Chapter 60 Letter to Li Da[1]

(March 27, 1951) Brother Heming: The two letters and the attached second part of "Explanation of <On Practice>" have been received, thank you! The first part of "Explanation" has also been seen in the publication [2].This "Commentary" is excellent, and it has a great effect on propagating materialism in popular language.After your third part has been written and published, it should be published in a single volume and circulated widely.In the second part, there are some small revisions on the two pages on imperialism, dogmatism, and empiricism [3], please consider it.If it has been published, it will be revised when the printed version is printed.

In the past, too little popular propaganda on dialectical materialism has been done, but this is an urgent need for the majority of working cadres and young students. I hope you will write more articles. Best regards! Mao Zedong March 27 In "On Practice", it is inappropriate to put the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom together with xenophobia, and it is planned to be revised when the anthology is published [4], and it remains as it is here. Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Li Da (1890-1966), courtesy name Heming, was born in Lingling (now Yongzhou City), Hunan.He was the president of Hunan University at that time.

[2] Refers to the "New Construction" magazine, the first part of "Explanation of "On Practice", published in the sixth issue of the third volume of the journal published in 1951. [3] Mao Zedong’s main revisions to the second part of Li Da’s "Commentary on Practice" are as follows: 1. In the "Commentary", where it talks about the Chinese people’s spontaneous struggle against foreign powers, add Wrote this sentence: "The Chinese people did not know at that time that foreign governments and people, capitalists and workers, landlords and peasants should be distinguished. We should oppose the foreign landlord capitalists and government officials who invaded China. They are imperialists. , and to win over the people of foreign countries in propaganda, not all foreigners are bad people and should be rejected." Second, in the "Explanation", it is mentioned that the nationalism advocated by Sun Yat-sen was completely targeted at the Qing government, and it was never mentioned. In the place where anti-imperialism was mentioned, the following sentence was added: "Although the Revolution of 1911 actually played an anti-imperialist role, because it overthrew the lackey of imperialism-the Manchu Qing government, of course it had an anti-imperialist role. This caused the imperialists to be dissatisfied with the Revolution of 1911, and instead of helping Sun Yat-sen, they helped Yuan Shikai; but the revolutionaries at that time did not realize this subjectively.”3. The "Explanation" said: "Materialism' rationalism is the source of today's dogmatism, and materialism's 'empiricism' is the source of today's empiricism." Mao Zedong revised this sentence to: "Materialism's 'Rationalism' is similar to today's dogmatism, and materialist 'empiricism' is similar to today's empiricism."

[4] The sentence in "On Practice" that put the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom together with xenophobia was not revised in the first volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" published in October 1951.