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Title: Li Shizeng (1881–1973) Date: 2011 Source: *The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest*, Edited by Immanuel Ness. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1790 Authors: Daniel Cairns Topics: China, Biography, Chinese anarchism, Anarchist biography Published: 2020-05-10 06:37:23Z
Li Shizeng was a Chinese anarchist, educator,
and Guomindang (Kuomintang) member.
He spent the most notable years of his life
publishing anarchist materials in France and
initiating the Work-Study Movement. Born
into a wealthy and respected family, he was
son to an advisor to the Tongzhi emperor;
prestigious careers beckoned. En route to
study biology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris
in 1902, Li met Wu Zhihui, henceforth his
lifelong comrade. In 1906 they founded the
first Chinese anarchist organization, the New
World Society. Soon afterwards this group
began publication of *Xin Shiji* (*New Era*),
which ran for three years, an exceptional
span for a Chinese periodical of the time.
The journal, to which Li contributed his gifts
as a writer, translator, and editor, focused
on translating anarchist texts and criticizing Manchu rule. This led the editorship to
become involved with other anti-Manchu
groups such as the Revolutionary Alliance
and Guomindang. Despite other anarchists’
criticism, Li suspended his suspicions of
political parties when working with the
Guomindang.
The most notable product of anarchist–Guomindang cooperation, the National
Labor University, was a project with a distinctly working-class, anti-authoritarian,
even subversive bent. Other innovative syntheses of anarchism and education in which Li
participated included the Frugal Study Society of 1912, the Diligent Work-Frugal Study
Society of 1915, and the Sino-French Educational Association of 1916. These formed part
of the Work-Study Movement, a scheme to
bring gifted Chinese students to France where
they would study science and humanism,
support themselves through hard work and
anarchist conviviality, and ultimately become
the next generation of revolutionary leaders.
Indeed, when hard times hit the students in
Paris – as in 1921, when the formal organizations could not support them all – students
spontaneously banded together in “mutual
aid groups” inspired by Li’s teachings.
For Li, anarchism was a moral philosophy
linked to western scientific and humanistic
principles. Trained as a biologist, he showed
great interest in Darwin and the anarchist
Kropotkin, whose *Mutual Aid* offered a corollary and supplement to Darwinism. It was
Jacques Reclus, grand-nephew of anarchist
scientist Elisée Reclus, who introduced Li
to anarchism. Li’s anarchist revolutionary
writings, therefore, emphasized modern
ideas against traditional Chinese beliefs.
Furthermore, he despised drawing parallels
between Daoism and anarchism. Anarchism
for him was scientific, Daoism obscurantist;
they were polar opposites. He opposed the
Confucian tradition of the patriarchal family
as sexist, authoritarian, and unhealthy.
Li’s contributions to anarchist literature
were inspiring to a generation of Chinese radicals. As examples, the novelist Ba Jin decided
to dedicate his life to the anarchist movement
after reading Kropotkin’s “An Appeal to the
Young,” which Li translated into Chinese,
and Shifu, China’s revolutionary paragon,
converted to anarchism after reading *New Era* while in prison.
In the 1920s, Li became a member of
the Central Supervisory Committee of
the Guomindang, seemingly abandoning
anti-parliamentarism. In his later years, he
retired to Taiwan and Uruguay.
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