was placed on a most-wanted list for opposing Yuan Shikai and went into exile in Southeast Asia. He returned to China in 1916 and was elected chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly. In 1917, he moved to Shanghai and co-founded the Weekly Review with Nationalist theorist Dai Jitao. By the spring and summer of 1920, he was actively involved in the early efforts that led to the founding of the CCP.
Shen Zhongjiu 沈仲九 (1887–1968), also known as Mingxun 铭训, with the pen name Zhongjiu, was an educator, editor, and political activist. He studied in Japan in 1905 and briefly attended Fudan College after returning to China in 1907. In 1912, he worked as an editor for the Shaoxing Gazette (Shaoxing Gongbao, 绍兴公报), where he met Shen Dingyi and joined the Citizens’ Radical Party. When Shen Dingyi became chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly in 1916, Shen Zhongjiu served as his secretary. By late 1918, he was an editor for the Zhejiang Education Association’s journal, renaming it Tides in Education in 1919 and becoming its editor-in-chief. That same year, he began teaching Chinese at Hangzhou First Normal School. In March 1920, he participated in the “Hangzhou First Normal School Unrest.” Afterward, he moved to Shanghai, joined the Weekly Review editorial board, and took part in the CCP’s early organizing efforts. However, he soon withdrew due to doubts about Bolshevism.
Liu Dabai 刘大白 (1883–1932, born Jin Qingyan 金庆棪) was a Qing-era scholar and served as editor-in-chief of the Shaoxing Gazette in 1912. He was also a founding member of the Shaoxing branch of the Chinese Socialist Party. In 1914, after opposing Yuan Shikai, he fled to Southeast Asia with Shen Dingyi, whom he had met through Shen Zhongjiu. The two became close allies. When Shen Dingyi was elected chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly in 1916, Liu served as its secretary-general. In 1918, he became a Chinese language teacher at Hangzhou First Normal School while also working for the Zhejiang Education Association. In the spring and summer of 1920, he took part in the CCP’s founding activities. However, his frequent travel between Zhejiang and Shanghai, along with his anarchist beliefs – which clashed with Bolshevik discipline – led him to eventually withdraw.
Chen Wangdao 陈望道 (1891–1977) enrolled in a Christian missionary school in Hangzhou in 1913. In 1915, he went to Japan, where he studied at Waseda University, Toyo University, and Chuo University. During his time there, he was introduced to Marxist theory. In 1919, on Shen Zhongjiu’s recommendation, he became a Chinese language teacher at Hangzhou First Normal School, where he advocated for new ideas and cultural reforms. However, following the Hangzhou First Normal School Unrest, he left the school soon after and had little lasting influence on the students. In early 1920, he joined the Weekly Review editorial board and, at Chen Duxiu’s invitation, also worked for the New Youth while participating in the CCP’s early organizing efforts. He completed the first full Chinese translation of The Communist Manifesto, using Japanese and English editions as references. In August 1922, dissatisfied with Chen Duxiu’s authoritarian leadership style, he left the CCP.
Shi Cuntong 施存统 (1899–1970, born Shi Fuliang 施复亮) enrolled at Hangzhou First Normal School in 1917. In 1919, he co-founded the student journal New Tides in Zhejiang and published his article “Decry Filial Piety” in its second issue, criticizing traditional Chinese family structures. The article sparked controversy and played a key role in the Hangzhou First Normal School Unrest. In March 1920, he moved to Shanghai, took part in the CCP’s founding activities, and helped establish the Socialist Youth League. That August, he traveled to Japan to continue his studies.
Yu Xiusong 俞秀松 (1899–1939) enrolled at Hangzhou First Normal School in 1916 and emerged as a key figure in the local student movement during the May Fourth period. In March 1920, he joined the Weekly Review editorial board and took part in the CCP’s founding activities. At Chen Duxiu’s request, he helped establish the Socialist Youth League and served as its leader.
Appendix B. The Formation of the Hangzhou First Normal School Network, 1912–1920
Yifan Shi is an associate professor in the School of Politics and International Relations and the Institute of Shanghai History, East China Normal University. His field of research is the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China.
Nan Ma is an associate professor in the School of Marxism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on modern Chinese history and early activities of the Chinese Communist Party.
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