The May Fourth Movement
(May 1939)

The May Fourth movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the May Fourth movement was only one of the
manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and development of new social
forces in that period, the bourgeois-democratic revolution gained a vital new force,¹
a force consisting of the working class, the student masses, and the new national
bourgeoisie. Around the time of the May Fourth movement, hundreds of thousands of students courageously took their place in the van. In these respects the
May Fourth movement went a step beyond the Revolution of 1911.
If we trace China's bourgeois-democratic revolution back to the Opium War²
we see that it has passed through a number of stages in its development: the Opium
War, the movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,³ the Sino-Japanese War
of 1894, the coup of 1898⁴ the Boxer movement, the Revolution of 1911, the May
Fourth movement, the Northern Expedition, and the war of the Red Army.5 The
present War of Resistance Against Japan is yet another stage and is the greatest,
most vigorous, and most dynamic stage of all. The process of the democratic revolution can be considered completed and the bourgeois-democratic revolution can
be considered accomplished only when the forces of foreign oppression and domestic feudalism have been basically overthrown, and an independent democratic
state has been established. From the Opium War onward each stage in the development of the revolution has had certain different characteristics and manifestations, that is to say, its own distinguishing features. But taken as a whole, all the

stages bear the character of a bourgeois-democratic revolution. This last characteristic is the basic characteristic that is common in varying degrees to all the
stages. The aim of this democratic revolution is to complete a social system hitherto unknown in Chinese history, namely, a democratic social system having a
feudal society (during the last hundred years a semicolonial and semifeudal society) as its precursor and a socialist society as its successor. But this system itself is
a democratic society. It is coming from a feudal society and will move toward a
socialist society, but, during a certain historical period, it struggles to establish a
democratic society. If anyone asks why a Communist should strive to bring into
being, first, a bourgeois-democratic society and, then, a socialist society, our answer is: We are following the inevitable course of history.
China's democratic revolution depends on certain social forces for its accomplishment. These social forces are the working class, the peasantry, the intellectuals, and the progressive bourgeoisie, that is, the revolutionary workers, peasants,
soldiers, students, and businessmen, with the workers and peasants as the basic
revolutionary force. It is impossible to accomplish the anti-imperialist and
antifeudal democratic revolution without these basic revolutionary forces.10 Today, the principal enemies of the revolution are the Japanese imperialists and the
Chinese traitors, and the fundamental policy of the revolution is the Anti-Japanese
United Front. The components of this front are all the anti-Japanese workers, peasants, soldiers, students, and businessmen. Final victory in the War of Resistance
will certainly be won when this united front is greatly consolidated and developed.
In the Chinese democratic revolutionary movement, it was the intellectuals who
were the first to awaken. This was clearly demonstrated both in the Revolution of
1911 and in the May Fourth movement.11 But the intellectuals will accomplish
nothing if they fail to integrate themselves with the popular masses of the workers
and peasants. This is the cause of failure of the Revolution of 1911 and the May
Fourth movement. In the final analysis, the dividing line between revolutionary
intellectuals and nonrevolutionary or counterrevolutionary intellectuals is whether
or not they are willing to integrate themselves with the popular masses of the
workers and peasants, and actually do so. Ultimately it is this alone, and not professions of faith (professions of faith only) in things like the Three People's Principles and Marxism that distinguishes one from the other. A true believer in the

This article was first published in Jiefang, no. 70, May 1, 1939. We have translated it from
Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 6, pp. 321-23, where it is reproduced from that source.
Three People's Principles and a true Marxist¹² must be one who is willing to integrate himself with the worker and peasant popular masses, and actually does so.
It is now twenty years since the May Fourth movement and almost two years
since the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war. The young people and the cultural
workers of the whole country bear a heavy responsibility.¹³ I hope they will understand the character and the motive forces of the Chinese revolution, make their
work serve the worker and peasant popular masses, go into their midst, and become propagandists and organizers among them. Victory will be ours when the
popular masses of the entire country rise up against Japan. Young people of the
whole country, exert yourselves!

--- Notes

1. The bourgeois-democratic revolution gained a vital new force → A powerful camp
made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution

2. The Opium War → Its formative period

3. The movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom → The revolution of the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom

4. The coup of 1898 The Reform Movement of 1898

5. The war of the Red Army → The war of the Agrarian Revolution

6. Forces of foreign oppression → Forces of foreign imperialism

7. Here the Selected Works version inserts a sentence reading, "Of these, the most important distinction is whether they came before or after the emergence of the Communist Party."

8. Complete Establish

9. With the workers and peasants as the basic revolutionary force → With the workers
and peasants as the basic revolutionary force and with the workers as the class which leads
the revolution

10. Without these basic revolutionary forces → Without these basic revolutionary forces
and without the leadership of the working class

11. The May Fourth movement. → The May Fourth movement, and in the period of the
May Fourth movement the intellectuals were more numerous and more politically conscious than in the period of the Revolution of 1911.


12. A true believer in the Three People's Principles and a true Marxist → A true revolutionary

13. A heavy responsibility. → A heavy responsibility for the democratic revolution and
the War of Resistance Against Japan.