Letter to Mr. Jin[1] (January 28, 1920)

Your Excellency Prime Minister Jin[2]:

Since Zhang Jingyao[3] entered Hunan, he has besieged and burned Zhuzhou and Liling, allowed his troops to plunder and loot, forced the planting of opium poppies, wrecked education, extorted merchants and civilians, arbitrarily increased the salt tax, illicitly sold mining properties, privately shipped out the people’s rice, secretly murdered citizens, promoted superstitious arts, suppressed freedom of speech, forcibly levied military rice, smuggled salt, suspended the redemption of banknotes, coerced the purchase of lottery tickets, auctioned off textile mills, harassed and harmed local communities, sold off all public assets, secretly transported arms and ammunition, arbitrarily raised the land tax, manipulated finance, and fabricated educational associations, provincial assemblies, and provincial peasant associations. These manifold crimes have already been reported and petitioned against from various quarters, with earnest requests for his dismissal and punishment duly filed. The people of Hunan are trapped between fire and water, their very survival hanging in the balance. We, the representatives, driven by public indignation, have journeyed to the capital. After repeatedly submitting petitions and waiting for over a month without receiving any subsequent decree, we are truly plunged into deep perplexity and alarm. The matter now brooks no further delay. We implore Your Excellency the Prime Minister to issue an explicit order, at the earliest possible date, dismissing Governor Zhang from his post and appointing another virtuous and capable person to fill the vacancy. We await your command with the utmost urgency and anxiety.

January 28, the Ninth Year of the Republic

Published based on the text in Shanghai’s Shen Bao on January 31, 1920.

Notes
[1] This is a petition submitted on January 28, 1920, to Premier Jin Yunpeng of the State Council by three groups of the Hunan delegation that came to Beijing to petition for the expulsion of Zhang Jingyao (namely, the Hunan Citizens’ Petition Delegation, the Hunan Faculty and Staff Petition Delegation, and the Hunan Students’ Petition Delegation). At the time, Mao Zedong participated as the head of the Hunan Citizens’ Petition Delegation and was publicly elected as one of the six representatives to enter the State Council and the Premier’s residence for direct negotiations. When this text was published in Beijing’s Chen Bao on January 29, 1920, and Shanghai’s Minguo Ribao on January 31 of the same year, its content was abridged. Punctuation marks in this text were added by the editor of this volume.
[2] Jin refers to Jin Yunpeng. See Note 12 on p. 654 of this volume.
[3] Zhang Jingyao. See Note 3 on p. 482 of this volume.