Yurong QUAN, Peng YANG

School of Marxism, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China

Abstract In order to explore a way to completely transform China, the Chinese Communists have vigorously promoted the style of investigations and research in rural areas. Chen Yun is a model of this rural investigation movement. He focused on understanding the life of the peasant class and the reality of China’s rural areas through field investigations. The survey content was meticulous and extensive, and the survey process sought truth from facts. He creatively used a variety of survey methods based on objective conditions, and strove to earnestly benefit the people. Chen Yun provided Marxist guiding ideology for rural investigations in China, guided rural investigations to proceed on the right track, and at the same time infused rural investigations with the value concept of putting the people first, which still has important reference significance for solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new situation.

Key words Chen Yun, Rural surveys, Seeking truth from facts

1 Introduction

Chen Yun is one of the representatives who carried out investigations and studies in rural areas. He has always adhered to the principle of "seeking truth from facts", personally walked to the bottom, mastered a large amount of first-hand materials, and found out the actual situation of farmers’ production and life in different periods. In the long-term investigation and practice, Chen Yun summed up experience and lessons and put forward his own research ideas and specific methods, which has irreplaceable theoretical and practical value. His investigation method still has enlightenment for the development of today’s society, so it is necessary to analyze the content, characteristics and significance of his investigation and research.

2 Practical activities of rural investigations by Chen Yun

Chen Yun (1905-1995) was born in a poor family in Qingpu County, Jiangsu Province. During his tenure at the Shanghai Commercial Press, he read a large number of advanced books, devoted himself to the ranks of Marxism, and led the labor movement to victory. In the early 1930s, when he was the leader of economic work, he participated in the formulation and implementation of a series of major decisions, laying the foundation for the socialist economic construction with Chinese characteristics. Comrade Chen Yun carried out a large number of investigations and studies in his life’s work, and especially had unique insights into rural economic issues. Among them, there were mainly investigations on the construction of base areas behind enemy lines in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, investigations on the state of unified purchase and marketing in rural areas, investigations on the rapid development of agriculture and increase of unit area, investigations on schistosome control and elimination and rural areas in Qingpu,etc.These investigations can reflect the main content of his investigations to a large extent.

2.1 Investigations on the construction of base areas behind enemy linesDuring the Yan’an period, in order to better guide the work of party organizations in North China, Chen Yun invited the secretaries of 9 township branches in the base areas behind enemy lines to report the situation while personally investigating it. He spent more than a month talking with them all night long, and the topics were very rich. For Yaozhuang Village, Baode County, the mobilization of rural masses, mass lives, mass emotions, party-mass relations, mass demands, mass organizations, rural party life, and the party’s ideological education work were involved. Chen Yun talked and recorded the content at the same time, and had a more comprehensive understanding of the real situation of the construction of base areas behind enemy lines in the early days of the war and the Chinese Communist Party’s mobilization of the masses to actively participate in the war. He pointed out that the party branch did not play its full role, "solving fewer problems for the masses, asking more from the masses, and giving less to the masses"[1]. After the talk, he wrote three papers on mass work, includingConsolidatingthePartyandStrengtheningMassWork,DevelopingMassWorkistheCenterofCurrentLocalWork,andMassWorkintheBorderRegionsofShaanxi,GansuandNingxiaaccording to the problems discovered. He pointed out that the work of consolidating the party should be linked with the work of the masses, and concrete measures should be taken to fully mobilize the masses from the bottom up, which provided guidance for the development of work in various places behind enemy lines.

2.2 Investigations on the development of agriculture and increase of grain yieldIn 1953, after China implemented the policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain, problems such as urban-rural exchanges, low enthusiasm of farmers, and fluctuations in the grain market appeared due to insufficient work experience. "Every family talked about grain, and every household talked about unified marketing" throughout the country. In January 1955, Chen Yun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, returned to his hometown of Xiaozheng Township, Qingpu to conduct a rural survey to understand the actual situation of the unified purchase and marketing of grain by farmers. He specifically inspected rice shops and granaries, and had discussions with local grassroots and leading cadres, reflecting the problems of over-planned purchases and insufficient grain retention by farmers. In order to further clarify the reasons for the lack of rations, Chen Yun personally visited Tingxiu Village (now Luhua Village), Xiaozheng Township to conduct a field investigation. The investigation showed that as many as half of the villagers were short of food for 1-3 months due to the "excessive grain" paid in the unified purchase last year. The survey revealed three major problems of unified purchase and marketing: one is the problem of revolving grain; the other is the establishment of unified purchase and grain retention standards; the third is the response measures of grain-deficient households. After Chen Yun returned to Beijing, he suggested to the leaders of the central government that "the three fixed" policies of fixed production, purchase, and marketing of rural grain should be adopted for the unified purchase and marketing of rural grain"[2]. The "three fixed" policies of grain improved and developed the policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain, eased the grain shortage in rural areas to a certain extent, and effectively mobilized farmers’ enthusiasm for production.

In May 1955, due to the limitation of national power and the prioritization of industrial construction, problems and contradictions were concentratedly exposed in the late period of the First Five-Year Plan, which had a greater impact on the people’s livelihood construction at that time. In this regard, Chen Yun proposed to protect the interests of farmers and allow them to recuperate. To solve the problem of short supply of food and to study ways to rapidly develop agriculture and increase grain yield per unit area, Chen Yun conducted surveys in many provinces and cities in the country. The focus of the surveys was on Liantang District and Xiaozheng Township in Qingpu County. The contents of this investigation had three points. Firstly, the local grain production and the implementation of unified purchase and marketing after the implementation of the "three fixed" policies were investigated. Secondly, the specific conditions and time required for doubling increase of grain yield per mu were investigated. At the symposium, Chen Yun learned through discussions with local officials and farmers that increasing grain yield per mu involves many aspects of adding fertilizers, improving irrigation and drainage tools, and dredging urban and rural channels. He pointed out that the increase in production in the south mainly depends on increasing the multiple cropping index and increasing the yield; year-round farming can be adopted, and a variety of crops can be sown in different periods. Rice multiple cropping not only relies on natural conditions such as temperature, frost-free period and rainfall, but also requires artificial conditions to compensate for the uneven distribution of precipitation, and insufficient fertilizers, namely organizing the cooperation of water, fertilizer, and labor. Thirdly, the transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was investigated. Chen Yun pointed out that the transformation should be handled in accordance with the principles of socialism, and capitalist industry and commerce that was conducive to the national economy and people’s livelihood were transformed flexibly; "different policies, methods, and steps were adopted"[2].

2.3 Investigations on schistosome control and elimination in QingpuIn the early days of the founding of New China, schistosomiasis was widespread in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Qingpu was one of the counties most severely affected by schistosomiasis. The cumulative number of patients accounted for nearly 40% of population in the county, and it seriously endangered people’s health. On March 28, 1957, Chen Yun came to his hometown Qingpu to inspect schistosomiasis prevention and control work and investigate the infection, prevention and elimination of schistosomiasis with a strong feeling of care for the people in his hometown. In Libang Village, he went to the patient’s home, visited Cai Yinrui, a terminal patient suffering from schistosomiasis, and inspected the site of local soil-buried snails. Later, in Shadaibang Village, Chen Yun carefully compared the effects of water gas flame snail extinguishing and soil-buried snails, and inspected manure management and water pipe construction. In a discussion with county and township officials and epidemic prevention personnel, he pointed out that it is necessary to combine the mobilization of the masses with science and technology, pay attention to quality and efficiency, and not waste the people and money[2]. In Qingpu County’s schistosomiasis control work, under the guidance of Chen Yun, the masses gradually abandoned bad habits and adopted a scientific lifestyle, and achieved certain results in eliminating schistosomiasis.

2.4 Investigations on rural areas of QingpuDuring the "Great Leap Forward" movement, the "five tendencies" in the rural areas became more and more severe, and the agricultural production situation in China was severe. Chen Yun actively responded to Mao Zedong’s advocacy, and conducted a 15-day rural survey in Xiaozheng Commune in Qingpu County, Shanghai and several other counties in June 1961. During this period, he held ten thematic seminars to quickly find out the real situation of local agriculture, industry and commerce (Table 1).

In Qingpu County, Chen Yun personally went to peasants’ homes to observe the situation and collect their opinions. The masses mainly highlighted four problems: firstly, grain was purchased by the state; secondly, the cadres were separated from the masses; thirdly, blind command caused agricultural production to decrease; they were not active to plant collective farmland. For the issue of pig raising, Chen Yun conducted a detailed survey of 15 pig farms in the commune, and the whole process of public and private pig raising was investigated, including feeding, pregnancy and delivery. He compared the situation of sows privately raised before the communalization of farmers in Xiaozheng Township and after the implementation of male sows (Table 2), and wrote an investigation reportSowsshouldalsobekeptprivatelybyfarmers. The report stated that private raising of sows should proceed from the actual situation. For the arrangement of crops, Chen Yun calculated the direct and indirect losses of planting double-cropping rice through a comprehensive accounting method, and concluded that planting double-cropping rice is not worth the loss. In his reportPlantingDouble-seasonRiceisnotasGoodasPlantingBroadBeansandSingle-seasonRice, he analyzed the situation of crop planting in Xiaozheng area, suburban areas of Shanghai, Jiaxing and Suzhou, and Xiaoshan County, Zhejiang Province. He believed that crop arrangements must be adapted to local conditions, and factors such as frost-free period, population, topography, and proportion of cultivated land must be considered comprehensively. In the articleReservingPrivateLandinAccordancewithCentralRegulations, Chen Yun discussed the relationship between planting private land and participating in collective labor. He believed that expanding the area of private land and the implementation of a series of incentive measures will help increase farmers’ enthusiasm and then promote the development of collective production.

Table 1 The symposium hosted by Chen Yun during the fourth hometown survey in 1961[3]

Table 2 Comparison between the private raising of sows before the communalization of farmers and public raising of sows in Xiaozheng Township

3 Characteristics of rural surveys by Chen Yun

The content of Chen Yun’s rural surveys was detailed and extensive, and truly reflected the specific conditions of agricultural development, rural work and farmers’ lives at that time. Through the analysis of Chen Yun’s investigations, the following characteristics are summarized.

3.1 Insisting on seeking truth from facts and looking at problems in a comprehensive and systematic mannerComrade Chen Yun has always attached great importance to the study of the basic theories of Marxism and made a lot of theoretical preparations for investigations and research. He believed that understanding the world and transforming the world should be carried out under the guidance of correct theory. In the process of continuous practice, he summed up the 15-character leadership principles and working methods of "not blindly listening to superiors’ orders without making changes, not blindly believing in book dogma and seeking truth from facts, exchange, comparison, and repetition". To be more specific, "not blindly listening to superiors’ orders without making changes, and not blindly believing in book dogma" means that the execution of superiors’ instructions cannot be absolutely obedient, and studying Marxist-Leninist works cannot be copied; the spirit of the documents and books should be comprehended, and they should be implemented in light of the actual local conditions. "Realism" is the fulcrum and soul of Chen Yun’s thought and theory, and its fundamental guiding ideology is Marxist materialist dialectics, namely always adhering to the materialist epistemology, proceeding from realistic problems, and achieving the unity of subjectivity and objectivity. "Seeking truth from facts" means proceeding from reality to find out the real situation in an in-depth investigation. In addition, Chen Yun also emphasized that "to seek truth from facts, there must be a proletarian stand"[4]. In the process of "exchange, comparison, and repetition", rural surveys can objectively and comprehensively look at problems and understand the actual situation, and the results of the surveys and research were used as the basis for formulating various policies, so as to do practical things for the people. "Exchange" means exchanging opinions on the pros and cons to make one-sided understanding more comprehensive, to gradually unify divergent issues, and to obtain a comprehensive and realistic understanding. Chen Yun took the promotion of democracy as a necessary way to clarify the facts, and encouraged everyone to raise negative opinions at the symposium. He said: "Even if the opposite opinion is wrong, it may reflect an aspect of things or include some inferences from historical experience. Therefore, we have to analyze the opposite opinion and absorb the useful part[4]". When there was no objection, Chen Yun would also assume various opinions and considered a problem from the obverse and all sides to make his understanding more comprehensive. "Comparison" means comparing top and bottom, and left and right. Only through comparison can we see the degree of development of a thing and its essence, and then draw a correct conclusion. Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Good policies are compared with other policies. Chen Yun is good at analyzing and comparing the pros and cons of various schemes based on the data from field surveys, and deriving the best scheme. "Repetition" means leaving a period of reconsideration before making a decision. Only by repeated "seeking truth" can the objective reality be fully understood. It takes an iterative process for people to understand things, so they need to recognize things repeatedly in practice, insist on correctness, make up for deficiencies, and correct mistakes. The actual situation is constantly changing and developing, and needs to change according to changes. The same issue should be put in different periods to consider repeatedly before making a decision. The working method of "exchange, comparison, and repetition" enabled Chen Yun to master a large amount of precious first-hand information in rural surveys, and also provided sufficient data support for his survey results. After obtaining a large amount of materials, Chen Yun emphasized the need to find laws from various complex phenomena, grasp the boundaries of quality and quantity, and make his own understanding conform to objective reality. This process fully embodies Comrade Chen Yun’s pragmatic style, scientific and rigorous attitude, and dialectical materialist working methods.

3.2 Choosing an appropriate survey method according to objective conditionsDoing a good job of investigations and research requires both good thinking methods and proper working methods. In his investigations and research, Chen Yun always creatively used a variety of investigation methods based on objective conditions. Commonly used methods include spot investigation method and special topic investigation method.

3.2.1Spot investigation method. The spot investigation method is to personally lead a working group or send a working group to the countryside to carry out a spot investigation. It has the following four characteristics. The first one is perseverance. No matter the conditions are good or bad, Comrade Chen Yun upheld the spirit of bearing hardships and standing hard work, investigating until the problem is clarified. He often went to rural areas to hold seminars. After the "Great Leap Forward" in June 1961, in order to resume production as soon as possible, Chen Yun went to Xiaozhen People’s Commune in Qingpu County to stay for 15 d, eating and living with farmers in simple farmhouses.That is, he used the method of "participatory observation" in sociology to narrow the psychological distance with farmers, studied the real ideas of farmers from the perspective of insiders. The second one is to go deep into the masses. Chen Yun never engaged in the formalism of "wandering around" in conducting spot investigations. He always observed, inquired, and recorded personally. The masses were also willing to have a heart-to-heart talk with him and reflect to him their dissatisfaction with the current rural policies. In 1939, Comrade Chen Yun had a conversation with nine party branch secretaries in his office cave. He asked and wrote about each township’s situation. The third one is to point to the key. The survey topics selected by Comrade Chen Yun, such as unified purchases and marketing in rural areas, and increasing yield per mu, were major issues related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, and were key topics that helped guide the overall work. On the basis of selecting key topics, he was not "framed" by the selected topics. Although the scope of the investigation was limited by the field, he had a holistic perspective. He looked at a problem from the standpoint of the country as a whole, and saw the complexity of social phenomena, so as to properly handle the special and general relationships. The fourth one is to be good at spreading experience. The promotion of experience is to implement the experience of investigations through a typical-to-general process. After conducting spot surveys, Chen Yun was good at processing the raw materials under investigation, in-depth analysis, summarizing local experience, and summarizing it into a structured but easy-to-understand survey report, which provided reference for policy formulation.

3.2.2Special topic investigation method. Special investigations are systematic and thorough investigations carried out around a certain issue, most of which combine point and surface. It is often used in combination with the typical survey method to promote the development of the entire typical survey while deeply understanding specific issues. The three investigation reports formed by Chen Yun in Qingpu County were conducted in conjunction with typical investigations. These partial and specific small topics had overall significance and were major topics for correcting "left" errors and promoting the restoration and development of agricultural production. Delegating sows to farmers for private raising is not only conducive to the recovery of pig industry, but also improves farmers’ income and urban supply to a certain extent. Only by grasping this problem can we overcome the blind command, the one-size-fits-all metaphysics and bureaucracy in production. Chen Yun always strove to be comprehensive and scientific when conducting rural surveys. In order to avoid the one-sided mistakes of special investigations, he always used the method of combining point and surface, and combining whole and part to carry out rural surveys from multiple angles and collect opinions from all aspects and units related to one issue, not limited to a single issue. He also conducted investigations from different aspects, repeatedly investigating and demonstrating the situation and conclusions of investigations. For example, Chen Yun compared the conclusions of the special survey in Qingpu County with several similar areas, and exchanged and discussed the conclusions with other provincial committees to test the generality of the survey conclusions.

3.3 Putting the people’s interests firstThe masses of the people are the historical category, and the broad masses of the people are the pillars of China’s revolution, reform and socialist construction. Putting the people first means taking people as the main body of value and insisting on the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly. Comrade Chen Yun always put the interests of the people first, and any trivial matter is related to the image of the party in the minds of the masses and the feelings of the people. Chen Yun went to rural areas to carry out rigorous investigations and research, not only to obtain some digital materials to solve the problems existing in farmers, rural areas, and agriculture, but also to arrange the people’s lives through the results of investigations. In the 1950s, he made great efforts to implement the policy of "unified purchase and marketing of grain", shouldered the responsibility of making the people to have food, and emphasized leaving enough rations and seeds for farmers. In the early 1960s, in order to find a way to solve the problem of eating and dressing for urban and rural people, Chen Yun went deep into the production line to check several representative examples. His investigation report was approved by the central government and forwarded to the country, and achieved good results. During the period of reform and opening up, Chen Yun rushed to various districts and counties, and had long talks with farmers to understand their urgent needs in production and life. The investigations and practice in various periods all reflected his investigation and research thinking of combining economic construction with the improvement of the people’s living standards. Chen Yun always regarded improving the people’s life as the final goal of economic construction. He went deep into the masses to understand the conditions of the people, solved the demands of the people on the basis of investigations and research, and solved problems for the people everywhere. He expected farmers to have a full stomach and live and work in peace, took the needs and expectations of the people as the starting point and goal of carrying out rural investigations, and put the fundamental interests of the people first. At the commemoration of the 100thanniversary of Chen Yun’s birth, Hu Jintao pointed out that "Comrade Chen Yun’s pursuit of lofty ideals was reflected in his infinite loyalty to the people and in his deep concern for the people. Whether leading economic work or doing other tasks, earnestly working for the benefit of the people was a principle he always followed".

4 Significance of Chen Yun’s rural surveys

In order to reform the social system, it is necessary to first understand the problem. Investigations and research can quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of society. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out social surveys. Chen Yun’s investigations and research on various economic and social problems in rural areas of China had a wide-ranging impact on rural society at that time.

4.1 Establishing a model of using Marxism to guide rural investigations in ChinaMarx explained the importance of practice as early as in the article The Outline of Feuerbach. The key step for Marxist philosophical theory to practice is to transform philosophy into a method of thinking about understanding and transforming the world. Only by grasping the correct method of thinking, can we analyze a problem scientifically and solve the problem correctly. In Yan’an, Comrade Chen Yun used his year of recuperating to study Mao Zedong’s methods of handling problems from his writings, and found that "seeking truth from facts" was the main idea throughout and a generalization of Marxist epistemology. Chen Yun believed that to seek truth from facts, the key is to look at "facts" comprehensively. After thinking, summarizing and summarizing the experience in the work, he answered the question of how to truly seek truth from facts in fifteen words of "not blindly listening to superiors’ orders without making changes, not blindly believing in book dogma and seeking truth from facts, exchange, comparison, and repetition", which provided a shortcut for the cadres and the masses to learn and master the true meaning of Marxist philosophy. The "the fifteen-character formula" is not only a deepening of the methodological principle of "seeking truth from facts", but also a high-level generalization of the process and methods of "seeking truth from facts", enriching the theoretical treasure house of Mao Zedong’s philosophy. Chen Yun was also well versed in the principles of dialectics. The 15-character leadership principles and working methods are highly consistent with the internal unity of materialism and dialectics. This methodology has very practical guiding significance for people to act in accordance with the principle of seeking truth from facts.

Comrade Chen Yun’s contribution to philosophy focuses on practical philosophy, aiming to guide the concrete practice of Chinese revolution and construction, and creatively applying materialist dialectics to observe and solve problems in practice. It can be said that the "fifteen-character formula" proposed by Chen Yun builds a bridge between philosophical theory and practice. Carrying out investigations and research is an important way to practice scientific thinking and methods, and it is also the basis of scientific decision-making. It was widely used by Chen Yun to explore the actual situation in rural areas. Finding out the situation and conducting investigations and research are the foundation of all work. In his reportPlantingDouble-seasonRiceisnotasGoodasPlantingBroadBeansandSingle-seasonRiceformed in rural surveys in Qingpu in the early 1960s, Chen Yun conducted a field survey to explore the arrangement of crops according to the opinions of local farmers who did not approve of planting double-cropping rice. He first started from the macro level, conducted a rough survey of the county’s planting situation through seminars, and then personally went to farmers’ homes to observe the situation and collect opinions, achieving a combination of "macro and micro". He comprehensively considered various related subjective and objective factors such as seeds, fertilizers, labor, climate,etc., compared several counties with similar and different conditions in Xiaozheng area, fully exchanged opinions with the provincial committees of various regions, and finally concluded that crop arrangements must be adapted to local conditions. Through meticulous field investigations and comparative studies of farming characteristics in different types of areas, the general understanding of crop arrangements was deepened. Therefore, this research not only provided unique and profound insights on the specific issue of whether Xiaozheng area was suitable for planting double-cropping rice, but also pointed out the development direction of crop arrangement in China’s rural areas. Chen Yun combined sound theoretical viewpoints with meticulous field investigations, and guided rural investigations to proceed on the right track.

4.2 Infusing the value concept of putting the people first into rural surveysChen Yun closely combined his dialectical materialism with historical materialism. In Chen Yun’s philosophical thinking, the masses of people were always at the core, and practice was regarded as the masses of people’s practice. He repeatedly emphasized that there must be a strong mass point of view. For rural surveys, only by obtaining true and reliable first-hand information and a true understanding of rural society can the problems existing in rural construction and development be solved, and the interests of the people can be effectively pursued. The biggest problem in conducting surveys in rural China is that the "lie-telling problem" was frequently encountered. There was an area in their psychology that is not open to the outside world. If you want to understand the real situation, you must go deep into the masses. Therefore, Comrade Chen Yun always insisted on establishing relationships with farmers and gaining their trust in field investigations, and only the investigation materials obtained through sincere cooperation can be reliable. This close-contact field investigation method allowed researchers to directly enter the social living environment of the survey subjects, and they can be more comprehensive and in-depth familiar with and understand the actual situation in the countryside, understand their thoughts, and avoid directly using simplified external standards to measure the lives of local farmers. Based on this, Chen Yun presented the results of rural investigations in the form of investigation reports, but not only focused on the narration and recording of facts, but further analyzed and explained the facts. He not only used theory to explain facts, but combined facts and theories to produce new theories that can guide China’s rural practice. Only such theories can be rooted in China’s soil.

Putting the people first and people’s livelihood first are the essence of Chen Yun’s thought. Compared with "serving the people" at the macro level, Chen Yun’s people-oriented thinking carefully considers the interests of the people from a micro perspective. In rural surveys, he went deep into all aspects of farmers’ daily life, and made practical considerations for improving farmers’ living standards. For instance, in a report on the problem of farmers’ private land in Xiaozheng area, Chen Yun pointed out the five advantages of planting private land farmers. The first one is to grow grains and vegetables to supplement rations; the second one is to grow miscellaneous grains to facilitate pig raising; the third one is to grow vegetables to make up for the supply gap in other places; the fourth one is to plant something and sell it in exchange for pocket money; the fifth one is to plant bamboo to alleviate the difficulty of timber supply. In Chen Yun’s opinion, these little things like firewood, rice, oil, salt,etc., in Chen Yun’s eyes, are all major issues related to people’s livelihood. At the same time, as a philosophical economic leader, Chen Yun was also good at finding a balance between the development of the collective economy and the improvement of farmers’ living standards in the process of conducting refined and in-depth rural surveys.

At present, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the conditions of the era are quite different from the historical period in which Chen Yun lived, but investigations and research still occupy an important position in the work of the party. Chen Yun’s many rural surveys provided a basis for formulating rural policies that truly improve people’s lives based on the interests of the people. The methods and attitudes he advocated in the research still have extremely important reference significance for improving research methods, correcting research attitude, understanding the actual situation of rural areas, and solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new situation.