Chapter 72 On the question of whether imperialism and all reactionaries are real tigers[1]

(December 1, 1958) Here I want to answer the question of whether imperialism and all reactionaries are really tigers.My answer is that it is both real and paper. This is a question of the process of changing from real to paper.To change is to transform, a real tiger turns into a paper tiger, and goes to the opposite side.This is true of everything, not just social phenomena.I have answered this question a few years ago, defying it strategically and respecting it tactically.It's not a real tiger, why should we pay attention to it? It seems that some people still don't understand it, and we still have to do some explaining work.

Just as everything in the world has a dual nature (that is, the law of the unity of opposites), imperialism and all reactionaries also have a dual nature. They are real tigers and paper tigers.Historically, the slave-owning class, the feudal landlord class and the bourgeoisie were full of vigor, revolutionaries, pioneers, and real tigers before and after they gained ruling power.In the following period of time, due to their opposites, the slave class, the peasant class and the proletariat, gradually grow and fight against them more and more fiercely, they gradually turn into the opposite, become reactionaries, and become backward people. , turned into a paper tiger, and will eventually be or will be overthrown by the people.Reactionary, backward, and decadent classes also retain this duality when they face a life-and-death struggle by the people.On the one hand, real tigers eat people by the millions.The cause of the people's struggle is in a difficult and difficult period, and there have been many twists and turns.It took the Chinese people more than a hundred years to eliminate the rule of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism in China, and it took tens of millions of people to die before they won the victory in 1949.You see, aren't these live tigers, iron tigers, real tigers? However, they eventually turned into paper tigers, dead tigers, and tofu tigers.This is a fact of history.Haven't people seen and heard of this? There are tens of thousands! Thousands and tens of thousands! Therefore, in essence, in the long run, and in terms of strategy, we must truthfully treat imperialism and all reactionaries as paper tigers.From this point, build our strategic thinking.On the other hand, they are live, iron, real tigers, and they can eat people.From this point, establish our strategic thinking and tactical thinking.As with the struggle against class enemies, so it is with the struggle against nature.In 1956 we published the Forty-Article 12-Year Agricultural Development Program [2] and the 12-Year Scientific Development Program [3].These are all based on the duality of the development of the universe and the duality of the development of things in Marxism, and the fact that things always appear as processes and any process includes duality, such a basic point of view, the point of view of the unity of opposites.On the one hand, despise it, it's easy, it doesn't count, it doesn't matter, it can be done, it can be won.On the one hand, it is not easy to pay attention to it. It counts and must not be taken lightly. Without hard work and hard work, there will be no victory.To be afraid and not to be afraid is a law of unity of opposites.Not afraid at all, carefree, truly pure Leshen, has never been.Everyone is born with worries.Students are afraid of exams, children are afraid of their parents' favoritism, three disasters and eight disasters, five tuberculosis and seven injuries, a fever of forty-one degrees, and "unpredictable things in the sky, people have good fortune and misfortune", etc., there are too many to count.Class struggle, the struggle against nature, the difficulties encountered are innumerable.However, the majority of mankind, first of all the proletariat, first of all the Communists, except the phobias and opportunist gentlemen, always put contempt for everything and optimism first in their hearts.Then we should pay attention to things, every task, scientific research, analyze every contradictory aspect of things, drill in, and gradually understand the laws of natural movement and social movement.Then it will be possible to master these laws, apply them relatively freely, and solve the problems people face one by one, handle contradictions, complete tasks, transform difficulties into smooth ones, transform real tigers into paper tigers, and transform the primary stage of revolution into advanced stages. Phase transformation, transforming the democratic revolution into the socialist revolution, transforming the socialist collective ownership into the socialist ownership by the whole people, transforming the socialist ownership by the whole people into the communist ownership by the whole people, and transforming the annual output of millions of tons of steel into the annual The production of tens of millions of tons of steel or even tens of millions of tons of steel is transformed, so that the grain yield of more than one hundred catties or several hundred catties per mu can be transformed into the grain yield of several thousand catties or even tens of thousands of catties per mu.Comrades, we are doing these transformation work.Comrades, possibility and actuality are two different things, two opposites of unity.False possibility and actual possibility are two things again, two opposites of unity.The mind is both cold and hot, two opposites of oneness.Soaring energy is hot.Scientific analysis is cold.In our country, at the moment, some people are a little too hot.They don't want to keep their minds cold for a while, they don't like analysis, they just like heat.Comrades, this attitude is not conducive to leading work, they may stumble, these people should pay attention to remind their heads.Others prefer the cold to the hot.They can't get used to some things and can't keep up. [4] For these people, their minds should be warmed up slowly.

On December 1, 1958, in Wuchang According to "People's Daily" published on September 11, 1977. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is an article written by Mao Zedong during the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Wuchang. [2] Refers to the "National Agricultural Development Program (Draft) from 1956 to 1967".See main note [4] on page 3 of this volume. [3] Refers to the "1956-1967 Outline of the Long-term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (Draft)".This draft is based on the spirit of the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on quickly changing my country's economic, scientific and cultural backwardness. Beginning in April 1956, the State Council organized more than 600 Chinese scientific and technological experts and invited more than 20 It was formulated by a Soviet expert after half a year of research and discussion.The plan puts forward 57 important scientific and technological tasks and 616 central issues that are urgently needed for national construction, and points out the development direction of various sciences.The implementation of this plan has promoted the rapid development of my country's science and technology.

[4] After this sentence, the original text also has "the school of watching tides and the school of accounting, which belong to this category".On September 16, 1961, Mao Zedong deleted these eleven words when reviewing this passage included in a book of study materials for cadres.