"Seek truth from facts" is a historically established idiomatic expression (chengyu) in the Chinese language that first appeared in the Book of Han. Originally, it described an attitude toward study and research. Popularized by Chinese leader Mao Zedong, it has become a major slogan of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the inspiration for its principal theoretical journal, Qiushi.
Use in a political context
The slogan became a key slogan in Chinese Marxism and was first used by Mao Zedong in 1936. Mao had probably remembered it as being the inscription on his alma mater, Hunan's First Teachers Training School. Mao's usage of the slogan built on his themes in On Practice, which argues that people must apply their knowledge to practice in reality in order to test its truthfulness.
Beginning in 1978, it was further promoted by Deng Xiaoping as a central ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and applied to economic and political reforms thereafter. In Deng described the principle of seeking truth from facts as the core of Mao Zedong Thought.
In contemporary Chinese politics
To "seek truth from facts" means that communists should test theory against reality rather than adhere dogmatically to theory. In June 1978, Deng endorsed the perspective of the editorial at an All-Army Political Work Conference. Deng stated that Marxist theory should not be "lifeless dogma" and cited Mao's method of seeking truth from facts, contrasting the "Two Whatevers" with the view that "only through practice can the correctness of one's ideas be proved, and there is no other way of testing truth."
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Qiushi - "Seeking Truth" () is also the official name of the journal of political theory of the Chinese Communist Party, derived from the above slogan.
See also
- 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy