We Must Still Prepare to Bump Our Heads
(August 23, 1961)

What we are sure of and have a complete set of experience in is still the democratic revolution. The democratic revolution was carried out for several decades, passing through Chen Duxiu’s mistakes, three “Left” deviationist errors, and then the Right deviationist errors during the War of Resistance Against Japan—that is to say, we committed many mistakes and bumped our heads many times. Finally, through the Yan’an Rectification, we worked out a set of theories and concrete policies recognized by all. Regarding the democratic revolution, that is, class struggle, including its political, military, economic, and cultural aspects, we have a complete set of experience.

When it comes to socialism, we are not very clear. The “Sixty Articles” on the work of the people’s communes deal with ownership, distribution, and relations among people—all about how to carry out socialism. As to how well this problem has been solved, you say we already have a set of solutions, but I am still not quite convinced. Do not superstitiously believe that the set of solutions worked out at the Guangzhou Conference and the Beijing Conference has thoroughly solved the problem. In my view, we must still bump our heads for three more years, and we must still bump our heads hard. Will the nation perish? No. Will we suffer many setbacks and failures? Definitely. We have already suffered setbacks and failures and bumped our heads, but we have not bumped them enough; we must still bump them. Let us try for another two or three years to see whether we can work out a set of solutions. Regarding socialism, we now have some understanding, but we are still not very clear. We are carrying out socialism while learning as we build; only by carrying out socialism can we gain experience in socialism.