Wind Theory and Maoism

"The issue of the ruling party's conduct is a matter of life and death for the party [1] ", said Chen Yun in November 1980. But what is "party style"? What does this word mean? In China at that time, the ruling order of the post-Mao Zedong era was being rebuilt, and all major political relations between the country and its leaders, the party and the people, the collective and the individual were being adjusted. In this critical historical period, the issue of party style has been raised to the shocking height of "the party's life and death". How can this "wind" be related to the life and death of the Chinese Communist Party? How could it be such a big problem?

The word "party style" was not invented by Chen Yun. According to Huang Kecheng's article, "In our party, Comrade Mao Zedong first proposed the term party style and made a systematic discussion on the issue of party style." Huang Kecheng explained in the same article: "Party style refers to the style of the party, the style of Communist Party members, and it includes the style of ideology, politics, work, life and other aspects." "When the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was established, I I asked Comrade Chen Yun what he wanted to do first, and he said, we should focus on the party style. That's how the issue of party style was raised [2] ".

§1. The Historical Formation of Maoism: The Origin of Qi Theory and Wind Theory [3]

American sinologist Stuart Reynolds Schram (1924-2012) noted Mao Zedong's classic exposition of "the Sinicization of Marxism" in October 1938: "Dogism must rest and be replaced by fresh and lively, for the Chinese people. The Chinese style and Chinese style that I like to hear and hear”. In Schramm's English writings, he translates "Chinese style and manner" in this sentence into "Chinese style and manner [4] "; similarly, the translation in the official Chinese French version of Mao Xuan is : « (Pour faire place) à un air et à un style chinois [5] ». Because of this translation, the words "wind" and "qi" with specific histories and connotations disappeared from the eyes of Western readers.

Also in the same article, Mao Zedong emphasized: "From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should summarize and inherit this precious legacy [6] ". This is not empty talk. It is not an exaggeration to say that "Chinese style and Chinese style" sum up and inherit the "legacy" of Chinese cultural tradition "from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen".

a) "Qi": The Unified Theory Explaining Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism

 "The original origin of the word qi remains mysterious and cannot be identified with certainty in the Shang and Zhou texts, and none of the glyphs match the current meaning. The word (qi) used today seems to symbolize the gas evaporating from the rice being boiled. Just as in other civilizations, qi is mainly embodied in the endless life of living beings, in China's vision, the generation and operation of qi has a double rhythm: breathing and breathing, and on a larger scale, it is reflected as: living. Cohesion and the Dissipation of Death[7]”

"Qi" forms a specific concept, which can be traced back at least to Taoism during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Zhuangzi (about 369 BC-286 BC), one of the representatives of Taoism, said that "yin and yang are also the most powerful ones [8] ". After that, Zou Yan (about 305 BC-240 BC), a native of Qi in the late Warring States Period, combined the two theories of yin and yang and the five elements, and created the "Yin and Yang Five Elements Theory". "Qi" has entered this new theory together with "yin and yang". By the Han Dynasty, Yin-Yang and Five Elements had become popular and absorbed by various schools:

 The study of yin and yang arithmetic is combined with the "Spring and Autumn" to form the "Yin and Yang Theory of the Spring and Autumn", combined with the "Book" to form the "Hongfan Five Elements Theory", and combined with the "Li" to form the "Mingtang Yin and Yang Theory" , combined with the "Poems" to form the "Four Beginnings and Five Interpretations". From this point of view, the "Guaqi theory" proposed by Meng Xi and Jingfang is essentially the product of the combination of Yin-Yang Shushu and Yi (Book of Changes) [9].

In this way, with the theory of yin and yang and five elements, the concept of "qi" has been widely accepted by various schools and schools, and its meaning has become more and more rich. In the book "Huainanzi" of this era, Taoists began to use the theory of yin and yang and five elements to transform their concept of "heaven" [10] . At the same time, "qi" was integrated into the legend of creation and became the original material [11] :

 The sky is not in shape, Feng Feng Yiyi, and Dongdong is swaying, so it is called Taizhao. The Tao begins with the void, the void creates the universe, and the universe is alive. Qi is boundless and expansive, those with clear yang become the sky, and those with heavy turbidity become stagnant and become the earth. (Huainan Zitian Training)

In the historical process since then, the concept of "Qi" has continued to evolve, with increasingly rich connotations. It's just that this evolution eventually formed a complete set of theories that we call "Qi Theory", which was completed by Wang Fuzhi in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in the seventeenth century.

French sinologist Jacques Gernet (1921~) made an in-depth study of Wang Fuzhi's theory in the book "The Principle of Things: Wang Fuzhi's Philosophy [12] ", he explained how Wang Fuzhi used the concept of "qi" to discuss Confucianism and Buddhism. The different viewpoints of the three schools of thought refuted or reconciled one by one, and finally created his new theory "Qi Lun" which tried to explain everything. What is striking is that Xie Henai fully paid attention to the historical background of Wang Fuzhi's deduction of the "Qi Theory" in his writings, and he did not hesitate to use more than four pages to quote a paragraph of Ian McMorran's detailed life on Wang Fuzhi. description. From this we can see that Wang Fuzhi, born on October 7, 1619 in Hengyang, Hunan Province, in southwestern China, was a scholar of a scholarly family. At the age of 25, he witnessed the demise of the Ming court, to which his family was loyal, and the invasion of the barbarians (Manchu). Eventually occupied China and established the rule of the Qing court. Wang Fuzhi was greatly stimulated by the fact that the people of the Central Plains, who had always claimed to have a profound and extensive cultural heritage, were ruled by "barbarians" ever since. After nearly ten years of resistance movements and irreversible failures, he retired to the mountains and devoted himself to writing books, trying to theoretically find out the reasons for the failure and the way to revive. It is under such a historical background that the "Qi Theory" came into being. On the one hand, it provided a new set of theories that could explain the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism at the same time; The Doctrine of Invading Nations. The latter makes "Qi" a regional distinction.

 The second great defense of the world: China, barbarians, gentlemen, and villains. If there is no difference in the original, but the previous king was strong against it. The barbarians and the Huaxia were born in different places, the places were different, and the spirits were different; But there is also its own noble and lowly in it, especially the boundary, the weather is special, and it cannot be chaotic; chaos will destroy the people, and the living people of China will also be swallowed by it and haggard. To prevent it from early, it is because of the heavens that people are fixed to the extreme and their life is preserved.[13]

Whether before or after Wang Fuzhi, we cannot simply say that qi is the Chinese concept of space, as Anne Cheng, an academician of the French Academy, said: "We may say that the concept of space does not exist, only to create space and At the same time, the qi that injects life into space exists [14] ”. Such a kind of "qi" is filled between heaven and earth, and there is no geographical distinction. It was Wang Fuzhi's motivation to fight against foreign rule that he developed the concept of qi with regional distinctions. Only when the concept of "Qi" has undergone this transformation can the terms "Chinese style" and "Other country style" appear and be distinguished, and Mao Zedong can also use the term "Chinese style". Therefore, from this point alone, we can see that what Mao inherited in it is indeed the Central Plains culture that has been inherited since the pre-Qin period.

In fact, Mao was a fellow countryman of Wang Fuzhi from Hunan. When he was young, he was not only a member of the "Chunshan Society", which studied and disseminated Wang Fuzhi's theory, but even used the former site of the Chuanshan Society to co-found the "Hunan Self-study University" with He Shuheng and others in September 1921.

b) "Wind": A localization of the Western idea of linear time

Wang Fuzhi's Qi theory did not become the mainstream of academics in the early Qing Dynasty. His teachings spread in secret among scholars. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the Qing court faced the direct impact of the West, that he was helpless, that his theories were rediscovered to absorb new ideas of change, the most decisive of which was that his theory was one of the mainstream schools of thought. Accepted by Jinwenjing School".

In the long evolution of the concept of "Qi", the connotation of "Qi" has also become diverse and complex. As early as the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it has begun to penetrate into the field of literature and painting [15] , such as Cao Pi's "Qi" in the third century. The text is mainly based on qi” and the “vigorous and vivid” said by Xie He in the "Ancient Paintings" in the fifth century. With the improvement of Qi theory, the single word "Qi" is increasingly insufficient to express its rich meaning, and various words composed of "Qi" gradually appear in the Chinese language, such as "Yuanqi", "Qi", "Qi" and "Qi". "Blood Qi", "Wen Qi", "Righteous Qi", "Evil Qi", "Wind Qi" and so on. Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801) was the first to systematically discuss the concept of "ethos". Different from the meaning of the ancient single word, when Zhang Xuecheng used "feng qi", "feng qi" was already an independent word. The word "feng", starting from the "Book of Songs", has the characteristics of local customs and small local traditions, and does not enter the big tradition of mainstream culture. With the return of Qi theory, the small traditional "wind" has returned to the mainstream academia along with the word "feng qi", waiting to be endowed with richer connotations.

No convincing evidence has been found so far as to whether there is a secret inheritance relationship between Gong Zizhen (1792-1841), one of the inheritors of the Jinwenjing School, and Zhang Xuecheng. Ni Dewei (David Shepherd Nivison 1923~) believed that Gong Zizhen must have been deeply influenced by Zhang Xuecheng through some channel. What we can know for sure is that in Gong Zizhen's famous "Yi Hai Za Poems", there is a verse that has been widely circulated in later generations, that is, "But you can't be a teacher when you open the way."

When Marcel Granet (1884-1940) wrote La pensée chinoise (The Chinese Thinking), he tried to sort out the notions of time and space in ancient China. During his investigation, he found two words that are most similar to the Western concept of time and space: "shi" and "square". However, he found that the "shi" in Chinese characters only means a continuous time segment, situation or opportunity, while the "square" means a divided block area or an idea about orientation. Ge Lanyan realized that time and square are not time and space themselves. Time and space are always imagined as a group or a collection of specific and distinct places or opportunities [16] . This traditional concept of "time" and "square" is facing a complete change with the return of "wind" and "qi".

Within the Jinwenjing School, the concept of time was not first carried by the "wind", but came from the "modern interpretation" of "The Spring and Autumn Gongyang Biography". Textual research in the Qing Dynasty prevailed, and almost all the classics were re-examined. "The Spring and Autumn Annals" is no exception. Gong Zizhen's teacher Liu Fenglu (1776-1829) put forward the point of view in his research on Gongyang studies that "the Spring and Autumn Period began to decline and turmoil began to rise, and from the rise of peace to extreme peace", that is to say, the history recorded in the "Spring and Autumn Period" has three stages. . Immediately afterwards, Gong Zizhen further developed, combined with another ancient classic "Book of Rites·Liyun", and proposed that "through the past and the present, we can make three generations", trying to use these three stages to surpass the history recorded in "Spring and Autumn" and explain the entire human history. . Up to this time, it has not been clearly discussed which of these three stages comes first, or alternately reciprocates. Decades later, Kang Youwei, a successor of Jinwen Jingxue and a representative of the Reform School, used the "Book of Rites: Li Yun" to provide a theoretical basis for the reform theory, inspired by Liao Ping and the theory of evolution introduced from the West. "Xiaokang Datong Theory, combined with the aforementioned Gongyang III theory, summed up the linear historical view of "Zhang III" in which human beings proceeded in the order of "in troubled times, in times of peace, in times of peace". This is the first time for the Chinese to get rid of the cyclical historical view of "the sky does not change and the Tao does not change" since Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty.

At the end of the 19th century, the Qing court was defeated in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, which had a great impact on the spirit of the Chinese, who regarded themselves as people from the central power, and the movement to reform and strengthen the country emerged. Kang Youwei's historical view of "Zhang Sanshi" quickly became the theoretical support for the reform and was widely disseminated and accepted. The "Hundred Days Reform" reform in 1898 failed rapidly, but Zhang Sanshi's view of history, which integrated the thoughts of a well-off society and Datong, has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, making spiritual preparations for the Chinese to further digest and accept the Western trend of thought.

In the way of receiving it after that, just as the theory of Qi has been used to transform the three schools of thought, namely Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, the Chinese still adopted the method of Qi to accept the Western trend of thought. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, Gong Zizhen's famous sentence "but the spirit is not a teacher" has become extremely popular among the intellectuals, and it has become a model for intellectuals to imitate and a self-proclaimed idiom. The western trend of thought received in such a way has strayed from its true colors, and has become an "ethos" that has no shape. In the most extreme example, even when the concept of freedom entered China, it was immediately vaporized, and it became an inexactly "free atmosphere".

Under this trend of gasification, Mao Zedong carried out the Sinicization of Marxism in Yan'an during the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945), which was not only in line with the trend, but perhaps even a habitual behavior that he himself did not fully perceive. . At this point, we can understand that the requirement for Marxism to have "Chinese style" and "Chinese style" mentioned above is the most effective way to receive foreign ideas in China's actual historical and traditional culture. "Chinese style" is to explain Marxism in the way of thinking of qi theory. Since China's "qi" is different from that of other countries, the Chinese style of Marxism must also be different from other countries. It would have been a different interpretation. So, what is the "Chinese style"? Because "wind" does not have a complete set of doctrines like "qi", in order to have "Chinese style", Mao Zedong needs to further develop it.

In Mao Zedong's famous "On New Democracy" [17] in 1940, Mao reconciled Zhang Sanshi's view of history with Marxism and Leninism, which were regarded by the Chinese Communists as "the most advanced ideas in the West" at that time. Mao Zedong had been familiar with the works of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao since he was a teenager, and he once borrowed them to "read and read until he could memorize them [18] ". Mao was no stranger to the historical view of "Zhang Sanshi", he quoted Sanshi in a letter dated August 23, 1917: "Confucius knew this meaning, so he established the Taiping Shi as a hu, and did not abandon it. According to Chaos, Shengping II. Datong is our hustle [19] ". The so-called Marxism and Leninism propose that human society goes through five stages, namely slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, socialist society and communist society. For the slave society, it is considered to be a thing of the past in China, and it is not considered. Mao then made his unique definition: "Since Zhou and Qin, China has been a feudal society [20] ". In fact, since Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC, China has been the characteristic of a unified empire rather than the characteristic of a "feudal society". But in order to reconcile the five-stage theory of Marxism and Leninism, Mao had only far-fetched. "Since foreign capitalism invaded China and Chinese society gradually developed capitalist elements, China has gradually become a colony, semi-colonial, and semi-feudal society . " The characteristics of society and the characteristics of half-capitalist society are in line with a transitional stage in the definition of the Five Stages of Marxism-Leninism, which corresponds to the "chaotic times" in Zhang Sanshi. Then, "the historical process of the Chinese revolution must be divided into two steps, the first is the democratic revolution, and the second is the socialist revolution [22] ". "The first step is to oppose imperialism and feudal forces [23] ", "This revolution, according to its social and social nature, is a bourgeois-democratic revolution [24] ". That is to say, the first step is to enter the capitalist society from the feudal society of Marxism-Leninism. Mao further confirmed this: "The first stage, the first step of this colonial and semi-colonial revolution, although it is basically bourgeois-democratic according to its social nature, his objective requirement is for capitalism clearing the way for the development of [25] ”. "Then, let it develop to the second stage to build a Chinese socialist society". After experiencing a two-step revolution and straddling the "feudal society" and "capitalist society" of Marxism-Leninism, the "socialist society" in Marxism-Leninism corresponds to the second stage of Zhang Sanshi's "prosperity". Mao Zedong's two-stage theory of revolution obviously draws inspiration from Zhang Sanshi's view of history with Chinese characteristics, and is more easily accepted by the Chinese. As for the last stage of Marxism-Leninism, the "communist society", Mao Zedong openly said that "What the "Book of Great Harmony" wrote is the ideal society that we communists want to build [26] .

The five-stage theory of Marxism-Leninism, reformed by Mao Zedong, was thus reconciled with Zhang Sanshi. If the Chinese people accept Zhang Sanshi’s historical view, then Marxist-Leninist communism is the stage that the law of history will inevitably lead to, and the revolutionary path chosen by the Chinese Communists led by Mao coincides with the traditional ideal path of China. .

Under the premise of such a linear and unidirectional view of history leading to communism, Mao Zedong further developed the ethos theory and put forward his unique ethos. The wind in nature is the movement of Qi, and the movement has a direction. Mao's "wind" is also the same. Its direction is consistent with the direction of Zhang Sanshi's "Great Harmony" in Taiping, and it is also the direction of the communist society in the final stage of the so-called Marxism-Leninism. Under this premise, Mao's most orthodox "wind" can be understood as a way of practice in the direction of communism, that is, a way of moral realization, and moral realization (réalité morale) is ethics. Wind theory can thus be seen as Maoist ethics (réalité morale). Under this theory, anything that conforms to Mao-style ethics is considered to be a good style of work [27] , and anything that deviates from this ethics is considered a "wrong style". And so on, there are all kinds of "winds".

In this sense, for the "Chinese style" that Mao emphasized when talking about the sinicization of Marxism, we can understand the meaning of the word "China" here: it tends to the "Great Harmony" spoken by the Chinese, that is, the last of Zhang Sanshi. I - Taiping - the way or style of practice for direction.

§2. The practice of wind theory

Marxism came to the Communist Party of China through the "Chinese style". According to the standard of whether the specific practice method is in the direction of communism, there is a "party style". This is what this article mentioned at the beginning of "in our party, Comrade Mao Zedong first proposed the term party conduct, and made a systematic discussion on the issue of party conduct." The "systematic discussion" that Huang Kecheng said refers to Mao Zedong's speech entitled "Rectifying the Party's Style of Work [28] " at the opening ceremony of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on February 1, 1942. In this speech, Mao introduced different concepts of "style" such as "party style", "study style", "literary style", "work style", "adverse style", "crooked style", "bad style" and so on. , extending whether or not the goal of communism is extended to every aspect of concrete practice. We will rectify and clean up the "adverse winds" with different goals, the "bad winds" with deviated goals, and the "bad ethos" that do not fully comply with the party's requirements. Therefore, after the completion of the Sinicization of Marxism, Mao Zedong officially opened the curtain of the Yan'an Rectification Movement when Maoism, which was also marked by wind theory as its unique symbol, matured.

a) Initial results: Yan'an Rectification Movement

In the Maoist view of history, advancing from one goal to another is achieved by blowing the "wind". "A gust of wind" is a colloquial expression used to describe Mao-style political movements and is widely circulated in China. As this saying shows, the Yan'an Rectification Movement itself is a "wind" as a political movement. It not only uses wind theory to promote the movement, but it is also produced by the specific application of wind theory.

The Yan'an Rectification Movement started in 1942 and continued until the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China in April 1945. The rectification style includes "rectifying the three styles", that is, "oppose subjectivism in order to rectify the style of study, oppose sectarianism in order to rectify the style of the party, and oppose the eight-legged party in order to rectify the style of writing". It involves the ideological "study style", the political "party style" and the cultural "style of writing". In terms of ideology, due to the completion of the Maoist theoretical system that fully integrated traditional Chinese thought, after a persistent and tenacious struggle, Mao Zedong finally defeated the party's only dogmatic quotations with difficulty but inevitably. Marxist theorists who did not understand how to integrate with Chinese practice, especially Wang Ming, the biggest competitor, allowed Mao to gain ideological dominance. Since then, Mao Zedong has achieved absolute leadership within the CCP by virtue of Maoism in the name of "Mao Zedong Thought". Politically, due to the strict requirements of the wind theory on the consistency of direction, various political forces within the party that could not maintain a high degree of alignment with Mao were eliminated on charges of "adverse wind", "unfavourable wind", and "bad ethos". This ensures that Mao's absolute leadership authority is unimpeded within the bureaucratic party organization. With this kind of absolute leadership, Mao's personal will can be carried through to the end in the huge party organization during the subsequent violent seizure of power, and his will can instantly become the will of millions of CCP members. . Among the passions of the Datong society in which the Chinese pursued their thousand-year-old dream, Mao's personal will became the most powerful force for "promoting history" unparalleled in that era.

b) Governing the country by wind and its consequences

After the Maoist ideology matured, this ideology, which combines the "most advanced ideas" from both Chinese and Western perspectives, has gained the most widespread support in China. Next, the Chinese Communist Party under Mao’s leadership violently seized power in just a few years. After that, in accordance with the two-stage revolution theory proposed by him in "On New Democracy", he launched the second stage of revolution in the early 1950s: "Socialist Transformation Movement". Although the movement may have been smoother than he had expected, he soon discovered that "capitalism" had not been wiped out, that the gusty political movement was still going on, and that "continued revolution" was needed to complete his second Staged revolutions, and so on until the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This gust-like political movement is not only not absurd, but also an orthodox approach to communism under Maoist ideology. The reason why it is called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution also implies that the bourgeoisie has not been purged, the second stage of the revolution has not yet been completed, and socialism has not truly arrived.

However, by the time of Mao's death in 1976, under the persecution of wind theory, a total of more than 100 million people believed that they had been subjected to unjust political persecution. Mao's successors were unable to move forward and had to adjust their tactics on the path that Mao's wind-driven political movement led towards communism.

§4. "Reform and Opening Up": Adjusting the Method in the "Two-Phase Revolution Theory" in the Maoist View of History

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in December 1978 marked the transition of the Chinese authorities from one-man centralized rule to "collective leadership" in the Mao era. That is, at this meeting, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China was established. As for the main responsibilities of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, as defined by Chen Yun at the beginning of this article: "grasp the party's style."

It was also from that time that Deng Xiaoping began to revise the method in Mao Zedong's "two-stage revolution theory", that is, to abandon the method of "continuing the revolution" and use the method of "building a well-off society" to lead to socialism, but the adjustment was only The method does not touch on the theoretical framework of the "two-stage revolution theory". On December 6, 1979, Deng Xiaoping took the opportunity of meeting Japanese Prime Minister Masahiro Ohira to publicly put forward his concept of "well-off" for the first time [93] , that is, the second "prosperity" in Zhang III's historical view. The words are not packaged as Marxist-Leninist vocabulary, and the word "Xiaokang" in the theory of "Xiaokang Datong" is directly used. Deng Xiaoping's "well-off" has a clear GDP target, that is, per capita GDP of 1,000 US dollars, and set the goal to be achieved at the "end of the century". An excerpt from this conversation was later included as Deng's theoretical contribution in the second volume of "Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping", entitled "China's Goal in This Century is to Achieve a Well-off". This is equivalent to Deng's readjustment of his strategy to enter a moderately prosperous society through economic construction after Mao's failure to enter the "Rising Ping World" through the second stage of the socialist revolution in the two-stage revolution theory. The strategy of the two-stage revolution theory has been adjusted, but Zhang Sanshi's Maoist-style theory of history, which incorporates the five stages of Marxism-Leninism and the traditional theory of well-off Datong, has not changed in the slightest. To this day, the Chinese Communists still carry out so-called "anti-corruption" in the name of "party style". They do not see corruption as an abuse of public power, but as a "wind" that is not directed towards its political goals, which makes anti-corruption no longer a legal issue, but a political one, and in the absence of legitimacy ( Refers to the légitimité of the referendum concerning the general will, rather than the légalité of the legality of the procedure), which ultimately becomes an instrument of political struggle.

After 1989, China was originally isolated, but it happened to catch up with the rise of multiculturalism in the United States, acknowledging the legitimacy of different values. On the one hand, due to the needs of its own development, China confirmed its policy of continuing to open up to the world at the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1992, which requires facing the impact of Western values; on the other hand, in the international environment with the rise of "multiculturalism" , China has the possibility of inventing its own unique values to confront the West. On January 15, 1993, Jiang Zemin proposed at the National Propaganda Ministers Symposium that on the basis of the existing line, "the propaganda and education of patriotism should be strengthened, and the propaganda and education of correct ideals, beliefs, outlook on life, and values should be strengthened." 94] ”, which is the first time a CCP leader has publicly used the word “values”. Therefore, in today's official ideological discourse in China, there is a "three views". The first two views, namely the outlook on life and the outlook on the world, are derived from the local Zhang Zaiqi tradition and Soviet Stalinism respectively, and were reconciled into Maoism by Mao Zedong in Yan'an. In other words, Maoism is two views. In the "July 1st Speech" delivered by Jiang Zemin in 1991 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, when talking about cultivating new people who need the attention of society, he also demanded to "establish the lofty ideal and world outlook and outlook on life of communism", but there were no values. Although "values" have been added to the Three Views Theory, these "values" are not for universal values that are in line with international standards, but for Chinese-characteristic values that resist universal values. Therefore, the Three Views Theory does not even count as Neo-Maoism, but merely reiterates Maoism that resists Western values.

§5. The essence of ideology: Marxism vaporized in wind theory

Chinese Communists claim that Mao Zedong Thought (called Maoism in the West) is the result of a combination of Marxist theory and Chinese practice. This statement is completely true.

If the intuition of qi corresponds to the western concept of space, then the intuition of wind, which is the "movement of qi", also corresponds to the western concept of time. A set of Maoist historical views corresponding to the modern Western concept of time and space was established. From then on, Mao could selectively digest and absorb foreign ideas based on his own theoretical framework. It is precisely because of this that the Marxist view of history has changed into the Maoist view of history. So, what is the difference between these two views of history? A view of history can be seen as a set of ideas about the past, present, and future that involve people in it. These concepts determine the meaning of people's lives and the way they behave.

The uniqueness of the Maoist view of history is that it inherits the traditional Chinese thinking, otherwise it would be no different from the Marxist view of history. The biggest difference between this traditional Chinese thinking and Western thinking was pointed out by Leibniz as early as the seventeenth century. The modern Western society's understanding of China began with the Jesuit mission. In 1583, Matteo Ricci, the founder of the Jesuit mission to China, entered China and gradually began to communicate with Chinese intellectual elites in the 1590s. He is extremely proficient in ancient Chinese classics. When Matteo Ricci died in 1610, Longobardo became his heir. At that time, it was still "Neo-Confucianism" that dominated China's intellectual circles. Long Huamin believes that "li" is nothing but the first substance (la matière première) in Western terms. In response, Leibniz retorted: "I don't see the possibility, how the Chinese can learn from - the first substance that philosophers teach in schools - that purely passive, irregular, formless general rules and primordial grounds of all forms [95] ". What Leibniz pointed out is the key point that we will continue to explore: "No rules, no forms". This characteristic remained after Wang Fuzhi replaced "li" with "qi" and remained unchanged in Maoism and Dengism.

In fact, many contemporary Western scholars approach the core of this same question to varying degrees. Cheng Ailan mentioned in a lecture at the Collège de France: For Chinese people, the number three is more [96] . This is different from the singular plural in French. In other words, in French there is a one-many relationship, while in Chinese it is a one-two-many relationship. In his controversial book Procès ou création (Procès ou création), François Jullien noted two elements, the "two" and the reference to God:

 If we push further up within the dissimilar structure, I think the principle of opposition should be as follows: As Wang Fuzhi conceived through the systematic treatment of the basic intuition of the Chinese tradition, there is never only one organism at the source of the process ( instance), but two. On the one hand, these two organisms are absolutely opposed to each other when they are determined; at the same time, they operate equally in the face of the other, and there is never any priority or distinction between them. This creates a two-way, continuous interactive logic. In contrast to this logic, the problem of root causes loses its meaning. There is no transcendence; the representation bounces back into itself intact; and the operation of the relation does not invite a collision with any externality. In the final analysis, there is neither the necessity of the creator as the initial cause and the first driving force - process logic excludes this, nor the absolute experience of the other - transcendence from a deeper perspective, I It is a reference to God—[97].

According to Julien (according to Wang Fuzhi's theory), there is not even one but only two. That is to say, it is a relationship of two and many. Corresponding to Lian's statement, Mao also did insist on "one divided into two" and fought against philosophers who held the "two into one" view: from May 1964 [98] to May 1965 [99 ] , Mao, with the help of political persecution, overthrew the party theorists who insisted on "merging two into one", led by Yang Xianzhen, president of the Central Party School.

Let us try to take an example and examine the meaning of the same sentence under two different historical perspectives. Regarding freedom, Mao famously said: "There is no abstract freedom, ... only concrete freedom. As for abstract general freedom, there is no such thing in the world." This sentence is completely correct. It is good whether it is placed in the Maoist view of history or in the Christian view of history, but the meaning is completely different. In the Christian view of history, abstract general freedom is not in this world, but in God, who is outside the world. Therefore, the abstract general freedom not only exists, but also transcends our world and is the reference of all concrete freedoms. In the Maoist view of history, the sensory world is everything, and there is no God outside this world. To say that there is no abstract general freedom is to say that it does not exist anywhere. As Cheng Ailan said: "Chinese thinking is completely immersed in reality, and reason is not outside the world [100] ".

In the modern view of history, let us not talk about God, but lead by reason. Discuss in the categories of numbers established by Kant (one, many and all). Just like the relationship between the singular and the plural in French, the definite article "freedom" in the singular signifies abstract general freedom, and the plural freedom signifies concrete freedom. Abstract general freedom does not exist in the world, but our thinking about the meaning of each plural word can only be understood in the sense of that abstract general word, that is, in the empirical world "many" always corresponds to a "one" outside the world of experience. Therefore, abstract general freedom is always the absolute reference to all concrete freedoms. Without this absolute reference, freedom is no longer freedom. Hegel called this freedom without absolute reference "willfulness". Therefore, in the modern view of history of Westerners, there is still absolute freedom beyond the world implied by this sentence, which is accomplished by relying on the corresponding relationship between one, many and the whole in Kant's rationality. But in the Maoist view of history, as Julien describes it, there is neither a correspondence between one and many, nor an absolute reference beyond the empirical world. The "many" in the empirical world corresponds to the erratic "two" (yin and yang) which is also in the empirical world, which corresponds exactly to the "irregularity, no form" mentioned by Leibniz mentioned above. Thus, we can see that in the Maoist view of history, because of the loss of the reference to absolute freedom, there is only willfulness and no freedom. In this sense, Mao's accusation of "liberalism" may not be bad, because there is no absolute freedom to refer to, and it is not true liberalism. In this example, we can see that the same sentence can express completely different meanings in two different systems of historical views.

The experiences of the two articles on the sinicization of Marxism, "On Practice" and "On Contradiction" published by the Communist Party of China in the name of Mao Zedong, in the Soviet Union can also help us understand the difference between "two". The "On Practice" naturally corresponds to the relationship between one and many, because it is to turn the abstract one (singular) into a concrete many (plural) through practice. On the other hand, "On Contradiction" is like the theory of yin and yang in Chinese history or the "Book of Changes", which is about the study of "two". These two articles of the Party were received in the Soviet Union, and the "On Practice" was greatly appreciated by the Soviet journalists, but they were indifferent to "On Contradiction" [101] .

§6 Conclusion

To sum up, we can conclude that, in the Maoist view of history, Mao replaced the Western concept of space and time with the spirit and style of traditional Chinese thinking, and Chineseized Marxism. However, in the process of Sinicization, since the Chinese did not have a monotheistic religious belief, nor did they establish the rational thinking of the Enlightenment (including the corresponding relationship between one, many and the whole), what is more important is that the wind The theory of "two" which is very developed in the Chinese tradition carried by the Theory of Harmony makes everything in the Chinese mind unable to finally unify into the "absolute one", but stays in "no rules, no form". "in the void. This caused Mao Zedong to lose the "absolute one" in the process of sinicizing Marxism - in fact, what was lost was the absolute truth beyond the world, which we also call reason, love, justice or goodness - lost The wind theory of this absolute frame of reference becomes a set of theories leading to evil (absence of good). In the violent struggle of using evil to defeat evil, Feng Lun, the theoretical system that carries the Maoist view of history, has played a huge role. However, this system deviates from the original purpose for which it was created - the pursuit of an ideal society with rationality, love, justice and goodness as its ultimate goals.

With his incredible wisdom, Mao Zedong took advantage of traditional Chinese culture to take and transform Marxism, almost blending them into one, and creating its variant: Maoism. Undoubtedly, the wind theory is an outstanding work of Mao Zedong. However, as long as we do not understand traditional culture and master foreign civilizations in the sense of being the absolute truth of the supreme good, then, without the reference to the absolute truth of the supreme good, the localization of any theory will only accomplish evil.

[1] Chen Yun le dit en novembre 1980, Cf ChenYun Chen Yun, ChenYun wenxuan disanjuan Œuvres Choisies de ChenYun Volume III, Pékin, Renmin chubanshe, 1995, p. 273.

[2] People's Daily, February 28, 1981, first edition.

[3] Regarding the view of the existence of a "wind theory" in Maoist ideology, I first proposed it in my dissertation (in French) in 2010-2011, and the main content of this article is excerpted and translated from it.

[4] Stuart Reynolds Schram, The thought of Mao Tse-Tung , Londres, Cambridge University Press, coll. « Contemporary China Institute publications », 1989, p. 70.

[5] Tse-Toung Mao, Oeuvres choisies de Mao Tsé-Toung, tome II , Pékin, Editions en langues étrangères, 1967, p. 226.

[6] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol.2 , Beijing, People's Publishing House, 1991, vol.2, p. 534.

[7] Anne Cheng, Histoire de la pensée chinoise , Paris, Seuil, 2002, p. 252.

[8] "Zhuangzi Zeyang"

[9] Dunkang Yu, Interpretation of Yi Xue from Han and Song Dynasties , Beijing, Huaxia chu ban she, 2006, p. 12.

[10] Ibid. , p. 10.

[11] Anne Cheng, Histoire de la pensée chinoise , Paris, Seuil, 2002, p. 298.

[12] Jacques Gernet, La raison des choses , Gallimard, 2005, 436 p.

[13] Wang Fuzhi's "Reading Tongjian Lun Volume 14"

[14] Anne Cheng, «Zhongguo chuantong sixiang zhong de kongjian guannian »The Empty Concept of Chinese Traditional Thought («La notion d'espace dans la pensée traditionnelle chinoise»), Faguo Hanxue French Sinology (Sinologie française, Beijing, Zhonghua shuju), n° 9 (2004), pp. 3-12.

[15] Anne Cheng, Histoire de la pensée chinoise , op. cit. , p. 39.

[16] Marcel Granet et préface de Léon Vandermeersch, La pensée chinoise , Éd. Albin Michel, 1999, p. 79.

[17] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol . 2, op. cit. , p. 662.

[18] Zhang Youcun, "Four Waves of Income Distribution", in Phoenix.com, [URL] http://finance.ifeng.com/money/wealth/middleclass/20090907/1204595.shtml , updated on September 7, 2009 , accessed April 26, 2012.

[19] Zhang Youcun, ibid .

[20] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol . 2, op. cit. , p. 664.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid. , p. 665.

[23] Ibid. , p. 666.

[24] Ibid. , p. 667.

[25] Ibid. , p. 668.

[26] Zhang Youcun, ibid .

[27] Mao Zedong Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong Xuanji disijuan Selected Works of Mao Zedong Vol.4 (Œuvres choisies de Mao Zedong, tome IV) , Pékin, Renmin chubanshe, 1991, p. 1438-1439.

[28] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume III , Beijing, People's Publishing House, 1991, vol.3, p. 811.

[29] Yu Wei, Wu Zhifei, "The "Fan Shi Pai" angered and attacked Deng Xiaoping, [URL] http://dangshi.people.com.cn/GB/144956/9556031.html , access date: March 2010 1st of the month.

[30] Wu Jiang, "The Road of Ten Years - Days with Hu Yaobang" (Hong Kong: Mirror Enterprise Culture Co., Ltd., 1997), p. 35.

[31] Zhang Ding, Yan Ruping, Tang Fei, Li Gongtian: The Biography of Hu Yaobang (Volume II 1976-1989), Draft for Comment, November 20, 2008, p. 31.

[32] Ibid., p. 49.

[33] Ibid., p. 35.

[34] Ibid., p. 36.

[35] Hua Guofeng, "Political Report at the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Report on August 12, 1977, adopted on August 18)", People's Daily, 1977 August 23, 1st to 6th editions.

[36] The Communist Party of China News: "Rehabilitation of Unjust, False and Wrongly Cases", China Communist Party News Network, [URL] http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64156/64157/4512071.html ), access date: 2009 October 30, 2009.

[37] Refers to the central, local and military newspapers and periodicals, see the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, "Notice on Handling the Issue of Names and Criticisms of Some Cadres During the Cultural Revolution", June 19, 1980. Contains Song Yongyi: "Chinese Cultural Revolution Library (CD)" (Hong Kong, Chinese University Press), 2002.

[38] Source ibid.

[39] Figures disclosed by Hua Guofeng when he met with a Yugoslav press corps, see: Andrew James Nathan, Chinese Democracy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), p. 7.

[40] A considerable number of counter-revolutionary crimes have been killed or tortured to death. According to the figures in the report “Facts on Historical Political Movements Since the Founding of the People’s Republic” co-edited by the Party History Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China cited in the article in Note 12, “13 More than 5,000 people were sentenced to death for current counter-revolutionary crimes."

[41] The Communist Party of China News: "Rehabilitation of Unjust, False and Wrongly Cases", China Communist Party News Network, ibid.

[42] Michel Bonnin (Pan Mingxiao): "Controversy Caused by the Movement to the Mountains to the Countryside", in "Beijing Spring", 2007, No. 2, pp. 53-57.

[43] Figure source ibid.

[44] Figures come from "Incomplete Statistics of the Organization Department of the Central Committee", see Manmei: "My Missing is Still Endless - Recalling My Father Hu Yaobang" (Beijing, Beijing Press, 2005), p. 258.

[45] Figure source ibid.

[46] Zhang Ding, Yan Ruping, Tang Fei, Li Gongtian: Ibid., p. 48.

[47] Ibid., p. 36.

[48] Chen Zhong, Yang Fengchun, Ye Yang: "Correcting the Right and Wrong of Cadres' Lines That Reverse the "Gang of Four", People's Daily, October 7, 1977, 3rd edition.

[49] Zhang Ding, Yan Ruping, Tang Fei, Li Gongtian: Ibid., p. 37.

[50] Ibid., p. 49.

[51] Chen Zhong, Yang Fengchun, Ye Yang: Ibid.

[52] "Chairman Mao's Policy on Cadres Must Be Conscientiously Implemented", People's Daily, November 27, 1977, first edition.

[53] "Conscientiously Rectify Organizational Departments and Implement the Party's Cadre Policy", People's Daily, January 10, 1978, first edition.

[54] "Essentially Clearing Up the Trial Backlog and Implementing the Party's Cadre Policy", People's Daily, January 19, 1978, first edition.

[55] Zhang Ding, Yan Ruping, Tang Fei, Li Gongtian: Ibid., p. 51.

[56] Ibid., p. 52.

[57] Ibid., p. 51.

[58] Ibid., p. 56.

[59] Ibid., p. 60.

[60] Ibid., pp. 64, 65.

[61] Ibid., p. 71.

[62] Ibid., p. 72.

[63] Ibid.

[64] Ibid., p. 61.

[65] Shen Baoxiang, "The Beginning and End of the Discussion on the Standard of Truth" (Beijing: Communist Party History Press, 2008), p. 32.

[66] "Theoretical Dynamics" was first published on July 15, 1977, see Shen Baoxiang, "The Beginning and End of the Discussion on the Standard of Truth" (Beijing: Communist Party History Press, 2008), p. 32.

[67] "Central Party School Newsletter" No. 185, third edition, see Shen Baoxiang, "The Beginning and End of the Discussion on the Standard of Truth" (Beijing: Communist Party History Press, 2008), p. 33.

[68] Shen Baoxiang, "The Beginning and End of the Discussion on the Standard of Truth" (Beijing: Communist Party History Press, 2008), p. 26.

[69] Ibid., p. 33.

[70] Ibid., p. 34.

[71] Qian Jiang, "Record of the Great Discussion on the Standard of Truth", "Xiang Chao", No. 8, 2009.

[72] Ibid., p. 69.

[73] Ibid., pp. 67-69.

[74] Wang Bingyi, "Yang Xiguang and Discussion on the Standard of Truth", "Centennial Tide", No. 2, 2007.

[75] Wang Qianghua, "Yang Xiguang and the publication of the first "truth standard" article, "Wuhan Literature and History Materials", No. 8, 2008.

[76] Hua Guofeng, "Report on the Work of the Government", February 26, 1978, the first session of the Fifth National People's Congress, in People's Daily, March 7, 1978, first edition.

[77] "Bright China", "People's Daily", January 1, 1978, first edition.

[78] "Quotations from Chairman Mao", "People's Daily", January 1, 1978, first edition.

[79] "She" here refers to the Chinese Communist Party, in full context.

[80] Hua Guofeng, "Report on the Work of the Government", February 26, 1978, the first session of the Fifth National People's Congress, in People's Daily, March 7, 1978, first edition.

[81] Shen Baoxiang, ibid., p. 68.

[82] "Official Goodwill Visit at the Invitation of Chairman Kim Il Sung, Chairman Hua Leaving Beijing for North Korea Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, Vice Chairman Wang Dongxing, and Vice Chairman Soong Ching Ling waited for a warm farewell at the station", People's Daily, May 5, 1978, first edition.

[83] "Bringing the sincere revolutionary friendship and valuable struggle experience of the Korean people, Chairman Hua's visit to the DPRK was a complete success and returned to Beijing. Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Vice Chairman Wang Dongxing and other party and state leaders came to the station to warmly welcome and warmly congratulate the two parties and two Significant Development of Revolutionary Friendship and Combat Unity between China and the Two Peoples", People's Daily, May 12, 1978, first edition.

[84] Edited by the Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chronicle of Deng Xiaoping (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 2004), pp. 302-303.

[85] Shen Baoxiang, ibid., p. 77.

[86] Tan Zong-level, "The Reasons for Hua Guofeng's Resignation: On Two Years of Wandering Forward and Hua Guofeng's Mistakes", source: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences website, [URL] http://www.chinaelections.org/NewsInfo. asp?NewsID=106431 , Accessed: February 1, 2010. There are also rumors that Deng Xiaoping slapped Su Zhenhua twice, but there is no written evidence to support it.

[87] The Chinese People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences: "Ye Jianying Chronicle 1897-1986" (Beijing, Central Literature Publishing House, 2007), p. 1144.

[88] There is also a saying for April 13.

[89] Tanzong class, ibid.

[90] The Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army: Ibid., p. 1144.

[91] Shen Baoxiang, ibid., p. 79.

[92] It was only one day after the arrest of the "Gang of Four". On October 8, Ye Jianying sent his son Ye Xuanning to Hu Yaobang's house to convey the news that the "Gang of Four" had been arrested. And his father's greetings and asking Hu Yaobang to take care of himself and prepare for the work the party will assign him. In addition, his father also "requested Hu Yaobang to think about his suggestions on how to govern the country at present, and come back in two days to hear his opinions" (Zhang Ding, Yan Ruping, Tang Fei, Li Gongtian: "The Biography of Hu Yaobang", p. Volume II 1976-1989, Exposure Draft, 20 November 2008, p. 30). Two days later, on October 10, Ye Xuanning came back to Hu's house. Hu Yaobang put forward three suggestions after careful consideration: "The first is to stop criticizing Deng, and people will be happy; the second is to justify injustice and prison, and people will be overjoyed; the third is to pay close attention to production, and people will be happy." The Origin of the Manuscript", in "Party History Expo", No. 11, 2005. In "Speech at the Political Bureau Meeting of the CPC Central Committee" on November 19, 1980, in "Compilation of Important Documents Since the Third Plenary Session", it is "one case for unjust cases. rejoicing"). Ye Jianying attached great importance to the results of the consultation. These three suggestions were later known as the "Longzhong Three Policies". It is considered to be an outline for the party and the country to get out of crisis and turn things around in terms of politics, organization, and economy (Zhang Ding, p. 31). The grievances involved in Hu Yaobang's "Longzhong Three Policies" were considered to be an "organizational" issue at this time.

[93] Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi (Bureau de la recherche des documents du CC du PCC) (ed.), Deng Xiaoping nianpu 1975-1997 shang Deng Xiaoping Chronicle 1975-1997 (Part 1 ) (Chronique de Deng Xiaoping partie I. 1975-1997) , Pékin, Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2004, p. 582.

[94] Jiang Zemin, Annual Compilation of Jiang Zemin Thought, Central Literature Publishing House, 2010, p. 99.

[95] Anne Cheng et Nicolas Zufferey, La pensée en Chine aujourd'hui , Paris, Gallimard, 2007, p. 34.

[96] Anne Cheng, Confucius revisité : textes anciens, nouveaux discours (suite et fin) , la séance du jeudi 15 décembre (du 1er décembre 2011 au 9 février 2012), 45min-47min, au Collège de France. En ligne: http ://www.college-de-france.fr/site/anne-cheng/Cours_du_15_decembre_2011_C__1.htm , mis à jour le 19 décembre 2011, consulté le 29 janvier 2012.

[97] François Jullien, Procès ou création : une introduction à la pensée des lettrés chinois : essai de problématique interculturelle , Paris, Ed. du Seuil, 1989, p. 75. Source of translation: Wang Lunyue, Current Status of Confucian Studies in France, "Journal of Hunan University", 2008.4.

[98] Ai Hengwu, Lin Qingshan, « yifengweier he heerweiyi » (“One Divides into Two” and “Two into One” « l'Un se diviser en Deux et le Deux s'unir en Un »), Le Quotidien de la clarté , le 20 mai 1964.

[99] Ai siqi, « buxuyong maodun tiaohelun he jieji tiaohelun lai touhuan geming de bianzhenfa » ("The dialectics of revolution must not be exchanged for the theory of reconciliation of contradiction and class reconciliation" « Interdire de remplacer la dialectique révolutionnaire par la conciliation de contradiction et de classes »), Le Quotidien du peuple, le 29 mai 1965.

[100] Anne Cheng, Histoire de la pensée chinoise , op. cit. , p. 36.

[101] Stuart Reynolds Schram, The thought of Mao Tse-Tung , op. cit. , p. 64.