To: Yi Lirong

(January 13, 1920)

Brother Runsheng[1]:

I received your letter the day before yesterday and replied yesterday; I trust it has reached you. I hear that Mr. Zhang Shenchang[2] of Changsha will be coming to Beijing. When he passes through Hankou, I have a letter I would like you to pass on to him. There is nothing to be done in Beijing, so it would be better for Zhang not to come to Beijing but to go directly to Shanghai. I hope you will convey this to him.

Your younger brother,
Zedong
January 13, 9th year [of the Republic]

[1] Runsheng, i.e., Yi Lirong (1898–1997), a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, a student at the Hunan Commercial College, and a member of the New People’s Study Society. He co-founded the Changsha Cultural Bookstore with Mao Zedong and others and served as its manager. He was one of the early leaders of the CPC Hunan District Committee. He served as Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Peasant Association and Acting Secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, among other posts. Later, he left the Party. After the founding of New China, he served as a member and standing committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and as an executive member of the Sixth to Ninth All-China Federation of Trade Unions. At this time, he was one of the leaders of the Hunan Provincial Student Union and was in Wuhan to participate in the struggle to expel the warlord Zhang Jingyao.

[2] Zhang Shenchang, i.e., Zhang Xiaomin, courtesy name Shen’an (also written as Shenchang), formerly editor-in-chief of the Changsha Minzhi Daily. During the May Fourth period, he wrote articles such as “What Is Collectivism?” introducing Marxism and anarchism. He later settled in the United States.

On January 8, 1920, members of the progressive group Fuzhi Society took a group photo at Taoranting in Beijing. Fourth from left is Mao Zedong.