In 1937, at Yan'an, Mao Zedong lectures the party school on dialectical materialism; the texts, On Practice and On Contradiction, become the philosophical charter of Chinese Marxism: contradiction is universal and particular, knowledge rises from practice, and Marxism must be made Chinese. Mao's essays carry the tradition into its second great national form.
Tagged: Marxism
The Event
- Date
- 1937 (exact)
- Era
- Revolution and Western Marxism; Standard periodization of Marxist history
- Location
- Yan'an; today Yan'an, China
- Traditions
- Marxism
- Streams
- Marxism
- Key figures
- Mao Zedong
- Key texts
- On Contradiction, On Practice
Primary Sources
- Mao Zedong. On Contradiction and On Practice. Yan'an lectures, 1937.
Secondary Sources
- Anderson, Perry. Considerations on Western Marxism. London: New Left Books, 1976.
- Kolakowski, Leszek. Main Currents of Marxism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
- McLellan, David. Karl Marx: A Biography. London: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition, 2006.
Provenance: HIST-1462; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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