Li Ta-Chao and the Origins of Chinese Marxism

Li Ta-Chao was a Chinese intellectual who co-founded the Communist Party of China with Chen Duxiu in 1921. He was the Head Librarian at the Peking University Library, and was among the first of the Chinese intellectuals to support the Bolshevik Government in Russia. Mao Zedong was an assistant librarian to Li at the library, and Li was one of Mao's earliest and most prominent influences. At the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, Li was captured during a raid on the Soviet Embassy in Peking (Beijing) and with nineteen others, he was executed on the orders of the warlord Zhang Zuolin on April 28, 1927. A penetrating analysis of how Marxism, as filtered through the Bolshevik Revolution affected one of the leaders of China's new intelligentsia. Solidly researched and based on contemporary documentations, as well as recent Beijing-published materials such as a new Chinese edition of Li's writings.