Chapter 50 To do a systematic investigation and research from history to current situation [1]

(March 13, 1961) This meeting will resolve two very important issues: one is egalitarianism among production teams; the other is egalitarianism among individuals within a production team.If these two problems are not properly resolved, it will be impossible to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the masses. It seems that the People's Commune needs to have an ordinance.The regulations for high-level agricultural cooperatives are outdated.There hasn't been a new complete ordinance in several years.The draft regulations on the work of the rural people's communes drafted this time are too complicated, too long, and not logical enough to catch people's breath. They should be compressed to about 8,000 characters.Discuss at this meeting, listen to your opinions first, go back and investigate, and make a decision at the next meeting.

To do a systematic investigation and research from history to current situation.The first secretary of the provincial party committee must personally conduct investigations and research. I am also the first secretary, and I only grasp the first secretary.Other secretaries also need to do investigation and research, and you are responsible for arresting them.As long as the first secretaries of the party committees at the provincial, prefectural, county, and communal levels all do research and research, things will be easy to handle. In January this year, I found an article [2] I wrote 30 years ago. I read it and thought it made sense, but I don’t know what others think. "Articles are your own good." I don't like some of my own articles, but I like this one.This article was written after a great struggle, in 1930 after the Ninth Congress of the Fourth Red Army Party[3].I looked everywhere in the past, but couldn't find it.Please study this article and put forward your opinions, which ones you agree with and which ones you don't agree with. If you basically agree with it, you will do so without explanation.The theme of the article is that those who lead must rely on their own research to solve problems.Written reports can also be read, but this is different from the personal investigation.Run around by yourself or stay here for a week to ten days of investigation. The main thing is to stay here and do some systematic investigation and research.As for the situation in rural areas, it would be easier to investigate one township first, and then go to other townships to get a good idea.

We have made mistakes in the past few years, first of all because the situation is unclear.If the situation is unclear, the policy will be wrong, the determination will be weak, and the method will be wrong.When a doctor sees a doctor, he diagnoses first. In Chinese medicine, it is called looking, smelling, asking, and cutting. It means to find out the condition first, and then prescribe.When we fight, we must first engage in reconnaissance, reconnaissance of the enemy's situation and terrain, judge the situation, and then make up our minds, deploy troops, logistics, and so on.Historically, the reasons for most of the defeats have been unknown.In recent years, I suffered a lot from unknown circumstances, and the price I paid was very high.We have become officials, and we no longer do research and research.I've done some research, but mostly just floating around and reading reports.Now, I want to set up a few points, a few bases for investigation, and go down to make some friends.I don't have the right to speak about urban issues, and I have long wanted to investigate a few factories.Now I have set up several bases and sent several teams to live in several places.Chen Boda, Hu Qiaomu, Tian Jiaying[4] will go back after the meeting.I made an appointment with you to do some investigation and research on non-staple food bases. The purpose is to solve problems, not for reports.So many forms are issued, and the newspapers say that the grain has increased, the pigs have increased, and the cash crops have also increased, but in fact there has been no increase.I don't want to read those forms, I don't read the reports, it's really tasteless.Henan requires the lower levels to report the situation of the six types of cadres, and the notice will be issued tomorrow. This can only be a false report.We have to learn a lesson.There is one thing about reports. Statistics departments need reports to conduct statistics, but we do not mainly rely on reports to understand the situation, nor can we rely on level-by-level reports. We must personally understand the situation at the grassroots level.

The People’s Commune did not formulate regulations for three years, and of course they did formulate some regulations, such as the resolutions of the Beidaihe Conference[5], the resolutions of the Wuchang Conference[6], the records of the Zhengzhou Conference[7], the Eighteen Articles of the Shanghai Conference[8], and our The six items mentioned in the letter to the production team and production team [9].These documents and regulations are ineffective in some places and effective in some places.In the first-class counties, communes and teams, they are effective; in the second-class counties, communes and teams, they are basically effective, and some of them are not effective, and they have not been implemented; in the third-class counties, communes and teams, they are basically not effective.If you make a mistake, you can correct it. As long as you do it well, mistakes and failures will go to the opposite side. The opposite is correctness and victory. Don’t hold your head up.

Some canteens are unsustainable.The secretary of the general branch of a brigade in Guangdong said that running a canteen has four major disadvantages: first, it destroys the forest, second, it wastes labor, third, there is no meat to eat (because the family cannot raise pigs), and fourth, it is not conducive to production.The first three items are all about not being conducive to production, and the fourth item is a summary.The question raised by this comrade deserves attention.If these problems are not resolved, the cafeteria must be disbanded. If it does not disband this year, it will have to disband next year.There is no firewood, bridges are demolished, houses are demolished, and trees are cut down. Such canteens are anti-socialist.It seems that there are several forms of canteens. Some people can eat in perennial canteens, and most people can eat in busy farming canteens.The canteen in the northern winter must be dismantled and let everyone go home to eat, because there is a problem of heating.

Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of Mao Zedong’s speech at the work conference (known as the South Three District Conference) attended by the heads of the Central South Bureau, Southwest Bureau, and East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Guangzhou and the heads of the party committees of the provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to which these three regions belong. .The meeting was held from March 10 to 13, 1961.

[2] Refers to "About Investigation Work".See note [2] on page 240 of this volume. [3] Refers to the Ninth Congress of the Fourth Red Army of the Communist Party of China held in Gutian, Shanghang, Fujian from December 28 to 29, 1929. [4] Chen Boda, was an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, director of the Central Political Research Office, and Mao Zedong's secretary.Hu Qiaomu was then an alternate secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and Mao Zedong's secretary.Tian Jiaying was the deputy director of the Political Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong's secretary.At that time, according to Mao Zedong's instructions, they led the investigation team to conduct rural investigations in Guangdong, Hunan, and Zhejiang.

[5] Refers to the "Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Establishment of People's Commune in the Rural Areas" adopted by the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Beidaihe from August 17 to 30, 1958. [6] Refers to the "Resolution on Several Issues Concerning People's Commune" passed at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Wuchang from November 28 to December 10, 1958. [7] See note [6] on page 30 of this volume.

[8] See note [3] on page 165 of this volume. [9] Refers to the six items mentioned in Mao Zedong's letter on April 29, 1959, on the agricultural issue to the six-level cadres.See pages 48-50 of this volume.