To Zhang Wentian¹
(February 20, 1939, at night)
I once had a look at Comrade Boda's² "The Philosophy of Confucius"³ (though
not carefully), and thought it was good. This time I have read it again at your
request, and still think it is good on the whole, but there are a few debatable points
which I am listing below. Please think them over and discuss them with Comrade
Boda. I really have not studied all these things of Confucius. The suggestions
which appear below came to my mind as I was reading Boda's article, and I am not
confident that they are correct.
1. "If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of
things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be
carried on to success. . . ."5 If this is taken as the sole guiding principle of philosophy, it amounts to idealism, as Boda correctly points out. But if it constitutes only
a part of philosophy, that is, if it is placed in an empiricist perspective, it is correct.
The meaning is then similar to that of "without correct theory, there can be no
correct practice." If Confucius had prefixed the phrase "If names be not correct"
with "If the facts are unclear, then the name will not be correct," and if Confucius
had truly recognized that reality is the basis, then he would not have been an idealist. This is not, however, the case, so Confucius's system is idealist; but, as partial
Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 144-49, where it is printed from
the manuscript.
1. Zhang Wentian (1900-1976), pseudonym Luo Fu, was a native of Nanhui, Shanghai.
He had joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925 and thereafter spent four years studying in the Soviet Union. Returning to China at the end of 1930, he became one of the
leading members of the "International Faction" in the Party. In 1934, he supplanted Mao as
chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic. In January 1935 at Zunyi, he threw his support behind Mao, and became secretary general of the
Party. At this time he was head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist
Party. On the original manuscript of this letter from Mao Zedong to Zhang Wentian, the
opening greeting is missing.
2. Chen Boda.
3. The article here called "The Philosophy of Confucius" was published in Jiefang, no.
69, April 15, 1939, pp. 20-24, as "The Philosophical Thought of Confucius."
4. This is a somewhat disingenuous statement. Mao had devoted a great deal of time in
his youth to studying "these things of Confucius," as evidenced by the fact that there are
over a hundred references to Confucius or to the Confucian classics in Volume I of our
edition, covering the years 1912-1920.
5. The quotation is from the Analects, XIII, III, 5 (Legge, Vol. I, pp. 263-64).