1978 Truth Criterion Controversy

Sociopolitical debate in China The 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy (真理标准大讨论 Debate on Standards for Judging the Truth), also known as the 1978 Truth Criterion Discussion, sometimes referred to as the First Great Debate (第一次大争论) in contemporary China, was a sociopolitical debate around 1978, mainly revolving around Hua Guofeng's "Two Whatevers" and Deng Xiaoping's "Reform and opening up". The debate was also the origin of the "New Enlightenment" in mainland China in the 1980s.Xu Jilin Xu Jilin December 2000 The fate of an enlightenment: twenty years in the Chinese intellectual sphere (1978-98) https://www.eastasianhistory.org/sites/default/files/article-content/20/EAH20_06.pdf East Asian History en Australian National University 20 169–186 2024-05-30 2024-10-05 https://web.archive.org/web/20240530183442/https://www.eastasianhistory.org/sites/default/files/article-content/20/EAH20_06.pdf dead Wu Wei 2014-02-24 70年代末中国的思想启蒙运动 The Enlightenment movement in the late 1970s in China https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20140113/cc13reform/ 2024-10-04 The New York Times zh The core debate centered on what should be the criterion for determining truth: "Two Whatevers" — This slogan emphasized that Mao's directives were the ultimate truth guide, focusing on political-ideological authority. "Practice is the sole criterion" — This stance highlighted empirical outcomes and social practice as the true tests of validity. Hybrid views — Some proposals sought to blend theory and practice, encouraging a broader interpretation of Mao's thought beyond isolated quotes, while stressing the importance of "seeking truth from facts." Background End of Cultural Revolution Death of Mao Zedong Death of Mao Zedong thumb|In 1978, a classroom of a kindergarten in Shanghai with wall portraits of then-Chairman Hua Guofeng and former Chairman Mao Zedong Mao Zedong, organizer of the Cultural Revolution and then Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), died on September 9, 1976, at the age of 82, which caused a power vacuum within the CCP.Gittings 1976 Karim 1986 42 As Mao hadn't chosen an official successor and after conflicts between various factions emerged during and after the Cultural Revolution, Hua Guofeng, a moderate Maoist, held the position of chairman.Karim 1986 42 Fontana 1982 238 Arrest of the Gang of Four Smashing the Gang of Four One month after Mao's death, Hua Guofeng together with Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing arrested the radical faction Gang of Four, which is generally thought to have put an end to the Cultural Revolution.Wu 2016 9 Beginning on 21 October, nationwide denunciations of the Gang of Four occurred, which culminated in the December release of files related to the Gang's alleged crimes to the public. The Party issued a denunciation of the Gang as "ultra-left", which was "left in form, right in essence".Ching 1979 697 A broader purge targeting radicals was initiated to discredit their ideologies and policies later.Hsiung 1981 2 Members of the Gang of Four were charged with "counterrevolutionary activities" three years later, while few of them compromised.O'Brien 2016 331, 336 Jiang Qing, a member of the Gang of Four and the widow of Mao, shouted "Revolution is no crime!" against the charge during the trial.Magnier 2005 O'Brien 2016 331-332 The trial has also been accused of being a "show trial" due to its political motivations.Hsiung 1981 51 O'Brien 2016 337 Mao's legacies Maoist ideologies and policies At the time of Mao's death, China's society and culture were seriously impacted by the Cultural Revolution.Wu 2016 7-8 It is estimated tens of millions was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.O'Brien 2016 333 The economy of China was thought to be weak, if not collapsed.Hamrinand Zhao 1995 150 However, Mao's thoughts and policies still undergirded the Chinese society.Hsiung 1981 7 Hamrinand Zhao 1995 131 As nearly half the CCP members were recruited as "leftists" during the Cultural Revolution, some feared the radicals could recapture the power.Hsiung 1981 54 Deng Xiaoping, one promoter of the Controversy, had already been denounced as a "capitalist roader" during the Cultural Revolution. Deng had been purged twice and promised to Mao and the Central Committee twice that he would "never ever reverse the verdict" as a "capitalist roader". However, Deng attempted to reverse the radical tide during the Cultural Revolution in 1975, which was bluntly rebuffed by Mao. Mao later reiterated "...'never ever reverse the verdict''' just cannot be trusted!"Schoenhals 1991 250 In April 1976, after the 1976 Tiananmen Incident, Mao dismissed Deng for the third time, which led to the "Criticize Deng, Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend" campaign initiated by the Gang of Four.Li-Ogawa 2022 7 "Two Whatevers" Two Whatevers "Two Whatevers" refers to a slogan associated with the Gang of Four, "Whatever Chairman Mao had said or done was correct." Though the members of the Gang of Four were arrested in 1976, Hua, as Mao's successor, continued to advocate the slogan in opposition to Deng's market reform. Centered around the slogan, Hua's supporters and the remaining leftists formed the "Whateverist Faction".Hsiung 1981 2 Fontana 1982 239 Process Rise of Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang At the end of the Cultural Revolution, Hua still held the dominant power in the party, and some of the revolutionary leftists and the military supported him.Hsiung 1981 14 Fontana 1982 244 As Hua changed few policies and rules after Mao, he was gradually gaining more and more enemies.Fontana 1982 245 Hua believed Deng's market reform was too divisive to party unity and social stability, which made him emphasize "stability and unity".Hsiung 1981 18 However, Deng took advantage of the accumulated discontent from the previous "Hundred Flowers Movement" and "Democracy Movement", as well as the failure of Hua to reconcile the various factions to build up strength.Fontana 1982 248 On March 3, 1977, Hu Yaobang, a collaborator of Deng, became the second vice-president of the Central Party School.Schoenhals 1991 245 Hu removed some radicals from the Central Party School and brought in new people, and, like Deng, Hu also questioned the legitimacy of the Cultural Revolution and called upon the staffs of the Central Party School to "Liberate your thinking!"Schoenhals 1991 246, 252 Furthermore, Hu ordered them to "use practice as the criterion for testing the truth and for determining the rights and wrongs of a line, and seek the truth from facts when doing research."Schoenhals 1991 252-253 Though competing with Deng, Hua also supported a relaxation on thinking, as he encouraged others to speak and criticize.Li-Ogawa 2022 3 Deng also campaigned an offensive to the leftist supporters of Hua, who were proven to be more vulnerable due to their ideologies. With a series of political adjustments, Deng gradually moved his power from the provinces to the center.Fontana 1982 243, 245 In May 1977, with the rehabilitation of Deng, he rose for the third time and explicitly condemned the "Two Whatevers".Feng 1995 40 Five months later, Deng proposed the idea of "Boluan Fanzheng" as a political slogan, which would later be used to initiate the reform after the Cultural Revolution.Hamrinand Zhao 1995 34 Publication of "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth" Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth Though experiencing fierce debate, the conflicts within the party were not publicized until the publication of the article "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth", while some articles holding a similar opinion were published early.Feng 1995 40 In October 1977, Hu Fuming, a philosophy teacher, submitted the article under the title "Practice is the Criterion of Truth" to Guangming Daily, which was later revised and edited by Hu's supporters.Feng 1995 40 Schoenhals 1991 256 On May 11, 1978, the revised edition, namingly "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth", was published in Guangming Daily, and was reprinted in People's Daily the following day.Feng 1995 41 The article created an immediate stir and brought the debate into the public.Feng 1995 41 Schoenhals 1991 260 The "Whateverist faction" quickly responded. Editor-in-chief of Hongqi'' commented that "In theory it is absurd; in ideology, it is reactionary; in politics it cuts down [Mao's] banner."Feng 1995 41 Wu Lengxi, an influential official of the CPC, stated that the article made "an error in orientation", and denied "the universal of truth of Marxism".Schoenhals 1991 261 Zhang Pinghua, the Director of the CPCCentral Propaganda Department, openly criticized the article in a lecture with provincial Propaganda Department leaders and provincial Party secretaries responsible for culture and education.Schoenhals 1991 262 Various attitudes towards the criterion of truth also existed.Feng 1995 44 On June 2, 1978, one month after the publication, Deng expressed his support for the article in at an All-Army Political Work Conference.Feng 1995 42Wang Frances Yaping The Art of State Persuasion: China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes Oxford University Press 2024 9780197757512 111Wang Frances Yaping The Art of State Persuasion: China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes Oxford University Press 2024 9780197757512 It is suggested that Deng's speech reconstructed the ideological base of the CPC.Feng 1995 42 Hsiung 1981 2 However, the debate was not ended at that time, as it gradually moved to the point of "the relationship between the criterion and the guiding role of Marxism".Feng 1995 42 Schoenhals 1991 265 As Hua's supporters continued to attack the ideological conflicts within the article, Deng and his supporters attempted to reconcile them.Feng 1995 43 Deng quoted Mao's "seeking truth from fact" to defend the compatibility between Marxism and the criterion.Feng 1995 43 Towards the end of June, there was little evidence indicating how the debate would be solved.Schoenhals 1991 265 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party In October, the CPC held a central meeting to prepare for the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee. Deng's faction began to occupy a more favorable position. Deng himself also criticized the practice of putting the party in place of the government at all administrative levels during the Cultural Revolution.Buckley 2008 Hamrinand Zhao 1995 150 Official newspapers reported that many veterans ordered the rehabilitation of the victims during the Cultural Revolution, which is thought to undermined the authority of Hua.Buckley 2008 Hua himself made a self-criticism against the "Two Whatevers" during the preparatory meeting, remarking that: The formulation with the two "whatevers" was even more absolute, and even more inappropriate. To a greater or lesser extent it stifled everybody's thinking, made the practical implementation of the Party's policy difficult, and did not facilitate the livening up of the ideology of the Party. At the time, those two sentences were not very well thought out. Now it seems as if it would have been better not to mention the two "whatevers".Schoenhals 1991 266 The 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC was held from December 18 to December 22, 1978. The "Two Whatevers" were also described as "erroneous", and the practice criterion was further developed.Schoenhals 1991 265 Hua and his supporter Wang Dongxing were criticized and Wang had no way but to offer a self-criticism.Schoenhals 1991 266 Tien 1984 17 Chen Yun, an influential official, called for re-evaluations about the impactful actions related to the Gang of Four, including the "61 Renegades" case, the "surrendees" case, the Wang Heshou and Tao Zhu case, the re-burial of Peng Dehuai, the 1976 Tiananmen Incident, the rejudgement of Kang Sheng, all of which were agreed by most people who attended the meeting.Gov 2009 Tien 1984 14 A number of Deng's allies were added to the Politburo (Chen Yun, Deng Yingchao, Hu Yaobang and Wang Zhen). The party line was also changed to the "Four Modernizations". Under the influence of Deng and Chen, the charges against the victims of many previous purges were officially repudiated.Feng 1995 36 Tien 1984 12-15 See also Seek truth from facts References Citations Sources Buckley Chris China packages past reforms to guide its present https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-reforms-idUKTRE4B70ZZ20081208 28 August 2022 Reuters 8 December 2008 Burton Charles Charles Burton (sinologist) China's Post-Mao Transition: The Role of the Party and Ideology in the "New Period" Pacific Affairs 1987 60 3 431–446 10.2307/2758882 2758882 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2758882 20 August 2022 0030-851X subscription Ching Frank 1979 The Current Political Scene in China https://www.jstor.org/stable/653038 The China Quarterly 80 80 691–715 10.1017/S0305741000046002 653038 154697304 0305-7410 17 August 2022 subscription Dittmer Lowell Ideology and Organization in Post-Mao China Asian Survey 1984 24 3 349–369 10.2307/2644071 2644071 153963688 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644071 20 August 2022 0004-4687 subscription Feng Chen https://books.google.com/books?id=kb3sAAAAMAAJ Economic transition and political legitimacy in post-Mao China : ideology and reform 1995 State University of New York Press 9780791426579 Albany, New York 19 August 2022 Fontana Dorothy Grouse 1982 Background to the Fall of Hua Guofeng https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644028 Asian Survey 22 3 237–260 10.2307/2644028 2644028 0004-4687 18 August 2022 subscription Gittings John 10 September 1976 Power vacuum after Mao's death the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/1976/sep/10/china.johngittings1 16 August 2022 十一届三中全会的台前幕后 Behind the scenes of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee http://www.gov.cn/test/2009-10/13/content_1437688.htm www.gov.cn The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China 1 September 2022 Gov 2009 zh-hans 1 September 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220901171752/http://www.gov.cn/test/2009-10/13/content_1437688.htm dead Hamrinand Carol Lee Decision-making in Deng's China : perspectives from insiders Zhao Suisheng 1995 M.E. 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