The purpose of this thesis is to delineate and analyse
the development and nature of Chinese communism from the
beginning to the death of Sun Yat-sen.
It is divided into two sections. The first section
attempts firstly to describe the social milieu in which the
founders of Chiiese communism found themselves in at, and
just prior to, the time when they embraced communism as their
revolutionary praxis. Secondly, this section deals with the
reasons for the acceptance of communism as the revolutionary
praxis and the resultant actions of this acceptance - the
participation in the National Revolution.
In the second section, a number of the central issues
of Chinese communism pertinent to this period are examined:
the communists 1 concept of the collaboration with the
Kuomintang, the nature of the national revolution and the role
of leadership, and the peasant policies. Finally, as the
Chinese leadership embraced communism partly because of their
consciousness of the need of a new culture for China, this
study concludes with a discussion of the development of the
concept of culture by these Chinese communists.
While this is not, primarily, ä study of Chinese
communist activities nor a comparison between Chinese and
Russian communism, a study of the development and nature of
Chinese communism cannot exclude discussions in these two
aspects. Therefore, to the extent that such discussions will clarify ones perception of Chinese communism, these two
aspects are brought into purview
