《毛泽东视野中的中国农民问题》目录、中英文提要、后记

毛泽东视野中的中国农民问题

温锐 著

江西人民出版社2004年12月

目    录?

绪 论：读不懂毛泽东，理不清当代中国农民问题（代序）

中文提要

       With the high development of the ancient civilization in agriculture, China's small-scale peasant economy came into existence, yet it has long been bogged down in a “potato” destiny in the super-economic constraint and the concerto characterized with stressing farming but check trade or business. How to assist peasants to go through the historic predicament became a focus both in governing and engaging in research the Chinese elites confronted with in any era.  Mao Zedong, born in a peasant family, devoted his whole life to the great cause of saving his country and his people. Mao showed solicitude for the destiny of peasants and the development of the rural economy, which exhausted all his energies. In this great cause, Mao combined Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese culture, resolved to change the unreasonable feudal economic system in rural areas, and endeavored to explore a way for peasants, with which they could shake off the bewilderment, and move towards the “golden future,” in which everyone, man and woman, would be prosperous and equal. Mao, basing himself on reality, divided China's economic reform in rural areas into two stages, that is, “Land Reform” and “Collectivization”.  

In the first stage, what Mao adopted to reform the rural economy is to immerse himself into rural areas, mobilize the broad masses, and destroy relations of feudal production in rural areas. In order to gain success in the first stage, Mao found a foothold in the most poverty-stricken mountain villages, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the poor peasants and helping them cast off the yoke of feudalism, which was later popularized throughout the whole country, and eventually, the feudal land ownership, which lasted for centuries, was thoroughly wiped out and was taken the place by the new democratic rural production relationship, which took the peasantry as a subject. Hence there emerged rural production relations of a new democracy instead. Meanwhile, Mao got a generous support from the peasants, which helped him win the final victory of the protracted revolutionary war and seize the political power. With the establishment of the political and economic system of the new democracy, the peasants were granted with new “sunshine” and “rain and dew”, and a wide horizon presented in front of them.?   

  When the national flag was fluttering in the wind over Tian An Men Tower, Mao immediately made a decision “to strike the iron while it is hot”, and to take the road of collectivization, which push forward his economic reform in rural areas to the second stage. The question of how to get a collect perception of the small-scale peasant economy, and how to guide and remold the small producers led China's economic reform in rural areas to a new crossroad. The style of seeking truth from facts advocated by Mao was gradually replaced by a subjective will. The individual farming, the fixing of farm output quotas for each household, the commodity economy were regarded as hotbed of capitalism, private plot, household sideline production, rural trade markets as the “remains” of capitalism, getting rich by labor as polarization between the poor and the rich. Mao's second stage in the rural economic reform is to make the small producers extinct, and move towards the establishment of people's communes large in size and collective in nature, which was Mao's main principle in promoting collectivization. The concrete operation of the reform had its own novel style and characteristics, nevertheless, apparently it did not extricate itself from the influence of Utopian socialism and the ex-Soviet traditional pattern of collectivization, nor did it cast off the wartime system and the tracks of the political movements. Whether it was to “shrink back and readjust” or to “block road and stride”, the factuality of the peasantry still hides in the back of varieties of campaigns or policies. Mao devoted himself to his ideal in all his life, as a Chinese proverb said, “even if he arrives the bank of Yellow River, he won’t be frustrated, either.” The exceptional experience and unrealistic romanticism once blinded the insight of the historical giant. As a result, the vast rural areas and the multitudinous peasants were squeezed into a new stereotyped pocket. In real life, the history seemed once again coagulated, and the peasants call for independence and liberty a second time.?

However, the Chinese history, with the emerging of household contract responsibility system, household farms, professional household, town-and-village-run enterprises, flow of laborers, socialist marketing economy, and permission of getting some people wealthy earlier, has moved a sound step forward after many twists and turns. The new idea of reconsidering and transforming small peasantry, which arise from CHANGE A BRAIN by removing Mao's cognitive misinterpretations; the abolition of feudal land ownership system, which has long been cast aside into history; the numerous irrigation projects kept at extremely high cost——all these have become the material base and starting point of the new rural economic reform since 1980s.?The Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of CCP and five “NO.1   resolutions” has provided Chinese peasants an accessible platform to take significant steps in rewriting their own history. However, with the quick progression of Chinese modernization and the mixture and co-existence of planning economy and marketing economy, peasants, being out of the present regime, have to endure double squeezing derived from “plan and market” or “power and competition”, as a result of which peasant problem has emerged in the form of the predicament among peasants, agriculture, countryside” as follows: peasants’ burden was too hard to ease despite of continuous decreasing trial; the labor transferring faces layers of obstacles which brought about the serious trouble in increasing peasants’ income as well as the unprecedented severe challenging to rural ecology; the production initiative right of peasants declines increasingly, even to get lost, and the peasants’ property  rights and interests like the land are being eroded in the process of weakening and surfacing, which led to the lost of peasants’ lands or jobs, even residences; peasants’ normal citizenship treatments has never been respected so that the securities of social public services and facilities are seldom available for them…, that is to say, fairness or justice market owns naturally seems to be an exception for peasants! All the problems above-discussed stemmed from the lost of market subjects of rural economy, in other words, peasants doesn’t obtain the real community or national master treatment. The covertly rising of “Mao Zedong Upsurge” since the end of 1980s just reflected the reality that the “Peasantry, Agriculture and Countryside” problem is getting more and more serious. Up to 2004, the problem of peasants, agriculture and countryside was promulgated as NO. 1 resolution once more by the Central Committee of CCP seventeen years later, which means peasants problem is stressed exceptionally once more. Nevertheless, how to  grasp the folk information conveyed by the “Mao Zedong Upsurge” and how to treat the peasants problem correctly depends on recognizing peasants and peasants’ family production correctly with a new attitude, which requires us to really trust, respect, treat decently and depend on peasants, insisting on the sustainable development based on humanity thus to get through the shadow of egalitarianism remolding peasants… The pioneering practice characterized with collectivization led by Mao Zedong not only broke through the millennium dream pursued by Chinese social elites, but also displayed the strength source of reform that is to trust, organize and depend on peasants firmly, thus left behind valuable legacy for posterities both in thoughts and in practices. Unexaggeratedly speaking, Mao’s recognition on peasantry and peasantry problem concentrated all the correctness and fault in recognizing the same problem by Chinese social elites in any age. No understanding Mao Zedong, no understanding Chinese peasantry problem. Peasantry may be liberated only when peasantry themselves are capable of represent themselves, instead of others.  

Key Words:? the peasantry; rural economy; class struggle; land reform; collectivization; the fixing of farm output quotas for each household; commodity economy; market subjects   

后    记

      我对农民和农村经济的研究开始于20多年前。当时，近百年的中国农村经济变革已经进入了一个崭新的阶段，邓小平支持和推动的农民家庭承包经营责任制改革已全面启动并初见成效，中国农民的命运和农村经济改革的新选择引起了国内外的广泛关注；中国农村社会经济发展的全新态势也给我们的传统思维提出了许多崭新的问题和需要重新探索的未知。作为一个近现代社会经济史的研究者，理应站在历史与现实的交汇点上，像关心历史一样关心现实。20多年来，我为释疑与探索未知的强烈刺激所吸引，农民和农村经济问题的研究成为我生活的重要部分，在生活中，包括与人闲聊、看电视、甚至饭桌饭后家人间的谈笑，我都总是将话题与我的研究联系在一起，以至常被人们笑称为“三句话不离本行”。从某种程度上说，我是把这种乐在其中的艰辛劳动看作是生命的必要，即使没有显赫的收获，也能心平气静地继续耕耘，我的研究与生活本身已紧紧相融。其间，我出版与发表的论著虽不多并又不太合于学术主流，但却得到了国内外同行学者的理解、肯定与认同；同时，农民和农村社会经济问题研究耗费了我20多年的主要时间，因而减少了对妻子与家庭应有的关怀；借拙作付梓之际，我要对所有支持与帮助过我的师长与国内外朋友们表示衷心感谢，并特别感谢我的爱人杨丽琼和儿子温靖20多年来对我的理解以及为支持我的研究工作所做出的奉献。     中国农民丰富的社会实践与历史创造是本书认识与观点生长的源泉。实践需要理论的指导，理论则需要不断地接受实践的检验，并在丰富的实践中加以修正和完善。理论是“灰色”的，“生活之树长青”。正是千百万农民群众实践的现实需要，促使人们投入农民和社会农村经济问题的研究。拙作注重在比较研究中吸收学界最新成果的同时，立足走出书斋，将自己的视野投向中国火热的农村社会经济改革大潮。在多年的农村实地调查与学习考察中，农民那勤奋自励、勇于实践、善于创造的精神和宽厚的胸怀，农民那热情的接待、无私的支持以至免费的茶水或便饭招待，则是拙作得以形成的最为宝贵的精神支撑和物质支持。因此，我要感谢在江西、福建、广东、河南、河北、陕西、山东等省农村实地调查中给予我支持和帮助的所有农民朋友，同时，还要感谢在收集和查阅资料时提供方便和照顾的省、市、县图书馆、档案馆以及各级政协文史资料室的专家与朋友们，感谢江西财经大学领导对我的理解、支持与鼓励！拙作许多论点的完善直接来源于师生间争鸣讨论时闪现的思想火花，很多的论述直接形成于解答学生、朋友质疑时进行的逻辑思考。“师者，所以传道授业解惑也”；但“师不必贤于弟子，弟子不必不如师；闻道有先后，术业有专攻”。（韩愈）“人只知教师教授，学生学习；不晓得有的时候，教师倒从学生那里得好多的教训”。（陶行知）教师是我重要的社会角色，教书是我重要的工作，和学生平等相处，共同探讨，教学相长，不仅使我获益匪浅，而且也使我乐在其中。正是师生间教与学的相融，使本书超过了我个人可能达到的水平，为此，我要感谢所有曾参与我几十年教学与研究讨论的所有同学们；而本书能够较快完成出版，则要特别感谢我在福建师大招收的硕士研究生汪忠列。他以其与我似乎有同样家庭背景和对农民的真挚感情随我进入近现代史尤其是农民问题的学习与研究，并逐步加入我正在进行的课题研究之中。他在帮助我完成本书新增章节和对全书稿件的整理校订中付出了艰辛的劳动。

     本书的出版还要特别感谢江西人民出版社辛康南先生等人给予的支持和付出的辛勤劳动。                                                            作  者                                  2004年暑期于江西财经大学校园