China and the West

Knight, Nick. The dilemma of determinism : Qu Qiubai [ID D19698] / Marxist philosophy in China [ID D20184].
The initial theoretical preoccupation of theorists to the early Chinese communist movement was with the materialist conception of history and in particular the issue of the problematic relationship between the economic base and the politico-ideological superstructure. This preoccupation resulted from a concern over the implied deterministic tendency within Marxist social theory and a desire for some reassurance that human action, whether in the political, legal or ideological realms, could exert some influence on the course of history. What early Chinese Marxist theorists, such als Li Da discovered, when they turned their attention to the Marxist classics and the writings of contemporary European Marxists, was that Marxism was not a mechanistic theory insisting on a uniformly economisitc reading of the historical process. Rather, Marxism conceived of a dialectical interaction between economic base and politico-ideological superstructure, an interadction within which the economic base nevertheless retained causal dominance.
It was not until 1923 that Qu Qiubai, the pioneer of Marxist philosophy in China, applied his formidable intellect to an attempted philosophical resolution of the dilemma of determinism within Marxism, and an explication of related issues such as materialism, logic, and epistemology. Qu's motivation for broaching this difficult theoretical exercise was twofold. The first was the need to dissemiante Marxist philosophy to members and supporters of the Chinese communist party. He was at that time the only theorist in the party, capapble of explaining Marxist philosophy. Qu was involved 1923 in the planning and establishment of Shanghai University, at which Marxist philosophy and social theory were to be taught. His lectures to two courses (Introduction to the social sciences, Outline of social philosophy) [ID D19717] represent the first concerted attempt to introduce Marxist philosophy to a Chinese audience and demonstrate a familiarity with the arcane terminology and subject matter of dialectical materialism quite lacking in the writings of other early Chinese Marxist theorists. His lectures formed the basis of several books and introduced a range of vocabulary, concepts, theoretical problems and modes of understanding to Marxist theory in China which laid the formation for the development of future philosophical discourse within the CCFP.
The conclusion of Qu's inquiry into the dilemma of determinism was that Marxism is a determinist, not a fatalisitc theory. The martial character of the universe and society, whose existence and development were governed by natural laws, precluded the possibility of unconstrained voluntarism : humans could not act as they wished ; neither could they compel history in directions or at a speed contrary to its materialist structural constraints. Only through a scientific undertstanding of these constraints could the limited sphere of human agency be exploited ; and exploited it shoud be, for whatever could be done by humans to faciliate the social changes anticipated by Marxist theory had to be done. Qu's search in 1923 for a solution to the dilemma of determinism is significant as it indicates that the theoretical level of the early communist movement in China was not as low as some scholarly accounts have suggested. It also demonstrates, that interest in Marxist philosophy in China was genuinely motivated by personal interest and intellectual curiosity, and not just by the need to provide a philosophical nationale for the political struggles within the CCP.