Complete Works of Marx and Engels

The Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels. Comprehensive and systematic collection of the works of Marx and Engels from all periods of their life compiled, translated and published by the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels has been published in two editions so far. The first edition was based on the second Russian edition of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels published by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which was compiled from 1955, with the first volume published in 1956 and all 50 volumes and 53 books published in 1985. The first edition of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels is divided into three parts: volumes of works, volumes of letters and the volumes of supplements, and it contains more than 2,000 works, more than 4,000 letters and more than 400 other documents, totaling about 32 million words. The publication of the Complete Works has changed the previous situation of incomplete Chinese translations of Marx and Engels’ works, provided an important textual basis for the study of Marxism, and vigorously promoted the spread, study and development of Marxism in China.

Due to the limitations of the times, the first edition of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels also had its shortcomings. The quality of the translations was not high, the literature included was incomplete, and even a small number of works not written by Marx and Engels were included. In view of this, the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China initiated the work related to the second edition in 1986, and began to publish it successively in the 1990s. The second edition of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels is based on the first edition and is re-edited and revised in accordance with the Marx-Engels Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2) and other foreign language versions, such as the German version and the English version, in an effort to reflect more accurately the original intent and style of the classic writers of Marxism. The second edition of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels is planned to be compiled and published in 70 volumes, which are divided into four parts according to their contents: Volumes 1–29 are the volumes of general works, which mainly includes all publicly published works, manuscripts, drafts, outlines, etc. during Marx and Engels’ life time (except for Capital and its manuscripts); Volumes 30–46 are the volumes of Capital and its manuscripts, which includes the three-volume Capital and related works and preparation materials, including various economic manuscripts from 1857–1858, 1861–1863 and after 1863; Volumes 47–60 are the volumes of letters, which includes all the letters of Marx and Engels and some important letters written to them by others; Volumes 61–70 are the volumes of notebooks, which includes important notebooks, excerpts and annotations. As of February 2017, the second edition was published in a total of 27 volumes. The second edition of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels has the characteristics of more authoritative basis of version, higher-quality translation, more comprehensive inclusion of documents, more abundant materials and more reasonable arrangement structure, and its compilation and publication will surely provided more complete, accurate and reliable basic texts for the study of Marxism.