This is a very “Chinese” essay. The terminology is steeped in classical and revolutionary Chinese rhetoric and thus may be difficult for those versed in Western epistemology to understand. From a Marxist perspective “spirit” can be thought of in terms of the “ideological superstructure” of society while its antithesis “matter” can be thought of as the “material base” of society. The essay focuses on Mao's idealism. The material basis of society, i.e. the forces and relations of production are a manifestation of the ideological foundations of society, i.e. its cultural value system, rather than vice versa. One can materially change the mode of production but that will not automatically transform the ideological superstructure. Under the socialist mode of production the old ideas and cultural norms of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie are so deeply ingrained in the psyche of the people that they will spontaneously reappear and push the society towards ideological revisionism and the inevitable restoration of capitalism. The only way to combat this is through an ideological struggle in the superstructure over people's ideas and thinking. Mao saw this as a life and death struggle for the survival of the new, young sprouts of socialism in the PRC. The resurgence of capitalist modes of production in China since the demise of the Cultural Revolution is stark testimony to Mao's profound insights, hence the necessity of continuing the class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Mao Zedong's Thoughts on Class Struggle and Daoist Philosophy
Posted by 刘泰特 (Liu Taite) on May 20,2011at Utopia (http://www.wyzxsx.com/Article/Class18/201105/235156.html)
When I was in secondary school, the quotations of Mao Zedong on class struggle were like a bolt from the blue, always hovering about in every Chinese mind: “With a population of 800 million people, is it really okay to not participate in this battle?” “It is a great joy to battle against Heaven. It is a great joy to battle against Earth. It is a great joy to battle against People.” “You can accomplish anything by carrying out class struggle.”
That time was very strange, private ownership had already been abolished, eliminating the exploitation of man by man, the landlords and capitalists had been overthrown. It was felt that Mao's continued emphasis on the class struggle was making a mountain out of a mole hill, like Don Quixote tilting at windmills.
But Mao realized that the class struggle was mainly in the Party, it was the two-line struggle within the Party, it was the capitalist roaders within the Party who were the class enemy.
So who were these capitalist roaders? Liu Shaoqi, who was neither corrupt nor immoral, was labeled as the biggest capitalist roader, I couldn't understand why.
Afterwards I slowly read and began to understand Mao Zedong, but this understanding didn't just come from book learning, what was even more important was that I began to participate in real life, it was through practice during the course of historical developments that the necessary inner mental logic came through.
History makes people wise! Moreover, anything that becomes known through the mirror of history has its mysterious veil completely torn away. History continuously repeats itself, just as humanity has to forever continuously satisfy the same needs and continuously seek out the basic necessities of life.
As the saying goes, "small mistakes can produce big consequences," however huge the discrepancy or opposition, it is initially hidden in the small things much as Lao Tzu said, "The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things."
Lao Tzu's "Tao" is "the nothing” from which everything is produced.
The differences that exist between all things were there when they were very small and just beginning. They were even present in the midst of “nothing," and this “nothingness” is non-material.
So what is "non-material"? The non-material is the opposite of the material. The non-material is "spirit", so when it is said that "something was produced from nothing," Lao Tzu equated this “nothingness” with “spirit” and called this spirit the “Tao.” Since "Tao" is equated with"spirit", then "spirit" is equated with "nothingness."
Spirit has no material body or form, it is metaphysical, it cannot be seen, so Lao Tzu equated it with "Nothingness"; but the spirit is the most fundamental truth, it not only is the origin of all things, but also governs the movement of all things, so Lao Tzu said "All things under heaven sprang from that which is, that which is sprang from nothingness."
The relationship between spirit and matter, is the object of mankind's most fundamental philosophical inquiries.
The few thousand lines of Lao Tzu's “Tao Te Ching” are concerned with the concepts of “being” and “non-being,” the relationship between the spiritual and the material and the elucidation of the ultimate unity of opposites.
I did not read the thoughts of Mao Zedong with the intent of conducting a direct comparison with the philosophy of Lao Tzu, but the contradiction between the spiritual and the material is the essence of Lao Tzu's philosophy and is reflected everywhere in Mao Zedong's thought.
During Mao's time classes were abolished, but contrary to expectations Mao Zedong said that not only did classes still exist but that class struggle had intensified, this was based on Lao Tzu's thinking of "something from nothing," this is easy to understand because everything is a product of the spirit, and classes are the product of spiritual values, as long as the soil which germinates the spiritual and cultural values of classes still exist, so will classes still exist.
So Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, an attempt to destroy the ideological cultural values of the exploiting classes in people's minds. Isn't this the most profound, most expansive, most decisive life and death battle of the class struggle?
The most fundamental reason for the development and persistence of private ownership and classes are the traditional spiritual values in people's minds, at that point in time this was not recognized by the vast majority of people. As history develops until today, when a qualitative change has given rise to a quantitative change, people have suddenly begun to come to this realization.
Mao Zedong's ontology of the spirit of class struggle, is the same as Lao Tzu's "something from nothing." Mao Zedong's strategy of class struggle, is precisely the same as Lao Tzu's.
Lao Tzu said: “The movement of the Tao by contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course of Tao's mighty deeds."
Mao Zedong's thinking of class struggle was: the more we destroy classes, the more emphasis there must be on class struggle, "Relentlessly pursue the tottering foe!"
Mao Zedong wanted to follow the “Tao” that leads to the abolishment of classes, the methodology is seize and not let go of the opposition, but to also take the opposition seriously as very strong.
The opposition seemed to be a "spent force," but Mao recognized that was superficial, the spiritual and cultural strength of the opposition was still very strong. He placed the opposition in a "strong" position, and ourselves in a “weak” position. By "defending the weak," we will not underestimate the enemy and be paralyzed, we will then have the spirit to do better.
Mao made an in-depth philosophical analysis of class struggle.
On the surface Mao emphasized materialism, but in essence Mao spoke mostly of the spirit. He was the greatest representative of Chinese political idealism.
After liberation, Mao Zedong said, the "violent storms," of the class struggle are over, but class struggle will still exist for a long time. Afterwards, as the international situation became grimmer, Mao rapidly strengthened his thoughts on class struggle, and raised it to the principal contradiction in Chinese society, to the point that the class struggle should be talked about every year, every month and every day.
The class struggle that we see takes the form of a confrontation of material interests. But this kind of conflict and confrontation over material interests at bottom is rooted in the contradictions of human culture, it is rooted in the orientation of people's spiritual values, and is concealed in the very depth of their souls, it is the ideological struggle between good and evil.
The spiritual and cultural conflicts of society determine the contradictions and struggles of society's material relationships.
It is the spiritual that determines the material! It is the spiritual that changes the material! It is “something coming from nothing!”
An understanding of the significance of the struggle over spiritual values in Mao Zedong Thought therefore shows that Mao Zedong's theory of class struggle is not alarmist, but penetrating and far-sighted.
Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in order to carry out class struggle in the realm of the spirit, it was properly called an "ideological and cultural revolution", it was a great baptism of the national spirit.
The Cultural Revolution's "theory that the class struggle still exists" is on the surface "imaginary," it "comes out of nowhere" but it is actually true, its that spirit promotes ongoing material accumulation, people are just totally unaware of it.
After China ended the "Cultural Revolution," and renounced the theory of class struggle, how many people have thought of China today and the true wealth gap that has appeared between classes? At the time when a difference in the material appears, people suddenly realize that the spiritual has resulted in a material change! The result is the wild fantasy of producing "something out of nothing!"
The spirit of history is just this type of unexpected surprise.
During the “Cultural Revolution” the material basis for the class struggle basically did not exist so the spirit of all the big talk about the class struggle didn't seem to make any sense, but once the the spirit of the theory of class struggle was renounced the material sense of class struggle immediately broke through to the surface. It was as if the material had broken its spiritual chains and Pandora's box was finally opened.
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