Chapter 48 "Down with the two-isms and keep the people behind"

At the very beginning of the rectification movement, Mao Zedong clearly stated: "Down with the two doctrines and keep the people." "Our purpose of exposing mistakes and criticizing shortcomings is just like a doctor treating a disease. It is entirely to save people, not to save people." Total death. A man had appendicitis, the doctor cut the appendix, and the man was saved.” This is out of emotion.In the history of the party, one of the outstanding problems in the struggle within the party is excessively pursuing individual responsibility, focusing on organizational handling, practicing punishment, and failing to solve ideological problems.Liu Shaoqi made a summary:

"In the past, there were many bad traditions of inner-Party struggle. For example, the '87 Conference' caused sectarian struggle against Chen Duxiu, and Chen Duxiu was not allowed to participate. Only those who opposed Chen were allowed to speak, and those who were related to Chen Duxiu were not allowed to speak; The Shunzhi Provincial Party Committee turned into a talk club and did not do any work; at the Fourth Plenary Session, the party struggle led by Wang Ming engaged in many illegal activities, and learned the worst things from the Moscow Miff's struggle with the branch bureau; The struggle against the Luo Ming line in the post-Central Soviet Area was also bad. Only the struggle at the Zunyi Conference and the struggle against Zhang Guotao in Yan’an were good, but the disadvantage is that the problem has not been solved ideologically.”

Mao Zedong learned the lessons of the past, completely abandoned the erroneous approach of punitiveism, and focused on solving problems from the perspective of ideology. The rectification movement began in May 1941. More than 120 senior cadres in Yan'an devoted four months to studying Marxist-Leninist works and party documents, studying and researching Marxist thinking methods, party history and basic issues of the Chinese revolution. The second stage is a general rectification movement throughout the party, characterized by widespread and comprehensive study and inspection. To study is to study 22 rectification documents.In addition to the reports made by Mao Zedong during the rectification movement, which are must-study documents, there are also "Since the Sixth National Congress", "Two Lines", Mao Zedong's "On Correcting Wrong Thoughts in the Party", "Opposing Liberalism", Liu Shaoqi's "On The Cultivation of Communist Party Members, On Inner-Party Struggle, Chen Yun's "How to Be a Communist Party Member", and Lenin and Stalin's "On Party Discipline and Democracy", "On Self-Criticism", Stalin's "On Bolshevikization Twelve Articles", Dimitrov's "On Cadre Policy" and other documents.

When studying documents, it is "read word by word, two times and three times, read in connection with your own work and ideological reality, read in connection with the history of the party and revolution, think and discuss while reading, and write notes carefully." At the same time, individual study and group discussion are closely combined, and questions are often raised, and symposiums and seminars are organized.The symposium is not limited to the form, the number of people, the content, and the topic. There are as few as three or five people, and as many as more than 10 people. It can be held by the river, under the tree, or on the hillside. Participants can come and go at will. .When encountering problems of a general nature, discuss them in a larger scope; for important issues under discussion, please ask the comrades in charge of the central government to make reports.

After study comes inspection.The first is to examine one's own thoughts, work, and history against the spirit of the document.To use the vivid expression at the time: "Drill yourself in the document, and use the document to drill yourself." "Take the truth in the document as a yardstick to measure yourself, as a balance to weigh yourself, as a mirror to take a look at yourself." Carry out criticism and self-criticism during the inspection, affirm the correct aspects, criticize the incorrect aspects, analyze the root causes of errors, and propose corrective measures.Then, each comrade wrote a summary of his thoughts, which was discussed and approved by the group.

The second is to check the work of your own area and department.In order to check the work of a region, a "mountain meeting" is also held, which is convened by the leading comrades in the area in person, and everyone is free to express their opinions, including suggestions to the leading comrades.Through the inspection, the experience and lessons learned in various regions and departments were realistically summarized. Beginning in October 1943, the Yan'an rectification movement entered the stage of summarizing the party's historical experience.On the basis of studying theory and raising awareness, systematically and thoroughly liquidate the major mistakes in the party's history, and draw formal conclusions.

The Party Central Committee organized the central leading organs and senior cadres to conduct many discussions on the political line of the Central Committee during the period from 1931 to 1934.It also organizes comrades who have worked in various revolutionary base areas and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the past to hold symposiums on party history in various regions and units, such as: the history symposium of the Seventh Red Army, the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Region, the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Border Region, Symposium on Party History in Western Fujian and Northeast Jiangxi Border Region, History Symposium of the Fifth Red Army Corps, etc.The Party Central Committee gathered the opinions discussed by the whole party, and in May 1944, a committee for preparing resolutions on historical issues within the party was established to draft resolutions.Ren Bishi presided over the convening, and the members of the committee included Liu Shaoqi, Kang Sheng, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian, Peng Zhen, Gao Gang and Bogu.Hu Qiaomu was Mao Zedong's secretary and participated in all the work of drafting the "Resolution".

After the "Resolution" was drafted, it went through repeated revisions many times. Mao Zedong alone made seven revisions, and the committee met every day to discuss it.Mao Zedong later mentioned this point in particular: "We have now learned to be cautious. A historical resolution has been made, over and over again, with so many eyes. It is not enough for the Central Committee to see it with dozens of eyes. It is not enough to see it seven times and eight times. A lot of problems came out, and after everyone saw it and studied it, a lot of problems came up. This shows the party's cautious attitude towards historical issues."

Mao Zedong decided to draft the soul of the committee.To formulate the Resolution, he put forward the following guiding ideology: "The cadres should be fully aware of the historical issues in the party, and at the same time, they should adopt a lenient policy when drawing conclusions about comrades who have made mistakes in history, so that on the one hand, they can thoroughly understand the historical experience of our party and avoid repeating mistakes. ; On the other hand, it is possible to unite all comrades and work together.” "To deal with historical issues this time, we should not focus on the responsibility of some individual comrades, but should focus on the analysis of the environment at that time, the content of the mistakes at that time, the social, historical and ideological roots of the mistakes at that time, and implement the policy of learning from past mistakes and avoiding future ones, curing diseases and saving people. , so as to achieve the two goals of clarifying ideas and uniting comrades. Taking a prudent attitude in dealing with human issues, neither being vague and perfunctory, nor harming comrades, this is one of the signs of our party’s prosperity.”

In fact, the idea of ​​focusing on solving ideological and cognitive problems was not only implemented in the "Resolution", but also throughout the Yan'an rectification movement, and created a set of effective policies and methods.Such as: To "be kind to others", start from the desire for unity; "Never adopt a reckless attitude towards ideological and political problems", "It's not something that can be achieved by having a good time and beating randomly", you must pay attention to methods , "reasoning well", presenting facts, reasoning, and convincing people with reasoning; different opinions can be discussed, criticism is allowed, and counter-criticism is allowed, and persuasion can only be persuasion; "Scary tactics are useless to the enemy. It will only harm comrades"; adhere to the truth, correct mistakes, "practice 'tell everything you know, say everything you say', 'the one who speaks is innocent, and the one who hears it is a warning', 'if there is something, correct it, and if there is nothing, encourage it'".

In this way, an unprecedented atmosphere of democratic unity was formed in Yan'an at that time, and when encountering problems, they could speak out freely and debate without affecting unity. In short, focusing on solving problems ideologically is the most valuable historical content of the Yan'an rectification movement, and it is an example of correctly carrying out inner-party struggles. On April 20, 1945, Ren Bishi presided over the expanded Seventh Plenary Session of the Central Committee, which was the last meeting of the Seventh Plenary Session of the 11-month Central Committee, where the "Resolution on Certain Historical Issues" was discussed and passed. On this day, Ren Bishi received a statement from Wang Ming acknowledging his mistakes and supporting the resolution. Then, Zhang Wentian, Bo Gu and others made speeches, supported the resolution, sincerely apologized to the comrades who were hit by the wrong line, and felt warm about the policy of clarifying thoughts, uniting comrades, and not focusing on pursuing individual responsibilities embodied in the resolution.Bogu said: This is to correct the bad style of struggle within the party.I know that this purpose is to leave room for us, but to be effective in treating diseases and saving lives, the patients must have awareness, confidence and determination. Ren Bishi also made self-criticism in connection with reality.He said frankly: I came to know Chairman Mao after the War of Resistance, especially when I came back from Moscow, because I read "On New Democracy", "On Protracted War" and pamphlets on strategic issues, because of Dimitrov's instructions, and because of "Southern Anhui After the incident, Mao’s mastery of policies, and his ideological leadership during the rectification movement gave me admiration and trust.” At the meeting, Mao Zedong made a summary.He said: The party is a political group, not a family or professional group. It is all combined because of the same political opinions from all corners of the country. If you have different political opinions, you will argue; when arguing, you must distinguish the boundaries.In the past, many comrades suffered from the lack of Marxism-Lenez, and I did the same. Those who have made political mistakes and corrected them now must be like a harmonious family as stated in the resolution. This ticket must be honored. Regarding Wang Ming's statement, Mao Zedong said: This letter can still be studied to see if there are any shortcomings or mistakes in the content, but the attitude is good and should be welcomed. This marked the complete end of the Yan'an rectification movement. The Yan'an rectification movement was a "universal Marxist education movement".Through the rectification movement, the idea of ​​using Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to solve the practical problems of the Chinese revolution has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people; Transform the worldview.Some comrades wrote in their reflection notes: "If joining the party was the first shock in my life, then this rectification movement was the second shock in my life, which raised the Communist factor in my political life to a conscious level. Through it I first I know myself, I have found the root of the disease and the way to reform, and at the same time I have obtained some weapons to transform myself." More importantly, by summarizing the experience and lessons of history and criticizing dogmatism and empiricism, the whole party not only realized the harmfulness of subjectivism, but also broke the sense of mystery and blind obedience to leading cadres, which greatly improved the ability of independent thinking. Ability.Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized in "Rectifying the Party's Style of Work": "Communists must ask why everything is done. They must think carefully in their own minds, and think about whether it is realistic or reasonable. They should never follow blindly, and they should never advocate slavery." This is deafening in the history of human thought, and it has played a huge role in breaking down superstition and emancipating the minds of the majority of party members and cadres.From March 1945, when the young cadre Jiang Nanxiang submitted the "Opinion on the Rescue Movement" to the Party Central Committee, we can see the ideological achievements of breaking superstition and independent thinking. This "Opinion Letter", which lasted more than ten thousand words, not only sharply criticized Kang Sheng, who was in a high position, but expressed "deep doubts about the general policy of the rescue movement", but also expressed the "Nine Guidelines of the Central Committee on the Trial of Cadres". While affirming the "great historical significance" of the nine guidelines, he pointed out: "Strictly introspected, this decision still has its shortcomings. The shortcoming is that it basically approved the exaggerated estimation of the spies at that time." , "approved that style of struggle in the movement". The "Opinions" also put forward their own views on the issue of the mass line and the issue of intellectuals in the rescue movement.He pointed out: "Consummately denying the possibility of combining intellectuals in colonial and semi-colonial countries with Marxism-Leninism and depriving them of the trust of party members of intellectuals is a concrete reflection of the dogmatist way of thinking in analyzing and dealing with practical issues," "That Such clamoring atmosphere, that kind of intoxicated mood, and that kind of struggle method of scratching hands, feet, hairs and beards really cannot enable us to soberly and objectively carry out the work of investigating and identifying traitors. The so-called relying on the power of the masses, in fact It has become a cheerleader relying on the throat of the masses, relying on the fists of the masses, relying on a aggressive attitude, and relying on the masses to cheer!" Jiang Nanxiang dared to put forward such sharp opinions to the central government. On the one hand, it shows that he has the courage to think, and on the other hand, it also shows that Yan'an has a democratic and relaxed atmosphere.This incident is a window, allowing us to see the ideological style of Yan'an after the baptism of thought. Of course, the rectification movement also has its shortcomings.For example, Jiang Nanxiang pointed out the problems of the above-mentioned rescue movement; decades later, the participants of the Yan'an rectification movement looked back at history and criticized the way of the movement.Wen Jize, a researcher at the Academia Sinica who witnessed the beginning of the "Wang Shiwei Incident" said: "The issue of Wang Shiwei in 1942 was dealt with precisely through the method of mass movement...Since the method of mass movement is adopted, it will inevitably create a force of coercion." Hu Qiaomu, who served as Mao Zedong’s secretary during the Anti-Japanese War, said: "The rectification movement is very democratic on the one hand, but also very tense on the other. Let me rate the rectification movement, but I will not give 100 points. Because the rectification movement is very tense, it was transferred to the cadres all at once." As history progresses, perhaps people will discover its other shortcomings.However, those shortcomings and deficiencies will not obliterate its brilliance as a great ideological emancipation movement in the history of thought. The practical opinions of the rectification movement at that time were also important.Mao Zedong himself valued it very high. In the article "Learning and Current Situation", he pointed out that the rectification movement and the large-scale production movement have made the Chinese Communist Party invincible in terms of both ideological and material foundations. land. Indeed, due to these two tasks and other measures to consolidate and develop the anti-Japanese base areas, the anti-Japanese base areas have overcome difficulties, the area of ​​the base areas has expanded, and the people's revolutionary forces have risen.This laid a solid foundation for winning the war of national liberation.