Zhu Jun: Clarifying Three Misconceptions About the Yan'an Rectification Movement

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victorious conclusion of the Yan'an Rectification Movement. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The Yan'an Rectification was a concentrated action that enabled the whole Party to rectify its ideological and political lines, break the hold of subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing ^[1], and clarify the direction of future efforts. It played a massive role in promoting the victories of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation." The Yan'an Rectification Movement laid a solid foundation for the successful convening of the Party's Seventh National Congress. By establishing the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought throughout the Party, it provided a powerful ideological impetus for the continuous advancement of the Party's cause. However, for some time now, surrounding this glorious history, certain misinterpretations and misunderstandings—and even deliberate distortions and attacks—have emerged within academic circles at home and abroad, which warrant vigilance. The essence of such misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and deliberate distortions is to negate Chairman Mao's outstanding contributions to the Chinese Revolution in both theory and practice, and thereby negate the historical legitimacy of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) governance. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the victorious conclusion of the Yan'an Rectification Movement, we should base ourselves on historical materialism, adopt a more rigorous attitude, profoundly summarize historical experiences, and use authentic historical materials to analyze and refute the fallacies of historical nihilism ^[2]. This ensures that the glorious history and great significance of the Yan'an Rectification Movement are properly manifested and passed down.

I. The Yan'an Rectification was a top-down movement for ideological liberation, not a "power struggle to eliminate dissidents"

As a profound movement of Marxist ideological education in our Party's history, the Yan'an Rectification ensured that the correct direction of integrating Marxism with China's concrete realities was maintained. It caused the ideological line of seeking truth from facts to take deep root in the hearts of the whole Party, making it one of the landmark events in the history of the CPC. However, there are many erroneous speculations regarding why our Party launched the rectification movement. One reason is that early Party leader Wang Ming, when faced with the "Left" adventurist errors and Rightist capitulationist errors he committed during the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression respectively, did not engage in profound self-reflection but instead adopted a passive and resistant attitude. While recuperating in the Soviet Union after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Ming, to vent personal grievances, "not only wrote poems and articles to satirize and oppose Mao Zedong, but also spread discontented remarks about Mao Zedong in the Soviet Union." Due to Wang Ming's special status in the Party's history and his close ties with the Comintern, his remarks—which distorted CPC history and exaggerated his personal achievements—were packaged by international anti-China forces as "authoritative" historical materials with an "international background," used to slander the Party's image and damage its reputation. Some foreign scholars have used Wang Ming's false claims as a research basis, attempting to use a "power struggle" narrative to deconstruct the historical significance of the Yan'an Rectification.

During the Agrarian Revolution, the "Left" erroneous line represented by Wang Ming had a severe negative impact on the Chinese Revolution: "The Red Army was reduced from 300,000 to 30,000; all the revolutionary base areas in the south were lost, leaving only the Northern Shaanxi base area; and the hundreds of thousands of Party members were reduced to just a few tens of thousands." In the early period of the War of Resistance, Wang Ming also strove to implement the Comintern’s policy of "everything through the united front," causing undue losses to the Party's cause. Therefore, the thorough liquidation of Wang Ming’s "Left" and Right errors was not a case of Mao Zedong creating "difficulties" for Wang Ming to seize supreme leadership; rather, it was an act of "returning to the source" ^[3] (正本清源) performed by the first generation of the CPC leadership collective based on a profound summary of the lessons of revolutionary experience. In fact, the entire history and practice of the Party since the Zunyi Conference ^[4] is sufficient to prove that Mao Zedong was the well-deserved leader of the Party. As early as September 14, 1938, before the Yan'an Rectification began, Wang Jiaxiang conveyed the instructions of the Comintern and the opinions of Dimitrov, telling Wang Ming "not to contest for leadership anymore" and affirming that Mao Zedong was "a leader forged in actual struggle." Since both the CPC and the Comintern unanimously supported Mao Zedong as the de facto leader, why would there be a need for a so-called "power struggle"?

Basing himself on the Party's history, Mao Zedong realized that the "Left" and Right erroneous lines might appear to be two opposite extremes, but the ideological method behind them was identical: subjective errors arising from a failure to understand the realities and objective laws of the Chinese Revolution. To eliminate subjectivism throughout the Party, it was necessary for all members to possess the ability to use the Marxist-Leninist standpoint, viewpoint, and method to analyze the realities of the Chinese Revolution. A systematic summary and liquidation of the Party's history was the most effective way to achieve this goal. Mao Zedong pointed out: "Summarizing past experience is a form of education for both those who made mistakes and those who did not. Understanding past mistakes can prevent the repetition of mistakes in the future." The core of this historical liquidation was not to pursue personal responsibility, but to analyze the ideological roots that led to the errors and prevent similar problems from recurring. Regarding this, Mao Zedong set the tone of "overthrowing the 'isms' but keeping the people," and always gave Wang Ming opportunities to turn over a new leaf. Before the Seventh National Congress, Mao Zedong believed that comrades who had made mistakes in the past but were determined to correct them should not be "pushed away with one hand," and he even deliberately nominated Wang Ming as a candidate for the Central Committee.

As a thorough and brand-new shaping of the Party's internal ideology, the Yan'an Rectification was essentially an "enlightenment movement" within the Party. Mao Zedong noted: "After the failure of the Great Revolution ^[5], our Party suffered from the malady of foreign dogmatism. Now, the rectification movement against subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing is likewise a major enlightenment movement. Many cadres are deeply poisoned and require enlightenment work." The core strategy of the Yan'an Rectification led by Mao Zedong was to grasp the "key few"—namely, high-ranking leading cadres. Of course, rectification was not directed only at senior cadres; rather, it started with senior cadres and permeated the whole Party from the top down. This was because the roots of ideological problems within the Party often lay in the cognitive biases and decision-making errors of the leadership, and those "most stubbornly afflicted by ideological illness" were among the senior cadres. Therefore, to thoroughly correct errors and return to the source, one had to first resolve the ideological problems of the leadership core, clearing their thinking to set an example for those below. Furthermore, senior cadres were relatively few in number and possessed higher theoretical levels and political literacy, making it easier to conduct concentrated, in-depth, and systematic study and ideological examination. If it had been spread across the entire Party from the start, the scale would have been too large to guarantee depth and effectiveness. By starting with senior cadres—through the in-depth study of documents, checking one's thoughts against reality, and conducting serious and profound criticism and self-criticism—it followed the principle of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing the sickness to save the patient." This approach was more conducive to deeply analyzing and solving fundamental problems of the ideological line, enhancing the ability of leading cadres to deal with complex situations and lead the revolution to victory. It also allowed senior cadres to serve as models for mid-level and junior cadres and members, thoroughly purging the remnants of dogmatism and strengthening the unity and solidarity of the Party Central Committee.

In the process of the rectification movement, high-ranking Party cadres conducted profound criticism and self-criticism regarding major issues based on their summary of the Party's historical experience. However, historical nihilists never mention the fact that theoretical study was interspersed with criticism and self-criticism; instead, they demonize the criticism and self-criticism of cadres to vilify the Yan'an Rectification. In fact, criticism and self-criticism are necessary means of promoting intra-Party unity and stimulating the enthusiasm of cadres. Mao Zedong pointed out: "Checking whether there is serious self-criticism is also one of the prominent marks distinguishing us from other political parties." He emphasized that Communists should not fear criticism: "A room should be cleaned regularly, or it will be covered with dust; a face should be washed regularly, or it will be covered with dirt. The thoughts of our comrades and the work of our Party can also be stained with dust and should also be dusted and washed... For us, constantly reviewing our work, promoting a democratic style during such reviews, and not fearing criticism or self-criticism [is essential]." The primary key to criticism and self-criticism is questions of principle—that is, questions of standpoint. During the Yan'an Rectification, Mao Zedong emphasized that individuals like Wang Ming and Bo Gu were opposed to imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, and were fundamentally different from the traitors who had appeared in the Party in the past. They were still comrades within our Party; their issues were internal Party matters, not external ones. Once the standpoint was established, correct theory and methods had to be used; thus, a universal movement for studying Marxist-Leninist theory was launched within the Party during the Yan'an Rectification. In this way, "criticism" was no longer a personal "accusation" but rather the use of basic Marxist principles to analyze and solve problems—focusing on the matter at hand, not the person. If criticism were to involve "sarcastic arrows shot from the dark," it would become a "corrosive agent," leading to consequences "detrimental to unity." Mao Zedong emphasized that "for any political party or any individual, mistakes are inevitable," and "no matter who makes a mistake, as long as they recognize and correct it, it is fine." The effective weapons for correcting mistakes are criticism and self-criticism, which are indispensable as a whole; one can criticize others, but one must also be able to withstand the criticism of others. Mao Zedong pointed out: "In this rectification of the Three Winds ^[6], the focus is on oneself. One must repeatedly study one's own thoughts, one's own history, and one's current work, and reflect upon them."

The Yan'an Rectification adhered to the policy of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing the sickness to save the patient," giving everyone enough time for self-reflection and self-correction to achieve the goal of both clarifying ideology and uniting comrades. As a result, the thinking of many mid-level and senior cadres within the Party underwent a massive transformation. For example, Ren Bishi integrated his own reflection and criticism through the entire course of the Yan'an Rectification. In September 1941, at an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, he criticized himself, stating: "Although I myself 'had no military knowledge at all,' at the Nanxiong Meeting I did not agree with Mao Zedong's correct proposition that we could also fight battles within the Soviet areas." He further emphasized: "At that time, Chairman Mao's opposition to bookishness was opposition to dogmatism; our opposition then to so-called 'narrow empiricism' was wrong." At the September Meeting of 1943, Zhou Enlai implemented the spirit of seeking truth from facts and analyzing concrete problems concretely, conducting a profound review and summary of the Party's history since 1927. He took the initiative to conduct self-criticism in conjunction with his own work experience, candidly reflecting on his limited understanding and practical deficiencies during certain historical stages. Zhang Wentian chose to go to the countryside to conduct investigations to correct his mistakes and better understand reality; upon his return, he said, "We indeed made many mistakes in the past and should reflect well." Through the rectification, he also "broke through the cage of dogmatism." Bo Gu, despite Wang Ming’s continuous absence, participated in the high-level rectification meetings of the CPC Central Committee from beginning to end. Although he faced immense pressure as a representative of the erroneous line in the early stages and developed some passive and negative emotions, with the help of his comrades in the Party, he eventually calmed his emotions and deeply recognized his past errors. With a spirit of pursuing and submitting to the truth, mid-to-high-level cadres in the Party used the tool of criticism and self-criticism to launch a liquidation of history and themselves. They candidly admitted their mistakes, effectively demonstrating the magnanimity of Communists who are selfless and fearless regarding the cause of the Party and the people, and who dare to face problems directly and actively correct them.

II. The purpose of the Yan'an Rectification was to unify the whole Party with correct ideology and strengthen organizational building, not to "manipulate collective consciousness to achieve a personality cult"

History has proven that by opposing subjectivism, the Yan'an Rectification eliminated the influence of various erroneous lines throughout the Party and succeeded in breaking the sanctification of the Comintern and Soviet experience. At the same time, the Yan'an Rectification also achieved unity and promoted democracy by opposing sectarianism. Mao Zedong believed that sectarianism "is often inseparable from 'individual-first-ism'" and "puts the individual in the first place and the Party in the second place," which is identical to the manifestations of engaging in a personality cult. Therefore, both the breaking of dogmatic superstition regarding the Comintern and the Soviet Union and the opposition to the personality cult reflect the ideological line of dialectical materialism based on seeking truth from facts. It can be said that the Yan'an Rectification prevented the personality cult at its ideological source. Remarks distorting the Yan'an Rectification as "Mao Zedong using the Yan'an Rectification to create a personality cult" are extremely irresponsible. Historical experience shows that for the proletarian revolution to succeed, there must be a strong and powerful leadership collective and an authoritative leadership core. The establishment of Mao Zedong's leadership position was not only the result of the development of revolutionary practice but also the requirement of the development of the domestic and international situation. Even after the whole Party recognized him as the well-deserved leader, Comrade Mao Zedong always maintained a modest and low-profile character. He always adhered to the fundamental standpoint of putting the people first, regarding close ties with the masses as the lifeline of the Party, vividly illustrating the political character of Chinese Communists in opposing privilege and sharing weal and woe with the people.

Historical materialism emphasizes that the people are the creators of history, while also acknowledging the crucial leading role of heroic figures. Marx pointed out...

"Every social epoch needs its great men, and when it does not find them, it invents them." Lenin believed that the proletariat must establish its own revolutionary party, and as the primary vehicle for modern political activity, the party is usually "directed by more or less stable groups composed of the most authoritative, influential and experienced members, who are elected to the most responsible positions, and are called leaders." Just as a thousand mountains must have a main peak, a proletarian revolutionary party, in order to establish the authority of the Party Central Committee, must possess an absolute leadership core and implement a system combining collective leadership with individual responsibility based on a division of labor, in addition to forming a mature and stable leadership collective. Practice has proven that "any leadership collective must have a core; leadership without a core is unreliable. The core of the first generation of the leadership collective was Chairman Mao." In the early period after the founding of the Communist Party of China, because a mature central leadership core had not yet formed, the Party's cause suffered several setbacks. The Zunyi Conference ^[7] in fact established Mao Zedong's leadership position in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army, beginning the formation of the first generation of the Party's leadership collective with Comrade Mao Zedong as the core. However, at that time, ideological unity had not yet been achieved within the Party; only the most urgent issues of the military line had been resolved, while the more crucial issues of the ideological and organizational lines remained unaddressed. During the Yan'an Rectification Movement, the CPC systematically liquidated the errors of subjectivism and dogmatism, promoted the integration of Marxism with the practice of the Chinese revolution, and proposed a new, feasible ideological line to lead the way to victory. Simultaneously, it resolutely eliminated the residual problems of sectarianism and mountain-stronghold manualism ^[8] within the Party, effectively safeguarding the Party's unity and solidarity, and greatly strengthening the centralized authority and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.

It must be acknowledged that as the Party's supreme leader and primary theorist, Mao Zedong's prestige did indeed rise to a new height during the Yan'an Rectification. In this regard, Stuart Schram, an internationally recognized authority on Mao Zedong and a translator, argued in his book Mao Tse-tung that, viewed from the breadth of content, intensity of propaganda, and diversity of forms, this was related to the specific historical environment at home and abroad at the time. The Battle of Stalingrad turned the tide of the Second World War; although the situation of China's War of Resistance remained grim, the dawn of victory was already appearing. The CPC and the Kuomintang (KMT) engaged in a fierce discursive struggle over the question of "whither post-war China." On March 10, 1943, the Chiang Kai-shek regime published the book China's Destiny, vigorously trumpeting its so-called "orthodoxy" and launching a corresponding ideological campaign. Subsequently, the CPC conducted a systematic critique of China's Destiny, publicly demonstrating to the people of the whole country the CPC's determination to lead China's destiny. In May of the same year, the dissolution of the Communist International (Comintern) ^[9] enabled Chinese Communists to "decide their own political line, policies, and actions completely independently, according to the concrete circumstances and special conditions of their own nation." As Lenin pointed out: "No class in history has achieved supremacy without producing its own political leaders, its prominent representatives able to organize a movement and lead it." Under these circumstances, the CPC urgently needed to establish an authoritative central political figure to consolidate its status as the actual leader of the Chinese revolution. For the CPC, the dissolution of the Comintern "increased our sense of responsibility," and Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership position was thus further consolidated and strengthened within the Party. Hu Qiaomu also confirmed that "without mentioning Mao Zedong Thought, it would have been difficult to achieve ideological unity throughout the Party." As Engels noted: "It was a time which called for giants and produced giants—giants in power of thought, passion and character." Mao Zedong lived precisely in such a transformative era that "called for giants and produced giants"; with his courage, wisdom, and personal charisma, he changed the history of national weakness, ethnic division, and popular poverty, winning the respect and love of the people.

However, some people with ulterior motives distort this "rational and loving veneration" for Mao Zedong into "brainless and fanatical worship." These two types of "worship" are often conflated by historical nihilists ^[10] to attack Communist leaders. Mao Zedong noted in this regard: "One kind is correct, such as our veneration for the correct things in Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin; we must venerate them, and forever, for it would be disastrous not to. The other kind is incorrect worship—blind obedience without analysis—and that is wrong." History proves that the establishment of the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought throughout the Party, as well as the love and support of the Party and the people for Mao Zedong, were the choices of the Party and the people after long-term revolutionary practice. However, Mao Zedong and other Party leaders resolutely maintained the collective leadership of the Party Central Committee. Cherishing the leader is, in essence, about safeguarding the interests of the Party, the class, and the people, rather than deifying an individual. After assuming the role of the Party's primary leader, Mao Zedong remained humble and prudent, resolutely resisting acts of excessive personal praise and opposing being placed in an inappropriately high position. In 1943, considering Mao Zedong’s outstanding historical contributions, some comrades proposed celebrating his birthday according to Chinese tradition. Mao Zedong, however, stated: "It is decided that no birthday celebration will be held. Too many people are doing this, and it would create a bad influence." Mao was keenly aware that publicly celebrating a leader’s birthday might fuel a climate of personal cults and lead to a tendency toward "special personages" within the Party. Furthermore, 1943 was a difficult period in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the lives of the soldiers and civilians in the Liberated Areas were arduous; refusing a birthday celebration demonstrated Mao Zedong's determination to overcome hardships together with the people and put an end to hedonistic behaviors divorced from the masses. The people are the core force for revolutionary success; a Marxist party is always committed to serving the people, and the leader of a Marxist party can only consolidate their authority after winning the recognition and support of the masses. Mao Zedong once used Liu Zhidan as an example, noting that after Comrade Liu Zhidan's sacrifice, the common people of Northern Shaanxi were very grieved: "This shows he was a true leader of the masses. Is a leader of the masses 'granted' by the masses, or 'granted' by ourselves? Dimitrov said they must be 'granted' by the masses, confirmed by the masses based on their own experience." Adherence to the mass line is the key to preventing leadership authority from alienating into a personality cult or bureaucratism; it requires that leaders must always maintain a flesh-and-blood connection with the masses and consciously accept their supervision. Their decisions and actions must reflect the people's will, concentrate the people's wisdom, and align with the people's interests, ensuring that authority serves the cause of the Party and the people rather than standing above them. This is also a powerful rebuttal to the erroneous perception that "shaping a personality cult of Mao Zedong" was a preset objective of the Yan'an Rectification.

III. The Seventh National Congress's Identification of Mao Zedong Thought as the Party's Guiding Ideology was the Crystallization of Collective Wisdom, Not the "Result of Individual Dictatorship"

From May 1944 to April 1945, the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC was held in Yan'an. It highly evaluated Mao Zedong's great contribution to solving the problems of the Chinese revolution by creatively applying Marxist theory and recognized Mao Zedong as the leader of the entire Party. The Plenary Session discussed and passed the "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party," marking the victorious conclusion of the Yan'an Rectification. The subsequent Seventh National Congress of the CPC wrote Mao Zedong Thought into the Party Constitution for the first time, establishing the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought as the foundation for the unity and consolidation of the entire Party. However, some scholars depict the establishment of the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought as the "product of Mao Zedong's individual dictatorship." Such erroneous ideas are not only a misunderstanding of the CPC's principles of democratic centralism in organization and leadership but also a denial of the Marxist view of the masses to which Mao Zedong adhered.

While Marx and Engels emphasized that a proletarian revolutionary party must maintain the authority of its leaders, they were also vigilant that it should not evolve into individual dictatorship; otherwise, it would erode the Party's internal democratic mechanisms, thereby hindering the Party's centralized and unified leadership and weakening the authority of the Party Central Committee. Democratic centralism was gestated by Marx and Engels; during the reorganization of the League of the Just, they pointed out that "revolutionary activity can only exert its full force under conditions of centralization." It was formed through Lenin's practice of party-building. In brilliant Marxist party-building documents such as What Is To Be Done? and One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, Lenin provided a systematic and profound theoretical explanation of the principle of democratic centralism, laying the theoretical cornerstone for the organizational construction of the proletarian party. The essence of democratic centralism is to promote intra-Party democracy and institutionalize the regulation of the exercise of power within the Party, effectively building a solid barrier against individual dictatorship. The Communist Party of China was founded under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and has always implemented the principles and spirit of democratic centralism in its practical work. Within this, the "Four Subordinates" ^[11] are the fundamental disciplinary requirements of democratic centralism. In October 1938, in his political report "On the New Stage," Mao Zedong proposed the "Four Subordinates" disciplinary requirements in full for the first time, stating: "The discipline of the Party must be reaffirmed: the individual is subordinate to the organization; the minority is subordinate to the majority; the lower level is subordinate to the higher level; and the entire Party is subordinate to the Central Committee. Whoever violates these disciplines violates the unity of the Party." Since the Seventh National Congress, the CPC has written the "Four Subordinates" into the Party Constitution as a basic principle and the most important political discipline of democratic centralism at every National Congress. Specifically, the principle of democratic centralism requires the full promotion of democracy on the basis of collective discussion, extensive consultation, democratic elections, and democratic supervision, ensuring that the decisions formed reflect collective wisdom and the will of the majority, thereby narrowing the space for individual arbitrary decision-making at the source. Once a decision is formed, however, the "Four Subordinates" must be strictly executed; all Party members, including leading officials, must comply, restraining the behavior of leaders in randomly changing collective resolutions or placing themselves above the organization. Major issues must be decided through collective discussion by the Party committee; no individual has the right to make arbitrary decisions. Through systems such as intra-Party democratic life meetings, criticism and self-criticism, and disciplinary inspections, the exercise of power by leading officials is supervised and constrained, allowing for the timely detection and correction of any emerging signs of dictatorship. Therefore, democratic centralism can effectively avoid individual dictatorship.

Mao Zedong consistently adhered to the principle of democratic centralism. Long before the opening of the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, he presided over the establishment of the "Preparatory Committee for the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party," whose members included Liu Shaoqi, Kang Sheng, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian, Peng Zhen, Gao Gang, and Bo Gu, with Ren Bishi serving as the convener. Mao Zedong always maintained that the important reports of the Congress should be collectively drafted and discussed. He later recalled: "We produced a historical resolution; it went back and forth, and was looked at by many pairs of eyes. It wasn't enough for just the dozens of pairs of eyes of the Central Committee to look at it—one look or eight looks might not find many problems—but after everyone looked at it and studied it, many problems were identified." The clearly identifiable annotations by others in Mao Zedong's revised drafts serve as powerful evidence that the Resolution fully absorbed and highly condensed the collective wisdom of the Party. The consensus reached in this document was hard-won; its formation process involved prudent research, in-depth discussion, and multiple rounds of revision. The convening of the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee and the adoption of the Resolution strengthened the unity of the entire Party on the basis of Mao Zedong Thought, creating sufficient ideological and theoretical conditions for the Seventh National Congress. Similarly, under Mao Zedong's presidency, the drafting group for the report on the Party's organization and the revision of the Party Constitution for the Seventh National Congress consisted of Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Peng Zhen, Gao Gang, Tan Zheng, and Wang Ruofei, with Liu Shaoqi as the convener. Mao Zedong and other leading comrades personally participated in the process of drafting and repeatedly refining the documents, which were then circulated among them for mutual improvement. These important documents were all fully discussed and were the results of pooling wisdom from all sides. The Seventh National Congress established Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the CPC and wrote it into the new Constitution of the Communist Party of China. At this time, Mao Zedong became the undisputed leader of the entire Party in political, military, and ideological terms, and a surge of studying Mao Zedong Thought swept through the Party. Mao Zedong remained clear-headed and humble about this, always emphasizing that Mao Zedong Thought was not his personal thought, but the crystallization of collective wisdom: "If you must use the term 'Mao Zedong Thought,' I can agree, because the Party always needs a representative. Mao Zedong Thought does not belong to one person; it comes from everyone. I have simply synthesized and summarized it. You can call it Mao Zedong Thought if you wish." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong again told Zhou Shizhao: "When the Central Committee decided to call this correct ideological system 'Mao Zedong Thought,' it by no means meant that 'Mao Zedong Thought' was entirely my individual thought. It includes the correct thoughts of a whole group of people."

Mao Zedong always regarded the masses of the people as the best teachers,

"In all the practical work of our Party, all correct leadership is necessarily 'from the masses, to the masses.'" As a compendium of the essence of Mao Zedong Thought, the Selected Works of Mao Zedong carries its core significance and is the key to understanding this ideology. Mao Zedong emphasized: "The things in the Selected Works were taught to us by the masses and paid for with the price of bloodshed and sacrifice." This emphasis on the contribution of the masses reflects Mao Zedong's excellent qualities of seeking truth from facts and not claiming personal credit or being arrogant. Mao Zedong believed: "Democracy is something China lacks rather than something superfluous." Influenced by feudal ideology, China had lacked a democratic tradition since ancient times; the ideology of individual autocracy was deeply rooted, and individual autocracy inevitably leads to corruption. Therefore, in 1945, when Mao Zedong spoke with the democratic personage Huang Yanpei ^[12] about jumping out of the "historical cycle," ^[13] he emphasized that he had found the new path of "democracy"—that "only by letting the people supervise the government will the government not dare to slacken." Mao Zedong’s answer was not only a way to break the law of the rise and fall of feudal dynasties, but even more so opened a new path for long-term governance: preventing the degeneration of power through democratic centralism, breaking the fate of "rising suddenly and collapsing abruptly," ^[14] activating the power of the people through the Marxist view of the masses, and achieving a state where "everyone rises to take responsibility."

Conclusion

The Yan'an Rectification Movement was the first large-scale rectification movement in the history of the Communist Party of China. It was a Marxist ideological education movement carried out by the CPC in Yan'an and various base areas during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. It was also a great movement of ideological liberation that broke the erroneous tendencies within the Party of dogmatizing Marxism and sanctifying the decisions of the Communist International and Soviet experience. Through the Yan'an Rectification, the entire Party established a dialectical materialist ideological line of seeking truth from facts, established the guiding position of Mao Zedong Thought, and consolidated unity and unification under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, laying an irreversible foundation for the advancement and victory of the Chinese revolution. The victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the rapid success of the New Democratic Revolution fully prove the historical correctness and great significance of the Yan'an Rectification.

For some time now, under the influence of historical nihilism, ^[15] certain forces at home and abroad have put forward many erroneous arguments regarding the Yan'an Rectification Movement. Among these arguments are both one-sided interpretations based on a misreading of historical materials and deliberate distortions and attacks with clear political motives. The essence of these arguments is to deny Comrade Mao Zedong's outstanding contributions to the Chinese revolution in theory and practice, to deny the inevitability of the formation of Comrade Mao Zedong's historical status, and thereby to deny the historical legitimacy of the Communist Party of China's governance. Dispersing the mist of historical nihilism, we can see that the formation of Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership position within the Party was by no means accidental, but was built upon a solid political, ideological, mass, and practical foundation; it was the choice of history and the people.

Establishing and safeguarding the leadership core of a proletarian party is a fundamental viewpoint that runs through Marxist theory on party building. As the vanguard of the proletariat, the proletarian party’s breadth of class foundation, the strictness of its organizational system, and the grand scale of its ranks are incomparable to any other political party. The proletarian party shoulders the historical heavy responsibility of leading the people to overthrow bourgeois rule, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, advance socialist construction, and ultimately realize communism. The arduousness, complexity, and long-term nature of this mission are likewise beyond the reach of any other political party. It is precisely this special nature and mission that determines that the proletarian party especially needs the entire Party, from top to bottom, to achieve a high degree of unity of will, ideological consistency, and unity of action. To achieve this deep-level and all-encompassing unity and consistency, the key lies in the necessity of forming and establishing a strong Party leadership core and clearly safeguarding the authority of that leadership core. In every historical period of the Chinese Communist Party's revolution, construction, and reform, it is precisely because there was a strong leadership core and a resolute safeguarding of the authority of the leadership core that the Party could unite and lead the people to overcome one difficulty after another and cross one hurdle after another. This is the precious experience we have gained in the long-term practice of revolution, construction, and reform, and it is the ideological foundation for maintaining strategic resolve and continuously seizing victory in complex struggles.

At present, the changes unseen in a century ^[16] are accelerating, and the domestic and international situation is complex and volatile. Taking history as a mirror, we must draw progressive strength from the historical wisdom of the Yan'an Rectification, profoundly understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments, further strengthen the historical consciousness of the Two Upholds, and let this fundamental political criterion truly be internalized in the heart and externalized in action, leading us to cleave through the waves and achieve steady and sustained progress on the new journey of the New Era.

Source: World Socialist Studies (Issue 12, 2025) Editor: Huihui