THE IMPORTANCE OF CONDUCTING INVESTIGATION AND STUDY AND SEEKING TRUTH FROM FACTS:-
In the article on investigation Comrade Mao Zedong deals with world outlook as well as methodology. We should approach it from the viewpoint of dialectical and historical materialism. When you read it today you will find that it still hits the nail on the head. Comrade Mao Zedong has always advocated conducting investigation and study and seeking truth from facts. From the time of the Rectification Movement in Yanan through the Seventh Party Congress to liberation, this was our guiding principle, and with it we achieved nation wide victory. But since we moved into the cities and especially in recent years, we have not done much investigation and study or paid enough attention to seeking truth from facts. So it is not easy to stop the “five winds” once they are blowing hard.
Recently, on several occasions comrade Mao Zedong recommended that we take a vigorous effort to carry out investigation and study and seek truth from facts. He also said that both Right mistakes and Left mistakes must be combated when ever they are made. To judge right from wrong, we should proceed from objective facts rather than subjective imagination. In making an investigation and study, we must seek truth from facts. We must analyze, sum up and compare facts in point. All things have internal contradictions, and in each case we must distinguish between the principal contradiction and secondary ones. So we must make a close analysis. The environment in which we find our selves invariably has limitations, so we should examine things from different angles. A person’s knowledge is always limited, so he should pay attention to different views. This method will help him a comprehensive analysis. Things are constantly developing, and there is always a difference between the advanced and the backward, the general and the particular, the genuine and the false. A comparison will enable us to obtain a thorough understanding. When we make an investigation at the grass-roots level, we must have the courage to face difficulties squarely and try to solve them. When one problem is solved a new one will crop up. Communists exist for no other purpose than to constantly overcome difficulties and continue to advance. It is not the nature of a communist to fear the difficult and seek the easy.
When we make an investigation at grass roots, we must adhere to the three principles advocated by Comrade Mao Zedong: from the masses to the masses; take the ideas of the masses and familiarize them, then go to the masses, persevere in the ideas and carry the through; and uphold truth and correct mistakes. This is what democratic centralism means. It is not only an organizational principle but also a principle guiding our work. Wisdom comes from the masses, but the views expressed by the masses have to be processed by the leaders, then put to the test among the masses, then processed again. If we become divorced from the masses, we shall lose the base of our Party. And if we only tail after the masses, we shall abandon leadership. Our shortcoming at present is that we issue too many orders instead of practicing the mass line.
