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l Oppose
wastefulness. During the rectification, each unit must devote a few days to a
bloom-contend-rectify-reform campaign directed against wastefulness. Every
cooperative, every shop, every office, every school, and every military unit
must seriously conduct its own anti-wastefulness campaign and will continue to
do so once every year.
l Red and expert,
politics and business — the relationship between them is the unification of
contradictions. We must criticize the apolitical attitude. [We] must oppose
empty-headed ‘politicoes’ on the one hand and disoriented ‘practicoes’
on the other.
It is beyond any doubt that politics and economy,
politics and technology must be unified. This must be so and will for ever be
so. This is the meaning of ‘red and expert’. The term, ‘politics’,
will continue to exist, but in a different sense. To ignore ideology and
politics, to be always preoccupied with business matters — the result will be a
disoriented economist or technologist and that is dreadful. Ideological and
political work is the guarantee for the completion of economic, technological
work and it serves the economic base. Ideology and politics are, moreover, the
commanders, the ‘soul’. A slight relaxation in our ideological and
political work will lead our economic and technological work astray.
l [We] must adopt
an attitude of genuine equality towards cadres and the masses and make people
feel that relationships among men are truly equal. [We] must make others feel
that there is full and open-hearted communication. [We] must learn from Lu Hsun,
who communicated with his readers and evoked responses from them. People do
different work and hold different jobs. No matter how high one’s position is,
one must appear among people as an ordinary worker. One must not assume airs;
one must get rid of bureaucratism. One must patiently listen to the end [of what
others say] and consider the divergent views expressed by the lower grades. One
must not lose one’s temper as soon as one hears an opinion different [from one’s
own] and take it as a personal insult. This is one way of treating people as
one’s equal.
l Members of
party committees at all levels, especially those responsible ones who resolutely
follow the correct line of the Centre, must be prepared for criticism. If the
criticism is correct, we must accept it and reform ourselves; if it is not,
especially if it is foul, we must toughen the skin of our head and take
[whatever is showered upon us]. Then we investigate [the charges] before acting
on the criticism. Under such circumstances, [we] must not bend ourselves to
whichever way the wind is blowing; [we] must fearlessly stand up against the
wind. We have already passed the test in 1957.
l The method of
meeting must be the unification of [factual] materials and views. It is a very
bad method if it fails to link up material with views, to review material
without any view, or to expound views without material [to substantiate them].
The worst is to present a great pile of material without either a favourable or
an unfavourable view. [We] must learn to use material to explain our views. [We]
must have material but [we must] also have a clear and definite view [on how] to
control it. There must not be too much material, just enough to make clear our
views. [We] need anatomize only one or two sparrows, not too many [so to speak].
Although [we] must have a great deal of material at our disposal, [we] present
only the representative pieces. [We] must understand that to hold a meeting is
not to write a magnum opus.
l The process of
conceptualization, judgment and reasoning, are the processes of investigation
and study and thinking. The human brain can reflect the objective world,
although it is not easy to do so correctly. Correct reflection or the reflection
which is closest to reality can be arrived at only after thinking and
rethinking. Having arrived at the correct point of view and correct thought,
[we] must design an adequate way of expressing them [to make them intelligible]
to others. The processes of conceptualization, judgment, reasoning are the
processes ‘from the people’; those of communicating one’s own points of
view and thoughts to others are the processes ‘to the people’. This
simple truth is perhaps not yet grasped by many of our cadres. However great a
man may be, his thoughts, views, plans and methods are a mere reflection of the
objective world and the raw materials and half-digested facts [for this
conceptualization] come from the practice of the masses or his own scientific
experiments. His mind is only a processing plant in which finished products are
manufactured. Otherwise it is utterly useless. The usefulness and correctness of
such finished products are tested by the popular masses. Unless our comrades
understand this, they will bang their heads on a nail.
l Essays and
documents must be written precisely, clearly and in a lively [manner]. Precision
is a matter of logic, of concepts, judgments and reasoning. Clarity and
liveliness are matters of both logic and rhetoric. Most essays nowadays suffer
from, a. vague conceptualisation, b. inadequate judgment, c. a lack of logic in
the process of using concepts and judgment in reasoning, d. a lack of literary
merit. [As a result] reading an essay becomes an ordeal, a gigantic waste of
energy for very little reward. This bad tendency must be averted.
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