Preface to the 1941 Chinese Edition of «Rural Surveys»

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Preface to the 1941 Chinese Edition of «Rural Surveys» has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• Preface and Postscript to «Rural Surveys», in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Preface to «Rural Surveys», in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is the preface written by Comrade Mao Zedong to the 1941 Chinese Edition of the collection Rural Surveys, which compiled a number of reports on surveys he conducted in the Central Red Base Area in the early 1930s.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#PREFACE TO THE 1941 CHINESE EDITION OF RURAL SURVEYS

#Mao Zedong

#17th of March, 1941

#★

Publication of this material has been delayed until now, and the Xunwu survey has again been lost.

The present rural policy of the Party is not one of agrarian revolution, as during the ten years' civil war, but is a rural policy for the Anti-Japanese National United Front. The whole Party should carry out the Central Committee's directives of the 7th of July and 25th of December, 1940,¹ and the directives of the forthcoming Seventh National Congress. The following material is being published, on the one hand, to preserve the historical record, and, on the other hand, to help comrades find a method for studying problems. Many of our comrades still have a crude and careless style of work, do not seek to understand things thoroughly and may even be completely ignorant of conditions at the lower levels, and yet they are responsible for directing work. This is an extremely dangerous state of affairs. Without a really concrete knowledge of the actual conditions of the classes in Chinese society, there can be no really good leadership.

The only way to know conditions is to conduct social research, to research the conditions of each social class in real life. For those charged with leading work, the fundamental method for knowing conditions is to concentrate on a few cities and villages according to a plan, use the fundamental standpoint of Marxism, that is, the method of class analysis, and make a number of thorough surveys. Extremely extensive surveys are impossible and unnecessary. Only thus can we acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge of China's social problems.

To do this, first, direct your eyes downward, do not hold your head high and gaze at the sky. Unless a person is interested in turning their eyes downward and is determined to do so, they will never in their whole life really understand things in China.

Second, hold fact-finding meetings. Certainly, no all-round knowledge can be acquired merely by glancing this way and that and listening to hearsay. Of the data I obtained through fact-finding meetings, those on Hunan Province and on the Jinggang Mountains have been lost. The Survey of Xunwu County was brought to Yan'an and has disappeared again. The materials published here consist mainly of the Survey of Xingguo County, the Survey of Changgang Township, and the Survey of Caixi Township. By looking at these three, the reader can understand the method by which material may be found. Holding fact-finding meetings is the simplest, most practicable, and most reliable method, from which I have derived much benefit; it is a better school than any university. Those attending such meetings should be really experienced cadres of middle and lower ranks, or ordinary people. In my surveys of five counties in Hunan Province and two counties in the Jinggang Mountains, I approached responsible cadres of middle rank; in the Xunwu survey, I approached cadres of the middle and lower ranks, a poor xiucai,² a bankrupt ex-president of the chamber of commerce, and a low-level official in charge of county revenue who had lost his job. All of these people gave me a great deal of information I had never even heard of. The person who for the first time gave me a complete picture of the rottenness of Chinese jails was a lowly jailer I met during my investigation in Hengshan County, Hunan. In my surveys of Xingguo County and Changgang and Caixi townships, I approached comrades working at the township level and ordinary peasants. These cadres, the peasants, the xiucai, the jailer, the merchant, and the revenue clerk were all my esteemed teachers, and as their pupil, I had to be respectful and diligent and comradely in my attitude; otherwise, they would have paid no attention to me, and, though they knew, would not have spoken or, if they spoke, would not have told all they knew. A fact-finding meeting need not be large; from three to five or seven or eight people are enough. Ample time must be allowed and an outline for the survey must be prepared; furthermore, one must personally ask questions, take notes, and have discussions with those at the meeting. Therefore, one certainly cannot conduct a survey, or do it well, without zeal, a determination to direct one's eyes downward, and a thirst for knowledge, and without shedding the ugly mantle of pretentiousness and becoming a willing pupil. It has to be understood that the masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding, it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.

I should like to repeat that the main purpose of publishing this reference material is to indicate a method for finding out the conditions prevailing at the lower levels; it is not to have comrades memorize the specific material and the conclusions drawn from it. Speaking generally, the infant bourgeoisie of China has not been able, and never will be able, to provide relatively comprehensive or even rudimentary material on social conditions, as the bourgeoisie in Europe, North America, and Japan has done; we have therefore no alternative but to collect it ourselves. Speaking specifically, people engaged in practical work must at all times keep abreast of changing conditions, and this is something for which no Communist Party in any country can depend on others. Therefore, everyone engaged in practical work must investigate conditions at the lower levels. Such investigation is especially necessary for those who know theory, but do not know the actual conditions, for otherwise, they will not be able to link theory with practice. Although my assertion, «No investigation, no right to speak»,³ has been ridiculed as «narrow empiricism», to this day, I do not regret having made it; what is more, I still insist that, without investigation, there cannot possibly be any right to speak. There are many people who, «the moment they alight from the official carriage», make a hullabaloo, spout opinions, criticize this, and condemn that; but, in fact, ten out of ten of them will meet with failure. For such views or criticisms, which are not based on thorough investigation, are nothing but ignorant twaddle. Countless times our Party suffered at the hands of these «imperial envoys», who rushed here, there, and everywhere. Stalin rightly says that «theory becomes purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practice».⁴ And he rightly adds that «practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illumined by revolutionary theory».⁴ Nobody should be labelled a «narrow empiricist» except the «practical person», who gropes in the dark and lacks perspective and foresight.

Today, I still feel keenly the necessity for thorough research into Chinese and world affairs; this is related to the scantiness of my own knowledge of Chinese and world affairs and does not imply that I know everything and that others are ignorant. It is my wish to go on being a pupil, learning from the masses, together with all other Party comrades.