{{Short description|Chinese scholar and official}} {{family name hatnote|[[Li (surname 李)|Li]]|lang=Chinese}} {{Contemporary Chinese political thought|liberalism}} '''Li Honglin''' (Chinese: 李洪林; September 10, 1925 – June 1, 2016) was a Chinese scholar and a senior official who served as the deputy director of the Theory Bureau of the [[Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party]], as well as the President of [[Fujian]] Academy of Social Sciences.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=2021 |title=A Brief Biography of Li Honglin |url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/current-issue/1495-a-brief-biography-of-li-honglin-.html |url-status=live |journal=[[Modern China Studies]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026194236/https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/current-issue/1495-a-brief-biography-of-li-honglin-.html |archive-date=2022-10-26}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title="No Forbidden Areas for Reading Books": Li Honglin (1925-2016) gifts Fung Library with his calligraphy |url=https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/news/no-forbidden-areas-for-reading-books/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240720160548/https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/news/no-forbidden-areas-for-reading-books/ |archive-date=2024-07-20 |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=[[Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies]] ([[Harvard University]]) |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |date=2021 |title=Introduction: Thought Liberation Vanguard Li Honglin |url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/current-issue/1494-introduction-thought-liberation-vanguard-li-honglin.html |url-status=live |journal=[[Modern China Studies]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529113327/https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/current-issue/1494-introduction-thought-liberation-vanguard-li-honglin.html |archive-date=2024-05-29}}</ref> As an influential [[Liberalism in China|liberal]] official, Li played an instrumental role in the thought-liberation movement in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, and was called the "Thought Liberation Vanguard" and the "Flag Bearer for China's [[New Enlightenment (China)|New Enlightenment movement]]".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Yan |first=Jiaqi |author-link=Yan Jiaqi |date=2021 |title=中国自由化运动的结束--纪念李洪林 |trans-title=The end of China's liberalization—in memory of Li Honglin |url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/cn/issues/current-issue/1517-the-passing-of-li-honglin-signals-the-end-of-an-era-by-yan-jiaqi-.html |url-status=live |journal=[[Modern China Studies]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007205645/https://www.modernchinastudies.org/cn/issues/current-issue/1517-the-passing-of-li-honglin-signals-the-end-of-an-era-by-yan-jiaqi-.html |archive-date=2024-10-07}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2016-06-02 |title=中国"新启蒙运动"旗手李洪林逝世 |trans-title=Li Honglin, the flag bearer for China's New Enlightenment movement, has died |url=https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ql1-06022016100657.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230909141628/https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ql1-06022016100657.html |archive-date=2023-09-09 |website=[[Radio Free Asia]]}}</ref>
== Biography == Li Honglin was born in [[Gaizhou, Liaoning]] in 1925.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |date=2021 |title=李洪林纪事 |trans-title=Biography of Li Honglin |url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/cn/issues/current-issue/1495-a-brief-biography-of-li-honglin-.html |url-status=live |journal=[[Modern China Studies]] |language=zh |volume=28 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902071740/https://www.modernchinastudies.org/cn/issues/current-issue/1517-the-passing-of-li-honglin-signals-the-end-of-an-era-by-yan-jiaqi-.html |archive-date=2022-09-02}}</ref> He graduated from [[Northwest A&F University|Northwestern Agriculture College]], and joined the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) in 1946 while in college.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
Since 1948, Li worked at a number of universities, including [[Yan'an]] University, the [[Northwest University of Politics and Law|Revolutionary University of Northwest]] in [[Xi'an]], and the [[Northwest Normal University|Northwest Normal College]] in [[Lanzhou]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> In 1954, he began a two-year study at the college of [[Marxism-Leninism]] in [[Beijing]], which later became the [[Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party|Central Party School of the CCP]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> Since 1956, Li worked at the Political Research Office of the [[CCP Central Committee]] (中共中央政治研究室), until the beginning of [[Cultural Revolution|Chinese Cultural Revolution]] (1966–1976) during which he was purged and persecuted.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /> Li and his family were sent to the countryside at the shore of [[Bohai Sea|Bohai]] (near [[Tianjin]]) to do farm work and manual labor.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" />
After the Cultural Revolution ended, Li was rehabilitated and held several key positions in Beijing since 1977, including the director of the Communist Party History Department of the National History Museum, deputy director of the Theory Bureau of the [[Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Publicity Department]], and President of the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He was also a visiting scholar and Henry Luce Fellow at [[Princeton University]] in the [[United States]] in 1986.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2016-06-02 |title=思想解放先行者李洪林逝世 |trans-title=Li Honglin, pioneer of thought liberation, has died |url=https://www.voachinese.com/a/li-honglin-20160601/3358293.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615042540/https://www.voachinese.com/a/li-honglin-20160601/3358293.html |archive-date=2016-06-15 |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=[[Voice of America]] |language=zh}}</ref>
In the late 1970s and the 1980s, Li played an important role in China's [[New Enlightenment (China)|New Enlightenment movement]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> In his famous talk "The Leader and the People" at the [[Theory Conference, January-April 1979|CCP Theory Conference]] in January 1979, Li argued that state leaders must be loyal to the people—not the other way around, as was commonly believed in China.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> In the same year, he published an article titled "No Forbidden Areas for Reading Books" in ''[[Dushu|Dushu magazine]],'' arguing that there should be no forbidden areas in reading books and calling for elimination of all restrictions on reading books.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" />
Li was arrested during the [[Tiananmen Square Massacre]] in 1989 and was jailed for almost a year.<ref name=":2" /> He died in Beijing on June 1, 2016.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Li Honglin's son, [[Shaomin Li|Li Shaomin]], is a professor at the [[Old Dominion University]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-21 |title=Shaomin Li |url=https://www.odu.edu/directory/shaomin-li |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613071716/https://www.odu.edu/directory/shaomin-li |archive-date=2024-06-13 |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Old Dominion University |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Boluan Fanzheng]] * [[Reform and Opening]] * [[Campaign against spiritual pollution]] * [[Anti-bourgeois liberalization]]
== References == {{reflist|2}}
[[Category:1925 births]] [[Category:2016 deaths]] [[Category:Chinese communists]]