(1) Now is in a period of transition: from class struggle to struggle with nature, from revolution to construction, from the past revolution to technological revolution and cultural revolution.


Many people still do not recognize this and still attempt to treat new problems with past methods.
Distinguish between two types of contradictions: one cannot use the method of resolving the first type of contradiction to resolve the second type of contradiction.
Openly admit contradictions; Lenin admitted the existence of contradictions in socialist society.
Stalin did not admit it, confused the two types of problems, and only theoretically admitted it before his death, but actually doing it was another matter.


(2) How to resolve contradictions, how to handle people making trouble? The first type of contradiction still exists; rightist viewpoints must be prevented, but do not exaggerate them.
The second type of contradiction is becoming prominent; among comrades, there are both "left" and right observations.
Regard strikes, class boycotts, parades, demonstrations, and petitions as a method of adjusting social order.


(3) Overall planning and comprehensive consideration, appropriate arrangements, and strengthening ideological education.
Six hundred million and five million [2] – left, middle, and right.
It would be very good if we could win over one-third – one and a half million people – to genuinely accept Marxism in about three five-year plans.
Move the middle-of-the-roaders further.
We must use them, otherwise we cannot move a single step.
Can the Communist Party not lead science? We must learn culture (science, technology), learn construction.
Can we learn science and technology? Just like in the past, we can learn it.


(4) Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend, long-term coexistence, mutual supervision.
To release or to restrain? To speak or to suppress? We must be good at persuasion, we must learn to convince people with reason (the article by the four people [3]).
Will there be chaos? Will we be criticized and overthrown? What to do with the poison?


(5) Serve the workers and peasants, integrate with the masses, not two separate entities.
The main criteria for testing intellectuals: one heart, half a heart (inside and outside the Party).
Strive for seventy percent to go down to factories and the countryside.
Our cadres must frequently go down to factories and the countryside.


(6) We must launch discussions, rectification campaigns, the formula of unity, criticism, unity, and its history of development.
Who is afraid of criticism? Ah Q [4].
Inside and outside the Party, and together with those outside the Party.
We must use those outside the Party.
We must speak sincerely; do not have two sets of standards for many things.
We must struggle arduously (adjusting wages, decline of revolutionary will, competing for fame and profit, building a home from scratch).
We must cultivate the habit of learning.
Principle and flexibility (making trouble, poison has benefits).
Advance towards new tasks, do not forget the enemy, do not forget politics (politics is the soul of man).
If we are not careful, it is very likely that in a few years, political interest will decline, and political awareness will not be high, so we must strengthen it.
The Guomindang, the democratic parties.
Who is afraid of criticism? The Communist Party, China should be a country where dialectics develops.
If we adopt the current policy, literature and art, science and technology will flourish and develop, the Party will always maintain its vitality, the people's cause will prosper, and China will become a great and powerful country that is also approachable.


Printed according to Mao Zedong's manuscript.


Notes


[1] Mao Zedong made speeches at meetings of Party member cadres in Nanjing and Shanghai on March 20, 1957.


[2] Refers to the then national population of six hundred million and five million intellectuals.


[3] Refers to the article "Some Opinions on the Current Literary and Art Work" written by Chen Qitong, Chen Yading, Ma Hanbing, and Lu Le, published in the January 7, 1957, *People's Daily*.


[4] Ah Q, the protagonist in Lu Xun's novel *The True Story of Ah Q*.