Wang Ruoshui

Wang Ruoshui (Chinese: 王若水; pinyin: Wáng Ruòshuǐ; Wade–Giles: Wang Jo-shui, 1926–2002), was a Chinese journalist and philosopher, major exponent of Marxist humanism and of Chinese liberalism.

Wang studied philosophy in the late 1940s, converting to Marxism and joining the Chinese Communist Party prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Joining the staff of People's Daily, he became editor of its theory section.

In the 1950s, Wang was a devotee of Maoism and took part in ideological campaigns targeting the previously popular ideas of Hu Shi, Liang Shuming and Hu Feng. He wrote an article entitled "Philosophy of the Table" which defended Mao's version of dialectical materialism, winning praise from Mao himself.

In the 1960s Wang became an advocate of One Divides Into Two and attacked Yang Xianzhen. This would come back to haunt him in the 1970s when Yang was restored to power.

Prior to the Cultural Revolution, at the height of the Sino-Soviet split Wang was recruited by Maoist literary henchman Zhou Yang to a group he was organizing to research and criticize the Marxist humanism which was then influential in the Eastern bloc, exemplified by (among others) György Lukács in Hungary.

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