Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism is a Chinese textbook of Marxist–Leninist and Maoist philosophy, written and edited by

Ai Siqi Ài Sīqí () is the pen name of Li Shengxuan (李生萱, 2 March 1910 – 22 March 1966), a Yunnan Mongol Chinese philosopher and author. He was born in Tengchong, Yunnan, later traveling to Hong Kong, where he studied English and French at ...

in 1961. It was the standard textbook on

Marxist philosophy Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...

in China until 1978.

History

China had previously relied on Soviet textbooks and this book was written in the context of the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...

, with

Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolut ...

and

Chen Boda Chen Boda (; 29 July 1904 – 20 September 1989), was a Chinese Communist journalist, professor and political theorist who rose to power as the chief interpreter of Maoism (or "Mao Zedong Thought") in the first 20 years of the People's Republic ...

commissioning it in 1959. In 1961, Ai Siqi was appointed to edit the textbook "Dialectical Materialism ndHistorical Materialism". The book was considered the main summation of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

's philosophical thoughts, and paid close attention to the connection between Marxist philosophy and traditional

Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developmen ...

. The book became a philosophical textbook for colleges and universities, party schools, and dry schools in China, and it had an important influence in the 1960s and 1980s. In 1993 Kang Liu wrote "The first thing any college student encounters in philosophy class is Ai Siqi's systematization of this philosophical cosmology. Ai Siqi expounds upon dialectical materialism and historical materialism."

References

1961 non-fiction books Books about communism Books about Mao Zedong Marxist works Chinese philosophy Books critical of capitalism {{poli-book-stub