The change of old China into New China also involves a change in
the relation between the old feudal forces and the new popular forces within
the country. The old feudal landlord class will be overthrown, and from being
the ruler it will change into being the ruled; and this class, too, will
gradually die out. From being the ruled the people, led by the proletariat,
will become the rulers. Thereupon, the nature of Chinese society will change
and the old, semi-colonial and semi-feudal society will change into a new
democratic society.
Instances of such reciprocal transformation are found in our past
experience. The Ching Dynasty which ruled China for nearly three hundred years
was overthrown in the Revolution of 1911, and the revolutionary Tung
Meng Hui under Sun Yat-sen's leadership was victorious for a time. In
the Revolutionary War of 1924-27, the revolutionary forces of the
Communist-Kuomintang alliance in the south changed from being weak to being
strong and won victory in the Northern Expedition, while the Northern warlords
who once ruled the roost were overthrown. In 1927, the people's forces led by
the Communist Party were greatly reduced numerically under the attacks of
Kuomintang reaction, but with the elimination of opportunism within their ranks
they gradually grew again. In the revolutionary base areas under Communist
leadership, the peasants have been transformed from being the ruled to being
the rulers, while the landlords have undergone a reverse transformation. It is
always so in the world, the new displacing the old, the old being superseded by
the new, the old being eliminated to make way for the new, and the new emerging
out of the old.
At certain times in the revolutionary struggle, the difficulties
outweigh the favourable conditions and so constitute the principal aspect of
the contradiction and the favourable conditions constitute the secondary
aspect. But through their efforts the revolutionaries can overcome the
difficulties step by step and open up a favourable new situation; thus a
difficult situation yields place to a favourable one. This- is what happened
after the failure of the revolution in China in 1927 and during the Long March
of the Chinese Red Army. In the present Sino-Japanese War, China is again in a
difficult position, but we can change this and fundamentally transform the
situation as between China and Japan. Conversely, favourable conditions can be
transformed into difficulty if the revolutionaries make mistakes. Thus the
victory of the revolution of 1924-27 turned into defeat. The revolutionary base
areas which grew up in the southern provinces after 1927 had all suffered
defeat by 1934.
When we engage in study, the same holds good for the contradiction
in the passage from ignorance to knowledge. At the very beginning of our study
of Marxism, our ignorance of or scanty acquaintance with Marxism stands in
contradiction to knowledge of Marxism. But by assiduous study, ignorance can be
transformed into knowledge, scanty knowledge into substantial knowledge, and
blindness in the application of Marxism into mastery of its application.
Some people think that this is not true of certain contradictions.
For instance, in the contradiction between the productive forces and the
relations of production, the productive forces are the principal aspect; in the
contradiction between theory and practice, practice is the principal aspect; in
the contradiction between the economic base and the superstructure, the
economic base is the principal aspect; and there is no change in their
respective positions. This is the mechanical materialist conception, not the
dialectical materialist conception. True, the productive forces, practice and
the economic base generally play the principal and decisive role; whoever
denies this is not a materialist. But it must also be admitted that in certain
conditions, such aspects as the relations of production, theory and the
superstructure in turn manifest themselves in the principal and decisive role.
When it is impossible for the productive forces to develop without a change in
the relations of production, then the change in the relations of production
plays the principal and decisive role. The creation and advocacy of
revolutionary theory plays the principal and decisive role in those times of
which Lenin said, "Without revolutionary theory there can be no
revolutionary movement." [15] When a task, no maker which, has to be performed, but there is
as yet no guiding line, method, plan or policy, the principal and decisive
thing is to decide on a guiding line, method, plan or policy. When the
superstructure (politics, culture, etc.) obstructs the development of the
economic base, political and cultural changes become principal and decisive.
Are we going against materialism when we say this? No. The reason is that while
we recognize that in the general development of history the material determines
the mental and social being determines social consciousness, we also--and indeed
must--recognize the reaction of mental on material things, of social
consciousness on social being and of the superstructure on the economic base.
This does not go against materialism; on the contrary, it avoids mechanical
materialism and firmly upholds dialectical materialism.
No comments:
Post a Comment