ABSTRACT
Li Da was born into a tenant farming family in Lingling County in Hunan province on 2 October 1890. The victory of the Russian Revolution in 1917 was greeted with great excitment by Li, for he perceived in it the revolutionary path that China should travel. In the summer of 1920, Li travelled to Shanghai, where he engaged in discussions with Chen Duxiu. In the first half of 1921, Li was heavily involved in the preparatory work for the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Li's concern for the independence of the Communist Party appears also in an important essay in New Age, "Marxist Theory and China". Li's departure from the Party had the potential to drastically alter the context within which he worked and wrote, freeing him from the strict discipline which had become a hallmark of communist parties of the Bolshevik persuasion.
