Working Principles of the Seventh
Congress of the Chinese Communist
Party1
(April 21, 1945)
Comrade representatives! Today we can have a very good meeting. This is very
good timing. We now have a very strong force, and our Party is more united than
ever before.
What is the orientation of our congress? It should be: unite together to strive
for victory. In short, one is unity, and the other is victory. Victory refers to our
objective; unity refers to our front line and our army. We must have a unified
army to beat our enemy and to strive for victory, but the most important thing
that plays a leadership role in the army is our Party. Without our Party, it is
impossible for the Chinese people to win victory.
The struggle of the Chinese people to demand emancipation, even without
considering the distant past and speaking only of relatively recent history, has
been going on for more than one hundred years. It has already been one hundred
and five years from 1840 and the Opium War launched by the British to 1945. In
the more than one hundred years, many great changes have taken place. The
greatest change is from the old democratic revolution to the new democratic
revolution. Before, there was no proletariat leadership. When the bourgeoisie just
began to appear or became a little stronger or grew even stronger later and when
the proletariat still did not have its own vanguard team, the proletariat’s level of
consciousness was still not high. Yet the bourgeoisie had a lot of advantages. It
had the advantage in terms of culture, economy, and political experience. It had a
political party, slogans, and its own goals for struggle. In contrast, the proletariat did not have these and followed the bourgeoisie. It is only in the past twentysome years that the proletariat has had its own political party, slogans, and goals
for struggle.
The best-known struggles in modern Chinese history include the Opium War,
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the Sino-French War, and the Sino-Japanese War in the twentieth year of the reign of the Guangxu emperor [1894].
Later there were the Hundred Days Reform [1898] and the Boxer movement
[1900], after which came the Xinhai Revolution [1911]. The revolution opposed
two things. The first is called oppression by foreign countries, while the other is
called oppression by the feudal system. The Chinese people are always
dissatisfied with these two things and always want to rise up and resist them.
They rose up once but were suppressed; they rose up again and were suppressed
again. This history lasted for about eighty years. Under what circumstances did
the May Fourth movement in 1919 take place? It occurred after World War I.
It is said that human history is 500,000 years old. During these 500,000 years,
one period was the history of barbarism; another was the history of civilization.
The history of civilization is only about 5,000 years or a little more. Our China
has a very long history, but it is only 4,000 to 5,000 years. From the beginning of
the reign of the Yellow Emperor to the Xinhai Revolution is 4,609 years; it is still
only 4,643 years if we add the 34 years after the Xinhai Revolution. In fact, the
age of the so-called Yellow Emperor was still not civilized society. Civilized
society began with slave society. In China, according to reliable historical
sources, it began in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It took 5,000 years of civilized
society for World War I to occur. This world war took place because when world
capitalism developed into the twentieth century, capitalists collided with
capitalists over fewer markets, with some grabbing large places and others
grabbing smaller places. This was the so-called age of imperialism. The first
worldwide war in the entire history of mankind broke out in 1914. Those of you
here who are over thirty all know this and still remember it. This war, as I have
just said, is a reflection of global economic development. When the world
economy developed to that degree, such a problem occurred. Marxists long ago
predicted this point.
This war was destructive, unjust, and damaging to the interests of humanity. It
was a war to seize and occupy markets. These were its negative aspects.

Nonetheless, it also had positive aspects, which included the outbreak of the
October Revolution in Russia, the founding of communist parties in many
countries, and the creation of vanguard teams by the proletariat itself in many
countries, including China. The world war was followed by a period of world
revolution. First, the October Revolution broke out in Russia. It was followed by
revolutions in Germany, Hungary, and Italy, but they were all defeated because
the proletariat in these countries was still divided into communist parties and
social democratic parties. Moreover, the proletariat had not sufficiently
awakened. Only the October Revolution in Russia succeeded. The face of the
world and the direction of history were changed after World War I and the
victory of the October Revolution. World history has been developing and
making progress for several thousand years, but it did not produce a new
direction until after World War I and the October Revolution. Slave society, as
well as feudal society and the capitalist society that followed, were all societies in
which some exploited others. The new direction of history after the October
Revolution is to abolish systems in which some exploit others. The Russian
people have achieved victory. Many countries have a communist party. Our Party
was founded in 1921, and it now has twenty-four years of history. The Japanese
Communist Party was founded in 1922; the Communist Party of India was
founded in 1920. This is the case in several major countries in the East.
Communist parties in other countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Great
Britain, and the United States were all founded at around this period. In 1919,
Lenin organized the Third International.
Beginning with the May Fourth movement in China, the old democratic
revolution transformed into the new democratic revolution. The May Fourth
movement was mobilized by the masses. It was an open opposition against their
own enemy by the armies of the masses on the streets. At the beginning, only
awakened and progressive students participated. By the time “June Third”
[movement] occurred, it was not just the students in Shanghai. The broad ranks
of workers and businessmen also took part. Later, Hankou, Changsha, the Yangzi
River Valley, and the Pearl River Valley were all engulfed in this wave. The May
Fourth movement involved the most awakened elements in China. The awakened
elements at that time included Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The May Fourth
movement had a Left wing and a Right wing, and Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao represented the Left wing. At that time, there was still no communist party in
China, but a few people already had the beginnings of Communist thought.
The cannon shot of the October Revolution taught the proletariat and other
progressive elements in the whole world a lesson in communism. Marx and
Engels founded Marxist doctrine in 1843 (three years after the Opium War), but
its influence in the seventy-four years between 1843 and 1917 was restricted
mainly to Europe. The majority of the people in the world still did not know
about so-called Marxism. Marxism originated in Europe and began spreading in
Europe at a relatively slow pace. At that time, with the exception of a few
Chinese students abroad, ordinary people did not know about it. I, too, did not
know that there was a Marx in this world. Today, children of fourteen or fifteen
years old all know about him. That is why I say, comrades, you are very
fortunate. At that time, even after fully growing up, we still did not know how
high the sky was or how thick the earth was and definitely we did not know
there was imperialism or Marxism in this world. Even after attending school, we
only got to know a few bourgeois heroes like Washington and Napoleon. Before
that, there were some people like Liang Qichao and Zhu Zhixin2 who mentioned
Marxism a bit. It is said that there was another person who translated and
published Engels’s Socialism: Utopian and Scientific in a magazine. The bottom
line is that I did not see it then, and even if I did see it, it just slipped through my
fingers momentarily without my notice. Zhu Zhixin was a member of the
Guomindang. From this we can see that the Guomindang first spoke of Marxism.
In spite of this, no one in China in the past really knew about Marxist
communism. The cannon shot of the October Revolution flew faster than an
airplane. It probably takes more than one day for a plane to get here from
Moscow, but this news took only one day. That is, the revolution in Russia took
place on November 7. By November 8, China already knew about it. At that time,
the revolutionary party in Russia was called the Radical Party. For more than
seventy years, Marxism had spread so slowly, but after the October Revolution it
spread very quickly. Because it spread so quickly, the spiritual appearance of the
Chinese people was quite different in 1919. After the May Fourth movement, the
Chinese people had quickly learned the slogans to overthrow imperialism and
feudal power. Before that, who knew to propose such slogans? No one! Such
slogans and such clear programs were put forward after the Chinese proletariat created its own vanguard—the Communist Party.
In 1921 our Party held the First Party Congress. Of the twelve representatives
who are still alive and are still Communist Party members (those who became
traitors like Zhang Guotao3 and others do not count), one is Chen Tanqiu,4 who
is imprisoned by the Guomindang in a Xinjiang prison. Another is Dong Biwu,
who has flown to San Francisco. I am one as well. Of the twelve representatives,
two of them are now traitors in Nanjing. One is Zhou Fohai,5 and the other is
Chen Gongbo.6 The meeting was held in July, and now we consider July 1 the
anniversary of the Party. Originally it was to be held in Shanghai, but because
the police wanted to arrest us, we ran to South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang
Province. It was held on a boat. Did we publish a declaration? I do not remember.
We did not know how many Marxisms there were or how to do things in this
world. The so-called representatives were never as smart as you comrades, who
now know this and that. We did not know anything about the economy, culture,
Party affairs, rectification, and so on. I was like that then, and the others were
about the same. Chen Duxiu was not present at that meeting; he was in
Guangdong serving as the director of the Education Department. There is a
proverb in China’s Zhuangzi that says: “At its beginning it is simple, but when
accomplished it will be huge.”7 We have not “accomplished,” but we are already
very great. The first line on the first page in the first volume of the History of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union states that the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union [CPSU] evolved from a small Marxist group to the party that leads
the Soviet Union. We also evolved from a small group to establish a party. We
will develop through the base areas to the entire country. We are now still in the
base areas and have not yet reached the entire nation. At the beginning, we were
also a small group. I was given a form at this congress. One of the items asked me
to fill in who introduced me to the Party. I said that no one recommended me.
We did everything by ourselves then, and we did not know much. We can be
described as young and ignorant and lacking in understanding about the ways of
the world. Nevertheless, in the twenty-four years after that, we became
extremely serious and turned the world upside down! The whole world has been
turned upside down as well. It has been an earth-shaking twenty-four years for
China and an earth-shaking twenty-eight years for the world. These twenty-eight
years are the years after the victory of the CPSU. The twenty-four years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party are also very different from before.
The broad masses of the people must be made aware of this.
There have never been people like this in all of history, nor has there ever been
a Communist Party like this. During these twenty-four years, after the
Communist small groups and after the Northern Expedition, we grew stronger on
a grand and spectacular scale. But in the middle of it, we were shot by the other
party and fell down to the ground. As we struggled to stand up and regain
strength, we again fought against it, and this was the Land Revolution. From 1921
to 1927, it was mainly the Northern Expedition. From 1927 to 1937, it was the
Civil War. From 1937 to the present, it has been the eight years of the War of
Resistance Against Japan. Few comrades today have experienced all three
periods, but many comrades have experienced two of the periods. I am talking
about the entire Party. We have not collected these statistics for the
representatives who are here today, so we still do not know whether those who
have experienced all three periods, those who have experienced two periods, or
those who have experienced one period, are more numerous. This is the way we
traveled in the past twenty-four years: seven years from the founding of the Party
to the Northern Expedition, ten years of Civil War, eight years of the War of
Resistance Against Japan. Our Party has tasted all manner of bitterness and
hardship, as well as grandeur and brave struggles. In all of history, there has
never been a group in China like the Communist Party, which does not hesitate
to sacrifice everything and any number of people to carry out such a grand
undertaking.
During the seven years of the first major revolution, the total number of Party
members did not exceed 60,000. We were slapped down to the ground by others.
Like a basket of eggs dropped on the floor, many were broken but not all of them.
We picked up the good ones and began to hatch chicks. This was a major
experience. We were shot at by others and got angry. We started again and did
very well. For instance, we overthrew feudal power and overthrew imperialism,
as was quite correct. Because Chiang Kaishek worked hand in glove with
imperialism and feudal power, we proposed the revolutionary slogan of
overthrowing Chiang Kaishek and fought against him for ten years. It was not
wrong to fight against Chiang Kaishek, but there were many disagreements as to
how to organize the army and, after having organized the army, how to fight.

This is what we discuss in the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions.”8 In
general, the disagreements did not go beyond these three questions: first, who is
the enemy; who is a friend; second, how to organize our army; third, how to
fight. Of the disagreements that arose on these three issues, the opinions of some
comrades were basically more appropriate, more fitting for China’s conditions,
and relatively more correct. They were better on how to organize our army and
how to fight, but they were not perfect. At that time, the comrades in our Party
were from all over the country. Most of them did not know each other, except for
a few, for whom the Guomindang had offered a few thousand yuan in reward for
their capture. Nonetheless, their opinions could be the same, perhaps on this issue
or perhaps on that one.
I have met Sun Yatsen, and there are still some comrades here who have met
him. He passed away in 1925. I saw him on the thirty-ninth year of his devotion
to the National Revolution. At that time, he was already close to sixty. Then the
Guomindang was holding its first party congress. Venerable Lin [Boqu] here was
also one of the participants. We attended the Guomindang congress as
Communist Party members and were the “cross-party elements.” We were
Guomindang members while being Communist Party members at the same time.
At that time, we helped to organize the Guomindang in every province. Back
then, we were forced to participate because the Guomindang did not know
anything about organizing. For thirty-nine years, it had been engaged in the
National Revolution but it did not hold a single party congress. It was not until
1924, after we had joined the Guomindang, that the first party congress was
convened. We drafted the declaration and took care of many things for them.
There was a Borodin9 who was the adviser and a member of the CPSU. There
was also a Qu Qiubai, who was a Communist Party member who joined the
Guomindang. Sun Yatsen had one merit. When he did not know what to do next,
he came to us. He listened to everything that Borodin said. At that time, it was
called “learning from Russia” because he never succeeded in his thirty-nine years
of conducting revolution. Back then, we proposed overthrowing imperialism,
overthrowing feudal power, overthrowing corrupt officials, and overthrowing
local bullies and evil gentry. Many people were against us, saying that the
members of the Central Committee were thirty-six rebel leaders. The
organization of the army was also a collaboration between the Guomindang and the Communist Party. There were members of both parties among the important
army and party cadres at that time. Chiang Kaishek was the commander of the
First Army, while Comrade [Zhou] Enlai was the party representative. Tan
Yankai was the commander of the Second Army, while the party representative
was Comrade Li Fuchun.10 The party representative of the Sixth Army was
Venerable Lin. It was a coalition government then, and the military was a major
component of the government. Therefore, there has been a coalition government
before.
The Northern Expedition succeeded on a grand scale. Nonetheless, toward the
end of this period our Party did not do very well, producing Chen Duxiu-ism.
Later, Chen Duxiu was against us and formed the Trotskyist Chen Liquidationist
Faction. In spite of that, we can talk about Chen Duxiu today. He did make some
contributions. He was the commander-in-chief during the May Fourth
movement. In fact, the entire movement was under his leadership. He and the
group of people around him, such as Comrade Li Dazhao and others, played a
very important role. At that time, we were learning to write in the vernacular
and we learned from him that essays should be punctuated. This was a major
invention. We also heard from him that there was Marxism in the world. We are
the students of his generation. The May Fourth movement prepared cadres for
the Chinese Communist Party. There was a magazine called New Youth, which
was edited by Chen Duxiu. Some who were awakened by this magazine and by
the May Fourth movement later joined the Communist Party. These people were
greatly influenced by Chen Duxiu and the group of people around him. It can be
said that they gathered together some people and thus founded the Party. I would
say that in several respects Chen Duxiu was like [Georgi] Plekhanov11 in Russia.
He carried out the work of enlightenment and created the Party, but his thinking
was not as good as Plekhanov’s. Plekhanov carried out very good Marxist
propaganda in Russia. Chen Duxiu, however, was not like that, and he even had
some mistaken opinions, although he created the Party and should be credited
with that. Later Plekhanov became a Menshevik; Chen Duxiu was China’s
Menshevik. After the Nazi-Soviet War [i.e., World War II], Stalin put Lenin and
Plekhanov together in one of his speeches. The History of the CPSU also mentions
him. In the future when we write our Party history, we should also talk about
him. In terms of Comrade Li Lisan,12 who committed “Left” errors during the

Civil War, he and Comrade [Liu] Shaoqi led the workers movement in Anyuan
before the first major revolution. Later, during the May Thirtieth movement in
Shanghai, he played a very important role and he should also be credited for it.
Now let us talk about the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions.” This
resolution has already been carefully discussed by you comrades. You comrades
suggested that it be handled at the Seventh Plenum of the Sixth Congress rather
than at this congress in order to guarantee a united and successful congress. It is
a very good suggestion that takes into account the entire Party, the people of all
China, and the future of the Party. The resolution was passed in principle
yesterday at the Seventh Plenum, and it will be handed over to the new Central
Committee after this congress adopts the revisions.
The working principles of this congress are unity and victory. The eyes of the
congress should look forward instead of backward. Otherwise, it will affect the
success of the congress. The eyes of the congress should look toward the 400
million people in order to organize our ranks.
We have not won victory yet; our force is still small, and we still have
difficulties before us. We have more than 900,000 troops, but they are not
concentrated. Instead, they are separated and are fighting “sparrow warfare.” We
have a population of more than 90 million in our base areas, but they are not in
one solid area and they are separated from each other as well. Our enemies are
still very powerful. There are the formidable Japanese imperialists, and there is
also the Guomindang. These two enemies are not of the same type. While one is
guarding our front door, the other is guarding our back door. Therefore, instead
of being arrogant and impatient, we must be cautious and modest. We must
swear off arrogance and impatience. If one is modest, one is not arrogant and can
swear off arrogance. In the past, people used to say “rich businessmen always
hide their wealth as if they have none.” If a merchant had a lot of money, he hid
it as though he had nothing. We are the same and we must maintain modesty. In
our history, there were such lessons that taught us that being big would not do,
because being small was more comfortable, with fewer problems. Once we
become big, we will become bloated. We will lose our heads and become
arrogant. Our hearts will become impatient, even extremely so. Impatience is
linked with arrogance. Arrogance will result in impatience, and everyone who is
impatient is also arrogant, imprudent, and careless. Now we have learned the lesson of prudence. We proposed a historical resolution. It was repeatedly
discussed and was read by many. It was not enough that only members of the
Central Committee read it. After reading it seven or eight times, they did not find
many problems; however, all sorts of problems appeared as soon as everyone
read it and studied it. It is very good that you have pointed out many things
during the discussions. This is called doing things prudently. We must do
everything slowly; the sky will not fall. The sky has never fallen before. Long ago
there was the kingdom of Qi. Some people there were afraid that the sky might
fall and worried about it every day. This is called the “People of Qi worrying
about the Heavens.”13 It has been several thousand years, and none of the
twenty-four standard histories mention the sky falling. Even if it does fall, a few
comrades among us are tall enough to hold it up, so we do not have to worry.
After repeated study, the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions” passed in
principle. After the election of the new Central Committee, it will be handed over
for careful revisions. Will there still be errors in this way? It is still possible. In
ten or eight years, when we write the history of the Chinese Communist Party,
we will know. If there are errors, then there are errors, and we will say “this
historical fact was missing in the past and that is wrong. We must add it back in
now.” This is not a big deal, just like collecting firewood; that which is collected
later is always on top. We treat our ancestors in the same way. If there are errors,
we will correct them. The principle is to insist on the truth and to correct
mistakes.
The History of the CPSU was published in 1938. Although the Soviet Union
achieved victory in 1917, the Central Committee did not publish the History of
the CPSU until 1938, after twenty-some years. We can see that it was not an easy
task. It is even more difficult to include all twenty-four years of history in this
short draft resolution on history. Certainly, we are still not writing Party history
but are mainly talking about the “Left” errors in the history of our Party. We are
also talking about the struggle between a line that is better suited to the interests
of the Chinese people, and another line which is partially suited to the interests of
the Chinese people and partially not. Furthermore, we are talking about the
struggle between proletarian thought and petty-bourgeois thought. After several
years of consideration, it is now the right time to solve this problem, so we wrote
a draft resolution to solve it. It is not yet the right time to resolve issues during the War of Resistance, so we will not solve them now. It is possible that we will
find fault with this draft resolution in the future, but the principle of curing the
illness and saving the patient will not be wrong.
Do the issues in the draft resolution on history concern the majority or the
minority? I would say that they concern the majority and they are issues
affecting the entire Party and the people of all China. Hence, we must be modest
and prudent instead of arrogant and impatient. These are issues concerning the
majority, and these are issues that concern ourselves. It is easy to solve the
problems of the minority. Take the listing of names, for example. It is not at all
difficult to list the names of one or two people, yet issues concerning the majority
cannot be solved that easily. We are very cautious this time while writing this
draft resolution on history.
We should also be like this on other issues. We must fight bravely, but we
must also be modest and prudent. The lessons of history demand that we be
modest and prudent. In the past, some comrades were very impatient and hoped
for the victory of the revolution tomorrow. But unfortunately, there was no
victory and instead it dragged on for ten years. Then we had 300,000 Party
members and several hundred thousand troops. Our heads became bloated, and
we became impatient. As a result, only northern Shaanxi was left. Some people
say that northern Shaanxi is not a good place because the land there is not fertile
and the people are poor. Nonetheless, I would say that we would not have been
able to pick ourselves back up without northern Shaanxi. I think that northern
Shaanxi is two points. It is a resting point and also a starting point. It is the glory
of the people in northern Shaanxi that the Seventh Congress is held here.
Northern Shaanxi has become a test region for all our work. All our work is first
tested here. We are holding the Seventh Party Congress here, and we are solving
historical problems here.
I would like to elaborate on cure the illness to save the patient. The doctrine of
cure the illness to save the patient states that the purpose of curing illnesses is to
save patients. People are originally healthy, but because they are infected with
germs, they become ill. They have to ask the doctor to examine them, and they
have to take some medicine. Then they are cured. It is impossible to save patients
without curing illnesses, and it is also impossible to cure illnesses without saving
the patients. Biases in either direction are no good and should be corrected. Every comrade should unite under this draft resolution on history, like the unity of a
harmonious family mentioned in the draft resolution. In the past we often said to
unite as one man. That was rhetoric used in writing. This time we say to unite as
a harmonious family. There is struggle in a family. The struggle in a new family
is solved through democracy. We should treat our comrades as our brothers and
sisters. We can gain comfort from this. When tired, we can take a rest here. We
can show our concern for each other and be very cordial to each other. As for
making mistakes, it is not just one or two people. Everyone has made mistakes. I
have also made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, and people’s mistakes vary
in seriousness. The draft resolution gives me all the credit. Therefore, I will
express some opinions about it. It is all right if credit is given to me as a
representative of the Party, but if I am praised as if I were the only person in the
Party, then our Party would not be a party. We must be aware that more often
than not the ranks are not very tidy. Thus we must often shout line up, line up
left, line up right, and line up center. We should line up with the standards of the
Central Committee and the congress. To keep up is the principle; deviations are a
fact of real life. When a deviation occurs, we will call for lining up. Nevertheless,
officers cannot beat soldiers. That is to say that there should be a correct
relationship between cadres and Party members. Within a rank, people’s thinking
at times is correct and at times is erroneous, and often it is not tidy. But we
should have a good attitude toward comrades who have made mistakes. It is rare
that someone is expelled from the family. Although it is still not clear what Ah
Q’s14 family name was, we have never heard that he once was expelled from his
family. Ah Q was very brave in the struggle. His shortcomings include
subjectivism, factionalism, Party formalism, and the lack of any spirit of selfcriticism. He wanted to expose the shortcomings of others, but he did not want
others to expose his own shortcomings. His dogmatism and Party formalism were
formidable. A long bench must be called a long bench and never a stool. Calling
it a stool is committing a line error. He was that dogmatic and relied that much
on Party formalism! Nonetheless, the author who wrote Ah Q still liked him
because the reactionaries executed him. Thus we should unite with those who
have shortcomings and have made mistakes.
There are two isms that often create trouble within the Communist Party: one
is dogmatism, and the other is empiricism. This resolution says that I have been attacked many times. I think it should be crossed out. It also says that the anti–
Luo Ming15 line was an attack on me. Although it is true, it is better to cross it
out. It is not necessary to write this. I made mistakes, too. In 1927 I wrote an
article. It had Marxist views, but it lacked a Marxist view on economic issues.
Thus, economic issues were discussed incorrectly.16 In addition, in more than
twenty years of work, I have made numerous mistakes on military and political
issues as well as in Party affairs. These are not recorded in it, but it is not denying
them. Because according to the actual history and the actual situation, I did make
mistakes. Another example is the writing of this draft resolution. It has been
rewritten many times. Without everyone’s opinion, it would not be so complete.
Most of us are the products of a semicolonial, semifeudal society. We have only
limited knowledge and limited skills. If you say that I have no skills whatsoever
and that I do not know anything about Marxism, I would have to disagree. A
Trotskyite named Ye Qing,17 who was once a Communist, said that Mao Zedong
did not know anything about Marxism-Leninism and that his only ism was Mao
Zedong-ism, which represented the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie. I do not
agree with this. He made it seem as if I had no Marxism-Leninism while he had
plenty, or even all. If you say I have huge piles of Marxism-Leninism, that is also
wrong. People shout “long live,” but I say that I am fifty-two years old. Certainly
such a long life is both unnecessary and inappropriate, but it does introduce a
task. We still have to go forward and still have to grow bigger. If I say that I
know a little about Marxism, that also introduces a task, and we must also move
forward. In the entire history of the world, there has never been knowledge or
things that are perfect and that do not develop further. The Earth is developing;
the sun is developing. This is the world. If development ceases, it would not be
the world. The whole universe is more advanced than in the past. After we do not
know how many millions and millions of years on Earth, living organisms,
animals, and humanity appeared. Moreover, humanity, in the course of a history
of hundreds of thousands of years, generated civilized society, capitalist society,
and socialist society. The Marxist view of the universe teaches us to understand
that in the future humanity will still progress to a Communist society. After the
new democratic society, China will continue to progress until there are no more
classes and no more political parties. The Communist Party and the Guomindang
will all become useless, as will the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth

Army. In the very distant future, the sun and the Earth will all be destroyed. New
things will appear after the old are destroyed. People with a Marxist perspective
must view issues this way. Nevertheless, do we still need politics today? Yes.
What is politics? Sun Yatsen said that politics is everyone’s affair. Scientifically
speaking, his words are incorrect. His words only have a revolutionary meaning,
which is anti-feudalism, because the politics of a feudal society is the dictatorial
rule by the emperor alone. Yet there were many people in primitive Communist
society but no politics. Politics did not begin until slave society. To some extent,
politics is class struggle. Engels said that there were three kinds of class struggle:
political struggle, economic struggle, and theoretical struggle. The last two
struggles also have political characteristics. Marxists should have this perspective.
This is the perspective of thorough revolution. Accordingly, we must go all out to
expand and strengthen the Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, and the
New Fourth Army through war and class struggle.
Nothing in this world is perfect. The son is closer to perfection than the father;
the grandson is closer to perfection than the son. Latecomers surpass those who
came before.
At this congress, many comrades were not elected as representatives and
cannot attend or audit. They are very anxious. In fact, this is not important. We
can explain everything to them. Take me for example, I “attended the First, the
Third, and the Fifth but was absent from the Second, the Fourth, and the Sixth.” I
did not attend any of the even numbered congresses. I attended the Fifth Party
Congress but did not have the power to vote. At that time, I was the secretary of
the Peasant Committee and proposed a draft resolution on the peasant
movement. The Central Committee did not pass it, and the Fifth Party Congress
did not adopt it either. Now the Party is fairer than in the past, but there will still
be unfair episodes.
This is to say that nothing is perfect. This gives us the task of progressing
toward perfection and toward relative truth. Nonetheless, we will never reach
absolute perfection and will never arrive at absolute truth. Therefore, we must
work tirelessly.
Now there is another “communist party,” which is an “extraordinary
committee” made up of some traitors gathered together by the Guomindang
espionage agency. They have already issued a declaration, and their slogan is to overthrow Mao Zedong. The enemy will surely make use of our resolution on
history after its publication. Nonetheless, we do not care whether they are going
to make use of it, we will still produce this resolution on history. We will not
listen to any provocation by any enemy. There might also be some provocations
by people with ill will within the Party. Do not be afraid of such provocations.
Within the Party and the revolutionary contingent, we have a principle, which is
unity, unity on the foundation of principle.
To sum up, our Party has achieved much in the past twenty-four years and
there have been great achievements. We must continue to grasp tightly the
weapons of Marxism and must have the spirit of self-criticism. The entire Party
should unite together as brothers and sisters and work hard for the victory of all
China. We will never give up until we achieve final victory!
Notes

---

Notes

Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 287–320, where it is reproduced from the July
16, 1981, issue of Renmin ribao.
Chinese Communist Party.
Revolution, he founded the Progressive Party (Jinbu dang), which became the Research Clique (Yanjiu xi) in
State Administrative Council of the Wang Jingwei puppet government.
Zhuangzi, ch. 4.
representative of the Communist International and of the Soviet government to serve as a political adviser to
the Guomindang. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1927.
overnments. In addition to the post mentioned by Mao, Tan served as the first internationally recognized
head of the Nanjing government of the Guomindang in 1928. Li Fuchun (1900–1975) was at this time deputy
head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

--- Notes

# Working Principles of the Seventh Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
# Date: 1945-04-21
# Source: en:MRP


several times. Zhu Zhixin (1885–1920) was a member of the Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmeng hui) and a
well-known democrat in modern China.
representative of the Communist Party in Xinjiang and the director of the Xinjiang Office of the Eighth
Route Army since 1939. Chen was captured by the warlord Sheng Shicai in 1942 and was secretly executed
in September 1943. Clearly, Mao did not yet have this news.
the Party in 1924. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he took the position of deputy head of the
the Party in 1922. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he took the positions of head of the
legislature, head of the State Administrative Council, and acting president of the Wang Jingwei puppet
“National Government.”
Secretary of the Fujian Party Committee in the Central Revolutionary Base Area, the “leftist” leaders labeled
his policies an “opportunist and escapist line.”
his 1927 “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” from which he excised some economic interpretations.
Mao’s original text and the changes are noted in our translation in Vol. II, pp. 429–64.

17. On Ye Qing, see above, note 14 to the text of March 22, 1944.


--- Notes

1. This is a report delivered by Mao Zedong at a preparatory meeting for the Seventh Congress of the

2. Liang Qichao (1873–1929) was an important activist in the Hundred Days Reform of 1898. After the 1911

1916. From 1902 to 1904, he edited Xinmin congbao (New Citizen Journal) in which he discussed Marx
3. On Zhang Guotao, see above, note 7 to the text of March 5, 1944.

7. See “Renjian shi” (The Realm of Human Interactions), in the ancient Chinese philosophical classic,

8. The resolution is translated in Saich, ed., Rise to Power, pp. 1164–79.
9. Mikhail Borodin (1884–1951) was a Russian diplomat. He went to China in October 1923 as

10. Tan Yankai (1880–1930), a noted Chinese military and political actor, was active in the early Republican

4. Chen Tanqiu (1896–1943) was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. He had been the

5. Zhou Fohai (1897–1948) attended the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, but quit

6. Chen Gongbo (1892–1946) attended the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, but quit

11. On Georgi Plekhanov, see above, note 6 to the text of April 20, 1945.

12. On Li Lisan, see above, text of March 30, 1942.

13. This is a set phrase in Chinese which Mao’s listeners knew meant “groundless fears.”

14. Ah Q is the protagonist in Lu Xun’s story “The True Story of Ah Q” (Ah Q zhengzhuan).

15. Luo Ming (1901–1987) was a senior Chinese Communist Party official. In 1933, when he was the acting

16. The editors of Mao Zedong wenji (Vol. 3, p. 302) suggest with an example that Mao is here referring to