Action Engenders Knowledge
I wish to say another word on the subject of the knowledge from which as we have seen action proceeds; and what I have to say is: that just as action proceeds from knowledge, action in its turn engenders knowledge. Dr. Sun said: "The ability to know implies the ability to act." I would add the words: "without action one cannot attain to knowledge." For knowledge comes with experience, and apart from the broad and fundamental truths of revolutionary thought our knowledge need not necessarily be in the first place very rich. Though, therefore, we must of course do all we can to acquire knowledge for its own sake, we must at the same time seek it as one of the fruits of positive action. Any knowledge acquired in the course of study, research, or experience which we do not proceed to put to the test of practice in the field of actuality is not to be considered with certainty as worthy of being called true knowledge. So it is that in all our undertakings practice will yield us true knowledge, and action alone will give us the ability to extend and enrich our knowledge. Chu Hsi in his commentary on the Great Learning wrote: "By long application of our powers we one day reach a point whence we see the whole scheme of things spread out before us, we perceive the realities underlying phenomena, the relation of accident to essence, and the structure and workings of the human mind." This attainment can come only as the fruit of positive action. If in the course of practice and experience knowledge we have acquired and methods we have based on it prove inefficacious we may take it that what we valued as knowledge was not true knowledge. In this way we shall be constantly broadening the scope and sifting the quality of our knowledge, which is the genuine process of gaining knowledge. "To be aware of ignorance brings knowledge" and "the open mind invites the entrance of information," are maxims than which none are better as guides in the search for knowledge.