truth from facts,’’ the results of which were the disasters of the Great
Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The analytical dialectics of contradiction
A second prominent principle in Mao’s leadership philosophy may be
the analytical dialectics of contradiction. Understanding this principle
helps to illuminate Mao’s ‘‘pattern of rule’’ (a term of Oksenberg,
1977 ) as will be elaborated later in this section. Mao explicated
the essence of this leadership philosophy in his renowned essay ‘‘On
contradiction,’’ published in August 1937 (Mao,1954a).
‘‘The law of contradiction in things, that is, the law of the unity of
opposites, is the most basic law in materialistic dialectics,’’ said Mao
(1954b: 13). He contended that this law represents a great revolution
in the history of human knowledge, in the form of dialectical materi-
alism as opposed to the metaphysical world outlook (Mao,1954b:
13–18). According to dialectical materialism, contradiction is ubiqui-
tous in the processes of objectively existing things and of subjective
thought and permeates the development of every thing from beginning
to end; contradiction is universal and absolute.
To reinforce the concept of the universality of contradiction, Mao
argued that no aspect of a thing can exist and be understood by itself.
The very existence of a thing presupposes its opposite aspect. Mao
invited the reader to juxtapose offense and defense, advance and
retreat, victory and defeat as contradictory phenomena in war (Mao,
1954b: 20). In all these instances, ‘‘[w]ithout the one, the other cannot
exist’’ (Mao,1954b: 20). Therefore, investigation of any thing requires
attention to the ‘‘two sides’’ of every contradiction within that thing.
Furthermore, Mao recommended, to understand the development
of a thing, leaders must pay attention to the internal and external
contradictions of that thing. It is, nevertheless, the internal contradic-
tions of a thing that largely determine the nature of its development.
Mao argued that external causes are the condition of change and
internal causes form the basis of change, and that ‘‘social development
is chiefly due not to external but internal causes’’ (Mao,1954b: 16).
Although the interdependence of contradictory aspects is present in all
things, Mao averred, the particularity of a contradiction commands
special attention. Only so can distinction be achieved regarding the
qualitative difference between one form of motion and another form
Leadership theories and practices of Mao and Deng 211