Concerning Investigations in the Countryside

(September 13, 1941)

I. The Situation Is Understood Gradually, and This Requires
Continuous and Uninterrupted Effort

It is certainly no easy matter to understand the world. Marx and Engels worked
hard all their lives and did a large amount of investigative work before they completed the theory of scientific communism. Likewise, Lenin and Stalin did a lot of
investigation as well.

Investigation and study are necessary in the Chinese revolution too, first of all
to understand what is China (its past, present, and future). Unfortunately, many
comrades are often subjective and opinionated, totally disregarding the work of
investigation and study.

We have faith in science and do not believe in theology. Therefore our investigation work should be oriented toward the lower levels and does not consist of
abstract illusions. At the same time, we believe that things are in motion, in change,
in progress. For this reason, our investigations are also long term. Today we need
investigation, and in the future our sons and grandsons too will have to make investigations before they will be able to come to know new things and acquire new
knowledge continuously.

Our investigation work should be done with patience and in a planned way step
by step, not hastily. As it was, it took me quite a few years of effort to understand
the countryside myself.

I recall that it was not until 1920 when I first read Kautsky's Class Struggle,
Chen Wangdao's translation of The Communist Manifesto, and History of Socialism written by an Englishman,¹ that I came to know that class struggle has existed
since the beginning of human history and that class struggle is the driving force for

the development of society, and that I took the first steps in acquiring a method of
understanding things. But China's Hunan and Hubei, or China's Chiang Kaishek
and Chen Duxiu, were not to be found in these books. I took from them only two
words: "class struggle," and then started to study in earnest the actual class struggle.
I worked in the peasant movement for four months and came to know some things
about the conditions of the various classes. But this sort of understanding is extremely shallow, not at all thoroughgoing. Later the Central Committee put me in
charge of the peasant movement. I made a resolution, and I went around for a
month and two days holding investigations in the five xian of Changsha, Xiangtan,
Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Liling. These five xian were just the places where the
peasant movement was on the upsurge at the time, and many peasants had joined
peasants' associations. The Guomindang cursed us as being "excessive" and "acting like vagrants" and cursed the peasants for "going to excess" in sullying the
beds of the young misses in landlords' families by rolling around in them. Actually, according to what I gleaned from my investigations, not all cases were those
of "excess" as they described; what happened was instead inevitable, necessary,
because the peasants were too miserable. In my view, it is unavoidable that the
peasants, who have suffered thousands of years of oppression, would go a bit "too
far" once they had stood up, so they might just as well roll around a few more
times in the young ladies' beds!

At the time, however, I still did not have a very clear understanding of the class
structure in the countryside. It was not until after I got to the Jinggangshan and
carried out investigations in Xunwu that my thinking on the problem of rich peasants and landlords became clear, and I proposed a solution to the problem of the
rich peasants, which involved not only drawing on the plentiful to make up for the
scarce but also drawing on the fat to make up for the lean, so that rich peasants,
middle peasants, poor peasants, and farm laborers would all be able to subsist. If
the landlords had been given no land at all, they would have had nothing to eat,
and then if the rich peasants had been given only some poor land, they would have
had a hard time feeding themselves, so that the rich peasants would have been
forced to rebel and the poor peasants and farm laborers would have been plunged
into isolation. At the time, some people cursed me as someone with a rich peasants' line, but, as I see it, this method of mine was the only correct one for that
period. Today, of course, we are in the national united front against Japan, so it is
not a time to deprive the landlords and rich peasants of their property rights but,
rather, to reduce rents and reduce interest. Otherwise we would not be able to unite
with them to resist Japan.

My thinking on the problem of the poor peasants and farm laborers became
clear only after I had made investigations in Xingguo. Only then was I able to
recognize the importance of the poor peasants' leagues in the land redistribution
process.

As far as my own investigation of the countryside is concerned, then, it took
six or seven years' time. Now that you have the benefit of other comrades' past
experience, you can take the straight road and complete within a few months the
work of six or seven years. The task of our comrades today is to find things out
and to make efforts in an earnest and down-to-earth manner. As long as you are
not sleeping all day, working just six hours a day you will be able to accomplish
a lot. But it requires continuous, ceaseless effort.

II. Methods

1. The unity of opposites and class struggle are our two starting points when we
do anything. When we are looking at any given thing, all we are able to observe
initially is the rough outline of the thing, and we can form only a general concept.
This is exactly like someone who has just arrived in Yan'an, whose knowledge of
Yan'an in the beginning is general and sweeping. But after he has visited the Anti-Japanese University and our Women's University as well as the other institutions
and schools in Yan'an, he will take the second step, which is to use the analytical
method to study and analyze carefully, in an orderly fashion, the various parts of
Yan'an. Then the third step would be to apply the method of synthesis, synthesizing the analysis of each individual part so as to obtain an overall view of Yan'an.
At this point his understanding of Yan'an is different from what he knew when he
first arrived. What he saw at first was the whole of Yan'an, and what he sees now
is the whole of Yan'an as well, but his understanding is different from what it was
in the beginning. Now he has scientific understanding and concrete knowledge of
Yan'an. Observing an area in the countryside is just like this.

Marx used this sort of method in writing his Capital, first analyzing the various
components of capitalist society and then synthesizing them, thereby discovering
the laws governing the capitalist movement.

What deserves attention here in particular is analysis. What should be done is
analysis together with synthesis, and, even in the second step of analysis, there is
some degree of synthesis. The ancients said that the way of composing essays
involves both opening up and closing down. This is correct. In studying history, Su
Dongpo used the method of "facing the enemy on eight sides," and he used the
same method to study the Song dynasty, which is also correct. In our study of
Chinese society today, we should also apply a method of "facing the enemy on
four sides," dividing our studies into four parts-political, economic, cultural, and
military-arriving at a conclusion on the Chinese revolution.

If we observe things in the way one looks at flowers while riding on horseback,
dabbling in a little of everything, that would only be a waste of time, and nothing
would ever be accomplished.

Therefore we must be sure to grasp the [right] points of view in this regard, and
these points of view are the unity of opposites and class struggle. The methods of
analysis and synthesis I just described, for example, make use of these points of
view. If you comrades make use of these viewpoints to analyze the countryside,
you can find out what classes exist in the countryside, what their main features are,
and how they are related to one another. One of the questions the comrades have
raised for me is, What is a rich peasant? To my mind, a landlord mainly collects
rent; a rich peasant mainly hires laborers and participates in the labor himself; a
middle peasant's main characteristic is that he does not sell his own labor power
and tills his own land; a poor peasant has to sell his labor power, as what he gets
from his own land is not enough to live on; a farm laborer has no land and lives
wholly by selling his labor. Of course, only major features are discussed here.

Only by analyzing the various classes and strata in the countryside and their
living conditions in this way can there be a correct and comprehensive understanding of the countryside.

We should employ a method of close and intensive study to analyze objective
reality and to analyze classes. We must not turn a blind eye to actual problems, and
"big talk companies" should be brought down. One should use one's own head to
think things over deeply, and one should combine theory and practice.

In 1905, Lenin advocated overthrowing the tsarist government and organizing
a government of workers and peasants in Russia, but Trotsky believed that it was
possible only to organize a workers' government. This is because Trotsky did not
truly combine theory with practice. We should draw from practice laws that govern the movement of matter and formulate new theories. For example, the protracted and lasting nature of China's War of Resistance is the law governing it.
When you comrades go down to the villages to make investigations today, these
are the viewpoints and methods that should guide your practice; on the other hand,
your own theories should be continually perfected through practice.

2. Assimilate the material in detail, and grasp the essentials. The more material
collected the better, but one must be sure to grasp the essentials, or the specific
characteristics (the principal aspect of a contradiction). Marx in studying capitalism and Lenin in studying imperialism both gathered a lot of data and material, but
they did not incorporate all of it; they incorporated only the portion that best manifested the special characteristics.

Without investigation, there is no right to speak. But some comrades might ask,
"Do I have the right to speak if I have investigated nine out of ten given matters,
and there is only one that I have not investigated?" I am of the opinion that if the
nine matters you have investigated are all of secondary importance, and you have
left out the main thing, then you still have no right to speak.

The main contradiction in China today is the national contradiction, and class
contradiction has become secondary. Before the Xi'an Incident, the principal contradiction was that between the Guomindang and the Communist Party, but since
the Xi'an Incident the main contradiction has been the one between China and
Japan. Therefore, no matter what problems we solve today, we should take this
principal contradiction as the starting point in understanding and solving the problem. Whoever fails to grasp the principal contradiction and instead goes in for the
study of trivial things and minor details is like one who cannot see the forest for
the trees and still has no right to speak.


Therefore, when we do the work of synthesis we must not fall into narrow
empiricism.

III. Answers to a Few Questions

You comrades have raised many questions, and I can answer only a portion of
them. Some of the questions, in fact, cannot be answered, because if they were all
answered there would be no need for the comrades to go to the countryside. And it
is necessary to go to the countryside oneself and make investigations before these
many problems can be understood; depending upon varying specific targets and
conditions, too, the solutions differ as well.

How is an investigation meeting held? Such a meeting not only raises questions, but must also provide ways of solving problems. It is best to have three to
five people take part in an investigation meeting. During my investigations in
Xingguo, I learned that the landlords owned 40 percent of the land, the rich peasants owned 30 percent, and the landlords and rich peasants shared ownership of
another 10 percent in temple lands.² In total, the landlords and rich peasants owned
80 percent of all the land, and the middle peasants and poor peasants only 20
percent. But the landlords made up only 1 percent of the population and the rich
peasants 5 percent, whereas the middle peasants and poor peasants comprised 80
percent of the population. So, on the one hand, 6 percent of the population owned
80 percent of the land, and, on the other hand, 80 percent of the population owned
only 20 percent of the land. Therefore there is only one word for the conclusion I
drew: revolution. My confidence in the revolution was thereby strengthened as
well, trusting that this revolution could win the support and assistance of more
than 80 percent of the people.

How are typical subjects for investigation found? Typical subjects for an investigation can be divided into three categories: the advanced, the intermediate, and
the backward. If two or three examples from each of these categories can be investigated, then the general conditions can be ascertained.

How are materials gathered and organized? All of this must be done firsthand.
In the process of doing the work, one accumulates experience, and such experiences may be used as necessary to improve the subsequent work of investigation
and organizing materials.

How does one get the truth from one's subjects? Everyone has different characteristics, so the methods used vary in each case as well. But the main point is to
make friends with the masses, not to spy on them and make them detest you.
When the masses fail to tell the truth it is because they do not know whether your
intentions in coming to them are advantageous or not. In the course of conversing
with them and making friends with them, they should be given some time to get to
know you so that they can gradually come to understand your true intentions and
regard you as their good friends. Only this way can you learn the real situation. If
the masses do not tell the truth, the masses are not to blame, one has only oneself
to blame.

When I was doing the investigations in Xingguo, I invited a few peasants to
come over and talk with me. At first they were very suspicious of and apprehensive about me, not knowing what in the world I was going to do with them. So on
the first day all we did was engage in a bit of chitchat about daily life. They didn't
crack the slightest smile and spoke very little. Then I treated them to a meal and
gave them large warm quilts to sleep under at night. In this way they started to
understand my true intentions, gradually began to smile a little and to have somewhat more to say. In the end we became virtually without any restraints, everyone
engaging in enthusiastic discussion, talking about everything under the sun, as
warm and as close as members of one's own family.

There is no need to go into the rest of the questions; it is better to have you go
out as soon as possible to do your own investigations.

² The term used here is *gongtang tudi*, which refers to land belonging to various sorts
of ancestral temples and religious societies, controlled primarily by landlords and rich
peasants.

--- Notes

This is the text of a talk by Mao to a group in Yan'an for investigating the lives of women,
organized jointly by. the Women's Committee and the Northwest Bureau of the Central
Committee. It was first published as a pamphlet in December 1978. Our source is Mao
Zedong nongcun diaocha wenji, pp. 21-27. It is also reproduced in Mao Zedong xinwen
gongzuo wenxuan, pp. 59-66.
1. The reference is to History of Socialism, Thomas Kirkupp (1844-1912), translated into
Chinese by Li Ji and published in October 1920 by the New Youth Publishing Company.