The 7th CPC National Congress Mao Zedong Study On Thoughts Of "Peasant Emancipation"

Lines, policies and theories made at the 7th National Congress of Communist Party of China held in 1945 in Yan’an all involved an issue crucial to the fate of China’s revolution, i.e. the issue of peasants. Discussion about the issue of peasants became an important part of Mao Zedong’s written and oral political reports. Liu Shaoqi summed up the theory concerning peasants in Mao Zedong Thought as the theory and policy regarding “peasant emancipation” in his report on revision of the Party Constitution.The paper first overviews the Party’s attempts prior to the 7th CPC National Congress to explore “peasant emancipation” from the party-founding initial period and the first National Revolution to the Agrarian Revolutionary War, and the attempts to adjust policy and deepen understanding of “peasant emancipation” after the outbreak of the anti-Japanese War. It is seen from such above attempts that “peasant emancipation” was closely linked with the fate of the China’s revolution, that’s after all the success of China’s revolution had a stake in the issue of “peasant emancipation”. After 20 years of painstaking exploration since founding, the CPC’s theory and policy about “peasant emancipation” continued to mature, laying the ideological and theoretical foundation for the complete revelation of “peasant emancipation” theory and policy at the 7th CPC National Congress.This paper gives a comprehensive review on the extent of great importance to which “peasant emancipation” is attached and its based theory and policy. It contends that 7th CPC National Congress highlighted that the issue of peasants was of great importance in the Chinese revolution. As the predominant force of China’s democratic revolution, peasants should be highly valued. Chinese democratic revolution couldn’t go successful without peasants, let alone Chinese socialist revolution and other revolutions. The solution to the issue of peasants is essentially to follow the line of the 7th CPC National Congress, for the line is the one guiding the emancipation of the whole Chinese nation and Chinese people. The key to realize the emancipation of peasants lied in the land reform, i.e. transforming private property owned by feudal landlords into that owned by peasants by transferring the land from the feudal exploiters to the hands of the peasants, so that peasants can release from the feudal land relations. This was the biggest wish of the majority of peasants, which in turn mobilized the revolutionary enthusiasm of peasants, so that they could gather as the majority democrat force to win the victory of the revolutionary cause. This paper also suggests that the basic ideas and major policy concerning “peasant emancipation” can also be summarized as follows: politically, upholding new democratic country system; economically, implementing the democratic economic system; culturally, developing national, scientific and masses culture with democratic economic features; militarily, building a peasant-dominated people’s army closed linked with the masses; in terms of national development strategies, building a prosperous China by transferring from an agricultural country into an industrial one.This paper argues that theories and policies about “peasant emancipation” made at the 7th CPC National Congress still bear important implications as follows: the Party and state should put the peasant issue first; party members and cadres should understand the reality in rural areas, strengthen the flesh and blood ties with peasant masses; help them get over ideological problems that exist among peasant masses by grasping their mental conditions; improve the overall quality of peasant masses by combining knowledge with peasants; handle well the relationship between the Party and the peasant masses.It is particularly emphasized in the paper that peasants should be engraved in history and highly valued by Chinese government and the Party given their much contribution to the cause of Chinese revolution and their great sacrifices for China’s industrialization. As the overwhelming majority of China’s population, Chinese peasants are the cornerstone for Communist Party of China to rule the country. All party cadres and people of insight must be clearly aware of this.