Chairman Mao's article was written in August 1937. At that time, due to the outbreak of the Xi incident, the anti-Japanese situation came, and due to the unremitting efforts of domestic producers, the anti-Japanese national United front was formed. However, due to the influence of left opportunism represented by Wang Ming in Jiangxi Central Soviet Area before the Long March, subjectivism and dogmatism within the party spread until the Red Army's Long March reached northern Shaanxi. The historic Zunyi Conference held on the way to the Long March eliminated the left opportunists represented by Wang Ming and established Comrade Mao Zedong's leading position in the whole party, but it did not pay much for the subjectivism and dogmatism that these people caused in the party. Therefore, Comrade Mao Zedong wrote two articles, On Contradiction and On Practice, to illustrate the harm of subjectivism and dogmatism and unify the thinking of the whole Party. It can be said that these two articles are philosophical generalizations and summaries of China's revolutionary experience and lessons since the founding of the Party. Since the first day of its establishment, our Party has taken Marxism as its guiding ideology. However, the general principles of Marxism can not provide ready-made formulas and answers for any country's revolution, especially the China Revolution, which has great complexity and particularity. Therefore, we can't eat a few words in Marxist-Leninist works rigidly and dogmatically, let alone copy some practices of the October Revolution of the Soviet Union. Only by adhering to the universal truth of Marxism–Leninism and proceeding from the reality of China can we find a road suitable for the China revolution.
In the world, no matter what things develop, there are contradictions. It can be said that a world without contradictions does not exist, not only in nature, but also in the development of revolutionary cause. I remember when our party was just founded, the Bolsheviks who studied in the Soviet Union, lived in foreign houses, drank foreign milk and ate foreign bread did not proceed from the national conditions of China, but blindly obeyed the unrealistic instructions of the * * * production international, stiffly and rigidly applied some "experiences" of the October Revolution of the Soviet Union, and even hired Li, a foreign consultant sent by the * * production international, to direct the Red Army's operations, resulting in the fourth and fourth central Soviet areas. All this fully shows that no matter what you do, you should proceed from reality and not engage in metaphysics, because it is an unrealistic idealistic theory. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "The so-called metaphysical or vulgar view of the world is to look at the world from an isolated, static and one-sided point of view. This world view regards everything in the world, the form and type of everything, as being isolated from each other forever and unchanging forever. " From this passage of Comrade Mao Zedong, we can easily see that no matter what problems we look at, we should proceed from reality and look at them dialectically. Only in this way can we find a solution to the problem under the condition of adhering to the principle, which is the theoretical viewpoint of dialectical materialism. Moreover, everything has its own contradictions. Without contradiction, there would be no world. The problem is how to solve contradictions, whether natural changes or social changes. Therefore, we should not only look at superficial phenomena, but also dig, study and explore from the inside. Only in this way can we find a solution to the problem. Because, "the fundamental reason for the development of things is not outside things, but inside things, which lies in the contradictions inside things." It can be said that Comrade Mao Zedong's speech really hit the nail on the head. Take the social status quo of China at that time as an example. On the surface, China is a big agricultural country, and the strength of more than 300 million farmers cannot be ignored. However, this is not the case. All cultivated land is in the hands of big bureaucrats and landlords, and farmers can only rent the land of landlords. Apart from paying the rent, there is not much food left all year round. It can't solve the problem of food and clothing for a family. It can be said that under normal circumstances, six months is a year's grain, not to mention catching up with the disaster year. It can be said that in the case of disaster, if you don't pay the rent, then the landlords who brutally exploit and oppress farmers will take back the land you rent, and even force you to sell your children and girls, thus destroying your family. People can't live any longer. It can be said that the government forces the people to rebel, which will naturally lead to internal contradictions, and these contradictions will inevitably promote social progress. Isn't it? In old China, people lived in dire straits because of the cruel exploitation and oppression of big bureaucrats, big landlords and the bourgeoisie. At this time, the China * * * Production Party was born, which represents the fundamental interests of all the exploited and oppressed people in China. Its birth brought hope and dawn to the people of semi-feudal and semi-colonial China, but the China Producer Party did not live up to the people's hopes and led the people of China to bathe for 28 years. In the end, it overthrew imperialism and Kuomintang reactionaries, overthrew the three mountains that weighed on the people of China, and established People's Republic of China (PRC) where the people were masters of their own affairs. All these fully confirmed what Comrade Mao Zedong said: "Social change is mainly due to the development of contradictions within society, namely, the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production, the contradiction between classes, and the contradiction between old and new. Due to the development of these contradictions, it has promoted social progress and promoted the metabolism of old and new societies. " It can be said that Comrade Mao Zedong is really right, because there is no contradiction in the world, and we can only promote social development and progress in the process of constantly solving contradictions.
Moreover, Comrade Mao Zedong also emphasized in this article that "materialist dialectics holds that external cause is the condition of change, internal cause is the basis of change, and external cause works through internal cause." It can be said that this argument is really incisive. Take the failure of the 1927 Great Revolution as an example. It was Chiang Kai-shek who betrayed Dr. Sun Yat-sen and rebelled against the revolution. However, this is also inseparable from the right opportunism represented by Chen Duxiu in the Party at that time. If we had our own revolutionary armed forces at that time, we would not have been defeated by the Great Revolution, let alone the "April 12th" counter-revolutionary coup in which the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek slaughtered * * * producers. Similarly, in Jiangxi Central Soviet Area, the fourth and fifth counter-campaigns against "encirclement and suppression" would not have failed if we had not blindly believed in some "experiences" of the Soviet Union and those instructions that did not conform to the actual situation in China. It can be said that it is abhorrent for international leaders who live in foreign houses, eat foreign bread and drink foreign milk in Moscow to issue unrealistic so-called "instructions" about the China revolution without investigation and study. However, without the rules and regulations of Marxist-Leninist works in the party and the instructions of international production, it is impossible to steal the main leadership positions of the Central Committee. Therefore, Comrade Mao Zedong's statement that "external factors play a role through internal factors" is completely correct. From this point of view, "a political party must rely on the correctness of its own political line and organizational consolidation to lead the revolution to victory."
Engels, the great revolutionary teacher, said: "The movement itself is a contradiction." Yes, the development of the whole earth world from ancient times to the present is also spent in contradictions. Without contradiction, there would be no world. Isn't it? This development from primitive society to slave society, from slave society to feudal society, from feudal society to capitalist society, from capitalist society to socialist society is full of contradictions from beginning to end. It can be said that according to Lenin, "the tendency to know (discover) all phenomena and processes in nature (including spirit and society) will be contradictory, mutually exclusive and opposite", isn't it? Take feudal society and capitalist society as examples. In the development of productive forces and relations of production, feudal society is much stronger than primitive society and slave society. However, due to some factors in system, ideology and even culture, science and technology can not develop, which greatly affects the development of society and leads to the failure to improve people's living standards, resulting in contradictions, that is, the contradiction between backward social productive forces and people's growing material needs, and thus gradually transition to. In capitalist society, productivity and relations of production have been greatly developed, science and technology have been greatly improved, and people's ideological and cultural horizons have been greatly broadened. However, due to the cruel exploitation and oppression of the working people by big bureaucrats and big capitalists, the workers work for more than ten hours every day, but they still do not have enough to eat and wear. After a month, the wages earned by capitalists can't support their families at all. Therefore, in this case, some people with lofty ideals who are interested in social change will first stand up and explore ways to change this situation. All these fully show that the development of the whole world for thousands of years has been spent in a process full of contradictions. Without contradictions, there can be no development of the world. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "The interdependence and struggle of contradictions contained in everything determines the life of everything and promotes the development of everything. Nothing does not contain contradictions, and there is no world without contradictions. "
Just now we talked about the emergence and existence of contradictions in everything in the world, and also talked about the development of our party. Chen Duxiu's right opportunism appeared in the first Sino-Japanese cooperation period, which led to the failure of the Great Revolution. Left opportunism, represented by Wang Ming, occupied a central dominant position in Jiangxi Central Soviet Area, which led to the failure of the fourth and fifth counter-campaigns against "encirclement and suppression" and forced the Red Army to carry out the 25,000-mile long March. It can be said that our party is also full of twists and turns in the process of growth and expansion, and it is also full of contradictions and contradictions. Otherwise, the producers in China, represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, have saved our Party from peril again and again. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "Contradictions and struggles between different ideas within the Party often occur, which is a reflection of social class contradictions and contradictions between old and new things within the Party. If there are no contradictions within the party and there is no ideological struggle to save them, the life of the party will stop. " Yes, everything in the world is constantly developing in the process of constantly generating and solving contradictions. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "contradiction is universal and absolute. It exists in all the processes of things' development and runs through all the processes".
"Different contradictions can only be solved by different qualitative methods." Comrade Mao Zedong's assertion points out the direction for us to solve contradictions of different natures. The causes and nature of the contradictions arising from what happened in this vast world are different, so the solutions are different, and we can't use a "one size fits all" approach to solve them. For example, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie must be solved by the method of socialist revolution; This contradiction within our party must be resolved through criticism and self-criticism; In the specific historical period of reform and opening up, some people got rich first, but most people just solved the problem of food and clothing, and some people are still on the poverty line, so there is a contradiction of polarization between the rich and the poor. To solve this contradiction, we can only rely on economic development. Only when the economy develops, jobs increase and people's income increases can people's lives be improved and the contradiction between the rich and the poor be solved.
In addition, there are different contradictions in different periods. Every step forward in history, old contradictions are solved and new contradictions are created. Therefore, every day of our lives is spent in solving contradictions, and we also use different methods to solve different contradictions. For example, during the planned economy period, especially from the 1950s to the early 1990s, the grain and oil consumed by Chinese residents were rationed, that is, half a catty of oil and twenty-seven kilograms of rations per person per month. Especially flour and rice, rice and white flour together, can only exceed five or six kilograms per month. It can be said that people's lives were quite bitter at that time. Although the grain per catty is more than two or three cents, the price is lower, but people can't eat more flour and rice, which can be said to be miserable. After the reform and opening up, the economy has developed and the people's living standards have been greatly improved. In the early 1990s, the "grain capital" was abolished and the supply of grain and oil was opened. Now people can't see coarse grains such as sorghum and corn flour on the dining table, but this is good, but people are complaining again. What are you complaining about? It turns out that although we can buy food within the open range without the cost of food, the price has come up, one time it is this price, and the other time it is that price, which makes people feel desperate and complain incessantly: it is better to have the cost of food! Although people's understanding of this matter is extreme, it is indeed a contradiction in the new historical period. This contradiction is that during the planned economy period, our economy did not develop, and the people had to eat grain and oil, but they could not eat a few kilograms of rice and white flour every month; In the period of market economy, although this problem was solved, the price of grain and oil came up again. Although this is normal under the condition of market economy, to solve this contradiction, we must strive to realize agricultural modernization and increase grain output. Only in this way can we produce more and better food to meet the people's growing material needs. At the same time, we should vigorously develop the national economy, raise people's income and make people's pockets swell. It's the only way. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "The process has changed, the old process and the old contradiction have disappeared, and the new process and the new contradiction have appeared, so the methods to solve the contradiction are different ... This is a principle that Marxists must strictly abide by."
Moreover, when we solve problems, we should analyze specific problems, and we can't look at problems one-sidedly and copy certain rules and regulations. For example, after the establishment of 1949 People's Republic of China (PRC), we implemented the policy of peaceful redemption for the factories and enterprises set up by capitalists in cities, which was very different from the confiscation and confiscation of capitalist property by the Soviet government after the victory of the October Revolution. The reason why our Party did this on this issue is because Comrade Mao Zedong proceeded from China's national conditions and solved China's own problems in a realistic way. If we follow the dogmatic approach, then we have to copy the Soviet approach in this respect. If we do this, it will be counterproductive, we will not achieve our goal, and nothing will go wrong. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, "the living soul of Marxism lies in analyzing concrete situations ... to study problems and avoid subjectivity, one-sidedness and superficiality".
In short, by studying the article "On Contradictions", I have realized that everything in the world has contradictions from beginning to end in its development process, and these contradictions are different. Therefore, we should suit the remedy to the case, grasp the main aspects of the main contradictions and contradictions, and solve different contradictions according to different situations, instead of sticking to the rigid dogma in Marxist-Leninist works, and establish the Marxist ideological line of seeking truth from facts and integrating theory with practice. Only by combining the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete practice of China Revolution can we overcome subjectivism and dogmatism and make the ship of China Revolution sail in the right direction, braving the wind and waves and forge ahead courageously. In a word, the article "On Contradictions" is another important theoretical achievement of our party against subjectivism, especially against dogmatism. It has extremely important theoretical guiding significance not only in the past, but also in today's comprehensive socialist modernization.