Letter to Zhou Shizhao91 (March 14,1920)
Dear Elder Brother Dunyuan:
I have received a letter from Mr. Zhang Wenliang,92 and am grieved to learn that
your mother has passed away as a result of illness. This is a painful trial in human life.
For people like us, who are always away from home and are therefore unable to take
care of our parents, such an occurrence especially causes sorrow: “If I would return
your kindness, it is like great Heaven, illimitable.”93 In this respect, you and I share
very similar circumstances.
Some time ago I received the favor of a long letter you sent me. I am ashamed to
say that I lost it before I had finished reading it. Nevertheless, I have a basic idea
what the gist of it was. I imagine that since you are staying home at present, you must
be in the midst of preparing a plan for future action. I do hope that my plan will be
completely in line with yours, so that we can synchronize our actions. I feel that you
might truly come to love me, and be my benefactor. If we could harmonize our plans
and actions, it would be excellent.
I am very eager to discuss my thoughts with you. I am going to jot them down here;
I may have already talked to you about some of them.
In my opinion, there is really no reason why one has to pursue knowledge at a
“prescribed place.” Too many people are infatuated with the two words “going abroad.”
There are no fewer than tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of Chinese
who have been abroad. Only very few of them are really good.
As for the majority, they are still “muddled,” still “unable to make head or tail of
it.” This provides concrete proof. I have consulted Hu Shizhi94 and Li Shaoxi95 about
this, and they both agree with me. Hu Shizhi even wrote an essay entitled “Reasons
for Not Going Abroad for Education.” Therefore, I am thinking of staying in China at
least for the time being, in order to study the essentials of the various disciplines. I
feel that doing research in China for a time offers the following advantages:
1. It takes much less time to read translations than to read the originals; therefore
one can learn more in less time.
2. World civilization can be divided into two currents, Eastern and Western. Oriental civilization constitutes one half of world civilization. Furthermore, Eastern
civilization can be said to be Chinese civilization. It seems that we should begin
by studying the essentials of ancient and modern Chinese systems and schools of
thought. Only thus will we be equipped with a useful frame of reference when
we then go to study in the West.
3. If we want to contribute our bit to the world today, we naturally cannot do
so outside this domain of “China.” It seems that we cannot do without on-site
investigation and research on conditions in this domain. If we postpone this task
until we come back from studying abroad, we might face difficulties because
of occurrences in our lives and the pressure of earning a living. It is better to
do it now, to save us from the difficulties just mentioned and also because it
would provide us with the experience we could rely on to provide a standard of
comparison when we eventually do go to the West to investigate.
To be honest, I still do not have a relatively clear concept of all the various ideologies
and doctrines. I plan to form a lucid concept of each of them by studying translations
and newspaper and magazine articles by contemporary discerning people, distilling the
essence of theories, Chinese and foreign, ancient and modern. If there were time to edit
the excerpts to make a book, that would be even better. Therefore I attach special
importance to the first of the above three points.
I have dealt with this issue from the point of view of the “individual,” and from the
perspective of “knowledge.” Now I am going to speak of it from the perspective of “the
group,” and of “action.”
We cannot detach ourselves from the life of society, and we all want to achieve
something in the future. Well then, it is necessary for us to start now doing some
preparatory work in cooperation with people of similar aspirations. Although many
people have overlooked this, it is a very important issue, in my opinion. We ought to
do it, not carelessly and haphazardly, but purposefully and in an organized fashion.
This is the only economical way to produce relatively great results within a relatively
short period of time (i.e., within a single lifetime). I intend (1) to unite the comrades,
and (2) to establish, within economical and feasible limits, the basic foundation that
will be needed in the future. I feel that we should pay particular attention to these two
methods at present.
As for the two aspects discussed above (the individual and the group), the first
must be considered as primary, and the second as subordinate. The first aspect should
take up most of one’s time, and the second a smaller portion of it. The total should
not take more than three years (at most); the locale is set in Changsha.

For these reasons, I do not agree with your suggestions about working in Paris, or
in Southeast Asia, or in Beijing. I do, however, agree with you completely in your
proposal about “Here in Changsha.”
I think we need to create a new kind of life in Changsha. We could enlist comrades
to join together, rent a house, and establish a Self-Study University (Mr. Hu Shizhi
coined this term). In this university, we would practice a communist life. Possible
channels through which we can raise funds to defray living expenses are:
1. Teaching. (Six to ten hours a week per person)
2. Writing for publication. (Essays or newspaper articles)
3. Editing books. (Edit one or several books of which we can sell the manuscripts)
4. Manual labor. (This item is mainly to avoid unnecessary expenditure, for example, by doing cooking and laundry ourselves)
All proceeds will be held entirely in common. Those who earn more will help those
who earn less; the goal is subsistence. I think that if we two decided to act, we could
reasonably expect He Shuheng96 and Zou Panqing97 to participate. This kind of organization could also be called a “Work-Study Mutual Aid Society.” Crucial to this
organization would be the establishment of an “Academic Symposium,” which would
have to meet no less than two or three times a week to discuss academic questions.
The above are my plans if we decide to stay in China for the time being to do
research, instead of going abroad to study. I am not, however, absolutely opposed to
studying abroad. On the contrary, I advocate a policy of studying abroad in a big way.
I think the only correct solution is for each of us to “go abroad” once, just to satisfy
our craving for it.
I consider Russia to be the number one civilized country in the world. I think that
two or three years hence we should organize a delegation to visit Russia.
That is for a later date, and it is best not to mention it now.
It would be difficult to publish a magazine, in my opinion. If the Self-Study University proves to be a success, and we get some results through self-education, we
can consider publishing a magazine (most people here talk about reestablishing Xiang
River Review). I will save the discussion of the routine work of the committee for when
we meet. I won’t go into details here. Please drop me a note when you get a chance.
Your younger brother,
Zedong
March 14,1920
99 Beichang Street
Beijing

--- Notes

91 This postscript, intended for Li Jinxi, has been added in Mao’s handwriting to the lithographed
text of the document.
92 Zhou Shizhao (1897–1976), zi Dunyuan, alternative names Duiyuan and Dongyuan, a native of
Hunan, was a fellow student of Mao’s at First Normal School. After graduation in 1919, he taught at
Changsha Xiuye School. He was a member of the New People’s Study Society and participated in the
summer of 1920 in setting up the Cultural Book Society.
93 Zhang Wenliang, born in Xiangtan, Hunan, was at this time studying at Xiuye School in Changsha. He was an early member of the New People’s Study Society and has left detailed notes of meetings
with Mao in the autumn of 1920, in the prelude to the establishment of the Socialist Youth League.
According to Li Rui, in the end Zhang did not join the revolution, but became “mentally deranged” (Li
Jui, Early Mao, p. 164 and note 10, p. 338).
94 Lines from the Book of Poetry, II, V, IX, 4 (Legge, Vol. IV, p. 352). The poem as a whole deals
with the theme of a son who deplores his hard fate in being prevented from rendering the last services
to his parents.
95 Hu Shi.

96 Li Jinxi.
97 On He Shuheng, see note 8 to the text of February 19, 1920.