Oppose Dogmatism

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Oppose Dogmatism 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 edition published in the Selected Readings From the Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1971.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an essay written by Comrade Mao Zedong in Xunwu, Jiangxi, China in May 1930. It was first published as a pamphlet in 1961.

This essay was written to criticize the dogmato-revisionist deviation then to be found in the Communist Party of China, which at that time was mainly represented by the Central Leadership led by Li Lisan.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#PREFACE TO THE 1961 CHINESE EDITION

#Mao Zedong

#11th of March, 1961

#★

This is an old article, which was written to oppose dogmatism in the Red Army at that time. At that time, we did not yet use the term «dogmatism», but rather «book worship». The article was written approximately in the spring of 1930. It has already been 30 years since I read it last. In January 1961, I suddenly found it in the Central Revolutionary Museum, which had found it in the archives of the Longyan Area Party Committee in Fujian Province. In reading it again, I find that it still has some use, so I have had a good many copies printed as reference material for comrades.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#OPPOSE DOGMATISM

#ON THE WORK OF RESEARCH

#Mao Zedong

#May 1930

#★

#1. NO INVESTIGATION, NO RIGHT TO SPEAK

Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn't that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts, and into its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, then whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist, that is disgraceful. How can Communists keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense?

It won't do!

It won't do!

You must investigate!

You must not talk nonsense!

#2. TO RESEARCH A PROBLEM IS TO SOLVE IT

You can't solve a problem? Well, get down and research the present facts and its past history! When you have researched the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it. Conclusions invariably come after research, and not before. Only blockheads cudgel their brains on their own, or together with a group, to «find a solution» or «evolve an idea» without making any research. It must be stressed that this cannot possibly lead to any effective solution or any good idea. In other words, they are bound to arrive at a wrong solution and a wrong idea.

There are not a few comrades doing inspection work, as well as guerrilla commanders and cadres newly in office, who like to make political pronouncements the moment they arrive at a place and who strut about, criticizing this and condemning that, when they have only seen the surface of things or minor details. Such purely subjective, nonsensical talk is indeed detestable. These people are bound to make a mess of things, lose the confidence of the masses, and prove incapable of solving any problem at all.

When they come across difficult problems, quite a number of people in leading posts simply heave a sigh without being able to solve them. They lose patience and ask to be transferred on the ground that they «have not the ability and cannot do the job». These are cowards' words. Just get moving on your two legs, go the rounds of every section placed under your charge, and «inquire into everything»,¹ as Confucius did, and then you will be able to solve the problems, however little your ability; for, although your head may be empty before you go outside, it will no longer be empty when you return, it will contain all sorts of material necessary for the solution of the problems, and that is how problems are solved. Must you go outside? Not necessarily. You can call a fact-finding meeting of people familiar with the situation in order to get at the source of what you call a difficult problem and come to know how it stands now, and then it will be easy to solve your difficult problem.

Research may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To research a problem is, indeed, to solve it.

#3. OPPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

Whatever is written in a book is right — such is still the mentality of culturally backward Chinese peasants. Strangely enough, within the Communist Party, there are also people who always say in a discussion: «Show me where it's written in the book.» When we say that a directive from a higher leading body is correct, that is not just because it comes from «a higher leading body», but because its contents conform with both the objective and subjective circumstances of the struggle and meet its requirements. It is quite wrong to take a formalist attitude and blindly carry out directives without discussing and examining them in the light of actual conditions simply because they come from a higher body. It is the mischief done by this formalism which explains why the line and tactics of the Party do not take deeper root among the masses. To carry out a directive from a higher body blindly, and seemingly without any disagreement, is not really to carry it out, but is rather the most creative way of opposing or sabotaging it.

The method of studying the social sciences exclusively from the book is likewise extremely dangerous and may even lead one onto the road of counter-revolution. Clear proof of this is provided by the fact that whole batches of Chinese Communists, who confined themselves to books in their study of the social sciences, have turned into counter-revolutionaries. When we say that Marxism is correct, it is certainly not because Marx was a «prophet», but because his theory has been proved correct in our practice and in our struggle. We need Marxism in our struggle. In our acceptance of his theory, no such formalist or mystical notion as that of «prophecy» ever enters our minds. Many who have read Marxist books have become renegades from the revolution, whereas illiterate workers often grasp Marxism very well. Of course, we should study Marxist books, but this study must be integrated with our country's actual conditions. We need books, but we must overcome book worship, which is divorced from the actual situation.

How can we overcome book worship? The only way is to research the actual situation.

#4. WITHOUT RESEARCHING THE ACTUAL SITUATION, THERE IS BOUND TO BE AN IDEALIST APPRAISAL OF CLASS FORCES AND AN IDEALIST GUIDANCE IN WORK, RESULTING EITHER IN OPPORTUNISM OR IN ADVENTURISM

Do you doubt this conclusion? Facts will force you to accept it. Just try and appraise the political situation or guide the struggle without making any research, and you will see whether or not such appraisal or guidance is groundless and idealist and whether or not it will lead to opportunist or adventurist errors. Certainly it will. This is not because of failure to make careful plans before taking action, but because of failure to study the specific social situation carefully before making the plans, as often happens in our Red Army guerrilla units. Commanders of the Li Kui² type do not discriminate when they punish the fighters for offences. As a result, the offenders feel that they have been unfairly treated, many disputes ensue, and the commanders lose all prestige. Does this not happen frequently in the Red Army?

We must wipe out idealism and guard against all opportunist and adventurist errors before we can succeed in winning over the masses and defeating the enemy. The only way to wipe out idealism is to make the effort and research the actual situation.

#5. THE AIM OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC RESEARCH IS TO ARRIVE AT A CORRECT APPRAISAL OF CLASS FORCES AND THEN TO FORMULATE CORRECT TACTICS FOR THE STRUGGLE

This is our answer to the question: Why do we have to research socio-economic conditions? Accordingly, the object of our research is all the social classes and not fragmentary social phenomena. Of late, the comrades in the Fourth Army of the Red Army have generally paid attention to the work of conducting research,³ but the method many of them employ is wrong. The results of their research are therefore as trivial as a grocer's accounts, or resemble the many strange tales country bumpkins hear when they come to town, or are like a distant view of a populous city from a mountain top. This kind of research is of little use and cannot achieve our main purpose. Our main purpose is to learn the political and economic situation of the various social classes. The outcome of our research should be a picture of the present situation of each class and the ups and downs of its development. For example, when we research the composition of the peasantry, not only must we know the number of owner-peasants, semi-owner peasants, and tenant-peasants, who are differentiated according to tenancy relations, but, more especially, we must know the number of rich peasants, middle peasants, and poor peasants, who are differentiated according to class or stratum. When we research the composition of the merchants, not only must we know the number in each trade, such as grain, clothing, medicinal herbs, and so on, but, more especially, we must know the number of small merchants, middle merchants, and big merchants. We should research, not only the state of each trade, but, more especially, the class relations within it. We should research the relations, not only between the different trades, but, more especially, between the different classes. Our chief method of research must be to dissect the different social classes, the final purpose being to understand their interrelations, to arrive at a correct appraisal of class forces, and then to formulate the correct tactics for the struggle, defining which classes constitute the main force in the revolutionary struggle, which classes are to be won over as allies, and which classes are to be overthrown. This is our sole purpose.

What are the social classes requiring research? They are:

• The industrial proletariat.
• The handicraft workers.
• The farm workers.
• The poor peasants.
• The urban poor.
• The lumpen-proletariat.
• The master handicraftspeople.
• The small merchants.
• The middle peasants.
• The rich peasants.
• The feudal lords.
• The commercial bourgeoisie.
• The industrial bourgeoisie.

In our research, we should pay attention to the state of all these classes or strata. Only the industrial proletariat and industrial bourgeoisie are absent in the areas where we are now working, and we constantly come across all the others. Our tactics of struggle are tactics in relation to all these classes and strata.

Another serious shortcoming in our past research has been the undue stress on the countryside to the neglect of the cities, so that many comrades have always been vague about our tactics toward the urban poor and the commercial bourgeoisie. The development of the struggle has enabled us to leave the mountains for the plains.⁴ We have descended physically, but we are still up in the mountains mentally. We must understand the cities as well as the countryside, or we shall be unable to meet the needs of the revolutionary struggle.

#6. VICTORY IN CHINA'S REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE WILL DEPEND ON THE CHINESE COMRADES' UNDERSTANDING OF CHINESE CONDITIONS

The aim of our struggle is to attain socialism via the stage of democracy. In this task, the first step is to complete the democratic revolution by winning the majority of the working class and mobilizing the peasant masses and the urban poor for the overthrow of the feudal class, imperialism, and the Nationalist regime. The next step is to carry out the socialist revolution, which will follow on the development of this struggle. The fulfilment of this great revolutionary task is no simple or easy job and will depend entirely on correct and firm tactics on the part of the proletarian political party. If its tactics of struggle are wrong, or irresolute and wavering, the revolution will certainly suffer temporary defeat. It must be borne in mind that the bourgeois political parties, too, constantly discuss their tactics of struggle. They are considering how to spread reformist influences among the working class, so as to mislead it and turn it away from Communist Party leadership, how to get the rich peasants to put down the uprisings of the poor peasants, and how to organize gangsters to suppress the revolutionary struggles. In a situation when the class struggle grows increasingly acute and is waged at close quarters, the proletariat has to depend for its victory entirely on the correct and firm tactics of struggle of its own political party, the Communist Party. A Communist Party's correct and unswerving tactics of struggle can in no circumstance be created by a few people sitting in an office; they emerge in the course of mass struggle, that is, through actual experience. Therefore, we must at all times study social conditions and conduct practical research. Those comrades who are inflexible, conservative, formalist, and groundlessly optimistic think that the present tactics of struggle are perfect, that the «book of documents»⁵ of the Party's Sixth National Congress guarantees lasting victory, and that one can always be victorious merely by adhering to the established methods. These ideas are absolutely wrong and have nothing in common with the idea that Communists should create favourable new situations through struggle; they represent a purely conservative line. Unless it is completely discarded, this line will cause great losses to the revolution and do harm to these comrades themselves. There are obviously some comrades in our Red Army who are content to leave things as they are, who do not seek to understand anything thoroughly, and who are groundlessly optimistic, and they spread the fallacy that «this is proletarian». They eat their fill and sit dozing in their offices all day long without ever moving a step and going out among the masses to conduct research. Whenever they open their mouths, their platitudes make people sick. To awaken these comrades, we must raise our voices and cry out to them:

Change you conservative ideas without delay!

Replace them by progressive and militant Communist ideas!

Get into the struggle!

Go among the masses and research the facts!

#7. THE TECHNIQUE OF RESEARCH

#7.1. HOLD FACT-FINDING MEETINGS AND CONDUCT RESEARCH THROUGH DISCUSSIONS

This is the only way to get near the truth, the only way to draw conclusions. It is easy to commit mistakes if you do not hold fact-finding meetings for research through discussions, but simply rely on one individual relating their own experience. You cannot possibly draw more or less correct conclusions at such meetings if you put questions casually instead of raising key questions for discussion.

#7.2. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE SHOULD ATTEND THE FACT-FINDING MEETINGS?

They should be people well acquainted with socio-economic conditions. As far as age is concerned, older people are best, because they are rich in experience and not only know what is going on, but also understand the causes and effects. Young people with experience of struggle should also be included, because they have progressive ideas and sharp eyes. As far as occupation is concerned, there should be workers, peasants, merchants, intellectuals, and occasionally soldiers, and sometimes even lumpen-proletarians. Naturally, when a particular subject is being looked into, those who have nothing to do with it need not be present. For example, workers, peasants, and students need not attend when commerce is the subject of research.

#7.3. WHICH IS BETTER, A LARGE FACT-FINDING MEETING OR A SMALL ONE?

That depends on the researcher's ability to conduct a meeting. If they are good at it, a meeting of as many as a dozen or even 20 or more people can be called. A large meeting has its advantages; from the answers, you get fairly accurate statistics (for example, in finding out the percentage of poor peasants in the total peasant population) and fairly correct conclusions (for example, in finding out whether equal or differentiated land redistribution is better). Of course, it has its disadvantages, too; unless you are skilful in conducting meetings, you will find it difficult to keep order. So, the number of people attending a meeting depends on the competence of the researcher. However, the minimum is three, or otherwise the information obtained will be too limited to correspond to the real situation.

#7.4. PREPARE A DETAILED OUTLINE FOR THE RESEARCH

A detailed outline should be prepared beforehand, and the researcher should ask questions according to the outline, with those present at the meeting giving their answers. Any points which are unclear or doubtful should be put up for discussion. The detailed outline should include main subjects and sub-headings and also detailed items. For instance, taking commerce as a main subject, it can have such sub-headings as cloth, grain, other necessities, and medicinal herbs; again, under cloth, there can be such detailed items as calico, homespun, and silk and satin.

#7.5. PERSONAL PARTICIPATION

Everyone with responsibility for giving leadership — from the chairperson of the township government to the Chairperson of the Central Government, from the detachment commander to the Commander-in-Chief, from the secretary of a Party branch to the General Secretary — must personally undertake research into the specific socio-economic conditions and not merely rely on reading reports. For research and reading reports are two entirely different things.

#7.6. PROBE DEEPLY

Anyone new to research work should make one or two thorough surveys in order to gain full knowledge of a particular place (say, a village or a town) or a particular problem (say, the problem of grain or currency). Deep probing into a particular place or problem will make future research of other places or problems easier.

#7.7. MAKE YOUR OWN NOTES

The researcher should not only preside at fact-finding meetings and give proper guidance to those present, but should also make their own notes and record the results themself. To have others do it for them is no good.