Expressing Sympathy for the Students of the
Normal School143 (September 21, 1919)


Students of the normal school, because they love to study, and also sympathize with
the more than one hundred primary school students, assuming that they share their
love of knowledge, oppose the disbanding of the primary school attached to the normal
school.144 (For details see yesterday’s issue of our paper.) Just look at their words: “The
innocent young children are very attached to the school. They gathered in front of the
school gate, weeping. They wanted to go in, but the gate was closed tight. The staff and
officials tried to disperse them, but to no avail. When their former teachers met them
in the street, the pupils came to clasp their hands, and said: ‘Teacher, what about
teaching me?’ ” No one who ever saw or heard about it could keep back his tears.
Educators of our Hunan Province have some brains and should show some sympathy
for the students.


141 “National language” (guoyu) means in the first instance the language of Beijing (often called
“mandarin”), as opposed to regional dialects. Here, and elsewhere in this volume, however, it refers to
the colloquial language, baihua, as a vehicle of expression, as opposed to the literary language (wenyan).
Li Jinxi’s article corresponded to the text of a speech he had given in October 1918 and January 1919
at Wuhan and Taiyuan National Language Institutes. It was later published by Commercial Press.
142 The reference is to the Pingmin zhoukan (Common People’s Weekly), founded July 1919 and
published by the Beijing Institute of French Language and Literature. The aim of the publication was
“to be the companion of the common people, and the advocate of the new culture movement.”
143 Regarding the Study School (Xiuye xuexiao) in general, see the relevant note to Mao’s letter of
August 1915, to Xiao Zisheng. Mao Zedong himself taught history in its elementary school section from
April to December 1919.
144 The school in question is Hunan First Provincial Normal School, from which Mao had graduated
the previous year.