Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing

This speech was delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a cadres' meeting in Yan’an on February 8, 1942. It was included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 3.

In this speech, Mao Zedong deeply exposed and criticized the harmful formalist style of the Party stereotyped writing, which is an instrument of publicity or form of expression of subjectivism and sectarianism. He first reviewed the history of the Communist Party of China and pointed out that stereotyped Party writing has a long history in the Party; particularly during the Agrarian Revolution, it sometimes became quite rampant.

Mao Zedong then analyzed and said that during the May 4th Movement, modern-minded people opposed the use of the classical Chinese language and advocated vernacular Chinese, opposed the traditional dogmas and advocated science and democracy, all of which was quite right. Later on, however, foreign stereotyped writing and foreign dogma came into being. Running counter to Marxism, certain people in our Party developed the foreign stereotype and dogma into subjectivism, sectarianism and stereotyped Party writing. These foreign stereotyped and foreign dogmas have become so deeply ingrained in the minds of many comrades that today we still have a very strenuous job of remoulding to achieve.

Secondly, Mao Zedong listed the "eight legs", which might be called the eight major indictments, namely, "it fills endless pages with empty verbiage"; "it strikes a pose in order to intimidate people"; "it shoots at random, without considering the audience"; "its drab language that reminds one of a Biesan (wizened and ugly creatures known in Shanghai as tramp)"; "it arranges items under a complicated set of headings, as if starting a Chinese pharmacy"; "it is irresponsible and harms people wherever it appears"; "it poisons the whole Party and jeopardizes the revolution”; "its spread would wreck the country and ruin the people". He pointed out that as a form, the stereotyped Party writing is not only unsuitable for expressing the revolutionary spirit but is apt to stifle it.

Thirdly, he analyzed the origin and essence of subjectivism, sectarianism and stereotyped Party writing, pointing out that they are a reflection of petty-bourgeois ideology in the Party. In terms of their ideological essence, all three are anti-Marxist, and none of them are needed by the proletariat, but by the exploiting class. He further pointed out that since China is a country with a very large petty bourgeoisie and our Party is surrounded by this enormous class; a great number of our Party members come from this class, and when they join the Party they inevitably drag in with them a petty-bourgeois tail, be it long or short. "Unless checked and transformed, the fanaticism and one-sidedness of petty-bourgeois revolutionaries can easily engender subjectivism and sectarianism, of which foreign stereotyped writing, or stereotyped Party writing, is one form of expression.”

Finally, Mao Zedong pointed out that in order to develop the revolutionary spirit it is necessary to discard stereotyped Party writing and instead to adopt the Marxist-Leninist style of writing, which is vigorous, lively, fresh and forceful. "Foreign stereotypes must be abolished, there must be less singing of empty, abstract tunes, and dogmatism must be laid to rest; they must be replaced by the fresh, lively Chinese style and spirit which the common people of China love.” That's the conclusion.

This speech is listed as one of the necessary documents of Yan'an Rectification Movement, and it is also an important document of Mao Zedong's Party building thought, especially strengthening the Party's ideological construction.