On The Thought Of Mao Tsetung's Social Structure

The theory of social structure [TSS] deals with components of society and the way in which they constitute and promote the development of a society . TSS is central to Marxist historical - materialism and important part of Mao Tse — tung ' s philosophical thoughts . Studying Maoist thought of social structure is helpful to deepen our understanding of historical materialism , to enlarge the researching field of Maoist , to analyze contemporary Chinese social structure. And furthermore , as a theoretical means , this kind of studying has importance in building " une societe relativement aisee" and attaining the grand ends of socialist modernization .In this dissertation , the author tries to advance the studying of Mao Tse - Tung' philosophical ideas and fill some blanks in that field . He takes philosophical and sociological approach and locates Mao' s thoughts in the historical backgroud , namely the great changes in social structure in modem China , presents a systematical exploration of Mao Tse - tung' s ideas of social structure, including its sources , basic contents , practical application , features and nature , limits and transcendences , and its actual significances.This dissertation is divided into four chapters and introduction additionally .In the introductive part , after giving a summary of results concerning with this subject at home and abroad, the author argues for the significance of the subject matter and the approach to be followed to his researching object. Secondly , the author defines the socialstructure and describes its mail features and classing, and then , takes three categories——social basic structure, social formal structure and social group structure——as his perspective and framework to analyze Mao Tse - tung' s TSS .In the first chapter , the author shows the sources and historical backgrounds from which Maoist TSS drown its ideas . Those sources includes Chinese traditional culture and particularly Marxist theory of social structure , such as Marx and Engels' ideas of the reciprocity between productive forces and relations of production , between economic base and superstructure, of the successive evolution of social economic modes, of the reactions of politics , right and other ideological elements to economic base , particular Lenin' s definition of class and his thought the doctrine of class struggle as a guiding clue . As concerned with the historical backdrop , Maoist TSS is a theoretical reflection of the shifting of modem Chinese social structure from traditional form to modern one through four forms of society , namely feu-dalistic→semi - colonial and semi - feudal→neo - democratic→socialistic.In the second chapter, the author explicates the contents of Maoist TSS . As an "dramatis personae " and "dramatist", Mao Tse - tung have a plenty of sensory knowledge and intellectual considerations about the problems of human conditions , the relations betweenhuman beings and their society , the nature and human beings. His thoughts about productivity , relations of production ( economic basis ) and superstructure , his explanations of the politics, economy and culture and their dialectical relations , his analysis of social classes and estates , and so on , all of those presents his understanding about the social structure and the laws of its change during the transforming periods. In the regard of the fundamental social structure , it is Mao who introduced explicitly the concept of " fundamental social contradiction" for the first time in the history of Marxist philosophy , raising the relation between productive forces and relations of production to the level of " fundamental social contradiction " which overarches the whole history and advances the progression of society . By means of that concept, Mao brought to light the decisive function of fundamental social contradiction in constituting the social structure and discovered the substance of social structure and the cause of its changes. As social formation as concerned , Mao generalized the dialectic relations a-mong politics , economy and culture, and pointed out that politics was a representation of e-conomy as the base , the given cultural phenomena were a reflection of given politics and e-conomy in a given society and in turn had influence on politics and economy . As for social group structure , Mao thought that since the history of civilization had been a history of class struggle , the method of class - analyzing should be taken as the most fundamental approach to knowing Chinese social condition and to resolution of problems emerging from Chinese revolution . Maoist theory of class struggle played a active role in various fields , such as deciding the revolutionary route , building the party , socialist transformation, and so forth .In the third chapter , the author illustrates how Mao put his TSS into practice . The author argues that Mao grounded his neo - democratic revolution route on his correct grasp of Chinese situation such as his insight of dual social structure in semi - colonial and semi -feudal society, his analyses of the imbalance between political and economic development, of the classes structure which he called " two small ends and big middle ". And Maoist conception of neo - democratic society and his practice enriched Marxian ideas about the oriental societies and found a passable path for under - developed countries to socialism. Furthermore, Maoist conception of the structure of socialist society, as successful achievement or lessons from failures , is a precious legacy .In the fourth chapter , the author evaluates Maoist TSS . As a product of fusion of Marxist TSS with Chinese practical situation, Maoist TSS methodologically is a sort of philosophy of society and characterized by three points: unifying historical - materialism with historical dialectic methodology to analyzing the basic social structure so as to both affirm the divisive forces of productivity and underscore the reaction by relations of production and superstructure; flowing the doctrine of active and revolutionary representation to analyzing the structure of social formation so as to expound the dialectic relations among politics , economy and culture and highlight the status of ideas and cultural elements in social structure ; uplifting the value of subjects so as to argue for "the free development of each " and fully social progress. There limits lie in Maoist TSS : overstating the reaction of superstructure and rela-tions of production so such as to overiook to develop productivity ; Partially understanding the priority of politics so such as to make society homogeneous around the politics ; subjectifying the category of class so such as to absolutise the method of class - analyzing . As a result , Deng Xiaoping' s TSS transcends the limits of Maoist theory and re - establishes the central status of productivity in the social structure. There is three profound edifications offered by Maoist TSS : the dialectic interactions between productivity and relations of production , between economic base and superstructure should be recognized very clearly, and the developing of productivity should be taken as the most important task for a long time ; in order to develop the various fields conceitedly and to provide a harmonious situation for free development of each , scientific notion of development should be erected firmly ; measures should be taken to eliminate polarization in social life and to bring up a rational modem social estate structure .