Àisīqí is the penname of Li Sheng-Hsuen (李生萱, 1910–1966), a Yunnan Mongol

Yunnan Mongols

The Mongols in Yunnan are the descendants of the Yuan Dynasty, during the era of the Mongol Empire.Before the mid 13th century, Yunnan was held by many war-like independent states such as the Nanchao and Dali Kingdoms. The Mongol Empire under Mongke Khan conquered the Dali Kingdom in 1253. Until...

 Chinese philosopher and author. He was born in Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

, later traveling to Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, where he studied English and French at a Protestant school and was exposed to Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...

’s Three Principles of the People and Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

. He read a great deal of Marxism, including "Communist Manifesto", in Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 translation

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

. This reading is the root of Ai’s most important works Historical Materialism and Dialectical Materialism (歷史唯物主義與辯証唯物主義) and Philosophy for the Masses (大眾哲學)(1948).

Secondary literature

• Joshua A. Fogel, "Aisiqi, Establishment Intellectual by Joshua A. Fogel", in Merle Goldman, Timothy Cheek, and Carol Lee Hamrin, eds., China's Intellectuals and the State: In Search of a New Relationship (Harvard University Asia Center, 1987).
• Китайская философия. Энциклопедический словарь. М., 1994 — С.12-13. ISBN 5-244-00757-2