Letter to Li Jinxi (December 9, 1916)
Esteemed Elder Brother Shaoxi:
I wrote you a letter last winter. Much that I said there was wrong; in your reply,
you pointed out my mistakes, and I am indeed convinced by your views. Now I realize
that what I said then was very inappropriate. Yuan44 gathered eminent personages. For
example, Wang, Liang, Zhang, Fan,45 and others all fell for his tricks. This often makes
41 The Shibao was founded in Shanghai in 1904 by the reformer Di Baoxian with the support of
Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. It did not cease publication until 1939.
42 The draft Constitution of the Republic of China prepared in the fall of 1913 was known as
the “Temple of Heaven Constitution” because the committee drafting it met in the Tiantan (Temple
of Heaven) in Beijing. It provided for a cabinet-style government, which would limit the powers of the
president. Yuan Shikai, who intended on the contrary to expand his own powers, forced the abandonment
of this draft early in 1914.
43 I.e., Xiao Zizhang, Zisheng’s younger brother.
44 Yuan Shikai. For a detailed note, see Mao’s letter dated July 18, 1916.
45 Wang is Wang Kaiyun (1833–1916), zi Renqiu, a conservative scholar who was born like Mao in
Xiangtan xian, Hunan Province. He participated in the suppression of the Taipings by Zeng Guofan’s
army and wrote a chronicle of that campaign. Later, he became a follower of Yuan Shikai. Liang is Liang
Qichao, who long supported Yuan Shikai, though he had reservations about the attempt at restoration of
the empire. (Regarding Liang, see note 58 to Mao’s “Classroom Notes” of 1913.) Zhang is Zhang Binglin
(1869–1936), zi Meishu, hao Taiyan, born in Zhejiang Province, an eminent scholar and historian. He
was the prime mover in the introduction of the concept of nationalism (minzuzhuyi) into China at the
turn of the century; his ideas on this theme were elaborated in the Qiu shu (Book of Raillery), first
published in 1904, which attacked Manchu rule. Later he became a leading member of the Tongmenghui
and editor of its journal Min bao in 1906–1908. After the 1911 Revolution he was adviser to the office

me think about you, although you are not one of those who are called eminent persons
today. Rank-and-file officials are, of course, different from those who take advantage of
connections and power. What you do is no more than compile books, which suffices for
a scholar’s career.46 Moreover, what difference does the fact that one is a rank-and-file
official or not have on progress or regression? These are indeed very erroneous words
I was saying. Your teaching runs thus: Scholarship should be a personal creation; one
should not follow others. One’s frame of mind should seek wholeness, and should not
be one-sided. That has been talked about generally among scholars. You further
advised me to write often, but without focusing on particular ideas. Actually, I had
been preoccupied with a lot of things, but I was afraid they were not worth your
attention, and I had best not write to you in order to save your pen, ink, and energy to
reply. While reading newspapers this summer, I saw your article “On Substituting the
Spoken Language for the Literary Language.” I did not fully agree with you and made
an attempt to put forward my views for discussion. But without any specialization in
this subject, I was afraid that my superficial opinion, even though I assumed it to be
correct, might be fallacious, and I therefore held back. Now what I want to present to
you is as follows. In ancient times, there were three eternal virtues, namely wisdom,
benevolence, and courage. Today’s educationists hold that the three attributes, virtue,
wisdom, and a strong body, are comparable to the former three virtues. Morality and
wisdom do not reside outside of the body. Wisdom and benevolence are also attached to
the body, but without courage, they become entirely useless. If we look at shortlived
people since history began, they were short-lived not necessarily because they were
fated to die early, but because of their bodily weakness. Master Yan died very young;47
and Scholar Jia,48 with the talents of a minister of state, died at the age of thirty-three.
As for Wang Bo and Lu Zhaolin, one died young, and the other made an end to his life
as an invalid.49 All these people had profound morality and great wisdom. But once
of the president of the Nanjing Provisional Government and an early supporter of Yuan Shikai. In 1913
he was imprisoned after the assassination of Song Jiaoren. (Song, leader of the Guomindang in the
parliament of 1913, in which it had won a clear majority, was shot by government agents on March 20,
1913, because of his opposition to Yuan Shikai and his policies.) Fan is Fan Zengxiang (1846–1931), zi
Jiafu, hao Yunmen, a native of Hubei. Former governor of Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces, Fan became
a member of the Political Council (canzhengyuan) set up by Yuan Shikai.
46 In September 1915 Li Jinxi began working as head of the department of textbook compilers in
the Beijing government department of education.
47 Yan Hui, Confucius’ favorite disciple. (See the repeated references to him in Mao’s “Classroom
Notes” of 1913.) He was physically weak, and died at the age of thirty-one.
48 The reference is to Jia Yi (200–168 B.C.), from Luoyang, who was made a doctor in the Imperial
Academy at an early age, and was then appointed by Emperor Wen of the Han dynasty to the Privy
Council. He was later demoted because of his reformist ideas and became tutor to the Prince of Liang.
He died early because of his grief at the death of the latter.
49 Wang Bo (648–675), zi Zi’an, was an extraordinarily precocious scholar who began writing at the
age of six. He incurred the emperor’s displeasure with a satire on the Imperial princes and later drowned
while on his way to visit his father, who had been banished because of the son’s disgrace. Lu Zhaolin
(c. 635–689), zi Shengzhi, hao You Youzi, was from the state of You. He suffered from rheumatism and

their bodies did not exist, their morality and wisdom evaporated. In one’s life, the
things one enjoys are those that materialize in one’s lifetime. There is being outside of
this world. Whether or not the soul remains immortal, although flesh and blood are
dead, does not depend on the length of life, but on the amount of one’s achievement,
which is really immortal. However, if one’s body is not perfect, one does not feel happy
in one’s mind; the primary substance has been injured. How could a cripple feel happy
about the world? When one reads the collected works of Lu Shengzhi,50 one feels how
much pain he was suffering in his heart. In the past, in order to keep healthy, the Sage
did not eat fish or flesh that was gone. The chapter “Xiang Dang”51 describes this in
great detail. Mencius said: “He who has the true idea of Heaven’s decree will not stand
beneath a precipitous cliff.”52 Some people may have a body which they can in no way
make strong; others may have a body they could make strong, but take no care of it.
The latter case is like eating spoiled meat or standing beneath the precipitous wall.
What a great pity! Your morality and wisdom are perfect; only the health of your
body is slightly deficient. I suggest that you exercise more often. Although I myself
am not strong, I have gained much recently from physical exercise. I hear that even
the weakest individuals may become very strong [through exercise]. The great athletes
of the East and West like [Theodore] Roosevelt, Sonntag, and Kano [Jigoro] have all
developed mighty bodies out of frail ones. I have heard previously that body, soul, and
spirit could not be perfected and integrated, and the work of organs, bones, muscles,
and nerves could not be changed again after a certain time. Today I know that this is
not so. Both mind and body may be perfected and integrated; organs and bones are
subject to improvement at any time. This is my humble opinion; I know not whether
it accords with yours. I’m not going to say more. I respectfully seek your instruction,
and send you my best wishes.
Respectfully submitted by Your younger brother, Zedong.
December 9
committed suicide by drowning at an early age. Both of them were ranked among the “Four Heroes” of
the Tang dynasty.
50 Lu Zhaolin, who, as already noted, suffered from rheumatism.
51 Of the Analects; see Book X, VII, 2 (Legge, Vol. I, p. 232).
52 Mencius, VII, I, II, 2 (Legge, Vol. II, p. 450; translation revised). (Mao has got the wording of
this citation slightly wrong; the original refers to a wall rather than a cliff.)