ABSTRACT
Li Da lectured at Beipirtg University's Legal and Commercial Institute between August 1932 and May 1937, and during this period he studied and taught Marxist economics and philosophy, among other subjects. Elements of Sociology was written over a three- to four-year period, a difficult time for Li as he was harassed by the Guomindang authorities for his suspected connections with the Chinese Communist Party. Shirokov and Aizenberg's A Course on Dialectical Materialism, which Li Da translated in collaboration with Lei Zhongjian, was a product of the post-1931 generation of Soviet philosophers. Between April and August 1937, Mao Zedong gave more than 110 lectures at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University at Yan'an. Mao met Li Da at a meeting at Lushan in 1961 and reiterated the important influence of Elements of Sociology and proposed that it be revised for publication, for it still had contemporary significance.
