# Wang Ruoshui > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wang_Ruoshui > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wang_Ruoshui.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Ruoshui > Source revision: 1355885287 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Chinese philosopher (1926–2002) In this [Chinese name](/source/Chinese_name), the [family name](/source/Chinese_surname) is *[Wang](/source/Wang_(surname))*. This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wang Ruoshui" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Wang Ruoshui 王若水 Wang Ruoshui in 1998 Born (1926-10-25)25 October 1926 Shanghai, Republic of China Died 9 January 2002(2002-01-09) (aged 75) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Occupations Journalist, philosopher Political party Chinese Communist Party Part of a series on Liberalism in China Ideologies Classical Economic Individualism Liberal socialism Marxism Social democracy Libertarianism Anarchism Progressivism Confucianism Social Taoism Laozi philosophy Principles Civil and political rights Due process Environmentalism Equality before the law Freedom Economic Press Religion Speech Individualism Popular sovereignty Rule of law Social justice History Democracy movements and protests 1970sHong Kong 1989 2011 2014 2019–2020Hong Kong 2022 2025Chongqing Beijing Spring Democracy Wall Hong Kong 1 July marches 1911 Revolution Hundred Flowers Campaign New Enlightenment May Fourth Movement New Culture Movement Weiquan movement Lawyers Intellectuals Ai Bao Bo Chang Cheung Chou Chu Fang Fei Gu (Su) Gu (Zhun) He Ho Hu Jiang Lai Laozi Li (Ao) Li (Shenzhi) Li (Yinhe) Li (Zehou) Liang (early) Liu (Junning) Liu (Xiaobo) Luo (Changping) Luo (Longji) Mao Sun Qin Tao Wang Wu Xiang Xu (Jilin) Xu (Youyu) Xu (Zhangrun) Yen Zhang (Qianfan) Zhang (Weiying) Zhu Politicians Chi Chang Chiang Chow Chu (Eddie) Fan Ho (Albert) Ho (Cyd) Ku (Meng-yu) Hsu Hu (Yaobang) Lei Lau (Emily) Lau (Siu-lai) Law Lee Li (Rui) Mo Mok Sun (Yat-sen) Sun (Fo) To Wong Wang (Yang) Wen Wu (Chi-wai) Wu (K. 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Bell Gan Yang Jiang Qing Kang Xiaoguang [zh] Liu Xiaofeng Tang Chun-i Tu Weiming Yan Xuetong Yao Zhongqiu Yu Ying-shih Liberalism Ai Weiwei Bao Zunxin Bo Yang Du Daozheng Fang Fang Fang Lizhi Gao Shangquan Gu Su He Weifang Hu Jiwei Hu Shuli Jin Guantao Li Honglin Li Rui Li Shenzhi Li Yinhe Li Zehou Liu Binyan Liu Xiaobo Mao Yushi Qin Benli Qin Hui Wang Ruoshui Wang Ruowang Wang Yuanhua Wu Jinglian Xu Jilin Xu Youyu Yan Jiaqi Zhang Qianfan Zhang Weiying Zhu Houze Zhu Xueqin Neoauthoritarianism Bao Tong Chen Yizi Chen Yuan Dai Qing Li Zehou Liu Zaifu Wang Huning Wu Jiaxiang Xiao Gongqin Yang Baikui Zhao Ziyang Zhang Bingjiu [zh] Zheng Yongnian Debateable: Hu Yaobang, Hu Qili, Rong Yiren, Wang Zhengwei, Wen Jiabao, Zhu Rongji and Zhou Xiaochuan Neo-nationalism He Xin [zh] Hu Xijin Jiang Shigong Jin Canrong Eric X. Li Shen Yi [zh] Wang Xiaodong [zh] Zhang Weiwei Zhang Wenmu New Left Bo Xilai Cui Zhiyuan Dai Jinhua Deng Liqun Gan Yang Gao Mobo Hu Angang Kong Qingdong Larry Hsien Ping Lang Li Minqi Sima Nan Sun Zhengcai Wang Hui Wang Lijun Wang Shaoguang Qiu Zhanxuan Yue Xin Zhou Yongkang Socialism with Chinese characteristics Bagatur Bayanqolu Buhe Cai Qi Chen Derong Chen Huanyou Chen Jinhua Chen Kuiyuan Chen Liangyu Chen Min'er Chen Xi Chen Xitong Chen Yun Chen Zhili Deng Liqun Deng Xiaoping Deng Yingchao Gao Di Geng Biao Gu Hailiang He Lifeng He Yiting Hu Jintao Hu Chunhua Hu Qiaomu Huang Ju Huang Kunming Huang Xingguo Huo Shilian Ji Lin Jia Qinglin Jia Ting'an Jiang Zemin Leng Rong Li Keqiang Li Peng Li Qiang Li Shulei Li Xi Li Xiannian Li Xuai Li Yuanchao Li Zhanshu Liang Lingguang Lin Huiyong Liu He Liu Jinguo Liu Shuiyuan Liu Tianfu Liu Yandong Liu Yazhou Liu Yunshan Luo Wen Lou Yangsheng Ma Xingrui Pan Yue Peng Zhen Qiao Shi Song Ping Shu Guozeng Sun Chunlan Sun Liancheng Wan Li Wang Qishan Wang Weiguang Wang Weizhong Wang Xiaohong Wang Xuezhen Wang Yang (politician) Wang Yang (Liaoning politician) Wang Zuo'an Wu Bangguo Wu Shuqing Xi Jinping Xi Yuanping Xi Zhongxun Xia Baolong Xie Fei Xie Fuzhan Xu Kuangdi Ye Xiaowen Ye Xuanping Yi Gang Ying Yong Yu Guangyuan Yu Qiuli Yu Weiguo Yu Yunyao Zhao Leji Zeng Qinghong Zheng Bijian Zhou Qiang Zhong Shaojun Zhu Mingguo Politics of China v t e **Wang Ruoshui** ([Chinese](/source/Chinese_language): 王若水; [pinyin](/source/Pinyin): *Wáng Ruòshuǐ*; [Wade–Giles](/source/Wade%E2%80%93Giles): *Wang Jo-shui*, 1926–2002), was a Chinese journalist, political theorist, and philosopher. He was born in [Shanghai](/source/Shanghai), and graduated from [Peking University](/source/Peking_University) with a degree in philosophy. After working at the *[People's Daily](/source/People's_Daily)* for over three decades, Wang was expelled from the party in 1987 during the Anti-[Bourgeois Liberalization](/source/Bourgeois_liberalization) Campaign, largely due to his long-standing vocal advocacy of [Marxist humanism](/source/Marxist_humanism) that led to the [Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign](/source/Anti-Spiritual_Pollution_Campaign) in 1983. After his exile from the party, he went to United States as a visiting scholar to continue his research. Wang was known as a major exponent of [Marxist humanism](/source/Marxist_humanism) and of [Chinese liberalism](/source/Chinese_liberalism) in the second half on his life. ## Early life and education Wang Ruoshui was born in Shanghai in 1926. At the age of four, his family moved to [Hunan](/source/Hunan) province, where he attended [Yali High School](/source/Yali_High_School). After the [Second Sino-Japanese War](/source/Second_Sino-Japanese_War) started, Wang and his family moved to [Sichuan](/source/Sichuan), away from the front lines. In 1946, Wang went to Peking University to study philosophy. Two years later he graduated and joined the [Communist Party](/source/Chinese_Communist_Party). In the 1950s, Wang was a devotee of [Maoism](/source/Maoism) and took part in ideological campaigns targeting the previously popular ideas of [Hu Shih](/source/Hu_Shih), [Liang Shuming](/source/Liang_Shuming), and [Hu Feng](/source/Hu_Feng). Later Wang became an advocate of "[One Divides Into Two](/source/One_Divides_Into_Two)" and attacked [Yang Xianzhen](/source/Yang_Xianzhen) on the issue of "unity of thoughts and existence" over a long period. This came back to haunt him when Yang was rehabilitated in the 1970s. ## At *People's Daily* After working at Beijing Policy Research Office for a year after he graduated, Wang was assigned to the People's Daily in 1950. In November 1954, the Chief Editor of *People's Daily* ordered Wang to write articles criticizing [Hu Shih](/source/Hu_Shih). Wang wrote "Eliminating Hu Shih's Reactionary Philosophy" in a single day; this and several other articles he wrote at the time were praised by Mao. In April 1957, Wang's "Boldly Let Go - Implementing the Policy of ['A hundred of flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thoughts](/source/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign)' (百家争鸣，百花齐放)" was again praised by Mao. In the year of 1963, Wang published "The Philosophy of the Table", which defended Mao's version of [dialectical materialism](/source/Dialectical_materialism), again winning praise from Mao. Before the [Cultural Revolution](/source/Cultural_Revolution), at the height of the [Sino-Soviet split](/source/Sino-Soviet_split), Wang was recruited by Maoist literary henchman [Zhou Yang](/source/Zhou_Yang_(literary_theorist)) to a group he was organizing to research and criticize the [Marxist humanism](/source/Marxist_humanism) which was then influential in the [Eastern bloc](/source/Eastern_Bloc). After the "September 13th incident" in 1971, Mao appointed [Zhou Enlai](/source/Zhou_Enlai) to manage *People's Daily*. In response to Zhou's directive to criticize extreme leftism and [Lin Biao](/source/Lin_Biao), Wang published three articles on October 14, 1972, which were criticized by [Zhang Chunqiao](/source/Zhang_Chunqiao) and [Yao Wenyuan](/source/Yao_Wenyuan). Wang wrote a letter to Mao with his complaints, and was suspended and sent to Red Star People's Commune at [Daxing County](/source/Daxing_District) for [labour reform](/source/Labour_reform). Wang returned to the *People's Daily* in 1976; in 1977, he was promoted to the position of deputy editor in charge of commentary, theory and literature, under [Hu Jiwei](/source/Hu_Jiwei), one of the earliest critics of the Cultural Revolution. Soon after the downfall of the Maoists and far-left faction, Wang revealed that these much reviled "[revisionist](/source/Revisionism_(Marxism))" doctrines had had a great impact on him, and had provided a lens through which he could understand and condemn the Cultural Revolution and the [cult of Mao](/source/Mao_Zedong's_cult_of_personality) himself. In the early 1980s, Wang published "About the Concept Alienation", "Discussing the problem of Alienation", to introduce the concept of alienation to the Chinese readers; He also published "Man is the Starting Point of Marxism" and "A Defense of Humanism", advocating Marxist humanism. From 1978 to 1982, Wang served in the [National People's Congress](/source/National_People's_Congress) and as a commissioner at the [Central Discipline Inspection Committee](/source/Central_Commission_for_Discipline_Inspection). In 1983, Wang was removed from the position of deputy editor of *People's Daily* as demanded by the director of CCP's propaganda department, [Deng Liqun](/source/Deng_Liqun), at the same time as his divorce with his first wife Zhong Dan was concluded. In the fall of that year, he met Feng Yuan, a twenty-year-old journalism graduate student who just graduated from [Fudan University](/source/Fudan_University). Wang married Feng in January 1987. For his support for the [1986 student movement](/source/1986_Chinese_student_demonstrations) and various opinions against the Chinese Communist Party, Wang was expelled from the Communist party in 1987 as a part of a campaign [against "bourgeois liberalization".](/source/Anti-Bourgeois_liberalization) He continued to write trenchant criticisms of the regime, and conduct polemics against Mao's former secretary [Hu Qiaomu](/source/Hu_Qiaomu) (1912-1993), a doctrinaire Marxist who had been behind his expulsion from the Party. ## Later life and research After expelled from the party in 1987, Wang chose to continue on his research. In the year of 1989 and 1993, he was invited as a visiting scholar by the [Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies](/source/Fairbank_Center_for_Chinese_Studies) at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University). In the year 1994, he went to [UC Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley) as a visiting professor. In June 1996, Wang was diagnosed with [lung cancer](/source/Lung_cancer), which eventually led to his death. When asked for his will before surgery the next month, Wang dictated the outline for three essays he was planning to write. Later in 1998, Wang spent a semester as a visiting professor at [Lund University](/source/Lund_University) in [Sweden](/source/Sweden). In 2000, Wang returned to Harvard University when his wife Feng Yuan received the [Nieman Fellowship](/source/Nieman_Fellowship). In September 2001, he gave his last-ever speech to an audience of graduate students there. Wang died in his sleep on January 9, 2002. ## Writing In his early years, he was a firm Marxist. Though he was later known as an exponent of Marxist humanism, initially he was one of its opponents. In 1963, the same year Mao praised his "The Philosophy of Table", he was assigned to a group to create brochures criticizing humanism, which was generally regarded as a [bourgeois](/source/Bourgeoisie) ideology.. According to Wang himself, his attitude toward humanism was the same as that of the others in the group. However, as a philosopher, Wang constantly developed his views and revised his opinions, especially when he witnessed political changes that led him to question his beliefs, such as when Mao selected [Lin Biao](/source/Lin_Biao), who endorsed the [deification](/source/Apotheosis) of Mao, as his successor. When the Cultural Revolution ended, Wang published several articles to criticize the movement and the cult of Mao. Some of his most famous works about Marxist humanism and alienation were published at that time. In the year of 1987, he was asked to leave the Party for "bourgeois liberalization"; he refused and was later expelled. Afterwards, Wang managed to publish previously suppressed works through publishers based in [Hong Kong](/source/Hong_Kong). Those works, while elaborating on his latest research on humanism and Mao, also revealed intimate details of the political struggles he previously involved in and his own growth as a thinker. Even near the end of his life in [Boston](/source/Boston), he still managed to record some of his thoughts with the help of his wife Feng Yuan. ## Major works Books Title Publisher Year Philosophical Common Sense: First Draft Learning Magazine 1957 Marxist Epistemology is the Theory of Practice Tianjin People's Publishing House 1964,1965 On the Frontier of Philosophy People's Publishing House 1980 A Defense for Humanism Sanlian Bookstore (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. 1986 The Pain of Wisdom Sanlian Bookstore (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. 1989 With the Background of Resigning of Hu Yaobang—the Fate of Humanism in China Hong Kong Der Spiegel Press 1997 Newly Discovered Mao Zedong: the Great Man in the Eyes of the Servant Hong Kong Der Spiegel Press 2002 Articles Title Year The Philosophy of Table 1963 Discussing the Issue of Alienation 1980 A Defense for Humanism 1983 Some Thoughts on Reflection Theory, Subjectivity and Humanism 1988 The Philosophy about Marxist Man 1986 My Marxist Views 1995 Dialectics and Mao Zedong's Philosophy of Struggle 1999 ## See also - [Chinese philosophy](/source/Chinese_philosophy) - [Marxist Humanism](/source/Marxist_humanism) - [Alienation](/source/Marx's_theory_of_alienation) - [Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign](/source/Anti-Spiritual_Pollution_Campaign) ## References - David Kelly, 'The Emergence of Socialist Humanism in China: Wang Ruoshui and the Critique of Socialist Alienation,' in [Merle Goldman](/source/Merle_Goldman), [Timothy Cheek](/source/Timothy_Cheek) and Carol Lee Hamrin, eds, *China's Intellectuals and the State,* Harvard University Press, 1987, pp. 159–182. - David Kelly, translator and editor, 'Writings of Wang Ruoshui on Philosophy, Humanism and Alienation,' *Chinese Studies in Philosophy:* 16 (3), Spring 1985, pp. 1–120; - de Bary, Wm. Theodore, ed. *Sources of Chinese Tradition,* Volume II (Second Edition) New York: Columbia, 2000. - Wang, Ruoshui. *With the Background of Resigning of Hu Yaobang—the Fate of Humanism in China*, Hong Kong Der Spiegel Press, 1997 - Wang, Ruoshui. *Newly Discovered Mao Zedong: the Great Man in the Eyes of the Servant*, Hong Kong Der Spiegel Press, 2002 Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States Italy Netherlands Israel Other IdRef Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wang Ruoshui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Ruoshui) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Ruoshui?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.