The Guide: The earliest organ of the CPC Central Committee

"Guide" Weekly is the first publicly issued central organ newspaper founded by the Communist Party of China. Its main content is to publicize the party's line, principles, policies and comment on current affairs at home and abroad, focusing on current affairs comments. The early leaders of the party were its main contributors, especially Chen Duxiu and Cai Hesen.
After the May 4th movement, all kinds of new thoughts poured into China, and Marxism was one of them. There was an upsurge of learning and publicizing Marxism in China. "For example, socialism seems to have become a mantra recently, and magazines and newspapers advocate sparing no effort". In July 1922, various revolutionary publications such as "New Youth", "Labor World", and "Labor Weekly" ceased publication due to various reasons. The only surviving publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, "Pioneer", is far from meeting the new situation and new tasks. The needs of propaganda work. In August, the Party Central Committee accepted the suggestion of Ma Lin, the representative of the Communist International, and decided to establish the "Guide" weekly newspaper as the political organ of the CPC Central Committee.
On September 13, 1922, "Guide" Weekly was founded in Shanghai. The general distribution office was located at No. 3, Lanfa Li, Zhaojia Road, Ximen. The distribution offices began to include Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha, etc., and later developed to the country. More than 20 large and medium-sized cities. Its initial circulation was 3,000 copies, and later it was up to 100,000 copies, and it was exported overseas, with distribution offices in Paris, France and Berlin, Germany.
At the beginning of the "Guide" issue, there were no columns. The "Communication" column was set up at the beginning of the third issue, and the "Current Affairs Review" and "Readers' Voice" columns were set up in the seventh issue to separate them from longer articles. The establishment of the "Current Affairs Review" column reflects the purpose of the publication's public opinion guidance; the "Communication" and "Reader's Voice" column are columns with strong reader participation, which enhances the interaction and communication between editors and readers. This shows that in the early days of the publication, the concept of newspaper layout based on column consciousness was more prominent.
Guide Weekly is a product of the times. As the party's public opinion guide newspaper, it mainly propagandizes the party's line, principles, policies and comments on current affairs at home and abroad. Its main writer is the leader of the CPC Central Committee represented by Chen Duxiu. The first editor-in-chief is Cai Hesen. In addition, it is a publication that has existed for the longest time and can be published continuously in the early newspapers of the Communist Party of China, at that time, the media played a strong role in publicizing, mobilizing and organizing the people. Many readers trust and praise the "Guide" Weekly, believing that it is "the vanguard of the Red Guards who have stepped under the feet of robbers at home and abroad and suffering compatriots", "the glimmer of light in China under the darkness", and "400 trillion" The life-saving charm of our compatriots "has" awakened many young people in dreams ". In the Chinese press at that time, it was praised as a newspaper that "really dared to call injustice for the oppressed workers and peasants and could indeed instruct the people to take the road of revolution", "the mentor of the national revolution and the mouthpiece of the working class". On December 17, 1923, in the public opinion poll on the 25th anniversary of Peking University, there was a question of "China's 'Journal and Weekly, 'which one do you like best?", which was mainly targeted at academics and citizens, and among the 1007 people surveyed, The Guide won 224 votes, ranking first in the weekly.
Under the situation of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the "Guide" weekly newspaper adhered to the principle of independent criticism of Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang, which made the Kuomintang dissatisfied and criticized the "Guide". It was declared an unpopular publication in Guangzhou. However, the "Guide" weekly newspaper is welcomed and loved by the public. It is rich in content and is an important historical material for studying the spread of the early thoughts of the Communist Party of China.
In July 1927, the guide was forced to stop publication, which lasted for nearly five years. The Guide has always been based on the Marxist point of view, faithfully recording the arduous course of the Chinese Communists in leading the Chinese people to carry out the struggle against imperialism and feudalism during the first Civil Revolutionary War. it reflects the arduous course of the Chinese Communists in trying to use the basic principles of Marxism to explore the road of China's revolution.

Source: New Xiang Comments