Truth is discovered through practice, and truth is verified and developed through practice. From perceptual knowledge it actively develops to rational knowledge, and from rational knowledge it actively guides revolutionary practice, transforming the subjective world and the objective world. Practice, knowledge, again practice, again knowledge — this form repeats itself in endless cycles, and with each cycle of practice and knowledge the content is raised to a higher level.
Core Principles
Knowledge begins with practice, and practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.
- "Knowledge divorced from practice is inconceivable."
- "Whether knowledge or theory is truth is determined not by how it seems subjectively, but by how the results of objective social practice turn out. The criterion of truth can only be social practice."
- Any plan, hypothesis, or proposal that has not been tested by practice is merely an unfinished draft.
The Sixteen-Character Method of Processing
"Apply to the rich perceptual material the work of transformation and fabrication: discard the coarse and select the essential, discard the false and retain the true, proceed from one to the other, and from the surface to the interior."
| Steps | Original Text | Meaning as data processing |
|---|---|---|
| Discard the coarse and select the essential | Remove the rough and retain the essential | Filter out noise and retain high-signal data |
| Discard the false and retain the true | Remove the false and retain the true | Cross-validate, eliminating inconsistent and unverified information |
| Proceed from one to the other | From this side to that side | Connect different sources and establish lateral links |
| From the surface to the interior | From the surface to the inside | See through phenomena to the essence, and probe the root cause |
Only after these four steps of processing can perceptual material be raised to rational knowledge.
Two Kinds of Error
Dogmatism — "rationalism"
"Holding that only rational knowledge is reliable while perceptual knowledge is unreliable, and thus inverting the facts."
Manifestation: copying existing models, applying standard answers, without investigating the specific conditions of the current problem. Imposing a "correct method" learned elsewhere unchanged onto a new situation.
Essence: substituting memory for investigation, and templates for analysis.
Empiricism — "experientialism"
"Recognizing only the reliability of sensation while not recognizing the reliability of reason, and thus mistaking partial experience for universal truth."
Manifestation: accumulating a large amount of observations and data but not systematically organizing them, not forming coherent theoretical hypotheses, and remaining at the level of "dealing with things as they come."
Essence: having material but no processing, having data but no model.
Operating Procedure for the Spiral Cycle of Knowledge
"Practice, knowledge, again practice, again knowledge, repeating in endless cycles."
Step 1: Practice (stage of perceptual knowledge)
Come into contact with things and collect perceptual material. Carry out preliminary operations and observe actual feedback.
"If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself."
- Do it with your hands; do not merely reason in your head
- Record first-hand data: output, errors, user feedback, actual time spent
Step 2: Cognition (stage of rational cognition)
Use the sixteen-character method to process perceptual material and form rational cognition (hypothesis/plan/model).
"What we perceive we cannot immediately understand; only what we understand do we perceive more deeply."
- On the collected material, discard the coarse and select the essential, discard the false and retain the true, proceed from one to another, and from the surface to the interior
- Distill patterns, hypotheses, or a revised plan
Step 3: Practice again (validation stage)
Use rational cognition to guide the next round of action, and test the hypothesis in practice.
"If you do not enter the tiger's den, how can you get the tiger's cub?"
- Execute according to the new plan, and observe whether the results match expectations
- Do not fear that the plan needs revision: "It is very rare for people's originally set thoughts, theories, plans, and schemes to be realized without any change"
Step 4: Cognition again (spiral ascent)
Revise cognition based on the results of practice. Each cycle "reaches a higher level" than the previous one.
- Which hypotheses were confirmed? Which were refuted?
- Update the model and enter the next cycle
Quick reference for common mistakes
| Error signal | Diagnosis | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| Claiming completion without executing the plan | Skipped the practice step | Do first, then talk: "If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must taste it yourself" |
| Continuing directly after execution without reviewing | Skipped the cognition-again step | Stop and do the sixteen-character processing to distill the lessons of this round |
| Copying the previous plan onto a new problem | Dogmatism | Reinvestigate the specific conditions of the new problem |
| Lots of data but no conclusion | Empiricism | Process the material from the surface to the interior to form a hypothesis |
| Rejecting the plan entirely after one failure | Ignoring the law of spiral ascent | "It is very rare for things to be realized without any change" — revise, do not abandon |
| Believing that "having thought it through" equals "having done it right" | Cognition disconnected from practice | Cognition must return to practice for testing |
General principle: practice, cognition, practice again, cognition again — each cycle reaches a higher level. If you do not do it, you will not know; after doing it, you still need to think; after thinking, go do it again.