Page 15 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume III.indd

PREFACE AND POSTSCRIPT TO RURAL SURVEYS 13
I should like to repeat that the main purpose of publishing this
reference material is to indicate a method for finding out the con-
ditions prevailing at the lower levels; it is not to have comrades
memorize the specific material and the conclusions drawn from it.
Speaking generally, the infant bourgeoisie of China has not been
able, and never will be able, to provide relatively comprehensive
or even rudimentary material on social conditions, as the bourgeoisie
in Europe, America and Japan has done; we have therefore no
alternative but to collect it ourselves. Speaking specifically, people
engaged in practical work must at all times keep abreast of changing
conditions, and this is something for which no Communist Party in
any country can depend on others. Therefore, everyone engaged in
practical work must investigate conditions at the lower levels. Such
investigation is especially necessary for those who know theory but
do not know the actual conditions, for otherwise they will not be
able to link theory with practice. Although my assertion, “No investi-
gation, no right to speak”, has been ridiculed as “narrow empiricism”,
to this day I do not regret having made it; what is more, I still insist
that without investigation there cannot possibly be any right to speak.
There are many people who “the moment they alight from the official
carriage” make a hullabaloo, spout opinions, criticize this and con-
demn that; but, in fact, ten out of ten of them will meet with failure.
For such views or criticisms, which are not based on thorough
investigation, are nothing but ignorant twaddle. Countless times our
Party suffered at the hands of these “imperial envoys”, who rushed
here, there and everywhere. Stalin rightly says that “theory becomes
purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practice”. And he
rightly adds that “practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illumined
by revolutionary theory”. Nobody should be labelled a “narrow
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empiricist” except the “practical man” who gropes in the dark and
lacks perspective and foresight.
Today I still feel keenly the necessity for thorough research into
Chinese and world affairs; this is related to the scantiness of my
own knowledge of Chinese and world affairs and does not imply
that I know everything and that others are ignorant. It is my wish
to go on being a pupil, learning from the masses, together with all
other Party comrades.