Page 44 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume III.indd

42 MAO TSE-TUNG
way that they will stop being content with books and avoid committing
dogmatist errors. Those experienced in work must take up the study of
theory and must read seriously; only then will they be able to systematize
and synthesize their experience and raise it to the level of theory, only
then will they not mistake their partial experience for universal truth
and not commit empiricist errors. Dogmatism and empiricism alike
are subjectivism, each originating from an opposite pole.
Hence there are two kinds of subjectivism in our Party, dogmatism
and empiricism. Each sees only a part and not the whole. If people
are not on guard, do not realize that such one-sidedness is a short-
coming and do not strive to overcome it, they are liable to go astray.
However, of the two kinds of subjectivism, dogmatism is still
the greater danger in our Party. For dogmatists can easily assume
a Marxist guise to bluff, capture and make servitors of cadres of
working-class and peasant origin who cannot easily see through them;
they can also bluff and ensnare the naive youth. If we overcome
dogmatism, cadres with book-learning will readily join with those
who have experience and will take to the study of practical things,
and then many good cadres who integrate theory with experience,
as well as some real theorists, will emerge. If we overcome dogmatism,
the comrades with practical experience will have good teachers to
help them raise their experience to the level of theory and so avoid
empiricist errors.
Besides muddled ideas about the “theorist” and the “intellectual”,
there is a muddled idea among many comrades about “linking theory
and practice”, a phrase they have on their lips every day. They talk
constantly about “linking”, but actually they mean “separating”, be-
cause they make no effort at linking. How is Marxist-Leninist theory
to be linked with the practice of the Chinese revolution? To use a
common expression, it is by “shooting the arrow at the target”. As
the arrow is to the target, so is Marxism-Leninism to the Chinese
revolution. Some comrades, however, are “shooting without a target”,
shooting at random, and such people are liable to harm the revolu-
tion. Others merely stroke the arrow fondly, exclaiming, “What a
fine arrow! What a fine arrow!”, but never want to shoot it. These
people are only connoisseurs of curios and have virtually nothing
to do with the revolution. The arrow of Marxism-Leninism must be
used to shoot at the target of the Chinese revolution. Unless this point
is made clear, the theoretical level of our Party can never be raised
and the Chinese revolution can never be victorious.