Introduction On the Long War is a glorious military work written by Chairman Mao during the War of Resistance against Japan, and also a classic philosophical work that changed China’s destiny. It scientifically foresees the development trend of the War of Resistance against Japan and its end, and points out the direction of victory for the Chinese people and soldiers, greatly encouraging the confidence of the whole nation in their resistance against the war.
Introduction
On the Long War is a glorious military work written by Chairman Mao during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and a classic philosophical work that changed China’s destiny. It scientifically foresees the development trend of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and its end, points out the direction of victory for Chinese soldiers and civilians, and greatly encourages the confidence of the whole nation in the War of Resistance.
On the Long War Longer.
This eloquent text, totaling more than 50,000 words, is divided into 21 chapters and 120 sections, covering political, military, philosophical, historical and other aspects of knowledge, with rich information content, meticulous writing logic and profound philosophical connotation.
When we read On Protracted War, we often encounter the following questions.
The article is so long that I forget what came before and my mind goes blank.
You don’t understand the logic of the original writing, and you can’t summarize the main points.
They do not understand the meaning of the text, but fail to grasp the core of the text.
Cannot see the philosophical principles behind the words and cannot summarize the epistemology and methodology.
In this series of articles, we are going to talk about the main content of the chapters of On Protracted Warfare, help you solve the above reading pain points, and help you quickly read and understand the original text.
Without further delay, let’s get to the point.
Chapter 1: Raising the Problem
Section I.
Summary of the section
This section is a long one, and focuses on the doubts that exist in society such as the theory of the demise of the nation, the theory of quick victory, and the theory of a protracted war.
Main points
What will the course of the war actually entail? Can it be won or can it not be won? Can it be won quickly or not? Many people talk about protracted war, but why is it a protracted war? How is it fought? Many people talk about final victory, but why is there a final victory? How to fight for the final victory?
The experience of the ten months of the war of resistance is enough to break down the unfounded theory of the demise of the country and to convince our acute friends of the theory of quick victory. Under these circumstances, many people have asked for a summary explanation.
In my lecture, I will examine the protracted war.
Cold Cow Interpretation
Chairman Mao wrote On Protracted War and gave a lecture on the study of the war of resistance in order to solve everyone’s doubts, to make clear the logic of protracted war, and to tell everyone how to fight a protracted war and what to do in order to win the final victory.
So what can be done to achieve final victory in the war of resistance against Japan?
Chairman Mao believes that one must understand the regularity of the war of resistance against Japan in order to realize his strategic guidance and to decide on all the strategic, tactical, policy, plans and programs for the war.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, Chairman Mao made a precise prediction of the law of development of the War of Resistance Against Japan, believing that China would neither perish nor win quickly, but would fight a prolonged war, and that the final victory would be for China. And he knew that it was not enough for him to know, but for the whole Party, the whole army and the whole nation to know, to believe in his judgment and to carry out this correct revolutionary line.
What to do? It is never easy to put one’s own thoughts and opinions, into the heads of others. Under the conditions of the time, he could only spread his ideas through speeches, newspapers, publications, leaflets and so on. Before spreading it, Chairman Mao had one more job to do, and that was to explain in detail the regularity of the war against Japan.
So, what knowledge could speak clearly about the laws of the Sino-Japanese War?
Only philosophy and history, only the basic principles of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, only by analyzing problems from the heights of Marxist philosophy and traditional Chinese culture can we see the essence of things through complex phenomena and grasp the regularities of the development of the war.
For this reason, Chairman Mao creatively fused the basic principles of Marxism and the thoughts of traditional Chinese culture to analyze the complex phenomenon of the Sino-Japanese War by pulling out the threads of the cocoon, thus revealing the regularity of the development of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and based on this analysis, he formulated the correct political policy and tactics, as well as the military strategy and tactics.
In the first half of On the Long War, i.e., sections 1 to 58, Chairman Mao applied the principles of Mathematical Philosophy to analyze various war phenomena, and through the method of contradiction analysis, he analyzed the different characteristics of China and Japan, revealing the regularity of the war of resistance against Japan, that China neither wanted to perish, nor would it win a quick victory, but rather fought a long-lasting war, and that the final victory belonged to China, solving the problems of what the war of resistance against Japan was and what it was not.
In the second half of On Protracted War, i.e., sections 59 to 120, Chairman Mao, on the basis of the previous analysis, formally put forward the guiding law of the war of resistance against Japan, i.e., formulated the corresponding political policies and military strategies and tactics, and solved the problem of how to do and what not to do in the war of resistance against Japan.
In other words, Chairman Mao explained, from a philosophical point of view, why China would not perish? Why China will not win a quick victory? Why is the war of resistance against Japan a protracted war? How to fight a prolonged war? How to win the final victory and many other core issues, which provided theoretical support for the final victory of the War of Resistance against Japan.
Comrade Lenin once said that Marx’s Capitalism is logic with a capital letter.
In the opinion of Cold Cow, Chairman Mao’s The Long War is also logic with a capital letter. In this great and classic work, the instructor combined the basic principles of Marxism with the way of the saints and kings of traditional Chinese culture, and combined epistemology, dialectics, and logic, to predict the development trend of the Sino-Japanese War and the inevitable result in advance, which was proved to be correct and immortal by history and time.
If one does not have a certain degree of Marxist philosophy and a foundation in military theory, then when reading On Protracted War, it is easy to float on the surface of the text, and even if one reads the whole text word by word, one’s mind will still remain empty and clueless.
Cold Cow will explain clearly the basic principles of Marxism and traditional Chinese culture in the original text, and try to understand the epistemology and methodology hidden in the original text, so as to help you quickly read and understand the original text, and learn from the wisdom of the great man to enhance your own energy.
Section II
In this section, we talk about the theory of China’s inevitable demise and the theory of China’s quick victory, both of which are one-sided views.
In the ten months since the war of resistance, all experience has proved that the following two views are incorrect: the theory of China’s certain demise and the theory of China’s quick victory.
The former gives rise to a tendency to compromise, the latter to a tendency to underestimate the enemy. Their methods of looking at the problem are subjective and one-sided, in a word, non-scientific.
Chairman Mao is a master of dialectics, who opposes a one-sided view of problems and criticizes metaphysical views, advocates a dialectical view of problems, and advocates the view of materialistic dialectics.
Section Three.
Outline of this section This section talks about the fact that before the war, there existed many theories of losing the country in the country.
Before the war, there were many theories of losing the country. This kind of China’s inevitable death theorists was the social foundation of the tendency to compromise. It was feared that the problem of compromise, which might occur at any time in the anti-Japanese front, would not be eliminated even in the end of the war.
In this section, Chairman Mao talks about a very important social problem, that is, those who argue for the certain death of China are the social foundation of the tendency to compromise, and that there are such people in all parts of China, not just one or two of them.
What is a “China’s demise theorist”? In the original text, it refers to those who believe that China’s war against China will surely die, this group of demise theorists are roughly two kinds of cases, one is a natural wimp, a complete pessimist, encountered a little thing, panic, before the war started he conceded defeat, ready to throw up his hands and surrender. The other kind is the demagogues, the assholes who intentionally fan the flames and deliberately create bad news, this group of people are mainly spies, traitors and country-haters.
In the real world, there are pessimists in any team or organization, their world is gray, they only see the dark side of the world, not the bright side of the world, and always live in pessimism, negativity and decadence.
Section 4
This is a longer section that analyzes the false statement of quick victory.
In the ten months since the war of resistance, various opinions manifesting acute illnesses have also occurred.
Many people thought that Japan could not reach Shanxi.
Some people belittled the strategic position of anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare.
Some thought that if they fought for three months, the Soviet Union would send troops and the war would be settled.
Some argued that the Battle of Xuzhou should be a quasi-decisive battle .
After the victory at the Battle of Taierzhuang, many people thought that the enemy would never attack Wuhan.
Some even turned their attention from the external to the internal when the war situation improved a little.
All of the above, we call it political-military myopia.
In this section, Chairman Mao analyzes in detail the opinions of the various domestic manifestations of acute illness during the ten months of the war of resistance, and lists seven specific cases, all of which are politico-military myopia.
These words, spoken as if they make sense, are in fact groundless empty talk. This also inspires us to be good at thinking when things go wrong, to learn to analyze problems independently, and to be able to recognize true and false reasoning.
In the age of information on the Internet, there are all kinds of videos on all major self-media platforms every day, and some of them seem to make sense, but in fact, they are not based on anything, and cannot withstand the analysis of logic. Some videos seem to make sense, but in fact have no basis and cannot stand up to logical analysis. Videos with many likes are not necessarily true, good and beautiful, and many of them are poisonous chicken soup. Individuals can easily be held hostage by the masses, and independent thinking is indispensable to distinguish between right and wrong, true and false, good and evil, and the beautiful and the ugly in the vast array of opinions.
Section V
Summary of this section This section is short.
The question is: Will China die? Answer: No, China will not die. The final victory will be China’s. Can China win quickly? Answer: No, the war against Japan was a protracted war.
This is a self-answering question, which serves as a transition from the previous to the next.
Section 6
This section is relatively long, mainly quoting from a conversation with the American journalist Snow in 1936, in which Chairman Mao estimated the situation of the Sino-Japanese War in advance and put forward various guidelines for victory.
China’s victory over and annihilation of Japanese imperialism is subject to three conditions The first is the completion of the united front of Chinese resistance against Japan The second is the completion of the united front of international resistance against Japan The third is the rise of the revolutionary movement of the Japanese people at home and of the people of the Japanese colonies. The great unity of the Chinese people is the main one.
If these conditions are not realized soon, the war will have to be prolonged. But the result will be the same. Japan will lose and China will win. Only the sacrifices will be great and a very painful period will have to pass.
China’s economic disunity and imbalance are favorable to the war against Japan.
For the Chinese army to win, it must fight a highly athletic war on a vast battlefield, advancing swiftly and retreating swiftly, concentrating swiftly and dispersing swiftly. This is large-scale movement warfare, not positional warfare with deep ditches and high barriers and layers of defenses relying exclusively on fortifications.
In the early stages of the war, we should avoid all major duels and use the war of movement to gradually destroy the spirit and fighting strength of the enemy’s army.
The Chinese peasants have great latent power, and with proper organization and command, they can keep the Japanese army busy for twenty-four hours a day, and make it tired of running for its life.
Chairman Mao had the foresight to predict the development trend of the Sino-Japanese war in advance.
By studying the imbalance of China’s economic contradictions, and by studying and analyzing the changes in the various contradictions of the war, he formulated the correct strategy and tactics accordingly. For example, the united front against Japan, the high level of movement on the battlefield, the strategic importance of guerrilla warfare, the creation of anti-Japanese bases behind the enemy lines, the political strategy of mobilizing the masses, and so on, are all very impressive.
Why did Chairman Mao accurately predict the development of the Sino-Japanese War?
Because Chairman Mao is a philosopher, a master of dialectics, he used philosophy to study the military, he used philosophy to guide the war, he stood in the height of materialistic dialectics to see the war, so his perspective is different from ordinary people, not only can see the laws of movement of various contradictions in the war, but also can see the points and surfaces that ordinary people can not see, with dialectical thinking and systematic thinking.
As Chairman Mao said in his theory of contradictions
This dialectical view of the universe mainly teaches people to be good at observing and analyzing the contradictory movements of various things and, based on this analysis, to point out ways to resolve the contradictions.
This suggests to us that, in observing and analyzing problems and solving them, we should pay attention to analyzing the movement of contradictions in various things, focusing on the study of the various imbalances of contradictions, the study of major and non-major contradictions, and the study of major and non-major aspects of contradictions.
Section VII
In this section, a month after the Lugouqiao Incident, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) published an article on the anti-Japanese salvation Decision on the Present Situation and the Party’s Tasks, which clearly pointed out that the key point of the struggle for the victory of the war of resistance lay in the development of the partial war of resistance into a war of resistance for the whole nation.
The central key to victory in the war of resistance lies in the development of the war of resistance into a comprehensive war of resistance for the whole nation. Only such a comprehensive all-ethnic war of resistance can lead to a final victory in the war of resistance.
In this section, Chairman MAO mentioned a very important military viewpoint, that is, to develop the war of resistance that has already been waged into a comprehensive war of resistance for the whole nation. This comprehensive all-ethnic war of resistance is totally different from the one-sided war of resistance practiced by the Kuomintang, and it is two very different military philosophies.
Chairman Mao’s policy of comprehensive all-ethnic resistance emphasizes the unity of the entire Chinese people’s government and army in building a united national front against the Japanese invaders, and fully embodies the idea of a people’s war that relies on the masses.
What is the idea of people’s war?
According to General Song Shilun, the idea of people’s war is the core of Mao Zedong’s military thought, the basic spirit of which is that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with the people’s army as the backbone, relying on the people’s masses, uniting and striving for all progressive forces of all classes, all strata, and all social groups, to carry out the war of all the people which is mainly a military struggle, and which is closely coordinated by political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural forms of struggle.
The idea of people’s war is a Marxist conception of war, which embodies the materialist view of history that the people are the main body of history and that the people are the decisive force of social change.
Regarding Chairman Mao’s ideology of people’s war, here is a brief explanation, and there will be a special topic to explain the ideology of people’s war later.
Section VIII
This section points out that the tendency to idealism and mechanism is the epistemological root of all erroneous views.
The idealistic and mechanistic tendencies in the problems of war are the epistemological roots of all erroneous views.
It is only by opposing the idealistic and mechanistic tendencies in the issue of war and by adopting an objective and comprehensive viewpoint in examining war that a correct conclusion can be reached on the issue of war.
In this section, Chairman Mao talks about two philosophical concepts, idealism and mechanism.
What is idealism?
Idealism, or materialism, is one of the two basic schools of philosophy today, as opposed to materialism.
The core ideas of idealism are Consciousness is the first and matter is the second, consciousness is the origin of the world, consciousness comes before matter, and consciousness determines matter.
The core ideas of materialism are that matter is the first and consciousness is the second, that matter is the origin of the world, that matter comes first and then consciousness, and that matter determines consciousness.
Marxist materialism, on the other hand, is dialectical materialism, which overcomes the limitations and incompleteness of the old materialism and realizes the unity of materialism and dialectics.
The division of philosophy into two basic schools of thought, idealism and materialism The two philosophical camps were the invention of Engels, who said in his book Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy that
The great fundamental question of all philosophy, and of modern philosophy in particular, is the question of the relation between thought and being Philosophers are divided into two camps according to how they answer this question. Those who assert that mind is original to nature, and thus ultimately recognize some kind of creation, form the camp of idealism. Those who believe that nature is original belong to the various schools of materialism.
Later Marxists, such as Comrade Lenin and Chairman Mao, inherited and carried forward this view of Engels, dividing philosophy into two basic schools: idealism and materialism.
Chairman Mao pointed out in his theory of contradiction
In the history of human understanding, there have always been two kinds of opinions about the laws of development of the universe, one metaphysical and the other dialectical, forming two cosmological views that are opposed to each other.
The metaphysical view is the view of idealism, i.e., idealism. The dialectical view is the materialist view, i.e., materialism.
In the academic world, some people put forward a different view that there is no distinction between idealism and materialism in philosophy, and that it is unscientific to rigidly divide philosophy into materialism and materialism camps.
This academic view, which denies the existence of the two basic schools of thought, materialism and materialism, does not exist only now; it has always existed, and Comrade Lenin once criticized this argument as a novel sophistry.
However, it should be pointed out that we should not fall into black-and-white dogmatism, nor should we simplify, modularize or vulgarize idealism and materialism.
We oppose idealism, idealism, and metaphysics, but mainly we oppose the starting point and method of thinking of idealism in understanding the world, and we do not think that all the philosophical propositions of idealism are wrong and worthless.
What is mechanism?
Mechanism, also called mechanical materialism or modern mechanical materialism, refers primarily to the philosophy of materialism that has figured prominently in modern European philosophy.
Representatives include the 17th-century English materialist Bacon Hobbes Locke, the 18th-century French materialist La Mettrie, Elvisius Diderot Holbach, and the 19th-century German materialist Feuerbach. Among them, Feuerbach was the master of modern European materialism and had a significant influence on the formation of the materialist thought of Marx and Engels.
In the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chairman Mao believed that idealism and mechanism were incorrect, that they were one-sided, isolated, static, and lacked comprehensive, connected, and developmental thinking, and that this was the root cause of the misperception of the war.
The root of this lies in the philosophical problem, in the epistemology, in the wrong starting point for understanding the world, and in the wrong logic of thinking for understanding the world.
Finally, a short summary of the core ideas of this chapter.
1 Chairman Mao opposes a one-sided view and favors a comprehensive view.
2 Chairman Mao applies the dialectical relationship between internal and external causes to analyze problems, emphasizing the need to see both internal and external factors.
3 Chairman Mao used the dialectical relationship between the whole and the parts to analyze the strategy and tactics during the war of resistance, which is a typical dialectical military thinking.
4 Chairman Mao opposes the use of idealistic and mechanistic views in observing war and advocates the adoption of an objective and comprehensive viewpoint in examining war and studying the laws of war.
This article is shared here!
Thank you for your patience in reading!
For the full version, please read the paid column Interpretation of the Long War on the Lifting of Problems.
Disclaimer
This is an original article of Cold Cattle Outlet, unauthorized reprinting or carrying is strictly prohibited, violators will be prosecuted!
Leave a Reply