「經濟」一詞在中文裏原意為「經世濟民」或有關「經世」的才能，它包含儒學特殊的經濟觀，就是將道德規範的約束視作社會組織原則。中國近代之所以用「經濟」一詞來指涉economy，與儒學將經濟關係隸屬於道德秩序這一傳統思維模式密切相關。新文化運動前期（1915~1919），中國知識分子接受了西方自由主義社會組織原則，即社會由獨立自主的個人通過契約組成。在這種社會組織原則中，經濟秩序與道德秩序的關係不那麼密切。正是在這一時期，「經濟」一詞與道德脫離關係，獲得了今天中文「經濟」一詞的含義。但當時中國正面臨引進西方代議政治的失敗以及現代經濟快速發展引發的社會普遍的生計危機。這使得很多知識分子放棄自由主義社會組織原則，把社會看作由獨立個人根據新道德規範組成；這是五四知識分子接受馬列主義的思想史內部原因。
本文通過對一八三○至一九二○年間近七千萬字政治思想言論中「經濟」一詞的意義分析，揭示出中國知識分子經濟觀的變遷。我們發現，馬列主義經濟決定論被中國知識分子廣泛接受，是與他們把社會視為由道德規範組成的思想模式密切相關。五四時期中國知識分子接受馬列主義經濟決定論的過程與馬克思主義經濟決定論在西方興起存在著共同的機制。

This article aims at examining the internal causes of the May Fourth Intellectuals’ acceptance of Marxism-Leninism by analyzing the shift of the lexical meanings of the term jingji (economy) in modern China. The earliest meaning of the Chinese term jingji is “to rule the world and govern the people” or the ability of governance. It reflects a unique economic perspective that was embraced by Confucianism. In this perspective, society is no more than but a conglomeration of people whose relationship is organized by ethical norms. Under such principles for social organization, the rearrangement of society’s moral order is regarded as the only way to improve people’s living standards. The adoption of the term jingji as the translation of “economy” (it can also be viewed as the borrowing of the Japanese term keizai) in modern China has its root in the Confucian blueprint for social organization in which economic order is considered to be an extension of the moral order.
At the early stage of the New Culture Movement (1915~1919), under the influence of French Enlightenment, Chinese intellectuals accepted the Western liberal blueprint for social organization: society is formed by independent individuals whose relationship is governed by contracts. In the perspective of such a principle for social organization, economic order has no connection with moral order. It was also in this period that the term jingji became detached from morals and since then began to pick up the meaning with which we are familiar today. However, at the same period, China was faced with the failure of the introduction of the Western system of representative government. In addition, the common people faced impoverishment, which was touched off by the first modernization movement that was launched simultaneously with the political reform in late Qing. These events acted as the catalysts of many intellectuals’ abandonment of the liberal principle for social organization, which views the society as a group of individuals formed by the new morals and norms. This is the internal cause of the May Fourth intellectuals’ acceptance of Marxism-Leninism in the perspective of intellectual history.
Historical materialism and the surplus value theory are main components of Marxism. And, the surplus value theory is a derivative of the criticism of the western liberal principle of social organization and explanation of the impoverishment of labor. Leninism carries the idea that society be formed by proletarian elites. This went well with the May Fourth Intellectuals’ skepticism towards the Western liberal principle of social structure. In this piece, we try to trace the process of the transformation of Chinese Intellectual’s economic perspective and May Fourth Intellectuals’ acceptance of Marxism-Leninism through a quantitative analysis of the meanings of the term jingji and other relevant terms run in modern Chinese newspapers and journals, especially the eleven volumes of La Jeunesse. We found that the rise of Marxist Economic Determinism was closely related to Chinese intellectuals’ return to the idea that society be formed by ethical norms. The introduction of economic determinism is appeared in three stages. The first stage was represented by the publication of the first five volumes of La Jeunesse (1915~1919), in which the term jingji became detached from morals and the term shehui (society) made its debut. It was also in this stage that the liberal principle for social structure was under the impact of the failure of introducing republicanism into China. The second stage was marked by the publication of volume 6~8 of La Jeunesse (1919~1921). This stage saw modern social structure greeted with considerable skepticism and the assimilation of historical materialism was accepted. Also, in this stage, intellectuals became aware of the difficulties of the common people in making their livings and the impoverishment of labor and peasants. The last three volumes of La Jeunesse, namely, volume 9, quarterly, and irregular issues (1921~1926) were symbols of the third stage, in which the surplus value theory and Leninism prevailed. In this article, by juxtaposing the process of May Fourth intellectuals’ acceptance of economic determinism and the rise of Marxist economic determinism in the West, we try to explore the mechanism they shared and review the role that deep structure of traditional Chinese culture played in the acceptance of Marxism-Leninism.