Comments on the Draft Report Concerning Adjustments and Implementation of the Last Two Years of the Second Five-Year Plan (June 26, 1963)

To Comrade Enlai [1] for revision. I have reviewed this document [2] and find it acceptable. However, several passages from the Hangzhou Conference  [3] should not be adopted at this time. In addition, the statement on spring crops on page should be rewritten. Issued by Mao Zedong on June 26 based on the manuscript.

Notes [1] Enlai refers to Zhou Enlai. [2] This refers to Zhou Enlai’s “Draft Report on the Adjustment Plan for the Last Two Years of the Second Five-Year Plan and on the Implementation of the Plan,” submitted on June 9, 1963. On July 3, Li Fuchun, Vice Premier of the State Council and Director of the State Planning Commission, presented this report to the ninety-ninth meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

[ ] The passage on page six reads: “Class struggle, productive labor, and scientific experimentation are the three great revolutionary movements for building a powerful socialist country. They serve as a solid guarantee that Party members will remain free from bureaucracy, avoid revisionism and dogmatism, and thus stand invincible forever. They also provide a reliable basis for the proletariat to unite with the broad masses of working people and exercise democratic dictatorship.”

The two passages on pages thirty-five through thirty-seven state: “Correct ideas can only arise from social practice—specifically, from the three forms of practice: production, class struggle, and scientific experiment. A person’s social existence determines his or her thinking. Once the correct ideas representing the advanced class are grasped by the masses, they become a material force capable of transforming society and the world. Through their participation in various struggles in the course of social practice, people accumulate rich experience—both successful and unsuccessful. Countless phenomena of the external objective world are reflected in the human mind via the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Initially, this takes the form of sensory perception. As the accumulation of such perceptual material increases, a qualitative leap occurs, giving rise to rational understanding—this is thought. This constitutes the first stage of the cognitive process: the transition from objective reality to subjective consciousness, from being to thought. At this point, whether the ideas, theories, policies, plans, and methods then developed accurately reflect the laws governing the external world remains unproven; their correctness cannot yet be determined. Subsequently comes the second stage of the cognitive process—the transformation of thought back into material reality, of ideas into action—by putting the insights gained in the first stage to the test in actual social practice to see whether these theories, policies, plans, and measures can achieve the desired results. Generally speaking, success confirms correctness, while failure indicates error, particularly in humanity’s struggle against nature. In social struggles, forces representing the advanced class sometimes suffer setbacks not because their ideas are wrong, but because, in terms of the balance of power, the progressive side is temporarily inferior to the reactionary camp. Such temporary defeats do not preclude ultimate victory. When human cognition is subjected to the test of practice, another leap forward occurs. This leap is of even greater significance than the previous one, for it alone can definitively establish whether the initial leap—from the reflection of the external world into thought, theory, policy, planning, and other forms of conceptualization—was correct or incorrect; there is no other means of verifying truth. The proletariat’s purpose in seeking to understand the world is solely to transform it; there is no other aim. A correct understanding often requires repeated cycles of moving from matter to spirit and back again—from practice to cognition and from cognition back to practice—before it can be fully achieved. This is the Marxist theory of knowledge, the dialectical materialist epistemology.”

“Our comrades should receive education in the dialectical materialist theory of knowledge so that they may rectify their thinking, conduct thorough investigations and studies, draw lessons from experience, overcome difficulties, make fewer mistakes, perform their work more effectively, strive unremittingly to build a great socialist power, and assist the vast oppressed and exploited peoples of the world in fulfilling our noble internationalist duty.”

The passage on page forty-one states: “This current socialist education campaign is a great revolutionary movement. It encompasses not only questions of class struggle but also the issue of cadres participating in manual labor, as well as the task of adopting a rigorous scientific approach, conducting experiments, and learning how to solve a series of problems within enterprises and institutions. Though it may seem daunting, in reality, as long as we approach it with due seriousness, it is quite manageable. This struggle is aimed at re-educating the people and reorganizing the revolutionary ranks to mount a sharp, head-on counterattack against the rampant capitalist and feudal forces arrayed against us, suppressing their counterrevolutionary momentum and transforming the vast majority of those forces into new people. It also involves cadres and the masses jointly engaging in productive labor and scientific experimentation, thereby further enhancing the glory, greatness, and correctness of our Party and cultivating cadres who are both politically astute and professionally competent—‘red and expert’—rather than aloof officials detached from the masses, but rather genuine, dedicated leaders who are closely integrated with the people and enjoy their support. Upon completion of this educational campaign, a thriving, vibrant atmosphere will prevail throughout the country. With nearly one quarter of humanity now living under such conditions, our contribution to the internationalist cause will be greatly strengthened.”