After the May Fourth Movement in China in 1919 and following the Chinese proletariat’s conscious entrance onto the political stage and the heightening of its scientific standard, there emerged and developed the Marxist philosophical movement. However, during its first stage, the understanding of materialist dialectics within Chinese materialist thought was still poorly developed; bourgeois influenced mechanical materialism and the subjectivist trends of the Deborin clique constituted its principal ingredients. After the defeat of the 1927 revolution, Marxist-Leninist understanding took a step forward and dialectical materialist thought gradually developed. In very recent times, because of the gravity of the national and social crisis, and because of the influence of the movement to expose and criticise within Soviet philosophy, there has developed an extensive movement of materialist dialectics within the Chinese intellectual world. It can be seen from the extensiveness of this movement that, while it is at present still in its youthful stage, it will develop along with the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat and revolutionary peoples of China and the world; and with a strength that sweeps all before it, it will establish its own authority, guide the Chinese revolutionary movement’s courageous and large-scale advance, and lay the foundation for the path along which China’s proletariat will lead the Chinese revolution to victory.[2-193]
Because of the backwardness of the evolution of Chinese society, the philosophical trend of dialectical materialism which is presently developing in China has not resulted from inheriting and transforming its own philosophical legacy, but from the study of Marxism-Leninism. However, if the dialectical materialist trend of thought is to deepen and develop throughout China and, moreover, is definitely to lead the Chinese revolution along the road to complete victory, then it is necessary to struggle against the various existing outworn[2-194]philosophies, and raise the flag of criticism on the ideological front throughout the entire country. It is also necessary to expose and criticise the ancient philosophical legacy of China. Only thus will the objective be achieved.
(p. 276) [p. 197] Dialectical materialism is the world view of the proletariat. It is at the same time the method by which the proletariat gains knowledge of the surrounding world and a method for carrying out revolution. The world view and methodology of dialectical materialism constitute a unified system. Idealist Marxist revisionists consider the entire essence of dialectical materialism to be only its “method”. They separate the method from the world view within the general philosophy, and separate dialectics from materialism. They do not understand that the Marxist methodology of dialectics is not the same as the idealist dialectics of Hegel, but is materialist dialectics; or that the methodology of Marxism cannot depart from its world view in the slightest degree. On the other hand, mechanical materialists only perceive in the philosophy of Marxism the world view of a general philosophy, removing its dialectical element. Moreover, they consider this world view to be nothing more than the conclusions drawn from mechanical natural science. They do not comprehend that Marxist materialism is not simply materialism, but is dialectical materialism. Both of these viewpoints which dissect Marxist philosophy are incorrect. The world view and methodology of dialectical materialism are a unified system.
Lenin (as an observer of Marxist philosophical science) regarded materialist dialectics as learning concerned with the principles of development of the objective world and the principles of the development of knowledge (in which the objective world is reflected within the various categories of dialectics). He said: “Logic is not learning concerned with the external form of thought, but learning concerned with the principles of development of all material, natural and spiritual things; namely, learning concerned with the principles of development of all of the concrete content of the world and knowledge of it. In other words, logic is concerned with the sum total and conclusion of the history of the world’s knowledge”.[2-195] Lenin emphasised the significance of materialist dialectics as a general scientific methodology, and this was because of the conclusions [p. 198] arrived at by the system of dialectics from the history of world knowledge, (p. 277) It was because of this that he said: “Dialectics is the history of knowledge”.