In Pursuit of Truth in WangDao: Renowned Author Xu Jingeng Questions the "Southern Chen, Northe

In Pursuit of Truth in WangDao: Renowned Author Xu Jingeng Questions the "Southern Chen, Northern Li" Narrative, Sparking Academic Debate

Mr. Xu Jingeng, former head of the Shandong Bureau of People's Daily and author of the full-length reportage WangDao, is a Party media journalist who commands respect for his outspokenness. When it became known that he had publicly dismissed the "Southern Chen, Northern Li jointly planning the founding of the Party" (Nan Chen Bei Li Xiang Yue Jian Dang) thesis—a near-consensus view in Party historiography—as a fabrication, many held their breath for him. Yet Xu, unwavering in his commitment to truth, refused to be intimidated. History must be true to itself; academic debate must be allowed, so as to honor the forerunners and martyrs. General Secretary Xi Jinping has told the story of Chen Wangdao translating The Communist Manifesto—"the taste of truth is a little sweet." His objective, fact-based approach, upholding truth and opposing the long-standing distortion of Party history, has set an example for us all.

Before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), no leadership speech placed Chen Duxiu ahead of Li Dazhao. On October 21, 2013, at the centenary celebration of the Western Returned Scholars Association, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated, "History will not forget that advanced intellectuals with overseas study experience, such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, together with revolutionary youth like Comrade Mao Zedong, vigorously promoted and actively facilitated the integration of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese workers' movement, founding the Communist Party of China and bringing a completely new complexion to the Chinese revolution." These words moved Chen Entian—former chairman of the International 73 Society and grandson of Chen Guangmei, the son born to Chen Duxiu and Gao Junman—to tears. He remarked that General Secretary Xi Jinping had truly achieved objectivity and adherence to facts, embodying the wisdom and magnanimity of our Party. In 2019, marking the 140th anniversary of Chen Duxiu's birth, the CPC Central Committee, guided by the principles of objectivity and truth-seeking, published for the first time an article titled In Commemoration of the 140th Anniversary of Chen Duxiu's Birth, deleting the phrase "one of" from the main title for the first time. In 2021, on the centenary of the founding of the CPC, China Central Television released the tribute drama The Age of Awakening, depicting how Chen Duxiu, the principal founder of the CPC, together with those around him—including Comrade Li Dazhao—awakened a generation of young people through the New Culture Movement and the journal New Youth, jointly inaugurating the revolutionary journey of the CPC. As a result, the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the nation have come to an objective and fair understanding of Chen Duxiu, principal founder of the CPC; his two martyred sons (early CPC leaders) Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian; and his wife Gao Junman, who accompanied him in founding the Party.

To speak from the heart: the injustices and false verdicts in Party history have not been fully redressed. Certain unfair narratives persist, stubbornly defended by some, untouchable—anyone who touches them is attacked. A philosopher once said: the mud on one's body can only be washed away by the passage of time. In truth, Mr. Xu Jingeng's judgment that "Southern Chen, Northern Li jointly planned the founding of the Party" is a fabrication was not a whim or a bid for novelty, but grounded in rigorous textual research. He is both a truth-seeking writer and a scrupulous Party media professional. His core arguments are roughly as follows:

I. The Core Source—Gao Yihan—Suffers Fatal Spatiotemporal Flaws

The sole early origin of the claim "Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao discussed founding the Party on a mule cart" is a speech delivered by Gao Yihan at the 1927 memorial meeting for Li Dazhao, describing how the two discussed founding the Party during the mule-cart escort. However, historical records confirm that when Li Dazhao escorted Chen Duxiu out of Beijing in February 1920, Gao Yihan was studying in Japan and was simply not in the country—he could not have witnessed the event firsthand. Xu Jingeng argues that Gao's later account constitutes second-hand hearsay without eyewitness corroboration, a solitary piece of evidence that remains questionable.

II. Gao Yihan Himself Deleted the Passage, Undermining His Own Credibility

After his 1927 speech, when Gao Yihan formally published the text under the title A Brief Biography of Mr. Li Dazhao, he voluntarily deleted the crucial paragraph about "planning the founding of the Party en route." Xu Jingeng infers from this that Gao, realizing post hoc that the detail lacked factual basis, revised his own text—thus confirming the claim's falsity.

III. No Contemporary First-hand Archives or Eyewitness Diaries Corroborate It

The letters exchanged between Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in 1920, the diary of Hu Shi, and the contemporary writings of direct participants such as Zhang Shizhao, Zhang Shenfu, and Zhang Guotao—none of these record any conversation about founding the Party aboard a mule cart. Such descriptions emerged only in later recollections. Xu Jingeng concludes that these are retrospective embellishments appended by later generations.

IV. The Eight-Character Phrase "Southern Chen, Northern Li" Took Shape in the 1980s

The earliest formulation of "Northern Li, Southern Chen" merely saw a certain comrade placing Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu side by side in terms of scholarly stature—not in terms of founding the Party. Neither Chen Duxiu nor Li Dazhao ever confirmed it. The fixed phrase "Southern Chen, Northern Li, jointly planning the founding of the Party" originated in the 1980s; the older generation of revolutionaries never used it. Xu Jingeng believes it is a narrative crafted by later generations through the synthesis of memories and artistic processing—not original historical fact.

V. Mao Zedong Spoke of Chen Duxiu as Having "Played a Major Role Together with Those Around Him, Such as Comrade Li Dazhao"

Xu Jingeng's stance in writing leans toward Mao Zedong's early statements, highlighting Chen Duxiu as the core initiator of the Party's founding. He argues that over-emphasizing the "discussion en route" easily obscures Chen Duxiu's leading role in independently launching the Party in Shanghai and coordinating Party branches nationwide. Therefore, he adopts the view that comprehensively rejects the "joint planning" thesis.

Furthermore, three authoritative figures in Party historiography—Tang Baolin, Chen Tiejian, and Guo Dehong—all steadfastly maintain that "Chen Duxiu was the core of the Party's founding," holding that "Southern Chen, Northern Li jointly planned the founding of the Party" does not accord with the objective reality of the Party's early days.

Tang Baolin, Chen Tiejian, and Guo Dehong are all authoritative scholars who, since the Reform and Opening-up, have devoted themselves to the study of Chen Duxiu and the history of the CPC's founding. All three unanimously affirm that Chen Duxiu was the core, the principal initiator, and the foremost leading figure in the founding of the Communist Party of China.

I. Tang Baolin​ (Author of A Complete Biography of Chen Duxiu, the culmination of domestic Chen Duxiu studies)

1. Core conclusion: He explicitly proposes that the period 1915–1927 was the "Chen Duxiu Era." During this period, the general hub of the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement, the founding of the Party, and the early revolution was Chen Duxiu—irreplaceable.

2. Complete demonstration of his core status at the founding stage: In August 1920, the Shanghai Communist Group (the national initiating group) was single-handedly organized by Chen Duxiu, who served as its secretary. All early Party organizations across the country were driven by the Shanghai initiating group; the source was Chen Duxiu. He founded the New Youth, awakening a generation of youth and cultivating all the backbone forces of the Party's founding. He sponsored the monthly journal Communist and drafted the program for founding the Party. Although absent from the First National Congress, he was unanimously elected Secretary of the Central Bureau—the fundamental reason being that the entire Party recognized him as the overall person responsible for founding the Party.

3. In his book, he states plainly: the CPC was not founded by multiple people in parallel; it was accomplished with Chen Duxiu at the center, with Li Dazhao and other backbone cadres across the regions playing supporting roles, emphasizing Chen Duxiu's position at the core of nationwide coordination.

II. Chen Tiejian​ (Research Fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Former President of the Chen Duxiu Research Society; Authority on Qu Qiubai Studies)

1. He publicly calls Chen Duxiu the first person in the founding of the CPC, working vigorously to promote the removal of various negative labels that had long been pinned on Chen Duxiu, rectifying past wrongs and restoring his contributions to the Party's founding.

2.He fully recognizes Chen Duxiu's core identity as leader of the ideological enlightenment, the dominant force in the Shanghai initiating group, and the general coordinator of the nationwide Party-building effort.

3.He wrote a book review for Tang Baolin's million-word A Complete Biography of Chen Duxiu, fully endorsing the book's overall argument that "Chen Duxiu was the core of the Party's founding," and highly affirming the book's textual research on Chen Duxiu's founding contributions.

III. Guo Dehong​ (Authority on Party History Theory; Professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee; Researcher on the Standardized Evaluation of Historical Party Figures)

Adhering to the materialist conception of history and its method of twofold analysis, he explicitly defines Chen Duxiu as: standard-bearer of the New Culture Movement, commander-in-chief of the May Fourth Movement, the primary founder of the CPC, and the supreme core leader in the Party's early days—a fixed formulation in all his Party history textbooks and papers. By examining the archives of the First National Congress, early correspondence, and Comintern historical materials, he demonstrates that all local groups took the initiative to liaise with Chen Duxiu in Shanghai; the preparatory work for founding the Party was coordinated by him. He authored articles specifically to correct the old deviations in the Party's past history of "deliberately weakening Chen Duxiu," proposing that Chen Duxiu's coordinating position in the history of the Party's founding be objectively restored to a level higher than that of other pioneers.

Recently, an online article signed "Ben Zhen" appeared in response to the views of Xu Jingeng, Tang Baolin, Chen Tiejian, and Guo Dehong. Through Mao Zedong's early statements, it restores the actual circumstances of the Party's founding period. The full text of the article, titled Mao Zedong's Statements Reveal Who Was the Core and Principal Founder of the CPC, reads as follows:

In 2019, marking the 140th anniversary of Chen Duxiu's birth, the CPC Central Committee, guided by the principles of objectivity and truth-seeking, published for the first time the article In Commemoration of the 140th Anniversary of Chen Duxiu's Birth, deleting the phrase "one of" from the main title. In 2021, on the centenary of the founding of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee again, upholding the principles of objectivity and truth-seeking, released the tribute drama The Age of Awakening. The drama depicts how Chen Duxiu, the principal founder of the CPC, together with those around him—including Comrade Li Dazhao—awakened a generation of young people through the New Culture Movement and the journal New Youth, jointly inaugurating the revolutionary journey of the CPC. As a result, the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the nation have come to an objective and fair understanding of Chen Duxiu, principal founder of the CPC; his two martyred sons (early CPC leaders) Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian; and his wife Gao Junman, who accompanied him in founding the Party. Mao Zedong once evaluated Chen Duxiu, saying that he was the commander-in-chief of the May Fourth Movement, that the entire movement was in fact led by him, and that he, together with those around him (such as Comrade Li Dazhao), played a major role. "...We were students of their generation. The May Fourth Movement prepared cadres for the Communist Party of China. At that time, there was the magazine New Youth, which was edited by Chen Duxiu. Some of those who were awakened by this magazine and the May Fourth Movement later joined the Communist Party. These people were greatly influenced by Chen Duxiu and those around him (such as Comrade Li Dazhao). It can be said that it was they who gathered together that the Party was formed, that the Party was created." In 1936, Mao Zedong, in conversation with the American journalist Edgar Snow who had come to northern Shaanxi to conduct interviews, again spoke of Chen Duxiu: "His influence on me probably exceeded that of anyone else." Mao's statements prove that Chen Duxiu was the core and principal founder of the CPC, and that his influence exceeded that of anyone else. The "Southern Chen, Northern Li jointly planned the founding of the Party" thesis, which evolved in the 1980s from the folk doggerel "Two giants at the Red Mansion of Peking University, passing down Northern Li and Southern Chen," contradicts Mao's statement. Some Party historians hold that this violates the principles of objectivity and truth-seeking; scholars who dare to speak out and pursue truth even argue that "Southern Chen, Northern Li jointly planned the founding of the Party" is a pure fabrication.

Chen Duxiu, born in 1879, was 10 years older than Li Dazhao and 14 years older than Mao Zedong. When the 22-year-old Chen Duxiu was engaged in anti-Qing revolutionary activities, the 12-year-old Li Dazhao was still studying at a private school. In 2013, Chen Duxiu participated in the "Second Revolution" against Yuan Shikai and was imprisoned. In 1915, he founded Youth Magazine—later renamed New Youth. Li Dazhao, then 26 and studying in Japan, was also a faithful reader of New Youth. It has been said that Li Dazhao was Mao Zedong's "revolutionary mentor" and an elder figure to him. But in fact, Li Dazhao was only four years older than Mao Zedong. Their interaction mainly took place around the time they both worked at the Peking University Library. During this period, Li Dazhao indeed offered care and ideological influence to Mao Zedong, though the duration was not long. After Mao Zedong came to know Chen Duxiu, he followed him without hesitation.

After the victory of the Russian October Revolution in 1917, Chen Duxiu argued that "the republic of Russia in the twentieth century has a bright future, and its impact on human happiness and civilization will surpass that of the French Revolution of the eighteenth century; it cannot be dismissed on the basis of superficial political phenomena." Thus, through New Youth, he rallied those around him (including Comrade Li Dazhao) to study the October Revolution. He also founded the combative current affairs journal Weekly Review, coordinating with New Youth in a pincer movement. Chen Duxiu, who had long been engaged in revolutionary activities, no longer had the patience to confine himself to propaganda. He needed a revolutionary party; he needed those around him. He could not always run journals and write articles by himself. He needed those around him—with Li Dazhao as his pen-and-ink courage (wendan) and others as propagandists—to be trained to run journals and write articles in his stead. Beyond propaganda, he had to build a revolutionary party and establish branches across the country. During this period, Li Dazhao and others published a great number of articles propagating communism. It can be said that these were collective acts of Chen Duxiu and his circle. Later generations who portrayed Li Dazhao as having propagated communism ahead of Chen Duxiu—even believing that Chen Duxiu was influenced by Li Dazhao—overlooked the fact that Chen Duxiu was the leader of the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement, and the dissemination of new trends of thought, and that the articles published by those around him were all part of the collective disseminating enterprise of Chen Duxiu and his circle.

On May 4, 1919, the May Fourth Movement, led by Chen Duxiu and those around him, erupted. In June, Chen Duxiu, leader of the new trends of thought, was arrested for distributing leaflets of the Declaration of Peking Citizens. He was released in September of the same year. This imprisonment thoroughly radicalized and "reddened" Chen Duxiu—he was determined to form a revolutionary party with those around him and subvert the old system. In January 1920, the 41-year-old Chen Duxiu, secretly escorted by the 31-year-old Li Dazhao, left Beijing for Shanghai. Once in Shanghai, Chen Duxiu joined forces with seven labor groups to prepare for the World Labor Day commemoration conference, delivering a speech titled The Essentials for Laborers at the preparatory meeting. Under his guidance, more than 5,000 workers from various industries in Shanghai held a rally on May 1, raising slogans such as "Long Live the Laborers" and adopting the Shanghai Workers' Declaration. Chen Duxiu also founded journals such as Labor World and Companion to propagate Marxism among workers.

In Shanghai, Chen Duxiu quickly gathered around him a group of figures including Li Hanjun, Yu Xiushong, Shi Cuntong, and Chen Gongpei; together with Li Dazhao and others in Beijing, they began forming the Party organization, drafting ten articles for a Party program, including the use of proletarian dictatorship and producers' cooperatives as means to achieve social revolution. Regarding the name of the Party, Chen Duxiu consulted not only Li Dazhao but also those around him, such as Zhang Shenfu, Li Hanjun, and Li Da—even seeking the opinion of his wife Gao Junman—before finally settling on the name "Communist Party of China." According to declassified Soviet files of the later period, the Communist Party of China had already been founded under Chen Duxiu's leadership in August 1920. Its members included those around him, such as Li Hanjun, Li Da, Chen Wangdao, Yang Mingzhai, Shen Xuanlu, Shao Lizi, Li Qihan, Li Zhong, Yu Xiushong, Shen Yanbing, Lin Boqu, Yuan Zhenying, and Shen Zemin, plus Li Dazhao and others in Beijing. Li Hanjun and Li Da successively served as acting secretaries when Chen Duxiu was not present at the Party Central Committee. Li Dazhao, unable to leave Beijing, served as Chen Duxiu's liaison with the Soviet Union and the organizer of the CPC Beijing Branch. During this period, matters concerning the Soviet side were first handled by Li Dazhao, who then reported to Chen Duxiu, Secretary of the Central Bureau. After the "head office" was established, Chen Duxiu began uniting those around him to set up "branch offices." He invited Bao Huiseng and Chen Tanqiu to organize the Wuhan Branch; invited Li Dazhao and Zhang Shenfu to organize the Beijing Branch; invited Mao Zedong and He Shuheng to organize the Changsha Branch; invited Wang Jinmei and Deng Enming to organize the Jinan Branch; invited Tan Pingshan and Chen Gongbo to organize the Guangzhou Branch; invited Shi Cuntong and Zhou Fohai to organize the Japan Branch; and invited Zhang Shenfu and Zhou Enlai to organize the France Branch. Once these branches were established, the CPC Central Committee decided to convene the First National Congress.

The First National Congress of the Communist Party of China elected Chen Duxiu as Secretary of the Central Bureau. Li Dazhao, as head of a branch, did not enter the Central Bureau. Thereafter, Chen Duxiu served as the Party's supreme leader for five consecutive congresses, while Li Dazhao—as head of the Beijing Branch and liaison with the Soviet Union—never entered the Central Bureau, being elected only at the Third Congress as a Central Committee member alongside Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong, however, entered the Central Bureau, placing him closer to the core than Li Dazhao. At the Fourth Congress, Li Dazhao was again elected to the Central Committee, again failing to enter the Central Bureau. On the eve of the Fifth Congress—April 6, 1927—Li Dazhao was arrested by Zhang Zuolin at the Soviet Embassy in Beijing. Zhang Zuolin harbored three resentments: first, resentment at the Soviet Union's "aggressive actions" in the North; second, resentment at the Soviet Union's provision of arms to support the Kuomintang's Northern Expedition; and third, resentment at the Red movement targeting bureaucratic landlords and capitalists. It is said that Zhang Zuolin believed Li Dazhao had cooperated with the Soviet Union in all three respects. When Chen Duxiu wrote to Zhang Xueliang asking Zhang Zuolin to release Li Dazhao, Zhang Zuolin refused, on the grounds that "Li colluded with Russia and must be executed according to law."

Chen Duxiu served as the supreme leader of the CPC from the First through the Fifth Congresses, cultivating the five founding secretaries—Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi. He was undoubtedly the early core and principal leader of the CPC. As the students surpassed the master, these five secretaries ultimately led the Communist Party of China to replace the Kuomintang and found New China. As a revolutionary mentor, Chen Duxiu would surely have been immensely gratified. Comrade Li Dazhao, who long engaged in local organizational building and Soviet liaison work in Beijing, in fact held a Party status quite similar to that of Mao Zedong. It is undeniable that in his early years, among those around Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao was an outstanding "pen-and-ink courage" and propaganda stalwart, deeply appreciated by Chen Duxiu, and enjoyed the trust of Mr. Sun Yat-sen during the period of Kuomintang-CPC cooperation. Looking at the five founding secretaries cultivated by Chen Duxiu, apart from Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, who had intersections with Li Dazhao before the founding of the Party, none of the five founding secretaries had any intersection with Comrade Li Dazhao after the Party's founding. This article does not seek to belittle Comrade Li Dazhao. Rather, upholding our Party's principle of objectivity and truth-seeking, it aims to restore Party history and put an end to fabrication, and to respond to why Comrade Mao Zedong, on the question of founding the Party, said that "Chen Duxiu, together with those around him, such as Comrade Li Dazhao, played a major role." Comrade Li Dazhao remains one of the founders of the Communist Party of China, a pioneer of the Chinese communist movement, a great Marxist, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary. Among those around Chen Duxiu, he is a great revolutionary martyr, as towering as Li Hanjun, Wang Jinmei, Chen Tanqiu, He Shuhuang, Deng Enming, Yang Mingzhai, and all the others.