Speech to the Third Group of the Third Term of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University[1]

(March 20 and 21, 1938)

Investigation should be objective, comprehensive, historical, interconnected, and essential. Workers and peasants are the most knowledgeable people; their knowledge is far richer and more practical than ours. When you go out, do not first act as "teachers"; you should first be "students," understand the situation, investigate clearly, and then speak and set the policy.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong's speech on investigation work to the Third Group of the Third Term of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University.