Comments on the Article “Sources and Developmental Lines of Greek Ethical Thought” (September 15, 1962) Comrade Shaoqi [1]: This article [2] may be read if you have the time and interest.
After reading it, please pass it on to Comrade Chen Boda [3] for his review.
Then return it to me.
Mao Zedong September 15 What is called ethics, or moral philosophy, is a branch of the social sciences; it deals with the diverse moral standards of different classes in society and serves as an instrument of class struggle.
Its fundamental subject matter concerns good and evil—loyalty and treachery, excellence and inferiority.
What the ruling class regards as good, the ruled class will invariably see as evil, and vice versa.
The same holds true in our own society.
Printed from the manuscript.
Notes [1] Shaoqi refers to Liu Shaoqi. [2] This article, written by Zhou Fucheng, a professor at Peking University, was published in the Wen Hui Bao on September 9, 1962.
It addresses four main issues: the origin of ethics in class struggle; the characteristics determined by life in a slave society; the forms of expression centered on “the Doctrine of the Mean” and “harmony”; and the questions and schools of thought that have been debated.

[3] Chen Boda was then a candidate member of the CPC Central Political Bureau, director of the Central Political Research Office, and Mao Zedong’s secretary.