Historical Research And Introspect On Mao Zedong And Deng Xiaoping’s Critiques Of Formalism

With the CPC’s formation, development and maturation, the formalism in it which has opposite relations is still repeated. Formalism varies in forms from different periods: in the Chinese revolution period, it’s linked to the subjectivism and the dogmatism(the bookishness); after the accomplishment of the socialist reform, the formalism and fanfares leading to incalculable damage to the national economy influence each other in the Great Leap Forward and People’ s Commune campaign; after the reform and opening up, the formalism pins it to the bureaucracy and this seriously hinders the process of Chinese Socialist modernization. The Chinese communists persistently have high attention and positive criticism to the formalism. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping’s Critiques of Formalism are more representative. Combing and analyzing their theories about the formalism’s performance, causes, harm and governance can make us have clearer recognize about the formalism and more effective methods to overcome the formalism.Mao Zedong’s criticism to the formalism is mainly to solve the party’s ideological line problems during the Chinese revolution period— exaggerating the individual conclusion,mythologizing Russian experience and imposing it by system means. This kind of formalism called the bookishness or the dogmatism causes many mistakes appearing within the CPC. Among them, Qu Qiubai, Li Lisan and Wang Ming’s "left" Adventurisms cause the most serious consequences that the revolution is seriously affected that forces the Chinese communists have to carefully summarize and introspect the reasons for the setbacks and failures. On the one hand, from the objective aspect, Mao Zedong thinks that the CPC is still in the juvenile stage, so it lacks of enough experience in carrying out the armed struggle; on the other hand, from the ideological line, Mao Zedong analyzes the epistemological roots of the formalism: firstly, the Chinese communists don’t grasp the basic principle of the unity of theory and practice in the Marxism; secondly, the Chinese communists don’t correctly master the scientific theory of the combination of the universality and the particularity of contradiction. Mao Zedong argues that overcoming the formalism should start from remolding the leading cadres’ own thoughts by means of two specific methods: firstly, the CPC must strengthen the construction of ideas and establish the ideological route of seeking truths from facts; secondly, the CPC must advocate the investigation-and-study method and take works combined with the mass line at the same time.Deng Xiaoping criticizes the formalism from two aspects. In terms of ideas, Deng Xiaoping restores the ideological route of seeking truths from facts, emphasizes emancipating the mind, pays attention to the combination with the new situation andre-examines the Marxism with new ideas and thoughts and finally breaks the bondage of the dogmatism. After the “Cultural Revolution”, the communist party of China faces two problems: one is how to reflect and summarize the "left" Adventurisms which is concentrated on "Cultural Revolution"; another is how to lead the Chinese people to set out on a path of the healthy development in the process of socialist construction in China. Deng Xiaoping’s breakthrough reflects in two aspects: one is breaking through the "Two all" dogma and liberating from the minds detention of the personal worship; two is breaking through the superstition of the traditional socialist mode. He points out that “the planned economy is not equal to socialism, capitalism also has a plan; Market economy is not equal to capitalism, socialism also has a market”. From the aspect of socialist essence, Deng Xiaoping reveals the internal relations of the socialist systems and features and points out that the development direction and the basic task of socialism and the main functions and basic value of socialism which means the dogmatism-ignoring the socialist essence and clinging to the formalities for a long time is cleared up. In the aspect of political system,Deng Xiaoping considers that the CPC must adhere to and develop socialist democracy and fully mobilizes the masses’ enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. In this way, the CPC will provide a good social environment for eliminating the formalism and a giant power for the development of the socialist modernization.On one hand, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping’s critique of formalism have the same character. Both of them accurately grasp the pulse of the times and adhere to the ideological route of seeking truths from facts; on the other hand, owing to the different problems faced,their critique of formalism are different: Mao Zedong mainly criticizes the formalism from the ideological line and sets up the ideological route of seeking truths from facts.Meanwhile, he believes that its’ implement needs the investigation and study method and depends on people. Besides emphasizing the thought liberation, Deng Xiaoping pays more attention to the systematic and structural aspects and stresses the necessity to promote the socialist democracy and the legal system in order to fundamentally overcome formalism.According to Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping’s critique of formalism, we can see that formalism varies in forms from different periods so that opposing formalism also must always keep pace with the times. But their thoughts, such as the ideological route of emancipating the mind and seeking truths from facts, the mass line, the investigation and study method and strengthening institutional construction should be the fundamental basis for overcoming the formalism today.