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Title: Wu Zhihui (1865–1953)
Date: 2011
Source: *The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest*, Edited by Immanuel Ness. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1809
Authors: Daniel Cairns
Topics: China, Biography, Chinese anarchism, Anarchist biography
Published: 2020-05-10 06:32:49Z

Wu Zhihui was a leading Chinese anarchist,

educator, and Guomindang (GMD) member.

While in his most radical phase Wu Zhihui

advocated on behalf of labor and the poor,

he ardently opposed the Chinese Communist

Revolution of 1949 and the coming to power

of the Chinese Communist Party.

Born into a poverty-stricken family in

Jiangsu, China, Wu Zhihui was a bright and

gifted student, passing the highly demanding

ranks of the Chinese imperial education

system, which enabled him to travel widely

and live in Scotland and France. His turn

toward political engagement began in 1903,

before which his political outlook was fairly

conservative and rooted in Confucianism, in

the manner of his education. Continuing his

radicalization, he joined the Tongmenghui,

the precursor to the GMD, in 1905, declaring

himself an anarchist the next year.

He later founded influential revolutionary

organizations like the Society to Advance

Morality and supervised radical journals like

magazine. He promoted science, rationalism, language reform, and the abolition of

marriage. His ideas were revolutionary, but

he estimated that it would take 3,000 years

to achieve his vision of a utopian society.

Wu was instrumental in the Work-Study

Movement in France. Among his students

were a large group of anarchists – and future

communist leaders like Zhou Enlai and Deng

Xiaoping. In the GMD in the early 1920s,

he was not opposed to cooperation with the

recently founded Chinese Communist Party.

By 1927, Wu Zhihui sought to distance

himself from the two competing parties. He

became an advisor to Jiang Jieshi (Chiang

Kai-shek) and, in the wake of the Chinese

Revolution of 1949, fled to Taiwan, where he

stayed until his death four years later.

References and Suggested Readings

<biblio>

Bernal, M. (1968) The Triumph of Anarchism over

Marxism, 1906–1907. In M. C. Wright (Ed.),

China in Revolution: The First Phase, 1900–1913.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Chan, M., & Dirlik, A. (1992) Schools into Fields

and Factories: Anarchists, the Guomindang, and

the Labor University in Shanghai, 1927–1932.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Kwok, D. (1965) Scientism in Chinese Thought,

1900–1950. New Haven, CT: Yale University

Press.

Wu Zhihui. (19082005) Education as Revolution.

In R. Graham (Ed.), Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas. Montreal: Black

Rose Books.

Wu Zhihui. (2000) A New Concept of the Universe

and Life Based on a New Belief. In W. T. De Bary

et al. (Eds.), Sources of Chinese Tradition. New

York: Columbia University Press.

</biblio>

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