On the Question of the Line and Traditions
of the Party During the Past Fifteen Years
(June 5, 1937)

On the Party's Line

Is the Party's line correct? I think we must accept the following judgments:

For the past fifteen years the Party has been leading the Chinese revolution
bravely and resolutely and has registered great achievements. This is the first point.
From now on the Party must, and can, continue and develop its courageous
and resolute spirit of the past, and lead the Chinese revolution toward the goal of
victory. We have this self-confidence. This is the second point.
In the past the Party has made rightist as well as "leftist" mistakes with
regard to the general line, causing harm to the revolution; this is a fact that
cannot and should not be denied. This is one aspect. But there is another side to
the question, and, speaking from this aspect, first, it is not that everyone was
wrong. The masses of Party members and vast numbers of cadres have never
made mistakes with regard to the general line, and this is the most important
reason that the Party was not fatally harmed and was able to correct its mistakes
quickly. Mistakes with regard to the general line occurred in and spread only
from the top leading organs, and some cadres and Party members sincerely
supported them, but the rest were forced into action because of following discipline. Even in the top leading organs, only those who held dominant positions have
the primary responsibility and the rest are not primarily responsible (those who
were half forced) or should not be held responsible at all (those who were totally
forced). Second, mistakes were made with regard to the general line only during
several very short periods of time. There were only two such periods in history
(the end of the Great Revolution and the Lisan era), and in these cases we
quickly corrected our mistakes. This is the third point.
The reason the Party has achieved great successes in leading the revolution is,
first of all, that the leading organs of the Party, the majority of Party cadres, and
the majority of Party members accepted Marxism-Leninism, had a Marxist-Leninist political line, and carried it out courageously and resolutely under the
guidance of the International. Without this condition there would have been no
accomplishment whatsoever. The second reason is that the majority of cadres

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 505-11, where it is reproduced
from the minutes of the relevant meeting of the Central Politburo in the Central Archives.
and Party members in the leading organizations studied and learned the tactics of
having the Party and its members lead the masses in fighting against the enemy,
tactics that were needed to accomplish the tasks described above. This includes
tactics of struggle, propaganda and educational methods, relationships within the
Party, and so on. Without this condition there would be no achievements either.
This is the fourth point.
Apart from making "leftist" and rightist mistakes in our line during a certain
number of specific periods, the Party also made a number of particular "leftist"
and rightist mistakes in principle during almost every period. This happened over
the issue of struggle tactics, the issue of propaganda and education, and the issue
of relationships within the Party. Some of these things still exist now, and they
cannot be avoided in the future either. These mistakes recur repeatedly and they
are repeatedly overcome, but some of them have not been thoroughly overcome
to this day. The Party has been tempered, grown, and become strong precisely
through the ever-present struggle between all sorts of "leftist' and rightist mistakes in principle and the overcoming of them, and it is for this reason that it has
scored such revolutionary achievements. If there were no such (which would be
impossible) or fewer such (which would be possible) larger or smaller mistakes
of principle, our achievements would be greater than they are today, and this is a
lesson for the future. Moreover, not all of these mistakes accord with the principles of Marxism-Leninism, and in order to correct or avoid them it is necessary
to rely upon a true and profound understanding of the revolutionary science
known as Marxism-Leninism. This is the fifth point.
In sum, the Party has been heroically and resolutely leading the Chinese revolution and has registered great achievements. In the future it will lead the revolution
further to complete victory. This is because the Party possesses a Marxist political
line and Marxist methods of struggle. In the past the Party made many large, small,
"leftist," and rightist mistakes of principle that do not conform to Marxist principles, and the Party was tempered and grew stronger through the struggle against
these mistakes, and its revolutionary achievements are a result of the struggle to
overcome these mistakes. As for mistakes that still exist and those that will arise in
the future, they must be resolved and prevented according to the principles of
Marxism. This is our party's theoretical and practical view of development.

On the Party's Traditions

Are there certain traditions within the Party that are wrong? There are two
answers: A. No (only "it seems on the surface that there are”); B. Yes. Three
people¹ have different ways of putting it, but they all recognize that there are
such errors.

1. The three people referred to are Liu Shaoqi, He Kaifeng, and Li Weihan
(pseudonym Luo Mai), all of whom were working at this time in the White areas.

I agree with the latter answer, and my reasons are as follows:
Over the past fifteen years the Party has created and is in the process of
creating a revolutionary and Bolshevik tradition. It cannot be denied that this
constitutes our Party's orthodoxy and includes all positive things in politics,
organization, and work style. Without this tradition there would be no way to
explain how the Party could be sustained, united, and consolidated, how mistakes within the Party could be overcome, and how resolute battle could be
waged against the enemy and revolutionary achievements won, leading the Party
to its position as a large political party that is trusted by the classes and the
people.
Several bad habits still exist, however. This is manifested in the tactics of
mass struggle by "Left" isolationism and adventurism, and by arrogant factionalism; in propaganda and education it is also manifested in such behavior as an
arrogant attitude, failure to connect deeply and extensively with the real situation, and the use of Party jargon; it is further manifested in relationships within
the Party in the form of work styles such as an arrogant attitude, old handism,
opportunism, holding factional views, commandism, and punishmentism.2 On all
these issues there certainly exist many bad habits within our Party; this is an
absolute fact. It is inappropriate to deny this fact, and it is wrong as well as
impossible to say that there are no bad habits within the Party, as facts will
always remain facts. This is what is called "certain mistaken traditions." On this
point my views are largely similar to those of Comrade Shaoqi, Kaifeng, Luo
Mai, and Boqu.3
Why are there only "Left" traditions? There are several reasons: 1. The dual
oppression, national and social, creates extreme difficulties in people's lives and
in the Party's environment, and these difficulties oppress us (this is the origin of
the view that "Left" is at least somewhat better than Right). 2. The presence
within the Party of petty bourgeois and very young proletarian elements, and
their large numbers. 3. The Party has a history of only fifteen years; the theoretical and practical tradition of Marxism is not yet deeply rooted; problems cannot
always be solved according to Marxist principles; and it is not yet the case that
everyone has learned materialist dialectics early and well. 4. In the course of
correcting a mistaken line (mainly while overcoming the Lisan Line), mistakes
in the three areas of struggle tactics, propaganda and education, and relationships
within the Party were not thoroughly overcome. There was progress in some
2. Of the various isms criticized here, opportunism is self-explanatory. Old handism
refers to the attitude that veteran cadres know best, and recent recruits should defer to
them. Commandism is a term frequently used by Mao, and means leading by issuing
peremptory orders instead of by explaining things. Punishmentism refers to the excessive
use of punishment, rather than exhortation or example, in dealing with subordinates.
3. Here Mao adds to the "three people" cited earlier Lin Boqu, the chairman of the
Border Region government.
cases for a time, but then they arose again. Mistakes in these three areas were not
thoroughly raised and resolved over a long period of time. For these four reasons, there still exist within our Party several bad habits or traditions that manifest themselves as being "Left." As for rightist things, since the environment
does not permit the existence of such things, and because they were rather
thoroughly overcome, they never became mistaken traditions or bad habits.
Once correct traditions and habits are in place, is it permissible that mistaken
traditions and habits still exist in some areas? Yes, it is. It is possible for correct
things to contain wrong things, the only difference being a matter of degree. Because
society has its dark side, there is sometimes a dark side within the Party as well.
Will this continue for a long time? No, it will not. Along with the changing
environment and tasks, and along with increased understanding of materialist
dialectics, the dark things that already exist will be expelled, and the "leftist"
traditions in these three areas will basically be eliminated. New mistakes will
arise in future, but they can be prevented from becoming traditions.
Are these traditions present in every leadership organization, every cadre, and
every Party member? No. Generally speaking it is an issue with some leadership
organizations (primarily the responsibility of the Central Committee), some cadres, and some Party members. Why is it that certain bad habits are rather prevalent? This is because some people insist on behaving this way (and these people
are the majority in the top-ranking leadership organizations), so that the rest of
the people are forced or half forced to behave this way. Some are aware of the
mistakes and harbor complaints but are unable to come up with convincing
reasons, or they are forbidden to say anything and therefore do not dare speak
up. This is the actual situation. There are also changes within some individuals:
some do not make these mistakes during a certain period (during the Great
Revolution, for example) but then do make mistakes during another period (during the Guomindang reactionary period, for example); some object to others'
arrogant attitudes during a certain period but during another period themselves
treat others haughtily; and it is easy to become extremely cautious when meeting
failure, and easy to turn conceited and lax when winning victory. This is something that happens frequently. It is possible to make certain individual mistakes
even when the line is correct; the instance of the Zunyi Conference serves as
proof of this. A healthy person may at the same time carry some disease; having
scabies or the flu are cases in point.
Comrade Luo Fu's analysis also proves the existence of this bad 'leftist" tradition (with regard to the three issues). For Luo Fu has pointed out that the Party
committed six individual mistakes on matters of principle since the Fourth Plenum:
1. failure to predict the change in a portion of the bourgeoisie; 2. underestimating
the protracted, complex, and unstable nature of the revolution; 3. "leftist" and
rightist mistakes in battle; 4. mistakes of isolationism and factionalism in the mass
struggle, and failure to struggle hard enough against such mistakes; 5. inability to
take advantage of the schisms among the enemy; 6. serious mistakes in the