(1964)

Courses And Examinations

There are too many courses offered at schools [and universities] which place a heavy burden on students. They are not often properly taught. The examination system treats students like enemies; it pounces on them suddenly. These are detrimental to the development, in a lively and spontaneous manner, of the moral, intellectual, and physical capabilities of the young people.

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(1964)

Our education is fraught with problems, the most prominent of which is dogmatism. We are in the process of reforming our educational system. The school years are too long, courses too many, and various methods of teaching unsatisfactory. The children learn textbooks and concepts which remain [merely] textbooks and concepts; they know nothing else. [They] do not use use their four limbs; nor do [they] recognize the five kinds of grain. Many children do not even know what cows, horses, chickens, dogs, and pigs are; nor can they tell the differences between rice, canary seeds, maize, wheat, millet, and sorghum. When a student graduates from his university, he is already over twenty. The school years are too long, courses too many, and the method of teaching is by injection instead of through the imagination. The method of examination is to treat candidates as enemies and ambush them. (laughter) Therefore I advice you not to entertain any blind faith in the Chinese educational system. Do not regard it as a good system. Any drastic change is difficult, [as] many people would oppose it. At present a few may agree to the adoption of new methods, but many would disagree. I may be pouring cold water on you. You expect to see something good, but I only tell you what is bad. (laughter)

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(1964)

SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.

It is because they have resolved contradictions among the people, the relationship between leaders and those who are led, and has organized strength. Man is the foremost factor among such factors as productive forces. Man, means of labor (including animal labor, farm implements, fertilizers), and objects of labor constitute the three great elements of productive forces. By implementing the "Sixty Articles" and "Double Ten Articles," it is possible to bring about vastly different results with the same manpower, animals, farm implements, land, and so forth.

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(December 28, 1964)

SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.

I don't have much to say. Is this document (referring to the 23 Articles) all right?

Article one, regarding the nature of the problem, is such a provision feasible?

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(December 27, 1964)

SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.

(Note: Remarks in brackets were made by Comrade Ch'en Po-ta)

[What is the principal contradiction? The Chairman has summed up everyone's view. The principal contradiction is the contradiction between socialism and capitalism. Four cleans and four uncleans do not explain the nature of the problem. The feudal society is the problem of clean officials and corrupt officials. The drama Four Imperial Scholars (Ssu Chin-shih) is one which is opposed to corrupt officials!]

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(December 20,1964)

SOURCE: Long live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.

Chairman: The Premier reported that you did not even dare to mention the words of 'catching up.' I added for you 'not only catching up but also surpassing.' I also added the passage that 'Sun Yat-sen said in 1905 that it could be surpassed.' Since I have said this, there is no need to publish it in the newspaper. You should read some modern history. Articles written by men like Wang Ching-wei[1], Hu Han-min and Chang Tai-yen[2] are not included in the Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen. You should also read the New People's Miscellaneous Journal, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao's Collected Essays of Yin-ping-shih, and especially Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles. There is not much substance in the Three People's Principles,[3] it has no substance. In his later years, Sun Yat-sen's knowledge declined. He was an orator and an instigator, speaking very eloquently and earning huge applauses. I had listened to his speeches and talked with him. He would not allow others to argue with him or to present their own views. In fact, his words were full of water, but had very little oil, and he was rather undemocratic. I think he could make himself a good emperor for 60 years, without any democracy. When he entered the hall, everybody was supposed to rise and say Mr. Sun. He was so undemocratic and so ignorant that when he was defining communism for the rightists, he would draw a T'ai-chi diagram first, and then draw a smaller circle inside it, and write the word communism. On the outside, he would draw still another circle, which he would call socialism. Finally, he would draw a large circle, and write the words 'Principle of People's Livelihood.' He would say that both socialism and commun! ism are included in 'my Three People's Principles.' Commander-in-Chief,[4] you never thought highly of him.

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(December 13, 1964)

SOURCE: Peking Review, no. 52, December, 1977.

(This was a passage Comrade Mao Tsetung added when he went over Premier Chou En-lai's Report on the Work of the Government to the First Session of the Third National People's Congress.)

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(November 28, 1964)

SOURCE: Full text of Mao's declaration of 28 November 1964 in support of the people of the Congo (Leopoldville). The last paragraph, is from Chapter VII of Quotations from Chairman Mao.

U.S. imperialism is the common enemy of the people of the whole world. It is engaged in aggression against South Vietnam, it is intervening in Laos, menacing Cambodia and blustering about extending the war in Indochina. It is trying everything to strangle the Cuban revolution. It wants to turn West Germany and Japan into two important nuclear bases of the United States. It ganged up with England in creating so-called Malaysia to menace Indonesia and other-southeast Asian countries. It is occupying South Korea and China's Taiwan province. It is dominating all Latin America. It rides rough shod everywhere. U.S. imperialism has over-extended its reach. It adds a new noose around its neck every time it commits aggression anywhere. It is closely surrounded by the people of the whole world.

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(September 4, 1964)

SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, A Red Guard Publication

Is it easier to beat the snake by luring it to come out or by crawling into the dark snake hole? (We supported the release of Suslov's report. It was not released, but it came out after eight commentaries were made.)

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(August 24, 1964)

SOURCE: Long live Mao Tse-Thought, a Red Guard Publication.

Chairman: I have asked you to come here today because I want to look into the article by Sakata [Shoichi]. Sakata says that basic particles are indivisible while electrons are divisible. In saying this, he is taking the stand of dialectical materialism.

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