Oppose Book Worship

In May 1930, Mao Zedong wrote an article to oppose dogmatism in the Red Army, at that time, the original title was "On Investigation Work". At that time, instead of using the term "dogmatism", the term "book-worshipping" was used. A lithograph of the work was printed and distributed in August 1930. In 1964, when Selected Readings of Mao Zedong's Works (Edition A) was published, Mao Zedong revised the text and partially supplemented the contents of the work, and changed the title as "Oppose Book Worship". In 1986 it was included in the Selected Readings of Mao Zedong's Works (Part Ⅰ) and in 1991 the article was included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1.

At the beginning of 1929, the front Committee of the Fourth Red Army printed and distributed the resolution of the Sixth Congress of the Party within its ranks, while the troops were leaving Jinggang Mountains to open up bases in southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian. At that time, in the Red Army there was a wrong idea that the Red Army would be invincible as long as it followed the original principles of Marxism and the decisions of the Sixth National Congress, and therefore was content with the present situation rather than going deep into the society to make a practical investigation among the masses of people.

Therefore, Mao Zedong wrote this article to criticize this kind of erroneous thought. The article consists of seven parts: (1) No investigation, no right to speak; (2) Investigation should aim to solve problems; (3) Oppose dogmatism of the book worship; (4) Without a factual investigation, there is bound to be an idealist appraisal of class forces and idealist guidance in work, resulting either in opportunism or in putschism; (5) The aim of social and economic investigation is to arrive at a correct appraisal of class forces and then to formulate correct tactics for the struggle; (6) The victory of the Chinese revolutionary struggle depends on the comrades' correct understanding of China's situation; (7) Explained the ways of investigation. It can be seen from the above that Mao Zedong, standing at the height of Marxist epistemology and Marxist methodology, expounded the extreme importance of investigation and research. He stressed that investigation and research are the first steps in all work, comrades should avoid making judgements without investigation, and only by investigating the history and current situation of a problem, comrades can find a solution to the problem.

In the same way, if the Party wants to make correct class estimation and formulate correct struggle strategies, such a result can only be achieved by investigating the political and economic conditions of all classes and their mutual relations. The article pointed out that without such a factual investigation, class estimation and work guidance produced by the army would be idealistic and the result would be either opportunism or putschism .

It is quite wrong to take a formalistic and bookish dogmatic attitude to blindly carry out directives without discussing and examining them in the light of actual conditions simply because they come from a “higher organ”. To carry out a directive of a higher organ blindly, and seemingly without any disagreement, is not really to carry it out but is the most artful way of opposing or sabotaging it.

Obviously, the article has put forward the“ideological line that the Communists should create a favourable new situation through struggle”, they should be careful to timely understand the changes in social situation and conduct social investigation and pay attention to combine the basic principles of Marxism with the actual conditions. The article also introduced the techniques of investigation and research, including how to hold a good fact-finding meeting, whom to invite to the meeting, how many people to attend, and how to prepare the detailed outline of investigation in advance. In particular, the article pointed out that the cadres in the leading positions must go out of the doors and "must personally undertake investigation into the specific social and economic conditions and not merely rely on reading reports. For investigation and reading reports are two entirely different things”. Moreover, the investigation work must be in-depth, " Deep probing into a particular place or problem will make future investigation of other places or problems easier.”

“The investigator should not only preside at fact-finding meetings and give proper guidance to those present, but should also make his own notes and record the results himself. To have others do it for him is no good.” We can say that, the living soul of Mao Zedong Thought, namely, seeking truth from facts, the mass line and independence, has taken shape in this article. Sticking to the principle of independence and self-reliance is the necessary outcome we achieve by depending upon China's reality and relying upon the masses in our revolution and construction. It occupies an important position in the history of the formation of Mao Zedong Thought, and the Marxist ideological line and working methods put forward in this article constitute a great and long-term guiding significance for the party's construction.