On the Long March, Zhang Wentian's wife Liu Ying, as the secretary of the Central Secretariat, accompanied the central leaders on the Long March. According to Liu Ying, "Mao Zedong was weak at that time, and sometimes he was lying on a stretcher reading books. When the Red Army arrived in Maughai, he had nothing to eat and was hungry, but he kept reading Marxism-Leninism, including Anti-Turin Theory, Two Strategies, Left-wing Infantile Disease and State and Revolution. Once, he called me: Liu Ying, I'm really hungry. Stir-fry some wheat to eat! He lay reading and grabbed wheat from his pocket to eat. "
It can be said that Yan 'an period was a period when Mao Zedong concentrated on reading more in his life. This is because:
1. From the external objective environment, after the Long March of the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, especially after the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Yan 'an had a relatively stable environment, the reading conditions improved obviously, and the reading time increased relatively.
Second, in terms of the needs of the party's cause, although the Zunyi Conference reorganized the CPC Central Committee, it first corrected the military line led by the "Left" error and later corrected the political line, but the ideological line of "Left" dogmatism and subjectivism could not be fundamentally eliminated. With the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, it is a very heavy task for the Party to lead the people in the war of resistance. If we don't correctly handle the extremely complicated political and military relations between China and Japan, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, criticize the "Left" dogmatism and subjectivism, sum up the past revolutionary experience, and educate cadres and party member in Marxism, it will be impossible to create a new situation in the revolutionary cause and win the national war of resistance. Although Mao Zedong had not yet entered the core leadership of the Party, he had actually become the core of the collective leadership of the Party since the Zunyi Conference. Therefore, the sense of historical mission drives him to read more books and arm himself with Marxism-Leninism theory.
Thirdly, from the aspect of personal ambition, the contempt and sarcasm of the "Left" wrong leaders in the past prompted him to study hungrily. In the Central Soviet Area, the "Left" leaders of the provisional central government claimed to be "Marxist-Leninist theorists", claiming that "Marxism-Leninism can't come out of the ravine" and criticized Mao Zedong's correct thinking as "narrow empiricism", "rich peasant line" and "right opportunism". Advocates of "Left" wrong leadership at Zunyi Conference also laughed at him for not being clever in fighting, but only fighting according to The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Art of War, and not knowing the strategy and tactics of Marxism-Leninism. This experience forced him to "study hard when he arrived in Yan 'an". So he read a lot of books and wrote a lot of books during this period. He bought all kinds of books from Chongqing through various channels, especially Zhou Enlai. His personal library has also increased. Until 1947, he retreated to Yan 'an, leaving behind many other things, taking away most of the books and finally moving to Beijing.
After the founding of New China, the conditions for studying in Mao Zedong are getting better and better. Before the Cultural Revolution, his personal library had tens of thousands of books, which basically met his reading needs. He read books everywhere, some comrades may have read them, and there are also books in movies and TV series. Even the bed where he sleeps is full of books. He also took books with him when he went out for inspection. I also need to borrow some books from other places. He borrowed books in libraries in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Lushan, including Guangzhou. In the book "Reading Life in Mao Zedong", the editor also attached a bibliography of books he borrowed from1June 1959 to1June 1959, totaling more than 80 kinds and hundreds of kinds, which is equivalent to a small library.
In his later years, when Mao Zedong was in poor health, his eyesight dropped, and he could not read, he asked someone to help him read it, or looked at it with a magnifying glass. According to the librarian, Mao Zedong was still dying. The last book he read was Rongzhai Essays, which he likes to read at ordinary times.
This is the reading experience recorded by Hong Mai, a writer in the Southern Song Dynasty. He has read widely and written for decades. The last study was at 5: 50 on September 8, 1976 at/kloc-0, and I studied for 7 minutes under the rescue of a doctor. In other words, he almost ended his uninterrupted study life when his heart was about to stop beating. When he called on cadres to study in Yan 'an, he said, "Old comrades should also study. If I die in 10, I will study for 9 years and 359 days. " He fulfilled this promise with his reading practice.
As a great scholar and reading master, Mao Zedong's reading characteristics can be summarized from different angles. The following points are emphasized here.
First, many comments, such as pearl jade. Mao Zedong has the habit of taking notes when he is studying. Some annotations have been separated, and there are three annotation sets published at present. First of all, I read Annotations on Ethical Principles in my early years, which was included in Mao Zedong Manuscripts published in 1990, with about 20,000 words. Second, the notes on reading Soviet philosophy textbooks and other philosophical works in Yan 'an period 10 are all included in the Notes on Mao Zedong's Philosophy published in 1988, with about 27,000 words. I am the editor-in-chief of this Annotations on Philosophy. When I came into contact with the original work, I saw that Mao Zedong's annotation words were dense, and some pages were all at the top and bottom, with blank margins. Not only that, but also various symbols. Some pages are closely circled, with continuous bars, circles in the circle and bars outside the bar. This reflects his spirit of diligent study. Thirdly, after the founding of New China, most of his comments on reading ancient literature and history books were included in the Collection of Comments on Reading Ancient Literature and History Books in Mao Zedong published by 1993, with about 3,000 words. Some of his comments are summaries of contents, some are comments on people or thoughts, some are demonstrations of related things, and some are erupting thoughts. Annotations are short and long, not stick to one pattern. There is only one word short and 2000 words long. Some annotations are extremely rich in content, like a string of thought "pearls", which can be described as "like pouring large and small pearls into a plate of jade". For example, Mao Zedong loves to read Fan Zhongyan's ci. After reading Su Muzhe and Yu Jiaao, he wrote a famous comment on writing, and divided the ci into two factions. He wrote: "There are two schools of words, graceful and unconstrained, each with its own meeting, which should be read at the same time. I've been studying gracefulness for a long time and I'm tired of it. I want to go to bold school instead. The uninhibited school has been studying for a long time and is tired, so it should be replaced by the graceful school. My interest tends to be bold and unconstrained, and I don't waste graceful and restrained. There are many beautiful and desolate words in the graceful school. Fan Zhongyan's last two poems are between graceful and unrestrained, which can be regarded as the golden mean; But it is still graceful, desolate and beautiful, which makes people tired of reading. The love of graceful children and the copper clad plate of unrestrained school are boring after reading for a long time. " From this, he further extended and wrote: "People's mood is complicated, biased or complicated. Complexity is unity of opposites. People's moods often have opposing components, which are not single and can be analyzed. "
Second, understand the true meaning and master the method. Mao Zedong studies hard, but he is not rigid. He is not a nerd, he has a high comprehension ability, no academic doctrine and no nerd habits. In Yan 'an, when he first read the Manifesto of the Producers' Party, he said: "I remember that in 1920, I first read the Class Struggle written by Kaucki, the Manifesto of the Producers' Party translated by Chen Wangdao, and the History of Socialism written by an Englishman, and I realized that class struggle has always been the driving force of social development. But in these books, there is no China's Hunan and Hubei, and there is no China's Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Duxiu. I only took its four words:' class struggle' and honestly began to study the actual class struggle. " (Collected Works of Rural Investigation in Mao Zedong, People's Publishing House 1982, p. 2 1~22) Now, it seems that this understanding is somewhat simplified. It is not accurate enough to attribute the content of the Manifesto of the Producer Party to "class struggle". However, as far as class struggle is a red line running through class society, and as far as Marxist theory of class struggle is the main method to analyze class society, he still grasped the root of understanding China issue. Moreover, he can also appreciate the "methodology of understanding problems", which shows that he has read this book vividly. This is one of his outstanding advantages.
Mao Zedong was good at mastering the advantage of "methodology of understanding problems", which played an important guiding role in his later study and study of Marxism-Leninism, not for theory, but for Marxism-Leninism, but to solve the theoretical and strategic problems of China Revolution. His reading essentials of "understanding the true meaning and mastering the methods" were further developed in Yan 'an period, and gradually formed a relatively complete set of "ideological methodology" that emphasized that learning Marxism-Leninism mainly focused on mastering its position, viewpoint and methods. On the guiding ideology, the idea of combining Marxism-Leninism theory with the concrete practice of China's revolution was gradually formed, which laid the foundation for the emergence of Marxist theory of China.
Third, broaden the field of exposition and blaze new trails. This is another important feature of Mao Zedong's reading. He often said: "A person's knowledge should be broader. With knowledge, it is like standing on a mountain, and you can see many things far away. If you don't learn and have no skills, you will suffer if you can't find it in the underground ditch. " It is based on this understanding that he reads widely and dabbles in all kinds of books. Mao Zedong stood taller and saw farther than many of his contemporaries, and became a great revolutionary, thinker and strategist. An important factor lies in his profound knowledge. It should also be pointed out that only profound knowledge and rich knowledge are a basic condition for him to become a great revolutionary, thinker and strategist, not a complete and sufficient condition. Mao Zedong's greatness lies in that many of his thoughts and theories are not only derived from the books he has read, but also higher than those he has read. He can not only widely absorb book knowledge, but also combine practical experience, so he can bring forth the old and bring forth the new, keep pace with the times and innovate. This is clearly manifested in the annotations of philosophy books he read, and on the basis of these annotations, the Theory of Practice and the Theory of Contradiction.
For example, the Soviet philosophy textbook Course of Dialectical Materialism only uses the concept of "particularity of contradiction" and does not put forward the concept of "universality of contradiction"; When talking about the principal contradiction and the leading aspect of contradiction, we only discussed their decisive role, but did not talk about the transformation of contradictory state. Mao Zedong wrote a long list of 1200 words in this book. He expounded this in combination with the practice of China Revolution, and put forward the important thought of the transformation of principal contradiction and non-principal contradiction, principal aspect and non-principal aspect of contradiction. He wrote: in the contradiction, "which side is dominant?" Mainly depends on the development of the project under certain conditions. For a long time in capitalist society, the bourgeoisie was the dominant aspect, but on the eve and after the revolution, the proletariat became the dominant aspect ","In the situation of Sino-Japanese confrontation, the China factor is changing from a secondary position to a major position "; The dominant aspect of contradiction "depends on the strength of both sides of the struggle when the process develops to a certain stage." Leadership and non-leadership are mutually transformed. According to these ideas in the notes, it can be seen that "On Contradiction" first abstracts the concept of "universality of contradiction", summarizes the double meanings of universality of contradiction, discusses five situations of particularity of contradiction, and makes incisive analysis on many situations of particularity of contradiction; Clearly put forward the transformation thought of main contradiction and non-main contradiction, main aspect and non-main aspect of contradiction, which greatly enriched the connotation of contradiction particularity. These expositions not only greatly promoted Soviet philosophy textbooks, but also developed dialectical principles in theory. This is of great practical significance for guiding the China revolution.
Fourth, study the society and read books without words. Mao Zedong not only advocated reading books with words, but also advocated reading books without words, that is, learning from the society and conducting practical investigations. He once said: "Society is a school, and everything is learned through work. There are two kinds of books to learn: handouts with words are books, and everything in society is also books-'books without words'. " Reading wordless books and investigating society is a learning method that he has attached great importance to all his life. When he was studying in his early years, he said, "If you want to learn everything in the world, you will be sweating." He invited his classmates to take advantage of the summer vacation to hike thousands of miles to the countryside to "study" and make social visits to Changsha and many counties around Dongting Lake. This is the first time in his life that he has read "The Book Without Words", and he has been in extensive contact with social reality, and he has developed a strong interest in studying the situation in his own country, which made him send a group of alumni of Xinmin Society to work and study in Europe, but he insisted on staying at home first and conducting "field investigation and research" on this site in China. (Mao Zedong's Early Manuscripts, Hunan Publishing House, 1990, p. 474) This decision had a great influence on his life. He paid great attention to studying the actual social situation in China, so that after mastering the basic principles of Marxism, he could be well combined with the reality of the China Revolution and lead the China Revolution to great success. At the same time, everything has two sides. His lack of experience in studying abroad had an impact on the country's construction after the founding of New China.
Mao Zedong conducted a large number of social surveys in his life, which played a very important role in his understanding of the history and present situation of China and the characteristics and laws of the China revolution. He said: It is better than any other university to do social surveys and hold investigation meetings. He said: the truly learned people from ancient times did not learn from school. Confucius' Confucianism was not learned from school, but was later learned when he was an official in Lu. The same is true of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. When he was studying at school, there were no Three People's Principles. His Three People's Principles didn't exist until after he left school, and he learned them in a "university" outside the school. Marx did not learn knowledge from school books, nor did he learn Marxism at school. His Marxism was learned outside school and in the process of practical activities in countries such as Britain, France and Germany. He experienced the bourgeois revolution in Germany, saw the struggle between the French bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and inspected the development of British capitalism. Before Marxism came into being, he read many books and wrote many books.
Mao Zedong suggested that we should read both books with words and books without words. This is not only a summary of his personal experience of acquiring knowledge through reading, but also an extension of this experience as a party leader. I hope all party cadres can do this, have comprehensive knowledge and do a good job in party work.