I’ve read three articles, and they were all very well written. If you’re going to study philosophy, you should focus on practical, real-world philosophy; our older generation just isn’t up to it anymore.

The bourgeoisie talks about natural rights and human rights, but there are no such things as natural rights—these rights were won through revolution, won by the struggles of workers and the poor and lower-middle peasants. I hope those who study philosophy will go out and spend time in factories and in the countryside. I recently read an essay written by a student at Nanjing University after participating in the Four Cleansings Campaign; it was excellent. The writer had a keen ability to see through appearances to the essence. The essence is intangible and invisible; only through thorough investigation and research can it be grasped. Comrades should learn more—some botany, some soil science. Right now, I have serious doubts about university education. In college, you rarely encounter students who have worked in industry, agriculture, or commerce. After graduating, they still don’t know how workers make things or how farmers till the land, and their health has often been ruined in the process. I tell my own children to study agriculture or business; once they’ve finished, they should go straight to the countryside and say, “I’ve come here to make up for what I missed.”

Universities today require far too long a period of study. A child learns to speak by age two, starts fighting by three, and by five can already observe his parents working in the fields, acquiring a wealth of basic concepts from an early age. Education today is far too divorced from reality. University education must be greatly improved: we shouldn’t spend so much time in school, especially in the humanities. Otherwise, people studying philosophy won’t really understand philosophy, those studying history won’t truly grasp history, and humanities majors will be unable to write coherent essays. College students ought to go to factories and the countryside, serve in the army at the company level, and gain direct experience of real life. After graduating from high school, they should first spend a few years doing practical work before returning to formal study. Most great inventors in the past did not come from universities.

Philosophy is indeed a subject worthy of serious study. Engels outlined two principles of dialectics, while Stalin identified four; in my view, there is really only one—namely, the unity of opposites. What does “synthesis” mean? In my understanding, synthesis means absorbing and overcoming the enemy. And what is “analysis”? Taking apart a crab—to eat the meat and leave behind the shell—that’s analysis. Analysis and synthesis are inseparable. Everything has a dual nature: it contains both positive and negative aspects. People like Yang Xianzhen ought to be sent down to the grassroots to help them undergo reeducation. Formal logic is a specialized discipline, but combining it with dialectics simply doesn’t make sense. In short, reform of the humanities in universities is absolutely necessary; otherwise, we will give rise to revisionism.