Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 180-214.

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The Peasant Movement School in Communist Party's Early Rural Revolutionary Practice

MENG Qingyan   

  1. School of Sociology and Historical Sociology and CCP's History Research Center, China University of Political Science and Law
  • Online:2017-05-20 Published:2017-05-20

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Abstract:

An important condition that revolutionary parties must meet in practice is the mobilizationof the masses. It is through a series of mobilization strategies and organization techniques that the CCP, a revolutionary party, infuses its ideology into rural society. Therefore, “examining the class” (cha jieji), a technique of organization and mobilization that the CCP has formed in its revolutionary practices, is of great importance to understanding the CCP's political culture. This technique includes two stages: “calculating class” (a quantification of social class), which focuses on objective factors such as economic criteria; and “making revolution” (naogeming), which focuses on subjective elements such as emotional excitement and violent struggle. From the perspective of mobilization analysis, the existing scholarship usually treats “making revolution” as a deviation from the Party's conventional revolutionary practices with regards to its disregard of quantified economic criteria and its ritual and violent character. However, few studies explore the historical origin of “making revolution”. This article attempts to revisit the genetic process and political tradition of “making revolution”. It shows that “making revolution” originates from the Peasant Movement Institute that was set by the KMT's Central Peasant Department in the period of National Revolution from 1924 to 1927, and features in the central role of peasant movement cadres of whom Peng Pai was the typical example. By synthesizing various historical documents, this article is to present the essential features of “making revolution”, which was used as a measure to mobilize. The conclusion is based on a preliminary study of peasant movements in Hunan and Guangdong in the period of National Revolution from 1924 to 1927 and the analysis of the curriculum and ideas of the Peasant Movement Institute. This article discusses the activites of Peng Pai and his fellow CCP members in the Peasant Movement Institute, focusing on their life story, educational background, and revolutionary activities. It presents not only the special ethos of these CCP members as the “deep tiller” of the revolution and an agitator of the masses, but also discusses acertain philosophies (such as anarchism) which arose under specific social and historical conditions. More importantly, this article proclaims that the recontextualization of mobilization strategies such as “making revolution” enables a deeper understanding of the CCP's multi-facet revolutionary practices in its early years. This article analyzes “making revolution” in a particular historical situation and tries to understand its main structural factors and the historical roots of its limitations.