the communist party of china (cpc) is a marxist political party that is both brave in and good at struggle. having gone through arduous and tortuous struggle, it has accumulated invaluable experience in struggle. we should draw on the party's practice and repeated experience in struggle to better advance the great struggle of the new era. mao zedong's "on protracted war" is a valuable teaching material for our new great struggle.
by thoroughly summarizing the practical experience and establishing the marxist war theory with chinese characteristics, it has accumulated the military theoretical foundation for the study of the anti-japanese war
it is an important characteristic of mao zedong's theoretical innovation to thoroughly summarize practical experience and lessons and form important theoretical and ideological viewpoints. during the great revolution and the agrarian revolution, the communist party of china led the people in arduous revolutionary struggles, accumulating valuable experience in the revolutionary war and leaving behind many profound lessons. after the outbreak of the total anti-japanese war, the chinese people made resolute resistance struggle and formed a series of experiences and lessons. these are the direct basis of mao zedong's profound summary and theoretical improvement.
summing up the experience and lessons of the agrarian revolution, the marxist military theory with chinese characteristics was formed initially. after the red army arrived in northern shaanxi long march, mao zedong in-depth study of marxism military theory book, sun tzu's the art of ancient chinese military works, western military works, such as "on war", wrote on the strategies of against japanese imperialism, "the strategic issues of china's revolutionary war" and so on military works, summing up the party led the revolution war, especially the experiences of the red army war against "encirclement and suppression" strategy of china's revolutionary war is for system analysis. he applied materialist dialectics and epistemology to the theory of war, emphasizing that everything must proceed from reality and that subjective guidance must conform to objective conditions. although victory or defeat of war is mainly determined by the objective basis, it also depends on the subjective ability of both sides of the war, so the subjective initiative of the commanders and fighters must be brought into play. he according to the basic situation of china's social economic, political, analyzes the basic laws and characteristics of china's revolutionary war, the paper has expounded the importance of the leadership of the party and the people's war thought, summarized the guide line, the red army war strategy and tactics, such as "encirclement and suppression" and against "encirclement and suppression" over and over again for a long time, the war principle of active defense, active retreat, in-depth and focus on the front, overcomes the methods of warfare, mobile warfare as the main operation form, take the strategy of protracted war and campaigns and battles of quick decision, etc. these thoughts have made theoretical preparation for the study of the anti-japanese war.
in the course of promoting the transformation of the party's military strategy, the enduring characteristics of the war against japan were gradually put forward. after the september 18 incident, mao zedong began to think about resisting japanese aggression. after the central government arrived in northern shaanxi, the chinese revolution began to change from a civil war to an ethnic war. at the wafaobao meeting, the central committee adopted the resolution on the current political situation and the tasks of the party, and formulated the policy of establishing the anti-japanese national united front. after the meeting, mao zedong delivered a report entitled "on the strategies for opposing japanese imperialism", in which he expounded on the great significance and policies of establishing the anti-japanese national united front, adhered to and developed the thought of people's war, and proposed to organize tens of millions of people and mobilize a vast revolutionary army. in his talks with snow in july 1936, mao zedong proposed to establish the broadest national united front and mobilize the whole nation to fight against japan. the war against japan would be a lasting war and the result would be china's victory.
after the outbreak of the comprehensive war of resistance, the chinese people and the army resisted tenaciously, and mao zedong summarized and improved the experience and lessons of the war in time according to the development of the situation. the central committee of the communist party of china held a series of meetings, including luochuan meeting, mao zedong wrote a series of works, published a series of speeches, in-depth analysis of the actual characteristics of the two sides, gradually formed on the basis of the mobilisation, to the anti-japanese national united front as the general policy, with the right strategy and tactics to support the theory of the protracted war of resistance against japan. at the luochuan conference, for example, he stressed that only by carrying out a nationwide war of resistance against japanese imperialism could we win a complete victory, that the party's task was to mobilize all forces for victory in the war of resistance, that the most basic policy was a protracted war, and that the party must adhere to the principle of independence and independence in the united front. for some time afterwards, he paid close attention to and guided the war, and summarized the experience and lessons in the war in a timely manner. in his book on protracted war, he always emphasized that he analyzed problems on the basis of "the experience of ten months of anti-japanese war".
to conduct in-depth philosophical research and establish the marxist philosophy theory of sinicization provides philosophical guidance and methodological basis for the study of the anti-japanese war
mao zedong has always attached great importance to philosophical research. after arriving in northern shaanxi, he concentrated on reading a number of philosophical works in his limited spare time. snow once recorded mao zedong's reading of philosophy in the book "over the moon over the west" : "mao zedong was a man who studied philosophy seriously. i went to see him every night for a while to interview him about the history of the communist party, and once a guest brought him some new books on philosophy, so mao asked me to postpone the talk. he devoted three or four nights to these books, during which he seemed to lose sight of everything. he has read not only marxist philosophers, but also ancient greek philosophers, spinoza, kant, goethe, hegel, rousseau, and so on. at that time, mao zedong read and annotated more than a dozen marxist philosophical works, including works written by soviet and chinese scholars in addition to classic writers such as marenlis. he made annotations and notes in some chapters of these works, which raised the experience and lessons of the chinese revolution to the level of thinking and methods, and summarized the epistemology and dialectics. for example, when he was reading a course on dialectic materialism, he wrote: "instead of starting from concrete reality, he started from empty theoretical propositions. li lisanism and later military adventurism and military conservatism have both made this mistake. they are neither dialectics nor materialism."
on the basis of reading, mao zedong made creative philosophical theory construction, and realized the sinicization of marxist philosophy. in july and august 1937, he went to the red army university to teach materialism and dialectics, systematically elaborated the marxist theory of knowledge and dialectics, and formed dialectic materialism (outline for teaching), two of which were later published under the titles of "on practice" and "on contradiction" and included in "selected works of mao zedong".
"practical", insist on the dialectical materialism epistemology route system this paper expounds the understanding and practice of the development of the dialectical relationship and cognition process, reveals the general law of human knowledge, especially based on the concrete practice of the chinese revolution, excavate the outstanding achievements of chinese philosophy in chinese way illustrates the marxism epistemology, founded the sinicization of marxist epistemology.
"on contradiction" stick to and develop the theory of materialist dialectics, the first time in the history of marxist development fully discusses the contradiction of the doctrine of scientific system, from the two kinds of cosmology, the universality of contradiction, the particularity of contradiction, the main contradiction and the major aspects of contradiction, contradictory aspects of identity and struggle, fight in such aspects as the status of contradiction, the unity of opposites theory combined with the dialectics of traditional chinese philosophy, marxist dialectics thought is illustrated in the chinese way, founded the chinese form of materialist dialectics.
these two documents make a profound philosophical summary of the chinese revolutionary experience, creatively combine the universal truth of marxism with the chinese revolutionary practice and excellent traditional chinese culture, and establish the philosophical theory of sinicized marxism, which lays the world outlook and methodology foundation for the analysis of the anti-japanese war.
in the process of criticizing erroneous ideas, we expounded the policies and strategies of the war of resistance against japan and established the theory of protracted war of resistance against japan
we should criticize the line of partial resistance, adhere to the line of comprehensive resistance, and emphasize the people's subjectivity in the war of resistance. in the policy, method and future of opposing japan's attack, mao pointed out that the future of victory, of expelling japanese imperialism and of realizing china's freedom and liberation, must be achieved by implementing the policy of resolute resistance, adopting measures of nationwide resistance, such as general mobilization and progressive political reform. to adopt the policy of compromise and concessions, to suppress the masses and to adhere to all kinds of reactionary policies, is bound to be the future of failure, the future of japanese imperialism's occupation of china and the future of the chinese people as cattle and horses slaves. in "the struggle to mobilize all forces for victory in the war of resistance", he once again pointed out that "the government's resistance alone can only achieve some individual victories, and it is impossible to defeat the japanese aggressors completely. only a comprehensive national war of resistance can the japanese aggressors be completely defeated.
we should oppose national capitulationism and class capitulationism, maintain and consolidate the anti-japanese national united front, and stress the firm belief that we will win the war of resistance. in october 1937, mao zedong put forward against the capitulationism problem: "the danger is that in china some wavering elements are ready to go to the enemy's wiles and the traitors and collaborators to among them, spreading rumors, in an attempt to make the surrender of the japanese aggressors in china" and therefore must be pointed out the dangers of capitulationism in speech, action group the people stop to surrender. in november 1937, the pro-japanese faction represented by wang ching-wei talked a lot about capitulation, put forward the so-called "peaceful route", and actively carried out capitulation activities. chiang kai-shek also sent representatives to contact the japanese. under such circumstances, mao zedong clearly stated that "we must oppose capitulationism within the party and throughout the country", and that national capitulationism meant to "lead china to suit the interests of japanese imperialism, turn china into a colony of japanese imperialism, and turn all chinese people into national slaves". "class capitulationism is, in fact, the reserve army of national capitulationism, and is the worst tendency to aid right-wing camps and thus to defeat the war." since then, in accordance with the development of the situation and the changes in capitulationism, he has published many articles in succession to fight against it and strengthen the triumphalism of the people.
the author criticizes the mistakes of "subjugation theory" and "quick victory theory", and expounds comprehensively the protracted war theory of anti-japanese war. on protracted war, to some extent, is the result of criticizing the theory of national subjugation and the theory of quick victory. the theory of national subjugation appeared before the outbreak of the nationwide war of resistance against japanese aggression. some people spread such arguments as "china is inferior in weapons and will lose the war" and "if there is resistance, we will be called abyssinia". after the anti-japanese war, wang ching-wei and other capitulationists advocated the argument of compromise and put forward the view that "if we fight again, we will perish". after the stalemate of the anti-japanese war, the theory of national subjugation appeared again, and the tendency of compromise appeared in the anti-japanese front. for this reason, mao zedong carried out a severe criticism, repeatedly stressed that china will not die, the final victory must belong to china. the error of the theory of quick victory is also very serious. within the communist party, some were wildly optimistic that the japanese army was vulnerable and could be defeated quickly. some people put too much faith in the kuomintang's regular war, believing that the anti-japanese national united front had been established, that the kuomintang troops were at war with the japanese, and that the war would soon be won. on the kuomintang side, during the battle of shanghai on august 3, some people said that if the war lasted for three months, the international situation would change and the soviet union would send troops, the war would be solved. after the battle of taierzhuang, the national government was preparing for the battle of xuzhou. "the current situation is an important juncture in the future of the war of resistance," wrote an editorial in the ta kung pao. this battle was their last struggle. the thought of "quick victory" did great harm, so mao zedong criticized it deeply and emphasized the permanence of the war. on the basis of criticizing erroneous ideas, mao zedong expounded the theory of protracted war of resistance against japan comprehensively and systematically, which made people clear their direction in thought and action, established their confidence and found out the way.
to sum up, "on protracted war" is an important classic document of mao zedong on the strategic strategy of the anti-japanese war. it is not an academic paper created to achieve a predetermined academic goal, but a theoretical and policy thinking to solve major practical problems. it is not a theoretical construction based on the whim of individual thinkers, but a profound summary of long-term revolutionary practice. it is the ideological crystallization of long-term theoretical research, and it is also the result of unremitting struggle against erroneous ideas.
source: party building network