Comrade Lin Piao’s Call to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army
Carry the Mass Movement for the Creative Study and
Application of Chairman Mao’s Works to a New Stage
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #42, Oct. 14,
1966, pp. 5-8. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]
Our great teacher, great leader, great supreme commander and great
helmsman Chairman Mao with Comrade Lin Piao, his close comrade-in-arms
Comrade Lin Piao points out: Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the unified programme of action for the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country. A new situation has appeared in the study of Chairman Mao’s works by the whole Party and the whole nation. Every comrade in the army must raise higher than ever before the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, get a still firmer grip on the study of Chairman Mao’s works and put it on a still more solid footing, bring about a new order of things and raise the study to a new level. Every comrade must do his utmost truly to grasp Mao Tse-tung’s thought and truly master it.
Comrade Hsiao Hua has communicated Comrade Lin Piao’s instructions at a meeting of the Air Force cadres. He said: Comrade Lin Piao has always implemented Mao Tse-tung’s thought and carried out his correct line most faithfully, firmly and thoroughly. He is Chairman Mao’s closest comrade-in-arms, his best student and the best example in creatively studying and applying Chairman Mao’s works. We must all learn from Comrade Lin Piao.
COMRADE LIN PIAO has recently given extremely important directions on the study of Chairman Mao’s works in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, calling on the entire army to carry forward to a new stage the mass drive for the creative study and application of Chairman Mao’s works. Comrade Lin Piao’s directions were communicated to a recent meeting of cadres of the Air Force by Comrade Hsiao Hua, Director of the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army.
Comrade Lin Piao said: Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the science of revolution, it is proletarian truth which has stood the test of prolonged revolutionary struggles, it is Marxism-Leninism conforming closest to reality, it is the unified program of action for the whole Party, the whole army, and the people of the whole country. The whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country must be thoroughly imbued with Mao Tse-tung’s thought and our thinking must be unified with it.
Comrade Lin Piao said: The great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is now being carried out throughout the country, and a new situation and a new order of things have appeared in the study of Chairman Mao’s works by the whole Party and the whole nation. The army must adapt itself to this situation and carry the mass movement for creatively studying and applying Chairman Mao’s works to a new stage. The army must truly become a great school of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. The great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought must be raised higher than ever. We must get a still firmer grip on the study of Chairman Mao’s works and put it on a still more solid footing, we must bring about a new order of things and raise our study to a new level. Every comrade must do his utmost truly to grasp Mao Tse-tung’s thought, truly to master it.
At the meeting of the Air Force cadres, Comrade Hsiao Hua urged all comrades in the army to respond resolutely and energetically to Comrade Lin Piao’s call. He said that Comrade Lin Piao’s extremely important and timely directions placed still greater demands on the army, and gave a new and powerful impetus to the mass drive for the study of Chairman Mao’s works which was developing in depth, and they would have profound and far-reaching influence on the building of the PLA into a still more revolutionized army.
Comrade Hsiao Hua said: Why has our army work developed so rapidly and scored such great achievements in the few years since Comrade Lin Piao took charge of the work of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party? There may be thousands of reasons but they can be summed up in this single point—the holding aloft of the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, the study and application of Chairman Mao’s works in a creative way, the placing of politics in the forefront. Practice has proved that tremendous changes will take place in the ideology and work of a unit when it holds aloft the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, studies and applies Chairman Mao’s works in a creative way, puts politics in the forefront, persists in the “four firsts”1 and makes a great effort to revolutionize people’s thinking.
In fighting a war, our armed forces have always relied on the men’s political consciousness, on their courage, on the political factor, on the “four firsts.” The fighting strength of a unit is dependent on political work, on political education, on the education in Mao Tse-tung’s thought. People armed with Mao Tse-tung’s thought are the most courageous, the most intelligent, and the most revolutionary. An army that is equipped with Mao Tse-tung’s thought has the greatest fighting power and is an army that will be ever-victorious and invincible in the world. We must equip and educate the armed forces with Mao Tse-tung’s thought. When the work of education in Mao Tse-tung’s thought is done successfully and the men’s proletarian consciousness is raised, the result is courage, creativeness, a sense of organization and discipline, a capacity to stand up to hardship and a revolutionary spirit. And like mushrooms after rain, there will emerge heroes of the type of Lei Feng, Ouyang Hai, Wang Chieh, Mai Hsien-teh, and Liu Ying-chun.
Comrade Lin Piao has pointed out that although, as far as the work of the whole army is concerned, it is very complicated and circumstances differ, yet in this particular respect the situation is at once both complicated and yet not so complicated, there are differences and yet there are no differences. That is to say, everything must be unified through Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Since the work of the army as a whole is so complicated, what is it that must be taken hold of? The most fundamental thing is to take hold of education in Mao Tse-tung’s thought, the placing of politics in the forefront. When this is done well, all kinds of work will receive an impetus and can be done well. If you don’t take hold of this, you will never get results and inevitably you will lose your bearings however hard you strive and sweat on other matters. Out of all the thousands of things they must do, the Party Committees, the political organs and the leading cadres at all levels must have a firm grasp of the study of Chairman Mao’s works, put politics in the forefront, stress the revolutionization of people’s thinking, and turn the army into a great school of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Here lies the fundamental thing, the core and soul, in our army building.
Comrade Hsiao Hua said: The aim of the great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is utterly to destroy bourgeois ideology and vigorously establish the supremacy of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. The whole country is now engaged in vigorous study of the works of Chairman Mao. Our army must do better than before in studying Chairman Mao’s works and bring about a new order of things, reach a new level and achieve new results. We must study better and better every year. We must not stand still but must continue to forge ahead. We must not become complacent but must raise our level, must develop, must make creative contributions and sum up our new experiences. Otherwise we may lag behind, lag behind the situation and behind the people throughout the country.
The great masses of cadres and fighters of our army are infinitely loyal to Chairman Mao and have unbounded love for him. They are infinitely loyal to Mao Tse-tung’s thought and have unbounded love for it. When the news reached the army of Chairman Mao’s swim in the Yangtze River, and of the several occasions when he received the revolutionary teachers and students, the knowledge that Chairman Mao was very fit and well was a matter of the greatest happiness and inspiration to the commanders and fighters throughout the army. They all said that Chairman Mao’s good health was the greatest happiness for the whole Party, the whole army, and the whole nation. There were resounding acclamations of long life to Chairman Mao throughout barracks and camps. The masses of cadres and fighters have extremely profound class feeling for our great leader Chairman Mao. Only with deep and rich proletarian feeling can we study Chairman Mao’s works well.
The method of study should still follow Comrade Lin Piao’s instructions, that is: they should be studied with problems in mind, they should be studied and applied in a creative way, study should be combined with practice, one should study first what is urgently needed so as to get quicker results and one should try hard to apply what one studies. Practice has proved that this is the best method of studying Chairman Mao’s works and solving problems. Comrade Lin Piao has said: The question now is not whether we do or do not study but whether we can truly grasp and apply what we study. To grasp and apply truly, we must combine study with reality. Only by linking it with reality can we understand it, fix it in our minds, and apply it. Without linking it with reality, we cannot understand it, fix it in our minds and apply it. We must link up with reality and carry out repeated education, dissemination, study, and practice. We should not regard the army as still the same old one, as if nothing has changed. Actually things are changing every day. Don’t be afraid of repetition. Link up with reality, link up with ideology and link up with work, and we will no longer be repetitive.
Comrade Hsiao Hua said: Comrade Lin Piao has instructed us that the army must implement the thought of Mao Tse-tung in order to resist revisionist ideology and all sorts of exploiting class ideology, to strengthen revolutionization, to elevate our class consciousness, to raise our understanding of policy and improve our way of thinking. Comrade Lin Piao has stressed that not only fighters but also the cadres must study the “three standing articles” [“Serve the People,” “In Memory of Norman Bethune,” and “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains”]. It is very easy to read the “three standing articles.” But to apply them truly is not so easy. We must study these three articles as maxims. These must be studied at all levels. We must apply what we study so as to revolutionize our thinking. These instructions of Comrade Lin Piao must be implemented with great earnestness.
Comrade Hsiao Hua said: Comrade Lin Piao has always implemented Mao Tse-tung’s thought and carried out his correct line most faithfully, firmly, and thoroughly. At every crucial turn in the history of the Chinese revolution, Comrade Lin Piao has resolutely taken his stand on the side of Chairman Mao and carried out uncompromising struggle against every kind of “Left” and Right erroneous line and has courageously safeguarded Mao Tse-tung’s thought. Since he took charge of the work of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Comrade Lin Piao has held the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought on high, creatively applied Mao Tse-tung’s thought and put forward a series of important measures for the strengthening of the revolutionization of the army. He has called on the whole army to launch a mass movement for the study of the works of Chairman Mao and has also pushed forward throughout the country a vigorous mass drive among workers, peasants, and soldiers for the creative study and application of Chairman Mao’s works. Comrade Lin Piao is Chairman Mao’s closest comrade-in-arms, his best student, and the best example in creatively studying and applying Chairman Mao’s works. The comrades of our whole army should learn from Comrade Lin Piao and follow his example in holding high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, creatively studying and applying Chairman Mao’s works, and consistently and unswervingly disseminating and safeguarding Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
Comrade Hsiao Hua spoke about the tremendous significance of the great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in our country and its great successes. He also gave important directions concerning the work in the Air Force.
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1 Four firsts: 1) As between man and weapons, giving first place to man; 2) as between political and other work, giving first place to political work; 3) as between ideological and routine tasks in political work, giving first place to ideological work; and 4) in ideological work as between ideas in books and living ideas currently in people’s minds, giving first place to living ideas currently in people’s minds. —Tr.Contents page for this Peking Review issue.
Peking Review article list (in date order).
Peking Review article list (by subject).