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346 MAO TSE-TUNG

again is the particularity and relativity of contradiction. But the
struggle of opposites is ceaseless, it goes on both when the opposites
are coexisting and when they are transforming themselves into each
other, and becomes especially conspicuous when they are transform-
ing themselves into one another; this again is the universality and
absoluteness of contradiction. In studying the particularity and rela-
tivity of contradiction, we must give attention to the distinction
between the principal contradiction and the non-principal contradic-
tions and to the distinction between the principal aspect and the
non-principal aspect of a contradiction; in studying the universality
of contradiction and the struggle of opposites in contradiction, we
must give attention to the distinction between the different forms of
struggle. Otherwise we shall make mistakes. If, through study, we
achieve a real understanding of the essentials explained above, we shall
be able to demolish dogmatist ideas which are contrary to the basic
principles of Marxism-Leninism and detrimental to our revolutionary
cause, and our comrades with practical experience will be able to
organize their experience into principles and avoid repeating empiricist
errors. These are a few simple conclusions from our study of the law
of contradiction.
NOTES

V. I. Lenin, “Conspectus of Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy”,
1
Collected Works, Russ. ed., Moscow, 1958, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 249.
2
In his essay “On the Question of Dialectics”, Lenin said, “The splitting in
two of a single whole and the cognition of its contradictory parts (see the quotation
from Philo on Heraclitus at the beginning of Section 3 ‘On Cognition’ in Lassalle’s
book on Heraclitus) is the essence (one of the ‘essentials’, one of the principal, if
not the principal, characteristics or features) of dialectics.” (Collected Works, Russ.
ed., Moscow, 1958, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 357.) In his “Conspectus of Hegel’s The Science
of Logic”, he said, “In brief, dialectics can be defined as the doctrine of the unity
of opposites. This grasps the kernel of dialectics, but it requires explanations and
development.” (Ibid., p. 215.)
3
V. I. Lenin, “On the Question of Dialectics”, Collected Works, Russ. ed.,
Moscow, 1958, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 358.
4
A saying of Tung Chung-shu (179-104 B.C.), a well-known exponent of Con-
fucianism in the Han Dynasty.
5
Frederick Engels, “Dialectics. Quantity and Quality”, Anti-Dühring, Eng. ed.,
FLPH, Moscow, 1959, p. 166.
6
V. I. Lenin, “On the Question of Dialectics”, Collected Works, Russ. ed.,
Moscow, 1958, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 357-58.