ABSTRACT
The 4 May movement in China created a political and intellectual clamour in which the dominant theme was the regeneration of the nation through collective endeavour. It was an atmosphere which excited Mao Zedong and into which Marxism easily fitted. Mao's first practical contribution to the movement, once he had declared himself a Communist, was his setting up of two organisations in Hunan: the Socialist Youth League and the Hunan Self-Study University. As a member of both the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Guomindang (GMD), Mao worked to bring about a genuine alliance between them. Throughout the Northern Expedition, Mao had remained committed to its victory. This made party disputes appear secondary; the need was to defeat the warlords and thus spread the revolutionary message across China. The Autumn Harvest Rising, as Mao's Hunan venture became known, occurred in August and September. The Autumn Harvest Rising was an obvious failure militarily, but it was not entirely disastrous for Mao.
