Chapter 22 Chapter 3 The Experimental Field of New China

Mao Zedong once said that he didn't go out to study until he was more than 10 years old. He read the books of Confucius for several years and the books of the bourgeoisie for several years. After the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, he and the Red Army soldiers fought guerrilla warfare in the ravines for a long time, and he did not come into contact with too many Marxist books.Therefore, when the dogmatists entered the Central Soviet Area to seize power, they put a hat of "narrow empiricism" on Mao Zedong's head; Li De, the military adviser, also ridiculed Mao Zedong as an "ignorant bumpkin".Even after the Zunyi meeting, the dogmatists who were not convinced by Mao Zedong were still saying some bad things.If some people say: "Mao Zedong is a person who is proficient in the ways of Confucius and Mencius. He has knowledge in this area, is also proficient in national conditions, and is good at activities in the countryside. to run the country in the same way.” “His Marxist-Leninist theory is not enough to be the leader of the party.”

Mao Zedong has always been worried about these things. He has said many times: "Because of this, I studied hard when I arrived in Yan'an." It was precisely based on his great sense of responsibility for the revolutionary cause and this strong sense of challenge that after Mao Zedong arrived in northern Shaanxi, he took advantage of the relatively calm situation in northern Shaanxi after the Northwest Alliance to read the original works of Marxism-Leninism and other philosophical works that could be collected. Engaged in theoretical research with great energy. In northern Shaanxi, in Yan'an, which Marxist-Leninist works did Mao Zedong read?

Only when he wrote "On Contradiction" and "On Practice" in 1937, Mao Zedong quoted 12 works, listed as follows: Lenin: ("Philosophical Notes", "Summary of Hegel's "History of Philosophy" Volume I "Philosophy of the Ilya School"", "On the Problem of Dialectics", "Communism", "Revisiting Trade Unions, Current Situation And Trots' Tomb, Bukharin's Mistakes", "What to Do", "Summary of Hegel's "Logic", "Comments on Bukharin's "Economics in the Transition Period", "Materialism and Empirical Criticism". Marx: "On Feuerbach", "Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy". Engels: "Anti-Dühring", Chapter 12, "Dialectics, Quantity and Quality". Stalin: "On Lenin Foundations of Doctrine".)

Mao Zedong not only read the original works of Marxist-Leninist classics, but also widely read the works of Chinese and foreign scholars, and wrote a large number of annotations. Li Da is a researcher of Marxist theory. In May 1937, he published "Outline of Sociology" and sent a copy to his good friend Mao Zedong.Mao Zedong was very happy.The book has 854 pages, and Mao Zedong himself said that he had read it 10 times and wrote more than 3,500 words of annotations.He didn't read enough. He thought it was the first Marxist philosophy textbook written by the Chinese himself, and recommended it to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

Mao Zedong read the "Course of Dialectical Materialism" co-authored by Soviet Silokov and Eisenburg, which was jointly translated by Li Da and Lei Zhongjian.From November 1936 to April 1937, Mao Zedong successively wrote comments of nearly 130,000 words on the two editions of this book with brushes, red, black and blue pencils on the headers and blank spaces.There are also many circles drawn in the book. The first volume of "Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism" written by Mi Ding of the Soviet Union and translated by Shen Zhiyuan, Mao Zedong also commented on it with thousands of words.

Some philosophical works that Mao Zedong read at that time include: "Methodology of Thought", "Philosophy and Life" (written by Ai Siqi), "Philosophy" (written by Zhang Ruxin, published in October 1935), "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy" (written by Feuerbach et al., translated by Liu Ruobing, 1935) In March, "Historical Materialism" (written by Bukharin, translated by Liu Boying, published in August 1930), "History of Lange's Materialism" (co-translated by Li Shicen and Guo Dali, published in 1936) and "Criticism of Mechanism" (Trusted Ryanov, translated by Ren Baige, published in 1932) "Aristotle's Ethical Thought" (written by Yan Qun, published in 1933) and so on.

Judging from the "Comments on Mao Zedong's Philosophy" published in recent years, from August 1936 to 1941, he read more than 2 million words and wrote 27,000 words of annotations in five years. The American journalist Snow, who was interviewing in northern Shaanxi at the time, witnessed Mao Zedong’s reading with his own eyes, and recorded this scene in "Westward Journey": "Mao Zedong is a person who studies philosophy seriously. For a while, I went to see him every night and interviewed him about the history of the Communist Party. Once a guest brought him some new philosophy books, so Mao Zedong asked me to reschedule the talk. He He spent three or four nights devoting himself to reading this book, during which time he seemed to have given up everything else."

Mao Zedong not only studied angrily himself, but also organized other comrades in the central government to study together, and advocated that all party cadres come to study. On September 11, 1936, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Bogu called Peng Dehuai, Liu Xiao, and Li Fuchun: "(1) Agree with the Fuchun method to organize a circulation library; (2) Tomorrow, the first ten books will be sent, and the Fuchun will be handed over first. In spring, stop for three days, forward it to Liu and Peng, stop for a week; (3) All comrades must return it on time, so as not to be lost; (4) From now on, it will be sent once a week or ten days.”

In the case of poor publishing conditions in Yan'an, Mao Zedong used various channels to collect Marxist-Leninist works and other works. In October 1936, Mao Zedong wrote to Ye Jianying and Liu Ding who were working on the United Front in Xi'an and other places at that time: "I want to buy a batch of popular social science, natural science and philosophy books, about ten to fifteen kinds in total. It is necessary to select truly popular and valuable ones (such as Ai Siqi's "Popular Philosophy", Liu Shi's "Street Speech", etc... as schools and troops to improve the political and cultural level of cadres. Outside People, while working, must promote reading books and newspapers."

When the Communist Party of China accepted Marxism, due to the needs of the revolution, it focused on the revolutionary theory of Marxism, and spent a considerable period of time studying and researching the other two components of Marxism—philosophy and political economics theory. not enough.This directly affects the communists' ability to better understand and master Marxism from an overall and world outlook perspective.Many of our party's mistakes are closely related to this.Therefore, in addition to his own efforts to study philosophy, Mao Zedong also organized everyone, especially senior party cadres, to study philosophy. In September 1938, Mao Zedong proposed to establish the "Yan'an New Philosophy Association", which was presided over by theorists Ai Siqi and He Sijing.Leaders and philosophers study and discuss philosophical issues together.On the day when the New Philosophy Society was founded, Mao Zedong used his manuscript money to set up several banquets to celebrate.

Under the influence of Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian led the establishment of the "Das Kapital" group, with Wang Xuewen, Wang Sihua, He Sijing and other theorists participating.They compiled the "Outline of Political Economy (First Draft)" to study the relationship between political economy and the Chinese revolution. In Yan'an, although life was poor and the conditions were difficult, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, learning and reading became a fashion and became a common practice.This has also formed an interesting phenomenon: Yan'an lacks many daily necessities, but there are many bookstores. Please see the description of Wang Anna, a German friend who visited Yan'an during the Anti-Japanese War: "There is nothing to see in Yan'an City. The small town is the same everywhere... What particularly caught my attention was the many bookstores. Students and Red Army soldiers were crowding at the counters to buy popular editions of Marxist classics You can also read magazines issued by the Kuomintang area, but it will be a month later." From the memories of those who witnessed it, we can also see how much people love books: "When crossing the blockade, comrades threw away many daily necessities in order to pack lightly, but carried one or two Marxist-Leninist books in their quilts and backpacks. books." This kind of reading fashion has played a very important role in improving the level of Marxist theory of the Communist Party of China and in the growth of the party. In 1938, Mao Zedong predicted with confidence: "If our party has one hundred to two hundred comrades who have learned Marxism-Leninism systematically rather than piecemeal, and practically rather than in vain, our party will be greatly improved. fighting power!"