Chairman Mao Zedong Oppose Book Worship - Page 9

Section VII. The Technique of Investigation

1. Hold fact-finding meetings and undertake investigation through discussions. This is the only way to get near to the truth, the only way to draw conclusions. It is easy to commit mistakes if you do not hold fact-finding meetings for investigation through discussions but simply rely on one individual relating his own experience. You cannot possibly draw more or less correct conclusions at such meetings if you put questions casually instead of raising key questions for discussion.

2. What kind of people should attend the fact-finding meetings? They should be people well acquainted with social and economic conditions. As far as age is concerned, older people are best, because they are rich in experience and not only know what is going on but understand the causes and effects. Young people with experience of struggle should also be included, because they have progressive ideas and sharp eyes. As far as occupation is concerned, there should be workers, peasants, merchants, intellectuals, and occasionally soldiers, and sometimes even vagrants. Naturally, when a particular subject is being looked into, those who have nothing to do with it need not be present. For example, workers, peasants and students need not attend when commerce is the subject of investigation.

3. Which Is better, a large fact-finding meeting or a small one? That depends on the investigator's ability to conduct a meeting. If he is good at it, a meeting of a many as a dozen or even twenty or more people can be called. A large meeting has its advantages; from the answers you get fairly accurate statistics (e.g., in finding out the percentages of poor peasants in the total peasant population) and fairly correct conclusions (e.g., in finding out whether equal or differentiated land distribution is better). Of course, it has its disadvantages too; unless you are skillful in conducting meetings, you will find it difficult to keep order. So the number of people attending a meeting depends on the competence of the investigator. However, the minimum is three, or otherwise the information obtained will be too limited to correspond to the real situation.