An Analysis of the Various Classes among the Chinese Peasantry and Their Attitudes toward the Revolution

From 1924 till the beginning of 1926 th Chinese Revolution had advanced rapidly with the proletariat and peasantry in great ferment. In 1925 the May 30th anti-imperialist people’s movement had involved all sections of the masses. The country was on the verge of a decisive battle between revolution and counter-revolution. However two deviations then plagued the CPC. The dominant Right opportunist clique led by the then party Gen.Sec, Chen Tu-hsiu, (as Stalin said) “maintained that the bourgeois-democratic revolution must be led by the bourgeoisie, that its objective was to set up a bourgeois republic and that the bourgeoisie was the only democratic force with which the working class should unite itself…. On the other hand, the ‘Left’ opportunists, represented by Chang kuo-tao, saw only the working class movement;they also ignored the peasantry.

While fighting these two deviations, Mao made his first major contributions to the development of Marxist theory. In the following work, while basing himself on the correct Marxist-Leninist standpoint and method and on the Leninist theses on the national revolution in the colonies, Mao developed the fundamental ideas of the New Democratic Revolution.



No matter where you go in the countryside, provided that you are a careful observer, you will see the following eight different types of people:
Big landlords
Small landlords
Owner-peasants
Semi-owner peasants
Sharecroppers
Poor peasants
Farm laborers and rural artisans Vagrants
These eight types of people form eight separate classes, each having different economic positions and living conditions. This in turn influences their psychol­ogy, so that their attitudes toward the revolution also differ.
A large portion of China's big landlords come from among the descendents of the former Qing dynasty bureaucracy and aristocracy and from the present-day bureaucrats and warlords. A small portion are rich urban merchants who have bought land. There are very few who have raised themselves to the status of big landlords by their industrious cultivation of the land. Their interests are founded upon the severe exploitation of the five types of peasants: the owner-peasants, the semi-owner peasants, the sharecroppers, the poor peasants, and the farm laborers. Their methods of exploitation may be divided into five types, the first of which is high rents, from 50 to 80 percent. 1 In the exploitation of the semi­owner peasants, the sharecroppers, and the poor peasants, this form of exploita­tion is very prevalent and extremely cruel. The second method is usury, for which the monthly interest ranges from 3 to 7 percent, and the yearly interest from 36 to 84 percent. This is also a form of exploitation of the semi-owner peasants, the sharecroppers, and the poor peasants, and one, which is sometimes even more grievous than, rent. It frequently happens that the burden of debt and interest leads to total bankruptcy within a few years. The third method is the heavy levies, in which some kind of pressure is used to force the owner-peasants and semi-owner peasants to contribute so much per mu to the expenses of the local defense forces. These defense forces (also called the militia) are the armed forces of the landlord class, the necessary device for suppressing peasant upris­ings and maintaining the system of exploitation of the landlord class. The fourth method is the exploitation of the farm laborers, that is, the appropriation of their surplus labor. But China still has little capitalist agriculture, and most of the big landlords do not manage the land themselves. Consequently, this form of exploi­tation is practiced more by the small landlords than by big landlords. The fifth method is practiced in collusion with the warlords and corrupt officials, and consists in paying the land taxes this year in advance on behalf of the peasant, and then next year imposing heavy interest payments on the peasant who owed the tax. The suffering inflicted on the peasants by the combination of these five kinds of exploitation is truly indescribable. Hence China's big landlords are the deadly enemies of the Chinese peasantry, the true rulers of the countryside, the real foundation of imperialism and the warlords, the only secure bulwark of feudal and patriarchal society, the ultimate cause for the emergence of all coun­terrevolutionary forces. If we count as big landlords those who control 500 mu or more, they probably constitute (together with their families) about 0.1 percent of the peasantry, or approximately 320,000 persons in a total peasant population of 320 million for the whole country (calculated as 80 percent of the total population).
The small landlords are more numerous than the big landlords, numbering at least two million in the country as a whole. Most of them are owner-peasants who have raised themselves to this status by hard work, though some of them are urban merchants who have bought land, and others are the descendants of offi­cials who have seen better days, or present-day petty officials. Their methods of exploitation are three: high rents, usury, and the exploitation of surplus labor. People of this kind suffer to a substantial extent from the oppression of the warlords and big landlords, and as a result have considerable spirit of resistance, but they are also afraid of "Communism," and therefore have a contradictory attitude toward the present revolution. Most of the higher intellectuals in China, such as the teachers and students of the universities and specialized schools, and those who study abroad both in the East and in the West, are the sons of small landlords, and it is they who advocate what is called Etatisme. These small landlords are China's middle bourgeoisie. Their aspiration is to achieve the status of the big bourgeoisie and to establish a state ruled by one class. They suffer, however, from the blows of foreign capital and the oppression of the warlords and cannot develop, so they need revolution. But because the present revolutionary movement in China involves the militant participation of the prole­tariat at home and is actively supported by the international proletariat abroad, they sense a threat to their existence and development as a class that aspires to achieve the status of the big bourgeoisie and to establish an Etatiste state, and therefore have doubts about the revolution. A self-styled true disciple of Dai jitao put forward the following opinion in the Beijing Morning Post: "Raise your left hand to knock down imperialism; raise your right hand to knock down the Communist Party." This vividly illustrates the contradictory and fearful attitude of this class. They are against interpreting the Principle of People's Livelihood according to the theory of class struggle, and they oppose the Guomindang's alliance with Russia and its admission of Communist elements. These people constitute the right wing of the Chinese middle bourgeoisie and have a strong tendency to move toward a counterrevolutionary position. But within the middle bourgeoisie there is a left wing, which, at the proper time, can be led toward the path of revolution. For instance, when the enthusiasm for the peasant association movement is running high, the left wing elements among the small landlords can be led to help in the work of the peasants' associations. But by nature they are very much inclined to compromise, and their blood ties ultimately make them closer to the right wing of the small landlords and to the big landlords than to the peasants' associations. With the exception of a few who are in special circum­stances, because of history or environment, we definitely cannot expect them to set out courageously on the path of revolution, or faithfully to serve the revolu­tionary cause together with other classes.
The owner-peasants belong to the petty bourgeoisie. They are also of three types. The first type of owner-peasant consists of those who have surplus money and grain. That is, after their own needs have been met, the product of their labor leaves them each year with a surplus that can be used for what is called the initial accumulation of capital. Such people are very much concerned with "getting rich." Although they have no vain hopes of enriching themselves greatly, they all want to climb up to the position of being small landlords. Their mouths water copiously when they see the respect in which those small moneybags are held, and they pray to Marshall Zhao most assiduously. Such people are extremely timid; they are afraid of officials, and also a bit afraid of revolution. Because their economic position is rather close to that of the middle-bourgeois small landlords, they are rather inclined to believe in the propaganda, "Beware the extremists!" and "Beware the Communists!" of "Venerable so-and-so," "Honor­able so-and-so," or "Bearded so-and-so" among the small landlords in the coun­tryside. Of course, these warnings also flow from the lips of those "Great Men" and "Venerable Masters" among the big landlords. This group of people with surplus money and food constitutes the right wing of the petty bourgeoisie, and they adopt a skeptical attitude toward the present revolution before they have properly understood it. But such people form only a minority of the owner-peas­ants, probably less than 10 percent of the total. Some say that the number of owner-peasants in China is greater than the total of tenant fanners and farm laborers. But if we exclude the semi-owner peasants, then they are definitely only a minority of the peasantry, probably 100 million to 120 million. About 10 percent, or 12 million, of the owner-peasants are well-to-do. The second type of owner-peasants are those who are just able to meet their own needs. What they earn and what they consume each year even out, no more, no less. These owner­ peasants are very different from the first type of owner-peasants. They, too, want to get rich, but Marshall Zhao does not permit them to do so. As a result of their recent oppression and exploitation by the imperialists, the warlords, and the landlord class, they feel that the world today is not what it used to be. They feel that if they work only as hard as before, they will not be able to stay alive. They must work longer hours, get up earlier and work later every day, and double their attention to their work, just to make ends meet. They are somewhat abusive; they curse the foreigners as "devils," the warlords as "money-grabbing commanders," the local bullies and evil gentry as "the heartless rich." As for the movement against the imperialists and the warlords, they simply suspect that it may not succeed, on the ground that "the foreigners and the commanders seem so power­ful," refuse to join it recklessly, and take a neutral position, but they absolutely do not oppose the revolution. This group of people is numerous, constituting probably half the owner-peasants, or approximately 60 million. The third type of owner-peasant has a deficit every year. Quite a few of this group of owner-peas­ants came originally from so-called well-to-do families who gradually fell to the point that they could only just manage, and then gradually went into debt. At the end of every year when the accounts are settled, they are startled and exclaim, "Ai! Another deficit." Because such people have lived well in the past but have then fallen behind year by year, with their debts continually mounting and their lives more and more miserable, they "think of the future and shiver even if it is not cold." Mentally, such people suffer more than than all the others because they see the contrast between the past and the present. Such people are of considerable importance in the revolutionary movement and can contribute sub­stantial strength to the advancement of the revolution. They number roughly 40 percent of the owner-peasants, Le., 48 million--a not inconsiderable number, which constitutes the left wing of the petty bourgeoisie. In normal times, the above three types of owner-peasants differ in their attitudes toward the present Chinese revolution. In time of war, however, when the tide of revolution is at the flood and the dawn of victory is in sight, not only do the left-wing owner-peasants immediately join the revolution, but the middle-of-the-road owner-peasants may also join the revolution, and even the right-wing owner-peasants, caught up in the revolutionary tide of the sharecroppers and the left-wing owner-peasants, have no alternative but to go along with the revolution. Thus, it is possible that the whole of the petty-bourgeois owner-peasants may side with the revolution.



The three categories of semi-owner peasants, sharecroppers, and poor peas­ants probably account for between 150 million and 170 million of the Chinese peasantry. Looked at separately, the semi-owner peasants probably number 50 million, the sharecroppers and poor peasants 60 million each. This is an ex­tremely large mass of people in the countryside. The so-called peasant problem is in large part their problem. Although all three of these types of peasants belong to the semi-proletariat, they differ greatly in their economic conditions. The life of the semi-owner peasants is harder than that of the owner-peasants because every year they are short of half the food they need and must rent land from others or work as laborers or engage in petty trading to make up the difference. Between spring and summer, when the new crops are not yet ripe and last year's grain is exhausted, they borrow at high rates of interest and buy2 grain at high prices from others. Naturally their lot is much harder than that of the owner-peasants, who seek nothing from others. Nevertheless, they are better off than the sharecroppers, because the sharecroppers have no land and receive only half the harvest from the land they cultivate. Although the semi-owner peasants receive only half, or even less than half, of what they grow on the land they rent from others, still they get the whole crop from their own land. Hence, the semi­owner peasants are more revolutionary than the owner-peasants, but less so than the sharecroppers.
The sharecropper and the poor peasant are both tenants in the countryside, subject to the exploitation of the landlords, but there is a certain difference in their economic positions. The sharecroppers have no land, but they have rela­tively adequate farm implements and a reasonable amount of liquid capital. These peasants receive half the product of their annual labor. They make up what they lack by planting side crops, catching fish and shrimp, and raising poultry and pigs. In this way, they eke out a living. Surrounded by difficulties and privations, they are continually preoccupied with how they will get through the year. Thus their life is harder than that of the semi-owner peasants, but better than that of the poor peasants. They are more revolutionary than the owner-peas­ants, but they do not match the poor peasants.
The poor peasants do not have sufficient farm implements nor do they have any liquid capital. They are short of fertilizer and reap only a meager harvest from the fields. After paying the rent, very little is left. In times of drought and famine, they piteously beg from friends and relatives, and borrow a few mea­sures of grain to tide them over for four or five days. Their debts pile up like the burden on the backs of oxen. They are the most miserable among the peasants and are most receptive to revolutionary propaganda.


The farm laborers are the agricultural proletariat. There are three categories, hired by the year, the month, or the day. Not only do such farm laborers have neither land nor farm implements, they also have not a penny of liquid capital. Hence they can subsist only by their labor. In terms of their long hours of work, their low wages, the mean way they are treated, and the insecurity of their employment, they are worse off than other workers. This group of people, of all those in the countryside, suffers most bitterly, and should be accorded the utmost attention by those working in the peasant movement. The position of the rural handicraft workers is higher than that of farm laborers, because they have their own tools and belong to a kind of free profession. But because of heavy family burdens and the disparity between their earnings and the cost of living, and because they frequently suffer from the burdens of poverty and the fear of losing their jobs, their situation is not much different from that of the farm laborers.
The vagrants consist of peasants who have lost their land, and handicraft workers who have lost all opportunity of employment as a result of oppression and exploitation by the imperialists, the warlords, and landlord class, or as a result of natural catastrophes such as flood and drought. They can be divided into soldiers, bandits, thieves, beggars, and prostitutes. These five categories of peo­ple have different names, and the status accorded them by society is also some­what different, but they are one in that each of them is a "human being" having five senses and four limbs. They each have their different ways of making a living: the soldier "fights," the bandit "robs," the thief "steals," the beggar "begs," and the prostitute "seduces." But to the extent that they all seek to make a living and get food to eat, they are all one. They lead the most precarious existence of any human being. They have secret organizations everywhere, which serve as their organs for mutual aid in the political and economic struggle; for example, there is the Triad Society [Sanhehui] in Fujian and Guangdong; the Elder Brother Society [Gelaohui] in Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, and Sichuan; the Big Sword society [Dadaohui] in the provinces of Anhui, Henan, and Shandong; the Society of Observance of Principle [Zailihui] in Zhili and the three [North] eastern provinces; and the Green Gang [Qingbang] of Shanghai and else­where. To deal with these people is the greatest and the most difficult problem facing China. China has two problems: poverty and unemployment. Hence if the problem of unemployment can be solved, half of China's problems will be solved. The number of vagrants in China is fearfully large, probably more than 20 million. These people are capable of fighting very bravely, and if a method can be found for leading them, they can become a revolutionary force.
Our work of organizing the peasantry involves gathering together into a single organization five categories of peasants: owner-peasants, semi-owner peasants, sharecroppers, poor peasants, and farm laborers and handicraftsmen. Toward the landlord class, we adopt in principle the method of struggle, demanding from them economic and political concessions. In special circumstances, when we encounter the most reactionary and vicious local bullies and evil gentry who exploit the people savagely, as in Haifeng and Guangning,3 they must be over­thrown completely. As for the vagrants, we should exhort them to side with the peasant's associations and to join the great revolutionary movement, in order to find a solution to the problem of unemployment. We must never force them to go over to the side of the enemy and become a force in the service of the coun­terrevolutionaries.

3. It was in Haifeng that the very first peasant movements in China were launched as early as 1922. Their principal architect was Peng Pai (1896-1929), a landlord's son from the area. After studying in Japan, Peng returned to Haifeng in 1921, joined the Socialist Youth League, and began organizing the peasants in the following year. The most authori­tative work regarding his experience is that of F. Galbiati, P 'eng P 'ai and the Hai-Lu-feng Soviet (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985). On Peng's efforts to organize the peasants of Guangning, a xian northwest of Guangzhou, see Galbiati, pp. 181-82.