Chapter 94 About Rural Survey[1]

(September 13, 1941) The situation is gradually understood and requires continuous efforts Understanding the world is not an easy task.Marx and Engels worked hard all their lives and did a lot of investigation and research work before they completed scientific communism.Lenin and Stalin also conducted many investigations. The Chinese revolution also requires investigation and research. First of all, it is necessary to understand what China is (China's past, present and future).It is a pity that many comrades are often subjectivist and self-righteous, and do not pay attention to investigation and research work at all.

We believe in science, not in theology.Therefore, our investigative work should be geared toward the lower classes, not fantasies.At the same time, we believe that things are in motion, changing, and progressing.Therefore, our investigation is also long-term.We need to investigate today, and our sons and grandsons will also conduct investigations in the future. Only then can we constantly know new things and acquire new knowledge. Our investigative work needs to be done patiently and step by step, without haste.I myself have known the countryside for several years. I remember that in 1920, I read for the first time Kautsky's "Class Struggle"[2], Chen Wangdao's translation of "Communist Manifesto", and a British author's "History of Socialism"[3], Only then did I know that human beings have had class struggle since the beginning of history, and that class struggle is the driving force behind social development, so I got a preliminary understanding of the problem methodology.But in these books, there are no Hunan and Hubei in China, nor Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Duxiu in China.I only took its four words: "class struggle", and started to study the actual class struggle honestly.I worked in the peasant movement for four months and learned about the situation of various classes, but this understanding was very superficial and not deep at all.Later, the central government asked me to manage the peasant movement.I made up my mind and traveled for a month and two days, investigating the five counties of Changsha, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Liling.These five counties were the places where the peasant movement was very active at that time, and many peasants joined the peasant associations.The Kuomintang called us "excessive", called us a "vagrant action", and called the peasants "excessive" for rolling dirty the bed of the big landlord lady.In fact, according to my investigation, it is not all "excessive" as they say, but inevitable and necessary.Because farmers are too miserable.I think it is inevitable for peasants who have been oppressed for thousands of years to turn over a little bit "too much".

However, at that time I still did not fully understand the combination of rural classes.After I arrived in Jinggang Mountains, I conducted an investigation in Xunwu, and only then did I clarify the problem of rich peasants and landlords. I came up with a solution to the problem of rich peasants. , farm laborers live on.If the landlords are not divided at all, and they are told to drink from the northwest wind, and the rich peasants are only given some bad land, making them half-starved and forcing the rich peasants to rebel, the poor peasants and farm laborers will definitely be isolated.At that time, some people called me a rich peasant line, and I think that my approach was the only one that was correct at the time.Of course, today is the anti-Japanese national united front, not depriving landlords and rich peasants of their ownership, but reducing rent and interest.Otherwise, it is impossible to unite them to fight against Japan.

The issue of poor peasants and farm laborers was only clarified after the Xingguo investigation, and it was then that I realized the importance of poor peasant groups in the process of land distribution. Therefore, from my personal survey of the countryside, it has been six or seven years.Now that you have the experience of comrades in the past, you can go straight and complete the work of six or seven years in a few months.The task of comrades today is to drill down and work hard. As long as you don't sleep all day and work six hours a day, you can get a lot of results, but you need to continue to work hard.

Two methods 1. The unity of opposites and class struggle are the two starting points for our work.When we observe a thing, the first step of observation can only see the general outline of the thing and form a general concept.Just like a person who just came to Yan'an, his understanding of Yan'an was only general and general at first.However, after he visited the Anti-Japanese University, Women's University, and various government schools in Yan'an, he took the second step, using analytical methods to study and analyze each part of Yan'an in an orderly and detailed manner.Then the third step is to use the comprehensive method to synthesize the analysis of each part to get the overall Yan'an.The Yan'an he knew at this time was different from the Yan'an he knew when he first came here. What he saw at the beginning was the whole of Yan'an, and now he sees the whole of Yan'an, but it is different from his initial understanding. Now he has a scientific understanding of Yan'an and specific understanding.The same is true when observing a rural area.

Marx's "Das Kapital" was written in this way, first analyzing the various parts of capitalist society, and then synthesizing them to derive the laws of capitalist movement. Particular attention should be paid here to the analysis.It should be analysis and synthesis, even in the second step of analysis, there is also a small synthesis.The ancients said: The way of writing is to open and close.This statement is correct.Su Dongpo was also right to use the method of "encountering enemies from eight sides" to study history and the method of "encountering enemies from eight sides" to study the Song Dynasty.Today, when we study Chinese society, we must also use the method of "encountering enemies from all sides", divide it into four parts: political, economic, cultural, and military, and draw conclusions about the Chinese revolution.

If we look at problems on a whim and try to do a little bit of everything, it is just a waste of time and nothing will be achieved. Therefore, we must grasp this point of view, which is the unity of opposites and class struggle.The analytical method and the comprehensive method I just mentioned above use this point of view.If comrades apply this point of view to analyze the countryside, you will be able to know what classes there are in the countryside, what are their main characteristics, and how are they related to each other.Among the questions my comrades gave me, some asked what is a rich peasant.I thought that landlords mainly collected rent; rich peasants mainly hired labor and participated in the labor themselves; middle peasants mainly did not sell their labor power and managed their own land; Completely sell labor, no land.Of course, this refers to their main logo.

Only by analyzing the various classes and strata in the countryside and their general life conditions in this way can we have a correct and comprehensive understanding of the countryside. We must use the method of research to analyze the objective and class.We should not turn a blind eye to practical problems, we should destroy "cowhide companies", we should think carefully about them, and we should combine theory and practice. In 1905, Lenin said that the tsarist government should be overthrown, and Russia should organize a workers' and peasants' government, while Trotsky believed that only a workers' government could be organized.This is why Trotsky did not truly combine theory and practice.We should find out the law of the movement of things from practice to generate new theories.For example, the persistence and long-term nature of China's war of resistance are the laws of the war of resistance.Comrades who go to the countryside to investigate today should use this viewpoint and method to guide their own practice, and on the other hand constantly enrich their own theory from practice.

2. Occupy the material in detail and grasp the key points.The more materials you have to collect, the better, but you must grasp the main points or characteristics (the leading aspect of the contradiction).When Marx studied capitalism and Lenin studied imperialism, they both collected a lot of statistics and materials, but not all of them were collected, but only some of the most characteristic features were collected. No investigation, no right to speak.But some comrades want to ask: "I have investigated nine out of ten things, and only one has not been investigated. Do you have the right to speak?" If it is lost, then there is still no right to speak.

The main contradiction in China today is the ethnic contradiction, and the class contradiction has become secondary.Before the Xi'an Incident, the main contradiction was between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, but after the Xi'an Incident, the main contradiction was between China and Japan.Therefore, no matter what problem is solved today, we should take this principal contradiction as the starting point for understanding and solving the problem.If you ignore the main contradiction and study the details, it is like seeing the trees but not the forest, and you still have no right to speak.

Therefore, when we do comprehensive work, we should not fall into narrow empiricism. Three answers to a few questions Comrades have asked many questions, and can only answer part of them.Some questions cannot be answered, because all of them must be answered so that comrades do not have to go to the countryside.And many of these problems can only be understood after going to the countryside to investigate in person, and there are different solutions according to different specific objects and situations. How to hold a survey meeting? A survey meeting not only asks questions, but also has methods to solve them.It is best to have three to five people participating in the survey.During my investigation in Xingguo, I found that landlords own 40% of the land, rich peasants occupy 30% of the land, and the land owned by the landlords and rich peasants[4] is 10%. Eighty percent, middle and poor peasants only 20 percent.However, the population of landlords is only 1 percent, that of rich peasants is only 5 percent, and that of poor and middle peasants is 80 percent.On the one hand, 6 percent of the population owns 80 percent of the land; on the other hand, 80 percent of the population owns only 20 percent of the land.Therefore, the conclusion is only two words: revolution.This also increases the confidence of the revolution, believing that this revolution can win the support and sponsorship of more than 80% of the people. How to find typical surveys? Typical surveys can be divided into three types: first, advanced, second, intermediate, and third, backward.If we can base this classification on two or three surveys of each category, we can know the general situation. How to collect and organize materials? You must do it yourself, find out experience in the process of doing it, and use these experiences to improve the work of investigating and organizing materials in the future at any time. How to make the other party tell the truth? Each person has different characteristics, so the methods to be adopted are also different.But the main point is to be friends with the masses, not to be a detective and be annoying.The people don't tell the truth because they don't know whether your purpose of coming is to their advantage.In the process of talking and being friends, give them some time to explore your heart, gradually let them understand your true intentions, and treat you as a good friend, and only then can they investigate the real situation.The masses do not tell the truth, do not blame the masses, only blame themselves. During my Xingguo survey, I invited several farmers to talk.At the beginning, they were very suspicious, not knowing what I was going to do to them.So, on the first day, they just talked about some household things, they didn't smile at all, and they didn't talk much.Later, I invited them to dinner and gave them a big warm quilt to sleep at night, so that they began to understand my true meaning, gradually smiled and talked more.In the end, we were almost unrestrained, and everyone discussed enthusiastically, talking about everything, as kind as our own family. There is no need to talk about other issues. It is better for you to go down and investigate for yourself as soon as possible. According to the "Mao Zedong Rural Investigation Collected Works" published by People's Publishing House in 1982. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech to the women's life investigation team jointly formed by the Central Women's Commission and the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an. [2] Refers to "Explanation of the Erfurt Program" written by Kautsky in Germany, translated by Yun Daiying, the title of the book translated as "Class Struggle", published by New Youth Publishing House in January 1921. [3] Refers to "History of Socialism" written by Kekap (now translated as Kekap) in the United Kingdom, translated by Li Ji, and published by New Youth Publishing House in October 1920. [4] Public hall land refers to the land occupied by various ancestral halls, temples, associations, and societies.These lands are mainly in the hands of landlords and rich peasants.