the past, and is not only needed in the present, but will still be needed in the future.
This is the basis for the permanent character of the production movement.
Now, as regards the study movement. The ancients have said: "If a man cannot
span past and present, he's just a horse or ox wearing clothes."² That is to say, if
human beings are not familiar with both past and present they are just like cattle
and horses wearing the clothes of humans. What is meant by "the past"? "The
past" means "history." Everything that happened in the past is called "the past."
From the time Pan Gu separated the heavens and the earth until today, the whole
process in between is called "the past." "The present" means now. It is not enough
for us to know only the present; we must also know the past. The people of Yan'an
have to know the past and the present, the people of the whole nation have to know
the past and the present, and the people of the whole world, too, need to know the
past and the present. We Communist Party members, especially, need to know
even more of the past and the present. To know the past and the present requires
study. Not only must we study, but the people who come after us must also study.
Therefore, the study movement also has a universal character as well as a permanent character.

Both our production movement and our study movement have universal and
permanent significance. This is true in a general sense. Now I shall talk about the
direct reasons for initiating the production movement and the study movement.
The immediate reason we started the production movement is that we had no
food to eat and no clothes to wear. Although we do have a little now, in future
when things become difficult we will not have enough to eat or enough to wear, so
we must now make advance preparations. In this way the problems of clothes to
wear and food to eat have become the direct reasons for our launching the production movement.

What, then, is the immediate reason for initiating the study movement? It is that
our Communist Party wants to lead the revolution. In the past there were several
tens of thousands of Communist Party members in the whole nation, now there are
several hundreds of thousands, and in the future there will be several million. If
these hundreds of thousands and millions of Communist Party members are to
lead the revolution of tens of millions and hundreds of millions of people, it cannot
be done if they have no learning. So Communists should understand all kinds of
things. Consequently, to lead the revolution it is necessary to study, and this is one
of the reasons we started the study movement.

In addition, it is urgently necessary to overcome the defects in our work. At
present, the following contradiction has arisen in our ranks: if our cadres do not
study, they will be unable to lead the work. Some of the veteran cadres have spent time in the past in other armies, where all the work depends on orders from above.
But in our Red Army, relying solely on issuing orders will not work. If people do
not listen to you and you resort to beating them, the result is that you cannot
effectively lead the work, and many soldiers run away. Issuing orders in the army
confers a certain power and prestige, but power and prestige by themselves without ability are useless. In addition to power and prestige, all cadres in our Eighth
Route Army, New Fourth Army, and guerrilla units must also have abilities, which
means they have to study. At present some of our soldiers know more characters
than do their battalion commanders. They used to be completely illiterate, but now
they can recognize five hundred, a thousand, two thousand, or three thousand
characters, and are able to write short essays and put them up on wall newspapers.
Our battalion and company commanders refuse to attend classes given by the political instructors because they think the classes are meant for the soldiers and that
to join in would really be a "loss of status"! Because they want to maintain their
"status," the result is that they not only cannot write articles, but are ignorant of
many things, while the soldiers are wiser than they are. For this reason there is a
kind of panic in our ranks, which is not an economic panic or a political panic but,
rather, a panic with regard to abilities. The skills learned in the past were very few,
so if some are used up today and some are used up tomorrow, eventually they will
run out. Just as in a store where there are few goods to begin with, they are sold out
right away and the place is totally empty so that they cannot go on doing business.
In order to keep going, goods will have to be brought in. For our cadres, "bringing
in goods" means learning new skills, which is what many of our cadres urgently
need. To do a good job, our cadres must know more. It is not enough just to get by
on what little one learned in the past. That is only half-baked knowledge, and even
though one can still get the work done in this way, it is insufficient for doing a
decent job. If we want the work to be done really well, their knowledge must
definitely be increased. Whether it is a question of Party cadres, state cadres, military cadres, cadres in people's organizations, or educational cadres, they can do a
better job only if they increase their level of knowledge.

I see now that some of our teachers are still using the text on basic politics that
was published at the time of the Central Soviet Area. They are quite familiar with
the material in this book because they are likely to have taught it seventy or eighty
times already, but they know nothing else. This is really a case of "focusing on
nothing outside the book itself, devoting oneself to nothing but basic politics."
They do not know how to develop further the material in the book by relating it to
the new situation. Such conditions can also be seen in organizations of the popular
masses, in the army, and in [Party] branches. To break out of this situation now and
improve our work, we must intensify our study.

The third point that makes study an urgent necessity is a peculiarity of our
Party. In the past the ranks of our Party were small, with only very few Party
members. Even now the number of Party members is by no means large, but we
have now shouldered the task of defeating Japanese imperialism and establishing a new China, and this demands that we build a large Party. It was small in the past
and now it needs to be large, so what is to be done? We are now in the process of
going from small to big, and we need to recruit Party members throughout the
country. But some people ask, "Why do you have to be large?" They do not want
us to get large. But we feel that it is better to be somewhat bigger. And according to
the view of the common people, they also want us to be larger, because they cannot find the Communists no matter how hard they look, and only if our Party
grows in size will it be easier to find. On this we should be somewhat more stubborn. Unlike certain people, we want to build a large Party which is not an "undisciplined mob" of a party but, rather, one that is independent and endowed with
fighting capacity. For this a large number of knowledgeable cadres is necessary to
serve as a backbone. This task lies before us, and we must pay attention to it at all
times. If we want to lead a revolution of several hundred million people, our present
strength is clearly inadequate.
If we want to build a big Party, we cannot do so if our cadres do not study. Study
is work to which we attach much importance, and it is of particularly urgent necessity that our comrades who are cadres study. If they do not study they will be
unable to lead the work, to improve the work, and to build a large Party. Leading
the work, improving the work, and building a large Party are the direct reasons for
our study movement, and the resolution on the study movement at our Sixth Plenum is extremely important.
Our Party has always called upon all comrades in the Party to study. There was
study in the past, but it was poorly organized, not as well as it is now. Now we have
moved one step further in that there is organization instead of the anarchistic state
of the past.
The Central Committee has now set up a Cadre Education Department, which
is in charge of leading study in the whole Party. Our comrades cannot just read
some books and leave it at that, but must study in an organized fashion. This sort of
organ and this type of system must be established in Party offices at every level all
over the country, and in the border region at all levels of government, in all organizations of the popular masses, and in schools at every level, to lead and carry out
study. It is the same in the army, where an education department and a study system must be set up. The Central Committee is going to promote such a study
system throughout the country, doing everything within the Communist Party's
power to move it forward so as to create a great tide of enthusiasm for study.
Comrades, everyone must study hard and must not fall behind or be lazy and
fall asleep. In the past Confucius's student Zai Yu slept during the day, and Confucius
berated him, saying: "Rotten wood cannot be carved."3 Something like this could
be said to the lazy people within our ranks, but those who have achieved something in their studies should be rewarded. There should be both rewards and pun- ishment, and they should be clearly delineated. But we are mostly concerned with
rewards, and it doesn't matter if there is an occasional Zai Yu.

2. The Study Movement Is Possible The study movement is necessary, all right, but is it possible? Our answer is that it
is entirely possible. But then other problems arise-not many, only two of them.
One is that everyone is extremely busy, and the other is being unable to understand
what is read. These two problems are absolutely real. People are so busy with
work, and if you then add to that the production movement, plus the fact that those
at the front have to do battle, they are unable to study. Not only the ordinary people
say so, but even senior cadres say this as well. "No time" has become the rationale
for not wanting to study and the excuse for being lazy. It is wrong for Communist
Party members not to study theory, and when there is a problem a solution should
be sought; this is the true spirit of a Communist Party member. There is a way to
solve the problem of being busy, and it is called "squeezing." "Squeezing" may be
used to deal with being busy. This is like when there are a great many people at a
meeting, and people have to squeeze in to get a seat. Or it is like a carpenter
driving a nail into a piece of wood so that clothes may be hung on it. In this case
the carpenter "squeezes" it into the wood; only when the wood yields has he been
successful. Ever since wood has been yielding in this way, so many pieces of wood
have had nails driven into them, and tiny invisible threadlike holes have been
"squeezed" to make such large openings. This shows that "squeezing" is an effective method. We are presently very busy with our work, so we could have it make
some concessions by using the "squeezing" method to eke out two hours for study
from our daily schedule of work, meals, and rest, and squeeze the work onto both
ends, one at the top and one toward the bottom. This way two hours could certainly be squeezed out for study. Comrade Chen Yun4 has experience in "squeezing." He has ways to "squeeze out" time for reading and attending meetings.
The other problem is being unable to understand what is read. This situation
does actually exist. There are comrades who would "rather carry night soil than
study theory." If one is busy one can "squeeze," which is one way out; there is also
a way out if one cannot understand something one reads, which is called "digging
into it." This is "drilling" into something as a carpenter drills into a piece of wood.

We need not be afraid of what we cannot understand, but should rather deal with it
by "digging into it." In China, reading and studying were originally called attacking the books. To study Marxism means to attack Marx's theories. If you wish to
read and understand Marx's theories, you cannot do so without attacking them.
What cannot be understood in one's reading should be attacked as one would an
enemy. Some people at present do not adopt an offensive posture, only a defensive
one. This is wrong. Marxism absolutely cannot make concessions, so without attacking it there can be no result. In the past people used to say "checking against a
foe" for "proofreading." Proofreading is indeed quite difficult, and it cannot be
done successfully without treating it as a foe. As far as difficulty is concerned, we
should attack it as if it were an enemy, and with the enemy we do not deal sentimentally. Therefore, while it is true that Marxist and Leninist theory is indeed very
difficult, if we attack it unsentimentally with the attitude we adopt toward an "enemy," we are sure to win every single battle and can certainly capture its stronghold. In "Sacrificing a Crocodile," by Han Wengong5 of ancient times, there is a
passage about giving the crocodile three days to leave, and if it did not leave in
three days, giving it five, and if it did not leave within seven days then killing it
without ceremony in one stroke of the sword. We should do as Han Wengong did
in sacrificing the crocodile, allowing ten days to understand it, then twenty, thirty,
ninety days..., not stopping until it is finally understood. In this way, what cannot
be understood can certainly be transformed into something that can be understood.
If one is unable to understand something directly, one may approach it from a
different angle. It is like in war, if a tough enemy cannot be defeated from the
front, he may be harassed and attacked from the side, or surrounded on all four
sides and isolated, and thus easily defeated. It is the same with studying. If something cannot be understood directly at first, one can start by reading other things
around it and laying a foundation, so as to be able to understand directly little by
little.

If busy with work, one has to "squeeze," and if unable to understand, one has to
"drill." Using these two methods to deal with it, one can certainly be victorious in
one's studies.

3. There Will Be Achievements in the Study Movement Some results have already been achieved in the study movement in that many
study groups have been organized. In Yan'an, among those that have been organized already are a philosophy group, a reading group, and so on, and they have
already achieved results. Those who did not understand philosophy before now
understand it a little, and those who did not understand Marxism now also under- The foundation of the study movement is the conscious enthusiasm of our comrades. Our method is to coordinate individual activity with organized activity. In
the beginning some schools ignored individual activity and did not allow free time
for reading. The daily schedule was very full, and although things were good as far
as organized activities are concerned, this is a rather serious shortcoming, since
individual initiative cannot be brought into full play. We are trying to find a way to
correct matters with regard to this point. We advocate the coordination of individual activity and organized activity, fostering both conscious enthusiasm and
sound leadership with regard to study, so our study movement is bound to achieve
results.

Here I want to discuss one point in passing, which is that among our cadres
there are some who are a little older, and who think that it is hopeless for people to
study when they are older. I believe it is wrong to think this way. Who says that
older people cannot do it? There is an old saying, "Only when a person reaches
fifty-five is he a tiger coming out of retirement." Well, then, if you are fifty-four
you are still a youth, so how on earth could you be incapable of studying?! This is
the point I wanted to make in passing.

Our present educational system for cadres is very good. It is a new invention, a
newly invented university system. Speaking of universities, we have here the
Marxist-Leninist Academy, the Anti-Japanese Political and Military University,
the Women's University, and so on, which are all very good. Outside there are
Beijing University, Fudan University, and others, and in foreign countries there are
Oxford University, the University of Paris, and so on. In all of them one graduates
after five or six years of study, so they are called fixed-term universities. But this
university of ours may be considered the first of its kind in the world. We call it a
lifetime university, because it does not matter if you are a little older; as long as you
are still alive you may enter our university. This university of ours is an original
creation of Yan'an, but anyone can enter it no matter where he is, be it some place
in North China, Central China, or South China, and no matter who he is, whether a
Communist Party member or not. He can always enter this long-term university.

I can even mention some examples of people who became successful after
studying in a lifetime university. From the very earliest times, the truly learned did
not acquire their knowledge in school. Confucius did not learn his Confucian doctrine in school all at once. His teacher was called Xiang Tuo; this is confirmed in books. It is recorded in the *Three-Character Classic* that "Of old, Zhongni took
Xiang Tuo for his teacher." But he did not learn all of his doctrine from Xiang
Tuo. It was not until he became a teacher and an official in the state of Lu that his
Confucian doctrine came into being.

The same is true for Mr. Sun Yatsen. There was no such thing as the Three
People's Principles while he was in school. As everyone knows, his field of study
was medicine, and his Three People's Principles did not come into existence until
after he was out of school. Furthermore, Mr. Sun Yatsen's Three People's Principles did not appear all at once. At first there was only one People's Principle, and
later there were two People's Principles. Finally he made a trip to Europe, observed various conditions such as that social problems had arisen in Europe, and
that the workers wanted to overthrow the capitalists, and so on, and he came up
with the additional principle of the People's Livelihood. This is how the Three
People's Principles were finally put together.

As for foreign countries, there was the case of Marx, who did not study Marxism in school at all but, rather, idealism. The Marxism he later learned outside
school was different from what his teachers taught. As for those with little formal
schooling, I can give Gorky as an example. He is the world's most famous "doctor" of literature, but he never attended primary school, nor did he ever go to
middle school, and he certainly never went to college. But his writings are foremost in the world.

Therefore, going to school is all very well, but this is only a matter of entering
a door, and if one wants to obtain further knowledge, one must certainly study
outside school and study for a long period of time. It does not matter if you still do
not know how to read now, because there is hope as long as you study hard.

4. Study Should Be Followed Through to the End Study must be carried through until the very end. The biggest enemy in studying is
not to carry it through to the very "end." If one is satisfied with oneself after learning a little something and thinks that he need not continue to study, this sort of
satisfaction is the biggest and most tenacious enemy of our study movement. After
today's meeting it should be overcome.

As Comrade Luo Mai' has said, what we are learning includes things such as
party-building and the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and these are things that we shall continue to study over the long run. We can certainly
learn all these things very well as long as we overcome all difficulties in our studies, but the main thing is not to give up halfway. Otherwise, nothing will be achieved.

Apart from all this knowledge, there is the question of the current situation and
the Party's policy. These two items were not included in past plans, but they are
absolutely necessary, because this is real knowledge, and it is "today's" knowledge. As for the question of the current situation, the Central Committee is already
selecting materials on the current situation in preparation for the compilation of a
comprehensive anthology that may be supplied to the comrades for study and
reference. As for the Party's policy, everyone has probably read through the resolutions of the Sixth Plenum once, but it is wrong to discard them as soon as one has
finished reading them; the Party's policies should be studied frequently. All conference reports between the Sixth Plenum and the Seventh Plenum should be studied, including meetings of the Politburo. To study the theory alone without studying
the Party's policy is inadequate and leads to separation from reality.

The present study movement for the education of cadres at their posts encompasses the Party, the government, the army, the people, and educational institutions, and includes all working cadres in organizations of the popular masses and
schools. After this meeting of ours is over, everyone should work hard, help one
another, and correct the old way of doing things, in which one kept any books to
himself and refused to share his studies with others. From now on, we must help
one another in our studies, serving as one another's teachers and one another's
students, really becoming fellow students. The same applies to the comrades in the
Central Committee; comrades should study together. Comrade Luo Mai told me
that those at the lower levels are already asking for materials, that the comrades are
studying already. This is very good and amply shows the comrades' enthusiasm.
All right! Everyone present today and all Party comrades, study and learn, everyone should study through to the end, should enter this lifetime university. The
whole Party should be transformed into one big university. The leader of this university is the Central Committee. Each local Party office, the Eighth Route Army,
the New Fourth Army, and the guerrilla units are the subdivisions of this big university. Every Party comrade and all non-Party soldiers must enter this university.

We believe that if we adopt the orientation of studying through to the end we
will surely be able to overcome the evil phenomenon of complacency.

Our study movement is necessary. We can study. Results have already been
achieved in our studies, and there will be more achievements in the future. We
have adopted the policy of studying through to the very end. Under the leadership
of the Department for Cadre Education, I am confident that the results of the study
movement for cadres will be very good. This method we are trying out now should
be spread throughout the Party, and particularly in the Party in North China.

---

Notes

2. This line is from a poem by Han Yü (768-824), *Fu dushu chengnan* (Fu Studies
South of the City), translated by Stephen Owen in *The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yü*
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975), p. 273.

3. See the Analects, V, IX, 1 (Legge, Vol. I, p. 176).

4. Chen Yun (1905–1993), original name Liao Chenyun, a native of Jiangsu, joined the
Chinese Communist Party in 1925. He went to the Jiangxi Central Soviet Area in 1933,
participated in the early part of the Long March, and played an important role at the Zunyi
Conference of January 1935. Thereafter he was sent to the Soviet Union as a delegate to the
Seventh Congress of the Communist International. Returning to China in 1937, he became
head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee, a post which he still held at
this time. It was thus natural that Mao should cite him as an expert in organizing and scheduling the Party's work.

5. Han Wengong is Han Yu. We have been unable to locate this poem; Mao's memory of
the title may have been approximate.
stand a little of it. Such organizations exist in the military as well, and they too
have accomplished at least something. In many places outside [the border areas]
there are such organizations as reading societies, which provide education similar
to that of our education for cadres at their posts, and they may serve us as reference points. We Communist Party members are full of enthusiasm for study. I
have been told that since the study movement began, many comrades have been
very enthusiastic and happy, and that those who had asked to be transferred to
other posts no longer wish to be transferred. This is another achievement of the
study movement.

6. Mao here quotes the lines numbered 267 and 268 from the *Three-Character Classic.*
Zhongni was the *hao* of Confucius. See Herbert A. Giles, *Elementary Chinese. Sanzijing*
(Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1900), pp. 118–19.

7. Luo Mai was the pseudonym of Li Weihan (1896–1984), a native of Changsha, who
had joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1922. After studying in Moscow from 1931 to
1933, he returned to China, went to the Jiangxi Soviet Area, and thereafter participated in
the Long March. At this time he was deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party Central
Committee's Cadre Education Department and president of the Central Party School.