Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 89-104 The Earliest Chinese Translation of Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid Yinli GE School of History Nanjing University 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
[email protected] Abstract: In 1908, the first and second chapters of Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid were first translated into Chinese by Li Shizeng, greatly influencing Chinese anarchists. Li Shizeng followed Kropotkin’s scientific argument of anarchism and strengthened the viewpoint for praising “public” and suppressing “private”. When translating Kropotkin’s thoughts, Li Shizeng focused on political revolution, glossing over the criticism of the capitalist economy, and barely referenced Kropotkin’s original anarchist communist ideology. Keywords: Mutual Aid, evolution, revolution, fraternity, anarchism ,QWKHIDPRXV5XVVLDQDQDUFKLVW.URSRWNLQ ǜDzǿǽǍǸDzǷǾDzDzǯǵȄ ǗǽǻǼǻǿǷǵǺ -1921) published the book “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution” (hereinafter referred to as “Mutual Aid”) (1908: 1). In 1908, Li Shizeng, who studied in France, translated the first and second chapters of the book and published them in the Chinese magazine New Century in Paris. Li Shizeng’s translation of Mutual Aid had a profound impact on the dissemination of anarchism in China (Cai, 1984: 354). However, while studying anarchist beliefs in modern China, previous scholars paid little attention to Li Shizeng’s translation of Mutual Aid in 1908 (Cao, 2003:122- 124; Scalapino & Yu, 1961:8-9; Jiang & Li, 1991; Dirlik, 2006; Tang, 2011; Xu & Liu, 1989; Lu, 1990). Based on Li Shizeng’s translation in 1908, the author compared the differences between the translated text of Li Shizeng and the original text of Kropotkin, using other relevant texts to study how the first generation of intellectuals in modern China who came into contact with the anarchist ideology, namely the scholars of the Paris Group, understood and accepted Kropotkin’s theory of mutual aid.