158 years ago today, on September 14, 1867 (August 17, 1867 lunar calendar), the first volume of "Das Kapital" was published. Volume 1 of "Das Kapital" 1867 Hamburg First Edition On September 14, 1867, the first volume of "Das Kapital", which had been repeatedly revised by Marx, was published in Hamburg, Germany. This was an epoch-making event in the history of human social thought and the history of the international communist movement. Marx spent a full 20 years writing this book. Marx started from the revolutionary interests of the proletariat, and in order to complete the study of political economy, he was cold-eyed with the frenzied political persecution inflicted on the class enemy and the vile personal attacks spread by some exiles scum. Despite the poverty and illness of individuals and families, he engaged in intense theoretical research day and night. In his letter to Engels in 1857, he said: "I am now frantically summing up my economic research all night. In order to clarify at least some basic problems before the flood." "This work is very necessary, it can make the public see the essence of things." The first volume of "Capital" begins with the analysis of commodities, expounds the theory that surplus labor creates surplus value, and reveals the secret of capitalist exploitation. On August 16, 1867, after Marx had finished reading the last proofs of the first volume of Das Kapital, he wrote to Engels with great joy and excitement: "This volume is complete. For this reason, I can only thank you! Without your sacrifice for me, I could never have completed the tremendous work of these three volumes." After Marx's death, the second and third volumes of Das Kapital were carefully studied and carefully organized by Engels, and were published in 1885 and 1894 respectively. Before his death, Engels commissioned Kautsky to organize the history of surplus value and published it as the fourth volume of Das Kapital. But Kautsky violated Engels' will and published it as an independent work in three volumes in 1904, 1905, and 1910. It is still included in the Complete Works of Marx and Engels as the fourth volume of "Das Kapital". For the first time, "Das Kapital" deeply analyzed the entire development process of capitalism, proving with mathematical accuracy that the direction of this development must lead to the socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. "Das Kapital" armed the proletariat, became a powerful theoretical weapon for the proletariat to carry out the revolutionary struggle, and is a brilliant scientific masterpiece in the theoretical treasure house of Marxism.