How to Study the History of the Communist Party of China

Mao Zedong's guidance report for the senior cadres of the Central Study Group on March 30, 1942. It was included in the Collection Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 2.

Since the spring of 1942, the Communist Party of China launched a Rectification Movement within the Party. In this movement, the Party Central Committee first carried out an activity to study and study the history of the Communist Party of China among the senior cadres of the whole Party. Leaders of the Party have written books to promote the review and summary of the history of the Party and the study of the history of the Party. Among these works, Mao Zedong's guidance report is unique.

The report points out that if the history of the Party is not clarified and the path the Party has taken in history is not clarified, it will not be possible to do things better. Clarifying the historical development of the Party's line and policy is necessary to study today's line and policy, strengthen education within the Party, and advance work in all areas. We are using the whole process of the Party's development as the object of our study, conducting an objective study, not of just any step, but of the whole, not of individual details, but of lines and policies. We need to use such research to give us a better understanding of today's line and policy, so that the work can be done better and more progressive.

How to study the history of the Party? The fundamental method, as Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin have already argued, is the comprehensive historical method. Popularly speaking, it is called "ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign laws", which means to make clear the time and space for the problems studied, and to study them as a historical process under certain historical conditions. The so-called "ancient and modern" refers to the development of history, and the so-called "Chinese and foreign" refers to China and foreign countries, that is, their own side and the other side. "Ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign laws" is also the method of historicism. When we study the history of the Party, we must look at it comprehensively. Only in this way can we study the history of the Party in a scientific way.

The Marxist view of history is not subjectivism. The essence of historical events and its objective reasons should be found. At the same time, the role of leaders must also be seen. Leaders also exist objectively. In order to correctly study the history of the Communist Party of China, we should focus on China and base ourselves on the soil of China. When we study China, we need to take China as the center and base ourselves on the soil of China to study the world issues. If we do not study the characteristics of China and move foreign things, we will not be able to solve China's problems. We should apply the viewpoints and methods of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin to China and create something new in China.