Cai Hesen (March 30, 1895 – August 4, 1931) was an early leader of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP), and a friend and comrade of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

. Cai was born in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

but grew up in Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He helped Mao organize the

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

''New People's Study Society''. In 1919 he went to France on the Work-Study program, and his letters of advocacy were important in convincing Mao of the Bolshevik revolutionary approach. On his return to China, he was an important leader and organizer for the young Communist Party, spent several years in Moscow, and returned to China again in 1931. While organizing revolutionary activity in Hong Kong, he was arrested and given over to Canton authorities, who executed him in August 1931.

Youth and education

Cai's family included both merchants and scholar-officials, but his father had not done well in the family business and instead obtained a job in the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai, where Cai was born, March 30, 1895, the fifth of six children. Cai's mother, left her husband, apparently angered at his taking a "secondary wife." She returned to Hunan in the spring of 1899, taking Cai and his younger sister, Cai Chang (), and refusing to live with her husband even when he too returned. The family had little money but Cai found his apprenticeship in his father's business to be unbearable. Cai's mother sold her personal possessions to enable Cai to attend a village school at the age of sixteen. He then studied at Hunan First Normal School and at the Hunan First Normal University in Changsha. Cai studied under Yang Changji, and joined student movements with his fellow student

. In June 1917, he graduated. In April 1918, Cai, Mao Zedong, and a dozen others organized the ''New People's Study Society'' (Xin Min Xue Hui) in Changsha. It was said that "Hesen is the theorist and Mao the realist". Yang Changji had urged his students to stay away from holding public office and to serve society by maintaining independence and moral purity. Cai rejected this

Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a Morality, moral, Ethics, ethical, and metaphysics, metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768� ...

position. He declared that "what I advocate is to commit wrongs in order to achieve a greater good." When he heard that the anarchists and educators Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng had organized a Work-Study Program to send students to France who would finance their study by working in French factories, he and other members of the Society went to Beijing to seek their help.

In France

In 1919, he traveled to France for the Work-Study Program with his mother and his sister Cai Chang (). On the ship he met and fell in love with Xiang Jingyu. At a time when "free love," that is, individual choice, was considered indecent, the two discussed political problems and theories, leading to a romantic relationship. In Paris, Cai organized the ''Work and Study Cooperative Society'' (Gongxue huzhu she) and advocated Marxist communism. In May 1920, Cai and Xiang Jingyu married. Their marriage became known as the "Xiang Cai Alliance" or the "looking upward alliance" as a model for marriage based on principles of individual freedom and shared revolutionary beliefs. Cai's conviction that only violent revolution could solve China's problems fractured the Work-Study student group, but Cai was determined to form a Marxist party among his Hunan fellow students. Cai's letters to Mao Zedong, who was then in Beijing, were influential in their advocacy of Bolshevism. Mao replied, "there is not one word with which I do not agree." Xiang Jingyu and Cai Hesen

In July 1920, Cai and leaders of the ''New People's Study Society'' publicly attacked the leaders of the Work-Study Movement for their optimistic

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

belief in cultural change, education, and communal values. After the Chinese Communist Party was founded, Cai wrote and gained permission to establish an official branch in Europe. In the latter half of 1921, Cai was arrested by the French government for organizing a wave of protests against the Work-Study leadership over admissions to the Sino-French Institute at the University of Lyons, and was deported soon after.

Revolutionary career

Cai and Xiang Jingyu returned to China to work in the Chinese Communist Party's central organization. The Communist Party during its 2nd National Congress in July 1922 decided to establish an authoritative publication to disseminate its views on

anti-imperialism Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influen ...

and revolution. This resulted in the founding of ''The Guide Weekly'' in Shanghai, the first openly-published newspaper of the central organ of the Communist Party. Cai was the paper's editor. Cai was a member of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as a member of the 5th and 6th Central Political Bureaus and other important positions. During the

May Thirtieth Movement The May Thirtieth Movement () was a major labor and anti-imperialist movement during the middle-period of the Republic of China era. It began when the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on Chinese protesters in Shanghai's International Set ...

, Cai's brother, Cai Linzheng, was shot and killed while leading a workers' picket team in the Guangzhou-Hong Kong strike. Cai's work during the May Thirtieth Movement exacerbated his health problems and the Communist Party sent him to Beijing to recuperate. In October 1925, Cai and Xiang were sent by the Party to Moscow, in part hoping that it would help them reconcile. In 1925, Cai served as the CCP's representative to the international Communist movement in Moscow. While in Moscow, his marriage with Xiang broke up and Cai married Li Yichun (In 1928, Xiang was betrayed to the police of the French concession in Wuhan and executed.) In 1927, Cai returned to China, but went to Moscow again in 1928 to cure disease.

Death

In 1931 Cai returned to Shanghai to support the

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

provincial People's Committee. He then went to Hong Kong to direct party work there. He was betrayed by Gu Shunzhang when attending a meeting in Hong Kong. He was arrested in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was under British Empire, British rule from 1841 to 1997, except for a Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. It was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 ...

and extradited to the Chinese authorities in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, which was controlled by the warlord Chen Jitang. He was tortured and executed in August 1931, aged 36. The ex-wife of Cai, Xiang Jingyu, was arrested a few years earlier in the

Shanghai French Concession The Shanghai French Concession was a concessions in China, foreign concession in Shanghai, Republic of China (1912–1949), China from 1849 until 1943. For much of the 20th century, the area covered by the former French Concession remained the ...

in Wuhan on 20 March 1928 due to the betrayal of members of her group to the police. The French officials turned her over to the Guomindang in April 1928. On the first of May of the same year, Xiang Jingyu was executed by Guomindang police.

Family

Cai Hesen's father was Cai Rongfeng (), and his mother was Ge Jianhao (). His first wife was Xiang Jingyu, second wife was Li Yichun (). His younger sister Cai Chang was the wife of Li Fuchun. Cai had four children: Cai Ni () and Cai Bo () by Xiang Jingyu, and Cai Zhuan () and Cai Lin () by Li Yichun.

Notes

References and further reading

* * * "Ts'ai He-sen," in , pp. 851–852. * * *

External links