Those Who Don’t Believe in Science Will Die (July
28,1919)
Two weeks ago, several people were killed by lightning during a big thunderstorm
in Changsha. Several people were also struck by lightning inside a house under an old
tree on Mount Yuelu. In the city, where the streets and ditches are filled with garbage
and the electrical potential is especially high, tall towers with lightning rods should
be erected in many places. Old trees have a high electrical potential, so houses should
not be built beneath them. This is scientific common knowledge that everyone should
know. But among the Changsha police, and among the more than 300,000 inhabitants
of Changsha, not one has the time to take notice of it. There are even some who say
that “the heavens punish with five hundred bolts of lightning.” People have died but
the cause of their death is still unknown. How pitiful!
Dead Rats (July 28,1919)
Rats are one cause of epidemics. Everywhere in the city of Changsha, you can see
dead rats. They stare at the police with wide open eyes, and yet the police stand right
next to these dead rats. Just a few years ago, Changsha was not like this. Gentlemen
of the police! We ask you please to pay just a little bit of attention to this!
Petition of the Hunan Students' Association to the
Governor of Hunan (July 30,1919)
The purpose of this petition is to plead for the punishment of local scoundrels
and for the rehabilitation of the newspaper office.91 Since the recent Qingdao incident,
students all over China and various public organizations have made their voices heard,
even at the risk of the greatest sacrifice, to awaken their compatriots for a common
effort to rescue the country from perishing. We students of Hunan are unanimous in
our actions. Inspired by sincere patriotism, we have explained and propagated our goal
of saving the motherland. After several months, we were beginning to see results. We
were ready to step up our efforts and were hoping for a speedy reconciliation of the
North and the South so that we could unite against the foreigners. Who could have
foreseen that the remnants of the imperial system, and the old partisans of the Anfu
clique, thinking only of their personal interest, would not scruple to lobby in such
deceptive language as to hoodwink Your Honor. Illegal elections that were canceled in
91 As in the text entitled “Contents of the Treaty,” we give the original English of Lloyd George’s
speech of July 3, 1919 (Temperley, Peace Conference, Vol. Ill, p. 97), rather than a literal translation
of Mao’s Chinese, since the sense is virtually identical.

departments at all levels are resurrected, like dead ashes rekindled into a fire. There are
even cases where the results of the primary elections were reinstated. Our Association
holds that since the peace conference is still adjourned, since Hunan Province is still
divided, and since the continuance or dismissal of the old or the new parliaments92
is yet to be decided by resolutions, long and difficult negotiations are likely to delay
the peace conference. Just at this precarious moment, there suddenly popped up this
illegal election, which is not only an obstacle to the peace conference, but also an
impediment to your abundant virtue. We, the students, have long been worried about
the Honorable Governor. We were just going to air our opinions frankly to you, Chen
Ming93, and others, when local thugs Gu Tianbao, Huang Zhong, Li Fanxi, and others
called a fraudulent Citizens’ Assembly at the fake “Council on Education” set up on the
basis of forged “public opinion.” Our Association knew very well that this was a vital
issue, since one can never tell what kind of plans such murderous thugs may have in
mind. Consequently, we sent our representatives to attend the assembly. The meeting
place was heavily guarded by policemen and army people. Gu and Huang were the first
to take the platform. They attacked the people of Hunan viciously for opposing their
illegal election. On behalf of all the students, the chairman of our Association, Peng
Huang,94 and representative Qiu Weiqin expressed the genuine opinion of the people.
They were immediately arrested by soldiers, acting on the orders of people like Gu and
Huang, who threatened to shoot them on the spot. They would have been martyred
if it had not been for the intercession of Regimental Commander Zhang, who was
there to safeguard the assembly. We at the Student Association are extremely grateful
to Your Honor for your absolute approval of, and manifold support for, this action
of the students. Although they claimed to be leaders, local thugs like Gu Tianbao,
Huang Zhong, and Li Fanxi are actually slighting the people of Hunan, hoodwinking
Your Honor, and insulting the students. This is why we at the Association have made
a brief statement of the facts. We humbly plead that Your Honor punish the local
thugs severely in order to warn anyone who might be tempted to follow their example.
Also, there are some people in our Association who do not quite understand Your
Honor’s intentions. The Dagongbao* is the organ which expresses the true opinions of
the people of Hunan, and it has long been praised by readers both inside and outside
the province. We did not in the least expect that the paper would be banned, and
its editor arrested, just because it published a manifesto by various organizations and
associations expressing their opposition to the illegal election, and that this situation
92 The newspaper in question was the Dagongbao. See below.
93 I.e., of the “old” parliament originally elected in 1913, which had been dissolved after Yuan Shikai
expelled the Guomindang, but whose members still claimed at this time to represent the only legitimate
legislative authority in China, and of the “new” parliament, elected in 1918 in two stages, amidst gross
corruption, under the domination of the Anfu clique.
94 Peng Huang (1896–1921), zi Yinbo, was a native of Xiangxiang xian, Hunan Province. He was
a close friend of Mao from an early date, and a student leader in Hunan during the time of the May
Fourth movement. For details on his various activities, see the text of February 19, 1920.