Essay:What even is "dengism"?

This essay is a work in progress.

I'm serious. How is 'dengism' even defined to begin with? Maoists (and other Anti-revisionists) seem to love this word, as this is a catch-all phrase for any 'revisionists' who appears to support the People's Republic of China. We could define 'dengism' to be this way, however, it also can apply to 'revisionists' who support the 4 other claimed socialist nations as well. This leads to a question. What even is 'dengism'?

The Definition

Looking at the word etymologically, it stems from two parts, 'deng' and 'ism'. The 'ism' part is commonplace in most ideologies, such as Marxism-Leninism, as it shows you support this ideology. 'Deng' comes from the person known as 'Deng Xiaoping'. He's a controversial figure amongst Anti-revisionists as he is pictured to be a 'revisionist' who set up capitalist restoration within China. I would like to analyse this closer later on, but let us continue with defining 'dengism'. So we got the full picture, 'dengism' is anyone who supports Deng Xiaoping and his ideology. What was his ideology to be exact?

Deng Xiaoping wrote his own theory known as Deng Xiaoping Theory. This is what most Anti-revisionists consider 'dengism'. What does Deng Xiaoping Theory consist of? It consists of mainly three aspects, that is: the thought of the Stages of Socialism within China (and exclusively within China), the Four Modernisations and the Four Cardinal Principles. As we begin to analyse Deng Xiaoping closer, we will see what Deng Xiaoping legitimately believes in.

What did the theories mostly consist of? Well the theory won't matter if he's truly a revisionist, right? Revisionist theory just upholds revisionist thought, which would affect legitimate Marxist-Leninists, and Marxist-Leninist movements as a result. However, it doesn't matter how revisionist the person is, if we can analyse the deviation of Marxism within Deng Xiaoping's writings, it would be rightful to call him a revisionist. So we shall begin with that first.

Deng Xiaoping Writings and Theory

A lot of Deng Xiaoping's writing come from the circumstances brought upon the conditions of China. Therefore we must consider the material conditions whilst introducing the theory. So we shall begin with the one that puts a foundation on the material conditions themselves.

Four Cardinal Principles

The Four Cardinal Principles are principles laid by Deng Xiaoping during the 'Reform and Opening Up' in China. The Four Cardinal Principles stated are:

1. We must keep to the socialist road.
2. We must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat.
3. We must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party.
4. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

Analysing this, this makes sense. This was made while Deng Xiaoping was chairman, and seeing that China needed to be modernised at the time according to Deng Xiaoping, there was a need to uphold things such as the Dictatorship of the proletariat. I don't think you can conclude anything revisionist with the Four Cardinal Principles, unless if Deng Xiaoping was wrong regarding the material conditions (which we will get back to later).