Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys

In March and April of 1941, Mao Zedong wrote the preface and postscript for his "Rural Survey". It is later included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 3. In order to help the whole Party to master the correct method of combining Marxist theory with China's reality, thoroughly clear up the harm of dogmatism and further strengthen the Party's construction, Mao Zedong compiled 11 pieces of the investigation and research materials written by himself from 1930 to 1934 and expounded his profound thinking in the form of preface and postscript.

The preface focuses on the significance and correct methods of investigation and research and points out “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 make social investigations, to investigate the conditions of each social class in real life.

The preface emphasizes that the most basic way to understand the situation is to grasp several cities and villages in a planned way, and to make a few thorough investigations with the basic viewpoint of Marxism, that is, the method of class analysis. Only thus can we acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge of China's social problems. To do this, the first is to look down and the second is to hold an investigation meeting. It is pointed out that one certainly cannot make an investigation, 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.

The postscript focuses on the Party's united front policy, labor policy, agrarian policy and so on. It points out that the Party's policy is neither "all struggle, no alliance", nor "all alliance, no struggle" (like the Chen Duxiu doctrine of 1927), but uniting all the social strata opposed to Japanese imperialism and of forming a united front with and yet of waging struggles against them, struggles that differ in form according to the different degrees in which their vacillating or reactionary side manifests itself in capitulation to the enemy and opposition to the Communist Party and the people.

The present policy is a dual policy which synthesizes "alliance" and "struggle". In labor policy, it is the dual policy of suitably improving the workers' livelihood and of not hampering the proper development of the capitalist economy. In terms of land policy, it is the dual policy of requiring the landlords to reduce rent and interest and of stipulating that the peasants should pay this reduced rent and interest. In the sphere of political rights, it is the dual policy of allowing all the anti-Japanese landlords and capitalists the same rights of person and the same political and property rights as the workers and peasants and yet of guarding against possible counter-revolutionary activity on their part.

State-run economy and co-operative economy should be developed, but the main economic sector in the rural base areas today consists not of state but of private enterprises, and the sector of non-monopoly capitalism in our economy should be given the opportunity to develop and be used against Japanese imperialism and the semi-feudal system. The preface and postscript are listed as one of 22 study documents of Yan'an Rectification Movement. In August 1941, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also made a decision on investigation and research methods, which promoted the prosperity of investigation and research in the whole Party.