Chapter 90 The decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on investigation and research [1]

(August 1, 1941) Over the past twenty years, although our party's research on Chinese history, Chinese society and international conditions has gradually improved and its knowledge has gradually increased, it is still very insufficient; still exist in the party seriously.Since the Anti-Japanese War, our party has made great progress in understanding Japan, the Kuomintang, and social conditions, and its subjectivism and formalism have also decreased.However, those who understand it are still mostly careless and caricatured, lacking a systematic and thorough understanding, and the style of subjectivism and formalism has not been completely eliminated.The seriousness of the loss of revolutionary work due to subjectivism, formalism, and childishness and ignorance over the past twenty years has not yet been fully understood by the leading organs of the entire party and all comrades.Most of the comrades who came to Yan'an to report on their work lacked a systematic and thorough understanding of the internal and external environment of the area where they were engaged in work, whether in terms of social class relations, in terms of enemies and puppets, in terms of friendly parties and armies, and in terms of their own work. learn.Many comrades in the party still don't understand the truth that if there is no investigation, there is no right to speak.It is not yet understood that systematic and thorough social surveys are the basis for policy decisions.They still don't know that the basic tasks of the leading organs are to understand the situation and grasp the policy, and that if the situation is not understood, the policy will inevitably be wrong.We still don't know how meticulous Japanese imperialism's investigations and studies of China are, and that the Kuomintang has a much richer understanding of domestic and foreign conditions than our party does.I still don't know that a careless and self-righteous subjectivism style is the first manifestation of impure party spirit; while seeking truth from facts and closely linking theory with practice is the minimum attitude of a party member with strong party spirit.Our Party is now a large political party with a great revolutionary task, and we must refrain from superficiality, superficiality, subjectivism, adopt specific measures, and pay more attention to history, the environment, and specific conditions at home and abroad, inside and outside the province, and inside and outside the county. Only through investigation and research can we effectively organize revolutionary forces and overthrow the rule of Japanese imperialism and its lackeys.For this purpose, it is hereby decided that:

(1) The central government sets up investigation and research institutions to collect domestic and foreign political, military, economic, cultural and social class relations materials, conduct research, and serve as direct assistants in the work of the central government. (2) All bureaus of the Central Committee, sub-bureaus of the Central Committee, district or provincial party committees in independent regions, high-level organs of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, and high-level governments in all base areas must set up investigation and research institutions to collect information on the political, military, and economic issues of friends and enemies in that area. We should study all kinds of materials, culture, and social class relations, and use them as direct assistants for the work in each area, and at the same time provide materials to the central government.

(3) Regarding the methods of collecting materials, examples are as follows: First, collect various newspapers, periodicals, and books about politics, military affairs, economy, culture, and social class relations of the enemy, friends, and ourselves, and collect, edit, and study them.Second, invite experienced people to conduct investigation meetings, with three to five to seven or eight people each time, to investigate a township, district, county, city, town, army, division, factory, store, One school, one problem (such as land problem, labor problem, homeless problem, society problem) is typical.It is the most practical way to start from the study of typical models, from one model to another.Third, in the countryside, we should focus on the detailed investigation of the living conditions of landlords, rich peasants, merchants, middle peasants, poor peasants, farm laborers, manual workers, vagrants, and their relationships; , The detailed investigation of the living conditions of the national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the poor, the vagrants and the proletariat and their interrelationships.Fourth, use various cadre meetings and representative meetings to collect materials.Fifth, write biographies of celebrities.Landlords and capitalists whose property exceeds 50,000 yuan, military officers of the enemy army, puppet army, and friendly army regiment commander or higher, officials of the enemy area or friendly area county magistrate or higher, and persons in charge of the enemy party, puppet party, or friendly party county or higher, Celebrities, scholars, cultural figures, journalists who are well-known inside and outside the county, leaders of sects, religious sects, gangsters, bandits, celebrities, famous prostitutes, and activists of foreigners in China, write hundreds of words for each of them to a biography of several thousand words.For such biography, comrades of the prefectural and county committees should be assigned responsibility, and the content of the biography must be in line with the actual situation of the individual.Also take care to collect photos of various people.Sixth, individual oral inquiry.Either send someone to ask, or send someone to ask, questioning cadres, workers, farmers, cultured people, businessmen, officials, hooligans, captives, and sympathizers, all of which belong to this category.Seventh, collect county annals, prefectural annals, provincial annals, genealogy, and study them.

(4) In addition to the investigation and research agencies at the central and local levels, the entire Party, the entire army, and government agencies at all levels and all comrades must be mobilized to focus on the investigation and research of the situation of the enemy, friends and ourselves, and provide materials to the higher-level investigation and research agencies . (5) Provide education on understanding the objective situation (enemy, friend, and ourselves) to serving cadres at all levels and schools for training cadres.Encourage those comrades who have a better understanding of the objective situation and criticize those who are empty talk and unrealistic; encourage those comrades who understand the situation and pay attention to policy, and criticize those comrades who neither understand the situation nor pay attention to policy.Make this atmosphere of understanding the situation and paying attention to policies closely related to the atmosphere of studying Marxism-Leninism theory.In the study, oppose the ethos of memorizing the text regardless of the actual situation, and oppose the bad phenomenon of disconnecting the study of the principles and principles of Marxism-Leninism from understanding the social situation in China and solving the problems of the Chinese revolution.We should encourage cadres and students to read newspapers, instruct them on how to read newspapers, and instruct them in analyzing every change in the current situation.It is necessary to provide cadres and students with practical materials on various conditions at home and abroad, inside and outside the province, and inside and outside the county, and to treat lectures and research on these materials and their conclusions as formal courses, and to allow necessary time and conduct performance appraisals.

(6) Instruct party departments at all levels to link this decision with the Central Committee's July 1 decision on strengthening party spirit, report to the party committee and cadre meeting, and discuss implementation measures. According to the "Since the Sixth National Congress" compiled and published by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1941. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This decision was drafted by Mao Zedong.