Comment on Yang Xianzhen’s Letter Concerning the Philosophical Teaching Experience of the Marxist-Leninist Academy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
(September 8, 1955)

I read this letter with great interest.

Mao Zedong
September 8

[1]
Glezerman, then Director and Professor of the Teaching and Research Office of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism at the Academy of Social Sciences directly under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

[2]
Yang Xianzhen, former Vice President of the Marxist-Leninist Academy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (the predecessor of the Central Party School of the CPC), and President of the Central Party School from April 1955.

[3]
Refers to Glezerman’s letter to Yang Xianzhen dated August 1, 1955. The letter states:
At a meeting of our Teaching and Research Office of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, we discussed the materials you sent us: *Summary of the Philosophical Teaching of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Classes of the Second Department of the Marxist-Leninist Academy* and *Experience in Philosophical Teaching in the Second Department of the Marxist-Leninist Academy*. We studied your experience with great interest. First of all, we consider most valuable your sharp opposition to dogmatic and empiricist tendencies in study. The dogmatic tendency confines the study of Marxism-Leninism to the rote memorization and recitation of concepts and terms, while neglecting their connection with practical activity; the empiricist tendency belittles the significance of studying theory. The integration of theory and practice is the most valuable aspect of your experience. This is entirely in keeping with the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, and at the same time, this method can elucidate theoretical principles in the form most easily understood by students. Comrades participating in the discussion also stressed the great value of your profound and concrete study of the students. It is also very valuable in pointing out the organic connection between worldview and practical work and the Party’s work style, and in taking it as a guide to action. We believe that organically linking the study of theory with the implementation of the principles of criticism and self-criticism is also an important and valuable experience. During the discussion of the materials you sent, comrades also spoke about the Soviet experience in teaching philosophy. The history of the study and teaching of philosophy in the Soviet Union shows us that, first, it is necessary to oppose the separation of theory from practice, which was a characteristic inherent in the idealism of a section of the Mensheviks in the Soviet Union at that time. Second, it is necessary to oppose simplistic interpretations of linking theory with practice. In the early 1930s, criticism was launched in our Party journals, criticizing the attempt to directly attach dialectics to any technical department by labeling practical work sectors—for example, fisheries, the steel industry—with categories of dialectics. The danger of such a simplistic understanding of linking theory with practice, which we speak of, still exists in the current process of teaching dialectical and historical materialism. Comrades have noted this situation: errors in practical work are not always the result of defects in people’s worldview. Of course, erroneous strategies in political struggle have their theoretical roots. However, if we try to deduce conclusions of idealism, metaphysics, individualism, etc., from all errors of a practical nature, then we risk embarking on a path of simplification to some degree. Some comrades also raised the question: if possible, when studying dialectical and historical materialism, it would be beneficial to cite some materials from the history of Chinese philosophy. When you study Marxist philosophy, you combine the general principles of dialectical and historical materialism, and the strategy and tactics of Marxism-Leninism, with the assessment and analysis of your country’s historical development, and with the study of Chinese history and the history of the Communist Party of China. This is extremely valuable experience. We believe that it is precisely this path that can open the broadest possibilities for the organic connection between Marxist-Leninist philosophy and the policies of the Communist Party. This letter was later published in *People’s Daily* on September 17, 1955.