Third Talk

1966

[Chairman Mao:] Formerly, I was principal of a primary school, and a teacher in a middle school. I am also a member of the Central Committee, and was once a department chief for the Kuomintang.[2] But when I went to the rural areas and spent some time with the peasants, I was deeply struck by how many things they knew. I realized their knowledge was wide, and I was no match for them, but should learn from them. To say the least, you are not a member of the Central Committee, are you? How can you know more than the peasants? When you return, tell your political commissar that I said from now on you should go to the countryside once each year. There are great advantages in this!

You don’t understand dialectics; you don’t understand that one divides into two. Formerly, you thought you were something extraordinary, and now you do not think you are worth a tinker’s damn. Both views are wrong.

Those who are guilty of errors should be encouraged. When someone who has made errors sees his mistakes, you should point out his good points. Actually, he will still have many good points. Those who have made errors should be washed clean in warm water. If it is too hot they can’t stand it; warm water is most suitable. Young people who make mistakes should not be dismissed. Dismissal harms them, and there cannot be any confrontations. People like Pu-yi and K’ang Tse[3] were transformed. Among the young people who have not been transformed are some Party members and some [Youth] League members. To dismiss them would be to simplify matters to excess.

At the Institute are you a leftist? I saw an article praising you.[4] To have people flatter you is no good at all. Young people like you should be told off. If they tell you off too little it won’t do. Everything is subject to this kind of compulsion. When I wrote XXX, I was compelled to do it. If I had to write it now, I could not do it.

What do we mean by advanced? To be advanced is to do the work of the backward, to analyse those who are around us, to be intent on making inquiries and making friends wherever we go. Our young people must study dialectics, and master the use of dialectics in analysing problems. Take me, for example. I am not at all more intelligent than others, but I understand dialectics and I know how to use it in analysing problems. If we use dialectics to analyse an unclear problem, the problem becomes clear in a trice. You must diligently study dialectics, its efficacy is very great.

Notes

[1.]
For the first talk see pp. 111-119 in this volume.

[2.]
Mao was acting head of the Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee in 1925-6.

[3.]
K’ang Tse was one of the leaders of Chiang Kai-shek’s Blue Shirts, with particular responsibility for the Special Task Force which was engaged in the 1930s in propaganda, security, and combat support activities in areas where the Kuomintang was fighting the communists.

[4.]
Mao Yüan-hsin was a Red Guard leader at the Institute in Harbin during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution. In January 1967, when a Revolutionary Committee was set up in Heilungkiang Province, he became director of the Propaganda Department. In the spring of 1967, he moved to Liaoning Province, and became Vice-Chairman of the Liaoning Revolutionary Committee in May 1968. At the Tenth Congress in August 1973, he was a member of the presidium.