IV. Cultivate and Enrich Socialist Ethics

Socialist ethics means essentially love of the motherland, the people, labour, science and socialism. We should enable this love to find expression in all aspects of our social life. We should see to it that relations of a new type - socialist relations characterized by equality, solidarity, friendship and mutual assistance - are established and strengthened among all our nationalities, among workers, peasants and intellectuals, between the army and the people, between cadres and the masses and among family members and neighbours, in short, among all our people.

Ethics are a reflection of the economic base of a society, not an abstract concept divorced from history. Since our country is still in the initial stage of socialism, we must apply the principle of distribution according to work and develop the socialist commodity economy and competition. Also, for a long time to come, we shall develop varied sectors of the economy, always ensuring the dominant position of the public sector, and we shall encourage some of the people to become prosperous first, before the objective of common prosperity is achieved. Therefore, when educating the people in ethics we should not condemn the justifiable differences in income that result from these historical conditions. At the same time, we should encourage people to develop socialist collectivism, which combines the interests of the state, collectives and individuals, and to cherish the general interest, be honest and trustworthy, help each other in the spirit of fraternity and care for the needy and those who are in difficulty. Socialist morality rejects both the idea and the practice of pursuing personal interests at the expense of others or pursuing the interests of one's own group at the expense of the larger collective, putting money above all else, abusing power for personal gain, cheating and extortion. In our effort to cultivate socialist morality, we do not mean to reject the principle of distribution according to work or to negate the commodity economy. We shall on no account regard egalitarianism [equal pay for unequal work] as an ethical principle in our society. But we must reiterate that socialism is a historical movement towards the higher phase of communism. Imbued with a pioneering spirit, the advanced members of our society are ready to blaze new trails and devote themselves entirely to the interests and happiness of the people, to the communist ideal. We should encourage such a high standard of communist ethics throughout our society. Party members, and leading cadres in particular, should unfailingly live up to that standard. In brief, in our effort to achieve ethical progress, we should proceed from reality and encourage the advanced elements while never neglecting the majority; we should spread education in ethics as widely as possible and try to raise the general standard. This will enable us to draw in people with varying degrees of political consciousness and to induce them to aim higher, so that there will be a powerful moral force uniting hundreds of millions of people.

We should raise the standard of professional ethics in all types of work. First of all, cadres in Party and government organizations should be honest and enthusiastic, and they should serve the people wholeheartedly. They should oppose bureaucratism, cheating and abuse of power for selfish purposes. Greater attention must be paid to improving ethical standards in those trades and professions that directly serve the everyday needs of the people and to eradicating the bad practices particular to such lines of work. In our society everyone serves and is served. A good attitude on the part of those who serve and the good service they offer are an expression of society's concern for its members, and they add to social tranquillity and harmonious interpersonal relations.

In our public life we should foster socialist humanism, respect for people and concern for their welfare. In particular, we should protect children, respect women, honour old people, disabled servicemen, family members of soldiers on active service and of revolutionary martyrs, and help the handicapped and persons who have no close relatives and cannot support themselves. We should encourage people to observe public order, behave civilly, respect public property, protect the environment and the country's resources and fulfil their duties to the state and the community. When national security is threatened or social peace is endangered, every citizen should step forward unhesitatingly in their defence.

We should work actively to change those undesirable customs that still prevail in cities and the countryside, to advocate cultured, healthful ways of living that are in keeping with scientific principles and to eliminate ignorance and backwardness. Bad wedding and funeral customs have to be changed, and superstitious, feudal beliefs and practices must be eradicated. On condition that sound folkways are respected, these reforms should be carried out voluntarily by the masses themselves. Members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League should take the lead in this endeavour.

As a higher stage in human moral progress, socialist ethics naturally incorporate all the best elements in the various ethical systems and traditions developed throughout history and reject all decadent ideology and ethies. Feudal ideology is deep-rooted in our country. The concept of patriarchal clannishness, autocratic ways, the tendency to seek privileges and to form factions for selfish purposes, the view that men are superior to women - all these things that die hard in our social relations today are in essence manifestations of the evil influence of feudalism. Corrupt bourgeois ideology and the slavish mentality stemming from the historical conditions of a semi-colonial society are also strongly present in China and often merge with feudal ideology. It is therefore a formidable, long-term task to eradicate all these pernicious influences.