Ts'ai Ho-sen (c.1890-1931), close friend and political associate of Mao Tse-tung. He helped organize the French branch of the Chinese Communist party, after which he returned to China to become a prominent party propagandist and the first editor of the Hsiang-tao choupao [guide weekly]. He was executed by the Nationalists in 1931.

Hsianghsiang hsien, Hunan, was the birthplace of Ts'ai Ho-sen. His mother, nee Ko Chien-hao, was distantly related to the illustrious scholar-statesman Tseng Kuo-fan (ECCP, II, 751-56), and his father was a scholar and small landlord who by the end of the Ch'ing period had been reduced to working in the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai. Ts'ai's parents were not happy together, and his father left home when Ts'ai was still a child. Thus, the burden of raising six children fell on Ts'ai's mother, a strong-willed woman who learned to read with her children and went on to become a teacher. Because of the family's financial situation, Ts'ai Ho-sen went to work at an early age, toiling at various times as a cowherd, a shop apprentice, and a farm hand. Little is known about his early education, but his later writings indicate that he received good training in the Chinese classics.

In 1913 Ts'ai Ho-sen passed the entrance examinations for the Hunan First Normal School at Changsha. That autumn the school absorbed the Hunan Fourth Normal School; Ts'ai thus became a schoolmate and a close friend of Mao Tse-tung. The First Normal School was the largest school in Changsha, with an enrollment of about 1,200. Competition for entrance was keen, for the school offered free tuition, board, lodging, books, and even clothing. One of the school's new faculty members in 1913 was Yang Ch'ang-chi (q.v.), who taught logic, ethics, and education. Ts'ai, who became one of Yang's favorite students, was strongly influenced by his teachings. Ts'ai soon began to advocate the reform of Chinese society through the introduction of certain Western principles and institutions. He also became concerned with the reform of the Chinese language, an interest apparently stimulated by articles carried in the Hsin ching-nien [new youth] of Ch'en Tu-hsiu (q.v.). Yang strongly supported the Hsin ch'ingnien and regularly distributed copies of it to Ts'ai and other students. Ts'ai also emulated his teacher in matters of self-discipline: he practiced meditation, slept on a wooden door board, and became a physical culturist. After spending two years at the Hunan First Normal School, Ts'ai Ho-sen transferred to the Yueh-lu-shan Higher Normal School. Upon graduation in 1917 he was unable to find a teaching job. He spent the summer with his mother and his sister Ts'ai Ch'ang (q.v.), who had rented a house at the foot of the Yueh-lu mountain. He maintained his friendships with his former schoolmates from the First Normal School, some of whom were now teaching at the Ch'u-i School. They corresponded with one another, and they occasionally met at Ts'ai's house or the Ch'u-i School. According to Mao Tse-tung, in the summer of 191 7 he and his friends decided to form a student organization dedicated to "strengthening China through strengthening Chinese youth." The resulting Hsin-min hsüeh-hui [new people's study society] was inaugurated at Ts'ai's house on 18 April 1918, with a membership of 13, including Mao Tse-tung, Ts'ai Ho-sen, and Ho Shu-heng (q.v.). Its rather vague constitution stipulated that members should practice "personality building and scholarly research" to prepare themselves for the work of saving their country. They should refrain from gambling, visiting brothels, and loafing. New members would be recruited on the basis of their moral and intellectual qualities, which would be assessed by the organization's deliberation committee (p'ing-i hui). Ts'ai Ho-sen was elected one of the five secretaries of the committee, and Mao Tse-tung became its deputy secretary general.

In June 1918 the Hsin-min hsüeh-hui sent Ts'ai Ho-sen to Peking to investigate the workstudy program. Through the introduction of Yang Ch'ang-chi, now a professor at Peking University, he met with Li Shih-tseng and Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei (qq.v.), who were in charge of the work-study program in France. Ts'ai Ho-sen soon wrote Mao Tse-tung and other friends in Hunan, urging them to come to Peking and to bring with them other students who wanted to go to France. He hoped that the presence of a large Hunanese group in Peking would lead the authorities to provide support for them, and he believed that "only when a large group engages in fishing will there be enough fish to eat." He also wrote his sister Ts'ai Ch'ang urging that she organize women for the work-study program. In sum, he saw the work-study program as a way of preparing members of the Hsin-min hsüeh-hui for the task of reforming Chinese society. In September 1918 Ts'ai was joined in Peking by Mao Tsetung, Siao Yü, Lo Hsueh-tan, Hsiung Kuangch'u, Chang K'un-ti, and other young Hunanese. They crowded themselves into a tworoom apartment on Three Eyes Well Street near Peking University. By then about 50 Hunanese students had arrived in Peking, the largest group to join the work-study program. On the advice of Li Shih-tseng, Ts'ai Ho-sen and others began to organize classes for these students to study French and to learn a trade. Under the auspices of the Franco-Chinese Association, three such classes were set up—in Peking, Paoting, and Lihsien. Ts'ai Ho-sen, Mao Tse-tung, and Siao Yü were among those who attended the training class at Peking and who helped other Hunanese students to find scholarship money and to make arrangements for their passports. About this time, the study of Marxian socialism and anarchism became the fashion at Peking University. Such publications as the Hsin ch'ing-nien began to speak for "the Russian type of social revolution." According to Lo Hsueh-tan, with whom Ts'ai Ho-sen and Mao Tse-tung shared lodgings, Mao and Ts'ai spent a great deal of time reading magazines and newspapers and discussing "the latest theories." Mao left Peking in the spring of 1919, but Ts'ai was there for the May Fourth Movement, which undoubtedly enhanced his enthusiasm for Marxism and intellectual revolution. In October 1919 Ts'ai Ho-sen led a group of Hunanese students to Shanghai on the first leg of their journey to France. At Shanghai, the group was joined by Ts'ai's mother and by a group of young Hunanese women which had been organized by Ts'ai Ch'ang and Hsiang Ching-yü (q.v.). In the course of the voyage to France Ts'ai Ho-sen and Hsiang Ching-yü fell in love. They began to exchange love poems; these later were collected and published as Hsiang-shan t'ung-meng [toward a brighter day]. Because both of them were determined to devote themselves to patriotic work, they resisted the idea of marriage until 1921. The Hunanese group arrived in Paris on 2 February 1920 and immediately proceeded to Montargis, where they would study French. Because living and school expenses were provided by the Societe Franco-Chinois d'Education in the form of a loan, there was no immediate necessity for the students to begin work in a factory. Ts'ai Ho-sen planned to stay in France for five years, alloting the first two to language study. In accordance with this plan, he began to read newspapers and magazines in French with a dictionary. Before long, he was translating articles on Communism and tradeunionism to send to Mao Tse-tung. In his letters to Mao he described in some detail the theoretical foundations of Marxism and the structure of the Soviet Communist party. The theme of these letters was that the social doctrine and party organization of the Soviet Union were the only suitable models for China to adopt in achieving national reconstruction. To achieve revolution, he urged the employment of four tools : a party, trade unions, cooperatives, and Soviets. He explicitly suggested to Mao that a Chinese Communist party be organized and that it be a tightly knit organization with a carefully selected membership and a precisely formulated platform. When established (hopefully within two years) , the party would become the nerve center of a Chinese revolution. Ts'ai also recommended alliance with the Soviet Union and participation in the Comintern. His suggestions won the hearty approval of Mao Tse-tung, who was influenced during this period by Ts'ai as well as by Li Ta-chao (q.v.) and Ch'en Tu-hsiu.

While trying to convince his friends at home by letters, Ts'ai also worked to convert Chinese students in France to Communism. As might be expected, Hsiang Ching-yü and Ts'ai Ch'ang were among his first converts. He talked about his convictions to his friends at Montargis and won over Li Fu-ch'un, Li Wei-han (qq.v.), and others. In mid- 1920 he and his old friend Chang K'un-ti organized the Kung-hsueh shih-chieh she [work-study cosmopolitan club|, ostensibly to promote the work-study program but actually to disseminate Communist propaganda. Such activities soon brought him into conflict with Siao Yü, and their differences of opinion came into the open at a meeting of the Hsin-min hsüeh-hui held at Montargis in July 1920. Siao opposed the concepts of class struggle and revolution and spoke for the socialization of China through education, trade-unionism, and other peaceful means. This dispute split the membership of the Hsin-min hsüeh-hui, and it was a major cause of that organization's dissolution in early 1921. Ts'ai Ho-sen's efforts were aided by the economic crisis among Chinese students in France in 1921. At the beginning of the year, the Societe Franco-Chinois d'Education announced that because its funds had been exhausted it no longer could provide Chinese students with loans. About the same time, the French economy sagged, and the Chinese students found themselves unable to work. On 8 February, a crowd of Chinese students demonstrated in front of the Chinese legation in Paris, demanding the right "to study, to get jobs and bread." Ts'ai and his wife were among the organizers of this demonstration. Later that year, they helped establish the Chung-kuo ch'ing-nien kung-ch'an-t'uan [young Chinese Communist corps] and a branch of the Socialist Youth Corps, both of which were predecessors of the French branch of the Chinese Communist party established at Paris in 1922. In September 1921 a group ofabout 100 work-study students — including Chou En-lai, Ch'en Yi (1901-), Li Li-san (qq.v.), and Ts'ai Ho-sen—forced their way into the Institut Franco-Chinois at Lyon (for details, see Li Shih-tseng) to protest their exclusion from its first class. They were arrested and expelled from France as a result of this action.

Upon arrival at Shanghai, in either late 1921 or early 1922, Ts'ai Ho-sen immediately made contact with the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party and gave his support to Ch'en Tu-hsiu. A militant Marxist-Leninist, he opposed the so-called democratic minority within the party, led by Ch'en Kung-po (q.v.) and Li Han-chün, which maintained that the party should pursue only legitimate activities, that is, research and propaganda. Chinese Communist historians later credited Ts'ai with "expelling the Li Han-chun faction from the party." At a Central Committee meeting on 18 June 1922 Ts'ai supported Ch'en Tu-hsiu's policies of concentration on mass education work until the time came for the proletariat to seize power and of pursuit of a united front in the revolutionary movement. The Central Committee decided to regard the Kuomintang as an ally but did not specify the nature of the alliance. Ts'ai was elected to the Central Committee at the Second National Congress of the Chinese Communist party, held at Shanghai in July 1922. He reportedly proposed that the party follow Comintern directives, expand the revolutionary movement, and carry out the strategy of a united front. These proposals were passed unanimously. In August, Comintern representative Maring called a special plenum of the Central Committee at Hangchow and proposed that Chinese Communist party members join the Kuomintang, a proposal the Central Committee finally accepted with great reluctance. Ts'ai, Ch'en Tu-hsiu, and others feared that the alliance would cost the Chinese Communist party its identity as the party of the proletariat. It is ironic that Ts'ai, one of the earliest advocates of Comintern membership for the Chinese Communist party, should be faced so soon with a situation in which the Comintern line conflicted with his principles. In keeping with the new Comintern policy, Ch'en Tu-hsiu founded the Hsiang-tao chou-pao [guide weekly] in September 1922 to replace the Kung-cK''an-tang yueh-k , an [Communist party monthly]. Ts'ai Ho-sen became the editor of the new journal, which promoted the Kuomintang-Communist alliance as a means of effecting a national anti-imperialist revolution in China. Under Ts'ai's guidance, the journal's circulation soared. He also headed the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, while his wife headed the women's department. They worked to organize students and factory workers in Shanghai, and their house was a favorite meeting place of Chinese Communists. At the time of the May Thirtieth Incident of 1925, they played important roles in the attempt to direct political unrest into channels useful to the Chinese Communist party. It was Ts'ai who suggested the demonstration that resulted in the injury or death of a number of Chinese who were fired on by police in the International Settlement. And it was Ts'ai who suggested the ensuing strike movement {see Li Li-san) . Ts'ai's activities throughout the 1922-25 period were almost exclusively Communist ; he remained aloof from the Kuomintang and critical of its leaders. Ts'ai Ho-sen and Hsiang Ching-yu left China for the Soviet Union toward the end of 1925 so that Ts'ai could attend the sixth plenum of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (17 February-15 March 1926). Ts'ai spent the next year in Moscow as a Chinese Communist delegate to the Comintern, returning to China with his wife in April 1927 to attend the Fifth National Congress of the Chinese Communist party. In August, after Ch'ü Ch'iu-pai (q.v.) replaced Ch'en Tu-hsiu as general secretary of the party, Ts'ai became secretary of the north China bureau. Hsiang Ching-yu was assigned to work underground in Hankow, where she was arrested and executed in the spring of 1928.

Although Ts'ai Ho-sen was reelected to the Central Committee and the Political Bureau (positions he had lost when Ch'ü Ch'iu-pai came to power) at the Sixth National Congress of the Chinese Communist party, held in Moscow in 1928, he did not return to a position of influence within the party. He was sent to Moscow again in 1929 because of disagreements with Li Li-san, then the de facto head of the party, returning to China in the summer of 1930 (after testifying against Li to the Comintern) to take part in the Central Committee meeting at which Li's policies were reconsidered and rejected. In the summer of 1931 Ts'ai was sent to Hong Kong as secretary of the party's Kwangtung and Kwangsi provincial committee. Within two months, he had been arrested by the Hong Kong police and extradited to Canton. It is known that he was executed, but the precise circumstances of his death are unclear. Ts'ai O Orig. Ken-yen T. Sung-p'o it 4B" teas