Zhou Zhan’an： Peasants, the Theory of Productive Relations, and the Chinese Revolution in the Context of the Political Economy: Ideological and Political Momentum in the Debate on Issues Related to the Nature of Chinese Society

This article, focusing on the debate on issues related to the nature of Chinese society in about 1930, seeks to discuss the internal and historical momentum behind the debate, with particular emphasis on the controversy over the ideological and political motivations for the Chinese revolution.  To this end, the article first analyzes the place and the characteristics of the debate in modern Chinese ideological history, and, second, it discusses why within the debate the peasant issue was confirmed as the core issue of the revolution. The article then elaborates on the possibilities presented by the theory of productive relations for the development of the agrarian revolution，and finally it analyzes how some of the participants in the debate determined the future of revolutionary socialism based on the law of unbalanced development.  In short, the debate over the nature of Chinese society provides systematic academic proof of the goals, content, methods, and future of the Chinese revolution within the context of the political economy.