Chapter 14 On the question of differences and contradictions[1]

(1937) one Comrade Siqi[2]: Your "Philosophy and Life" [3] is the more profound book in your works. I read it and benefited a lot, so I transcribed some and sent it to see if there are any mistakes.One of the questions is slightly suspicious [4] (not fundamentally different), please think again and tell me the details in person.When you are free today, I will come to see you. Mao Zedong two The fundamental truth is right, but the statement that "differences are not contradictions" is wrong.It should be said that all different things are contradictory under certain conditions.When a person sits on a chair, shakes his pen and ink to engage in composition, it is because the two certain conditions of man and composition temporarily unify contradictory things. It cannot be said that these differences are not contradictions.The master cooks rice, and unifies the firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea under certain conditions.Clerks and writers can also be united under certain conditions.Part-time work and part-study can unify work and study.The difference is that everything in the world is a contradiction under certain conditions, so the difference is a contradiction, which is the so-called concrete contradiction.Ai's statement is wrong. (Mao Zedong's opinion)

Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The first part of this article is a letter from Mao Zedong to Ai Siqi, probably written in October 1937.The second part of this article is a commentary written by Mao Zedong when he read the book "Philosophy and Life" by Ai Siqi in September 1937. This commentary is written after the following passage in "Philosophy and Life": "The difference Things are not contradictions, such as pens, inks, and chairs are not contradictions. But if you understand the principle of transition and change, you know that different things can also be transformed into contradictions under certain conditions. When there are mutually exclusive functions, it becomes a contradiction. For example, there is no contradiction between a clerk and a writer. If a clerk has an interest in writing and wants to become a writer, the two will mutually exclude each other in the unity, and it will become a contradiction.  … ..."

[2] Siqi, that is, Ai Siqi (1910-1966), was born in Tengchong, Yunnan.In October 1937, he went to Yan'an and worked as a teacher at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. [3] "Philosophy and Life" is a book written by Ai Siqi to promote Marxist philosophy in the form of answering readers' questions after "Popular Philosophy". It was published by Shanghai Reading Life Publishing House in April 1937. publishing.In September 1937 Mao Zedong wrote "Excerpts from Ai Zhu's "Philosophy and Life"". This excerpt was published in full in the first series of "Chinese Philosophy" published by Joint Publishing in August 1979.

[4] Refers to Mao Zedong's questioning of Ai Siqi's "Philosophy and Life" book about "difference is not contradiction", see the second and note [1] of this article for details.