To Comrade Ai Siqi[1]

(1937)

Comrade Siqi:

Your *Philosophy and Life*[2] is a more profound book among your works. I have benefited greatly from reading it and have copied out some passages, which I send for you to check whether there are any errors in the copying. There is one issue in it about which I have a slight doubt[3] (not a basic difference). Please consider it again. I will tell you the details in person. Today

[1] Ai Siqi (1910–1966), a native of Tengchong, Yunnan Province, philosopher. He arrived in Yan’an in October 1937 and served as chief instructor at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

[2] *Philosophy and Life* is a work by Ai Siqi, written in the form of answering readers’ questions, to propagate Marxist philosophy, following his *Popular Philosophy*. It was published in April 1937 by the Shanghai Dushu Shenghuo Publishing House. In September 1937, Mao Zedong made *Extracts from Ai’s “Philosophy and Life”*.

[3] This refers to a query Mao Zedong raised in his extracts concerning a thesis in Ai Siqi’s *Philosophy and Life*. Ai Siqi’s thesis was: “Things that are different are not contradictions; for example, a pen, ink, and a chair are not contradictions. But if one understands the principle of transition and change, one will know that different things can also transform into contradictions under certain conditions. If two different things exist together at the same time and place and exert a mutually repelling effect, they become a contradiction. For instance, a shop assistant and a writer originally have no contradiction; if a certain shop assistant develops an interest in writing and wants to become a writer, the two repel each other within a unity and thus become a contradiction.” After extracting this thesis of Ai Siqi’s, Mao Zedong wrote the following passage: “The fundamental reasoning is correct, but the formulation ‘difference is not contradiction’ is incorrect. It should be said that all different things are contradictions under certain conditions. When a person sits on a chair, wields a pen, and dips it in ink to engage in writing, it is because the two definite conditions of the person and writing have temporarily unified contradictory things; one cannot say these differences are not contradictions. When a master cook prepares a meal, he unifies firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea under certain conditions. A shop assistant and a writer can also be unified under certain conditions. Half-work, half-study can unify work and study. All things in the world that are different are contradictions under certain conditions; therefore, difference is contradiction; this is what is called concrete contradiction. Ai’s formulation is inappropriate.”

Whenever you have time, I will come to see you.

Mao Zedong

Inscription at Moxiang Pavilion:

Your Philosophy and Life is the more profound among your works. I have read many chapters, and copied
some out, and also send a chapter, lest there be errors in finding the
chapter. Among them there is an unforeseen peril, a doubt that establishes a factional consideration. Please consider it again. I firmly believe
I will tell you specifically. Whenever you have time, I will come to see
you.
Manuscript of Mao Zedong’s letter to Ai Siqi.