p In the educational aids of the Peking
hungweipings and in the official Chinese press Mao Tsetung’s abstract writings and directives are given out as a great “development” of Marxism-Leninism. In addition to the attempts to disparage the role of Marx, Engels and Lenin in the development of the three components of Marxism, Marxist theory has been “expanded” to include 41 three more “components” deriving from Mao Tse-tung’s theories on the people’s war, the upbuilding of the Party and the "development of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat”. At first sight the formulations in Mao’s writings do not seem to be at variance with Marxism. But a closer scrutiny shows that in most cases they are only a simplified retelling which frequently distorts the sense of known propositions. In this retelling these propositions are made to fit Mao’s political objectives, and in action they are given a completely revised content. The resultant system lacks harmony. But this whole eclectic mixture of vulgarised Marxist theses, opportunist ideas and Confucian rules plays the role of a screen for Mao’s political line. On the example of some issues let us examine the ideological and political content of the "thought of Mao Tsetung”.

p Mao Tse-tung received a classical Chinese education and his thinking was moulded under the influence of the idealism of ancient Chinese philosophers. After coming into contact with Marxist views, instead of critically reappraising this influence he used it as the foundation of his own thought. Hence the extreme voluntarism, the absolutisation of. subjective factors and the virtual negation of objective reality.

p In his interpretation of the fundamental problems of philosophy, Mao seeks to make his own viewpoint sound scientific. In Regarding Contradiction he placed being and consciousness on virtually one and the same plane. In the textbook Dialectical Materialism, published in China in 1961, we find a direct statement on the "identity between thinking and being”. The problem of the relationship between matter and consciousness is replaced by the problem of the link between the object and the subject. To quote this textbook: "The fundamental problem of philosophy is ... in effect that of the relationship between the subjective and the objective”. And further: "The question of what is primary—the subjective or the objective—is the only criterion for drawing the borderline between materialism and idealism”.

p To all intents and purposes, these views reject Marxism’s basic proposition, which says that being determines consciousness. This proposition cannot be substituted by contrasting the objective with the subjective because the 42 objective can embrace both the material and the ideal. Permeated with idealism, Maoism spreads its subjectivism also to problems of social development. In the above-mentioned textbook, for instance, it is stated that the "process of remaking the world lies in applying thinking to being, in the attitude of the subjective to the objective”.

p On this basis Mao Tse-tung compares the Chinese people with a "sheet of clean paper" on which "one can draw the newest and most beautiful pictures”. It goes without saying that Mao unquestionably sees himself in the role of the artist. This outlook throws the door open to subjectivism and voluntarism in practical politics. Hence the memorising of quotations from Mao’s writings, which, the Maoists think, will remake the subjective world and, consequently, the objective world, too.

The views of the ruling group in China rest also on Confucian philosophy, which continues to dominate the minds of many Chinese. In "Confucianism and Marxism in Vietnam”, Nguyen Khac Vien makes the following interesting observation: "In the homeland of Confucius revolutionary morality frequently gains the upper hand over the concept of the laws of historical development. Marxism is both the ‘explanation’ and the ‘precept’, and it frequently turns out that the ‘precept’ takes precedence.. . . This sort of moralism sometimes leads to voluntarism, according to which any task can be carried out if only the Party functionaries ’tighten the screws’ sufficiently.”  [42•*  This assessment is fully borne out by .the theory and practice of the Mao group.