On Conducting Rural Surveys

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of On Conducting Rural Surveys has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: On Conducting Rural Surveys, in the Beijing Review, Vol. 22, No. 1 (5th of January, 1979).

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a talk given by Comrade Mao Zedong at a meeting of a women's life survey group jointly organized by the Women's Work Commission and the North-Western Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 13th of September, 1941. It was first published as a separate pamphlet in December 1978.

In the same year, Comrade Mao Zedong called on the whole Party to rectify style of work in accordance with the ideological principles of Marxism, eliminate the subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing spread by the Third «Left»-Opportunist Line in the Party's history, headed by Wang Ming, who had held the leading post in the Party, and to unfold a movement of Marxist education.

In Yan'an, Wang Ming had held the posts of President of the Chinese Women's College and Secretary of the Women's Work Commission of the Party's Central Committee. In order to eliminate the influence of the Third «Left»-Opportunist Line in the women's movement, the Party's Central Committee decided in 1941 to close the college, reorganize the Women's Work Commission, and remove Wang Ming from these two posts. Comrade Mao Zedong gave the talk after these decisions were made.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ON CONDUCTING RURAL SURVEYS

#TALK TO A MEETING OF A WOMEN'S LIFE SURVEY GROUP

#Mao Zedong

#13th of September, 1941

#★

#1. CONDITIONS ARE UNDERSTOOD GRADUALLY AND ONLY WITH PERSISTENT EFFORT

Getting to know the world is no easy matter. Marx and Engels rounded off the theory of Scientific Communism only after life-long effort and repeated research. Lenin and Stalin also conducted much research.

Carrying out the Chinese revolution also needs research. First of all, we must know China (its past, present, and future). It is regrettable that many comrades are often subjectivist and opinionated and attach no importance whatsoever to research.

We believe in science, not theology. Therefore, instead of giving play to our imagination, we look at the grassroots levels in conducting research. At the same time, we believe that things are in motion, they are changing, progressing. Thus, research is a long-term job. We need to research things today, and our children and grandchildren will have to research things in the future. Only in this way is it possible to go on learning new things and acquiring more knowledge.

We must conduct research patiently, step by step, and must not be impetuous. It was only after several years of effort that I came to know the countryside.

I remember it was in 1920, when I first read Kautsky's The Class Struggle, Chen Wangdao's translation of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, and an English person's History of Socialism, that I came to know that human history is a history of class struggle and that class struggle is the motive force in social development; only then did I begin to grasp the method of cognizing problems. But in none of these books was there any mention of things specifically Chinese, such as Hunan or Hubei, Jiang Jieshi or Chen Duxiu. I took from them only the idea of «class struggle» and began to study practical class struggle in earnest. After taking part in the peasant movement for four months, I came to know something about the various classes, but this knowledge was quite superficial, not at all deep. The Central Committee later asked me to take charge of the peasant movement. I then made up my mind to conduct further research, spending a little over a month in the survey of the five counties of Changsha, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Liling. There was an upsurge in the peasant movement in these counties, and many peasants had joined peasant associations. The Nationalist Party of China attacked us for «going too far» and for engaging in «riffraff activities» and reviled the peasants for «going too far» by raping the daughters of big landlords. In fact, my research showed that not all things had gone «too far», as they said they had, but that this state of affairs was natural and necessary, because the peasants had suffered too much. I think it is inevitable for peasants who have been oppressed for thousands of years to go a little «too far» once they rise up, and it wouldn't have mattered much if they had raped even more landlords' daughters.

However, I was still not very clear about class alignment in the countryside. It was only when I had made a survey of Xunwu after we got to the Jinggang Mountains that I became clear on the question of the rich peasants and the landlords. I put forward measures for dealing with the rich peasants, measures that involved, not only «taking from those who have more land and giving to those who have less», but also «taking from those who have better and giving to those who have worse», for this was the only way the rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants, and farmworkers could all carry on. If the landlords were not given any land and had nothing to live on, and if the rich peasants were only given poor land and were left half-destitute and driven to rebel, the poor peasants and farmworkers would be isolated. Some people ridiculed my approach as a rich-peasant line, yet I'm afraid my measures were the only correct ones at the time. Of course, today we have the Anti-Japanese National United Front, and we are reducing rent and interest, not depriving the landlords and rich peasants of their property rights. Otherwise, it would be impossible for us to unite with them in the fight against Japan.

As regards the poor peasants and farmworkers, I became clear only after my survey of Xingguo County, which helped me realize the importance of poor peasant leagues in redistributing land.

So, it took me six to seven years to acquire experience in conducting rural surveys. Now, with the experience of other comrades to go by, you can take shortcuts and accomplish such work in a few months instead of six or seven years. The thing for comrades to do today is dig into questions and exert yourselves in a matter-of-fact way. Provided you are not sleepyheads, you can achieve quite a lot, even if you work at it only six hours a day. But you do need to keep at it.

#2. METHODOLOGY

#2.1. THE UNITY OF OPPOSITES AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE

The unity of opposites and the class struggle are the two points of departure in our work. When we observe something, the first step can only be to perceive its broad outlines and form a general impression. Take the case of a newcomer to Yan'an. At first, they have only a general and vague idea of the place. But after they have visited the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College, the Women's College, and other schools and government institutions in Yan'an, they take the second step, adopt an analytical approach, and make a careful and systematic study and analysis of the different aspects of Yan'an. Then, taking the third step, they employ synthesis to sum up their analyses of these different aspects and gain a picture of Yan'an as a whole. They now know a Yan'an which is different from the one they knew on their arrival. They saw Yan'an as a whole at the beginning, and they are still seeing Yan'an as a whole now, but their knowledge of the place is different. They have now gained a scientific knowledge and a concrete understanding of Yan'an. The same is true of our observing a village.

This is the method Marx used in writing Capital. First, he analysed the various sectors of capitalist society. Then, he synthesized them and arrived at the laws of motion of capitalism.

Special attention should be paid to analysis. There should be synthesis as well as analysis, that is to say, there is an element of synthesis in the analysis made in the second step. As the old saying goes, the principle of good writing is to have both an unfolding and a summary. This saying is correct. And it was also correct for Su Dongpo to study history and the Song Dynasty by urging the method of «tackling the enemy from eight sides». As we study Chinese society today, we should likewise use the method of «tackling the enemy from four sides», dividing it into four sectors — political, economic, cultural, and military — and drawing conclusions for the Chinese revolution.

If we use the method of «looking at flowers from horseback», trying to know a bit of everything, we will only be wasting time and will get nowhere.

Therefore, we must grasp this standpoint, that is, the unity of opposites and the class struggle. This is the standpoint inherent in analysis and synthesis, as I have already said. If you use this approach in analysing conditions in the rural areas, you will come to know the classes there, their main characteristics, and their interrelations. One of the questions you have asked me is: What is a rich peasant? In my view, a landlord lives mainly on rent; a rich peasant lives mainly by hiring farmworkers, while engaging in some labour themself; a middle peasant generally does not sell their labour-power and works their own land; a poor peasant has to sell their labour-power, as they cannot make a living from their land; and a farmworker sells all their labour-power and owns no land at all. Of course, these are only the main criteria of the above classes.

Such an analysis of the different classes and strata as well as their general living conditions is the only way to correctly understand the overall situation in the countryside.

We should think hard in analysing objective reality and analysing classes. We should not turn a blind eye to practical problems. We should throw out purveyors of bombast and should think things out for ourselves and integrate theory with practice.

Lenin said in 1905 that a workers' and peasants' government should be formed in Russia after the overthrow of the tsarist government, but Trotskij maintained that there should be a government of workers alone. This shows that Trotskij did not really integrate theory with practice. We should try through practice to identify the law of the movement of things and create new theories. For instance, the protracted nature of China's War of Resistance Against Japan constitutes a law of that war. Today, when you go down to the rural areas to conduct surveys, you should adopt this standpoint and methodology to guide your practice, and, at the same time, constantly enrich your theoretical understanding in the course of practice.

#2.2. GATHERING VAST AMOUNTS OF DATA AND GRASPING THE MAIN POINTS

The more data one collects, the better. But it is essential to grasp the main points or characteristics (the primary aspects of contradictions). When Marx was studying capitalism and Lenin imperialism, they collected vast amounts of statistics and data. However, they did not use them all, they only made use of such data as best illustrated the characteristics under consideration.

No investigation, no right to speak. But there are comrades who like to ask: «Out of ten things, I have investigated nine — all but one. Don't I have the right to speak?» I think that, if the nine you investigated are all secondary things and you have omitted the primary one, you still have no right to speak.

In China today, the national contradiction is the primary contradiction, while the class contradiction has become secondary. Before the Xi'an Incident, the contradiction between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party was the primary one. Since the Incident, the contradiction between China and Japan has been the primary one. So it is this contradiction that must be our point of departure in understanding and solving any problem today. If we concentrate on minor matters to the neglect of the primary contradiction, seeing the trees but not the forest, we will still have no right to speak.

Therefore, in synthesizing data, we should avoid getting bogged down in narrow empiricism.

#3. REPLIES TO QUESTIONS

Comrades have raised a lot of questions, and I can only answer some of them. Others cannot be answered, because if they could, there would be no need for you to go to the countryside. What is more, you yourselves must go to the rural areas and conduct surveys before you can understand these problems and find different solutions appropriate to different people and circumstances.

How should we hold fact-finding meetings? A fact-finding meeting must not only pose questions, but produce answers. It is advisable to have around three to five people at each meeting. During my survey of Xingguo, I learnt that 40% of the land was owned by landlords and 30% by rich peasants, and that 10% was ancestral temple land owned in common by landlords and rich peasants, making a total of 80% owned by the landlords and rich peasants, while only 20% was owned by the middle and poor peasants. But the landlords accounted for no more than 1% of the population and the rich peasants for no more than 5%, while the poor and middle peasants accounted for 80%. On the one hand, 6% of the population owned 80% of the land, and on the other, 80% of the population owned only 20%. The only logical conclusion could be revolution. This strengthened my confidence in the revolution, my conviction that the revolution would win the sympathy and support of more than 80% of the people.

How should we select samples for research? There are three kinds: the advanced, the middle, and the backward. If, on the basis of this classification, you choose to research two or three people from each kind, you will be able to learn the conditions of them all.

How should we collect and compile material? You must do it all yourselves in order to gain experience, experience which you use to improve your work in researching and compiling material later.

How can we make sure that the people we talk to tell the truth? People are different, and therefore you must adopt different approaches. But the main thing is to make friends with the masses and not to spy on them, which causes resentment. If a person does not tell the truth, it is because they do not know whether or not your intentions are for their benefit. You must give them time to get to know your thinking in the course of talking and making friends with them, so that they gradually recognize your true intentions and regard you as a real friend. Only then will you be able to find out the facts. You must blame yourself and not the masses if they do not tell you the truth.

In my survey of Xingguo, I invited several peasants for a conversation. At first, they were full of misgivings, wondering what on Earth I would do to them. So the first day, we only had a chat about everyday matters. No smiles crossed their faces, and they did not say much. Later, I invited them to dinner, and in the evening, I gave them large warm quilts to sleep under. This helped them understand my real intentions. Gradually, they began to smile and spoke up more. In the end, we were all at ease. Everybody joined in lively discussions, nothing was held back, and we got along so well we might have been one family.

It is not necessary to go into the other questions. It will be better for you to go down as soon as possible to conduct surveys yourselves.