Chapters 24, 27, 28｜All quotations cited on this page are tagged with chapter numbers; click a chapter name to return to the original.
Why a whole section on correcting errors
Chapter 24 'Correcting mistaken ideas' (14 entries), Chapter 27 'Criticism and self-criticism' (15), Chapter 28 'The Communist' (18) - forty-seven entries together. By length, the editors give considerable weight to 'what to do when wrong'.
The arrangement has a source: the 1942 Yan'an rectification institutionalized self-examination, after which 'criticism and self-criticism' became the standard procedure of inner-Party life. Chapter 27 here is essentially the operating manual of that procedure.
First classify: what kinds of error
The main source of Chapter 24 is the December 1929 Gutian resolution ('On correcting mistaken ideas in the Party'). The tendencies it lists include: purely military viewpoint, extreme democratization, non-organizational viewpoint, absolute equalitarianism, subjectivism, individualism, remnant roving-rebel mentality, remnant putschism.
Chapters 22 and 24 also repeatedly criticise two cognitive faults: dogmatism (fitting reality to a formula) and empiricism (trusting only one's own old experience). The book criticises the two as two faces of one problem.
Then fix the procedure: how criticism proceeds
Chapter 27 gives a concrete procedure: criticism starts from the wish for unity, passes through criticism or struggle, and reaches a new unity on a new basis. The chapter also fixes limits: speak with evidence, keep criticism attentive to politics, do not inflate technical trifles into matters of principle.
The chapter also places self-criticism. The book says it directly: a house should be swept often or it fills with dust; a face should be washed often. That metaphor is the most widely circulated line of the chapter.
Concrete demands on Party members and cadres
Chapter 28's eighteen entries are on the standards of a Communist: selfless, exemplary, at one with the masses, able to take criticism. Chapter 29's eleven are on cadres: how to identify, use and care for them, and again opposing commandism.
Chapter 29 also proposes that cadres be 'red and expert' - both political stand and professional skill. The phrase later became a fixed formulation.
What to watch when reading this group
The most tense part of the 'error-correction' quotations today is that they contain two directions at once: on the one hand demanding public examination and mutual criticism, on the other setting procedure and limits to criticism. The balance between the two is precisely what the book keeps adjusting.
This site passes no judgement on this machinery; it presents it as written and sources it. If the reader wants to follow up, many entries in Chapter 24 point to one source (the 1929 Gutian resolution) and can be read in one sitting.
A house should be swept regularly, or it fills with dust.
In exposing errors and criticising shortcomings our aim is, like that of a doctor, purely to save the patient.
Dogmatism and empiricism are both subjectivism.
Key chronology
- 1929Gutian resolution 'On Correcting Mistaken Ideas Inside the Party'
- 1942Yan'an rectification institutionalises self-criticism
- 1945'On Coalition Government' again on criticism and self-criticism
- 1937'On Practice' criticises dogmatism and empiricism
Classify the error first, then set the procedure
The main source of Chapter 24 is the Gutian resolution, whose listed tendencies include: purely military viewpoints, extreme democratisation, non-organisational ideas, absolutist equalitarianism, subjectivism, individualism, roving-rebel mentality, and remnants of putschism. Chapters 22 and 24 single out 'dogmatism' and 'empiricism' as two faces of the same subjectivism.
Chapter 27 turns 'criticism' itself into a procedure: start from the wish for unity, pass through criticism, arrive at a new unity on a healthier basis; speak with evidence, mind the politics, do not escalate everything. The force of this set lies between 'demand public examination' and 'set bounds for criticism'.
Party members and cadres: selection and use
Chapter 28 is on Communist Party members (selfless, exemplary, at one with the masses, able to take criticism); Chapter 29 is on cadres (how to select, use and care for them, and again against commandism). It proposes 'both red and expert' - firm political stance and professional competence.
These chapters echo the organisational methods of Chapters 10, 11 and 12: those explain 'how to decide', these explain 'with what kind of people to execute'.