The maid of Chinese politics: Mao Zedong and his philosophy of struggle

Abstract

The basic law of dialectics is the unity of opposites. It is natural for Marxists to stress opposites rather than unity, for it advances the doctrine of class struggle. Mao adopted Lenin's proposition that the unity of opposites is transitory, while the struggle of opposites is absolute. However, both Lenin and Mao failed to see the logical inconsistencies between this proposition and the law of the unity of opposites. Stalin, who disagreed with the concept of “identity of contradiction,” asserted that the process of development is achieved through combat rather than harmony. Mao at first disagreed with this philosophy and advocated the unity of opposites. This accounted for the polemic of “the identity of thinking and being” in China, from 1959 to 1962. However, in 1964, Mao launched a campaign to criticize “two combined into one “ and to propagate his own idea of “one divided into two.” The chief reason for this was that Mao needed an ideological legitimization for the schism with the USSR. This was a turning point in Mao's philosophy, for it implied the abandonment of the “unity of opposites” and a retreat towards Stalin's viewpoint. Ultimately Mao devised his “philosophy of struggle” to serve as the guiding philosophy for the Cultural Revolution.