The law of the unity of contradictions; the law of the transformation of quality into quantity and vice versa; the law of the negation of the negation.[1-56]
The first of these “basic laws”, the law of the unity of contradictions (or opposites), was (following the precedent established by orthodox Marxist philosophy) to become the most significant philosophical category in Mao’s thought. While Mao had employed the concept of contradiction in writings prior to 1937,[1-57] his acceptance of this basic law in Dialectical Materialism and his lengthy elaboration of it in On Contradiction established the basis for his continued and increasing use of it. Indeed, from 1937 on, it is very clear that this law had become for Mao more than primus inter pares, and constituted the most fundamental of all laws in Marxism. For example, the opening sentence of On Contradiction states: “The law of contradiction in things, that is, the law of the unity of opposites, is the basic law (zui genben de faze) of materialist dialectics”.[1-58] And some twenty years later, in his speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”, Mao was to reiterate the significance of the law of the unity of opposites:
Marxist philosophy holds that the law of the unity of opposites is the fundamental law (genben guilu) of the universe. This law operates universally, whether in the natural world, in human society, or in man’s thinking. Between the opposites in a contradiction there is at once unity and struggle, and it is this that impels things to move and change. Contradictions exist everywhere, but their nature differs in accordance with the different nature of different things. In any given thing, the unity of opposites is conditional, temporary and transitory, and hence relative, whereas the struggle of opposites is absolute. Lenin gave a very clear exposition of this law.[1-59]
Mao’s writings of the 1950s and 1960s are replete with references to this “most basic law”, and he employed it not only in an abstract philosophical manner, but in analysis of social and political realities.[1-60]
Mao’s derivation of the concept of the unity of opposites from orthodox Soviet Marxist philosophy was to have a profound impact on the subsequent development of his philosophical thought. As indicated in the quote given immediately above, Mao refers to and draws on Lenin’s exposition of the law of the unity of opposites in elaboration and application of his own position. Both in this source, and in On Contradiction, Mao was to draw heavily on the fragments on philosophy which came to be incorporated in Lenin’s Philosophical Notebooks. In these fragments, in particular “On the Question of Dialectics”, the dialectical conception of the unity of opposites is expounded with considerable force, a factor which suggested to Mao its preeminence as the “most basic law” of Marxist philosophy. For example, in “On the Question of Dialectics”, Lenin states:
