Page 39 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume III.indd

RECTIFY THE PARTY’S STYLE OF WORK 37
Certain muddled ideas find currency among many people. There
are, for instance, muddled ideas about what is a theorist, what is an
intellectual and what is meant by linking theory and practice.
Let us first ask, is the theoretical level of our Party high or low?
Recently more Marxist-Leninist works have been translated and more
people have been reading them. That is a very good thing. But can
we therefore say that the theoretical level of our Party has been
greatly raised? True, the level is now somewhat higher than before.
But our theoretical front is very much out of harmony with the rich
content of the Chinese revolutionary movement, and a comparison
of the two shows that the theoretical side is lagging far behind.
Generally speaking, our theory cannot as yet keep pace with our
revolutionary practice, let alone lead the way as it should. We have
not yet raised our rich and varied practice to the proper theoretical
plane. We have not yet examined all the problems of revolutionary
practice — or even the important ones — and raised them to a theo-
retical plane. Just think, how many of us have created theories worthy
of the name on China’s economics, politics, military affairs or cul-
ture, theories which can be regarded as scientific and comprehensive,
and not crude and sketchy? Especially in the field of economic
theory: Chinese capitalism has had a century of development since
the Opium War, and yet not a single theoretical work has been
produced which accords with the realities of China’s economic devel-
opment and is genuinely scientific. Can we say that in the study of
China’s economic problems, for instance, the theoretical level is
already high? Can we say that our Party already has economic
theorists worthy of the name? Certainly not. We have read a great
many Marxist-Leninist books, but can we claim, then, that we
have theorists? We cannot. For Marxism-Leninism is the theory
created by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on the basis of practice,
their general conclusion drawn from historical and revolutionary
reality. If we merely read their works but do not proceed to study
the realities of China’s history and revolution in the light of their
theory or do not make any effort to think through China’s revolu-
tionary practice carefully in terms of theory, we should not be so
presumptuous as to call ourselves Marxist theorists. Our achievements
on the theoretical front will be very poor indeed if, as members of
the Communist Party of China, we close our eyes to China’s problems
and can only memorize isolated conclusions or principles from
Marxist writings. If all a person can do is to commit Marxist economics