Extracts from Ai Siqi’s Philosophy and Life
(September 1937)
Mao Zedong
Source: Ai Siqi, Zhexue yu shenghuo (Yunan People’s Publishing House, 1980). See also Zhongguo zhexue (Chinese Philosophy) Vol. 1 (April 1979), pp. 5‒30. Translated by John Hanafin.
Relativism and Absolutism
| Mao | Ai Siqi |
| (a1) All the terms (or concepts, categories) we use, like “absolute” or “relative” etc., are all the reflection of real things. The term horse exists only because there are real horses in the world. The two terms relative and absolute are also not divorced from actual things. | (b1) All the terms (or concepts, categories) that we use are the reflections of real things. The term horse exists only because there are real horses in the world, the term capitalism exists only because there is a capitalist system. The two terms relative and absolute are also not divorced from actual things…. |
| (a2) In everyday life absolutism often causes trouble. | (b2) In our lives we are often haunted and plagued by absolutism. |
| (a3) Like believing in fate and holding that things cannot change. Also, like considering that the circumstances of life of a certain place do not suit one, demanding a move, and thinking that circumstances cannot change. Also, like considering the people around one are not aware; not knowing that people are also able to change. | (b3) Today we can still come across a great many other people who still believe in the will of God, and consider that everything in the world has been arranged by a Supreme Director, that it is impossible ever to alter it; and that suffering in life also can only be blamed on fate…. |
| Even though aware youth are progressive, we often see this kind of shortcoming: they often write letters saying: “My circumstances are odious and I cannot tolerate them, I must get away from them and go and live in a better place; perhaps you can recommend me to someone in the Save the Nation Organization so I can enter it and work happily”. This kind of view is unintentionally governed by absolutist thinking. Although the originators of this sort of view are progressive youths who embrace new thinking and understand that the world changes, who understand that the duty of a Chinese at the present stage is national salvation and resistance, nevertheless, they have not taken their own progressive thinking, and without regret, applied it to the approach towards their own life. In looking at their own life they use a fixed, unchanging, and absolute viewpoint: their circumstances are really gloomy, yet they forget that gloom also can be smashed; and that the effort of progressive youth can make circumstances change. The people around them are not aware; yet they forget people who are not aware, under certain conditions, will one day walk the path of awareness. They take gloom and the state of not being aware and render them absolute, holding that these are completely without the potential for change for the better. Consequently, they despairingly cry, “There’s no way, the circumstances of my life already can’t accommodate me, let me go to another more promising field of activity!” | |
| (a4) Darkness is not absolute, neither is brightness absolute. | (b4) When we receive this kind of youth’s letter, we can only reply: “Your ideas are wrong: you think your circumstances are bad and you want to flee this gloomy captivity; this is wrong. |
| Escape is not an appropriate means in life, because in current society there is basically not one place that is completely bright; you flee from your own circumstances, yet you will walk into a new gloomy captivity; escape is of no avail. But there is no need for you to be pessimistic, because brightness strikes out from within darkness; if darkness is not smashed then there can be no brightness; therefore you should remain in your own surroundings and to the best of your ability carry out your daily duty as a progressive -smash darkness. You do not want to regard darkness as too absolute!” | |
| From this example we know that absolutism needs to be opposed; it makes us unwilling to proceed from the reality facing us, to work, and to struggle; we only dream of another promising place, or think of escaping from reality. Absolutism does not accord with the true condition of things, because all things are able to change; dark society can also develop into bright society; it is not an absolute darkness. Bright things are also hatched from darkness; it is not an absolute brightness that has fallen from heaven. | |
| (a5) Exceeding reality and seeking to realize the ideal, and avoiding reality, are both conceptualist ( |