Zhongpu265 and others to organize the mechanics’ union.266 You can correspond with
him. Qimin267 is at Zhounan Girls’ School on Tai’an Street. Dunyuan is working at
Tongsubao268 [Popular News] on Liwen Avenue. Education in Xiangtan is extremely decadent. Some of us who are currently staying in Hunan have organized the “Xiangtan Society for Promoting Education,”269 but it has produced no great effect. The Association of Xiangtan Students of First Normal School270
also plans to do something about it. I have not forwarded your letter there, but will do
so a little later. The articles you sent on your journey have all appeared in the Hunan
Daily, hence there is no need for me to forward those to them. I have already answered
your letter once, and have now added a few recent thoughts of mine.
Your younger brother,
Zedong
November 26,1920
(November 26,1920)
Dear Rongxi,
Each and every one of the arguments put forward in your letter of July 14 is extremely penetrating. Physical health is indeed a big problem. You maintained that the
reasons why Chinese scholars have paid for their studies with their lives are to be found
in the extremely bad environment created by their families, society, and the schools.
This is an objective reason, and you are assuredly correct. There is also, however, a
subjective reason, which is psychological inertia. Once studying becomes a habit, one
will go on studying without a rest. According to the principles of hygiene, for each hour
of brain work, one needs to rest for fifteen minutes. I, however, often do not stop for
three or four hours at a stretch, or even go on into the night. It is not because I love to
do so and am not tired; in fact, I am really tired, and yet I do not stop. I do not think
265 Chen Duxiu.
266 I.e., the Shanghai Mechanics’ Union.
267 Qimin is the alternative name for Chen Shunong (1898–1970), a native of Changsha, Hunan. A
graduate of Hunan First Normal School, he was a member of the New People’s Study Society, and at
this time was teaching at Zhounan Girls’ School.
268 Tongsubao was the official newspaper of the Hunan Popular Education Office, publishing government announcements and official speeches. In September 1920, He Shuheng was appointed director of
the Education Office, and became editor of the newspaper. He turned the newspaper into an advocate
of the new culture movement, working closely with Mao and other members of the New People’s Study
Society, who offered editorial suggestions. It soon came under attack from more conservative elements
of the bureaucracy. In May 1921, He Shuheng was dismissed from his post as Director and editor, and
all members of the New People’s Study Society on the staff then resigned. Zhou Shizhao quoted Mao
as saying that the “Tongsubao was very well run that year.” The paper was forced to close on June 15,
1921.
269 See the texts regarding this society dated July 27 and July 31,1920.
270 This was an Association established by Mao, Luo Xuezan, and others in September 1917.

the laborers in China are physically weak, only the intellectuals are. To correct this,
socially, we need to create a good environment, and individually, we need to form a
habit of combining work and study, or at least of combining study and play. My life
is really too tiring. When Mr. Huaizhong271 was alive, he frequently urged me to take
it easy and get more rest, but I would not credit his words. Now I have decided that
for every two months of living in the city, I will spend one week in the countryside.
This trip to Pingxiang is for the purpose of a rest. Henceforth, I plan to take a trip
somewhere every two months.
You were able to explain the four types of error most thoroughly.272 If only I could
print 400 million copies of your words and distribute them to every person in China,
all would be well. Sentiment is a very important part of human life, but we should not
make judgments based on sentiment. To generalize from a part to the whole is a misapprehension of space. To generalize from one moment to eternity is a misunderstanding
of time. To generalize from the subjective to the objective is a misunderstanding of
both sentiment and space. All four are logical
errors. The intense arguments I have often got into recently with my friends all fall
into these four categories. I am confident that my errors in the last three categories
are few, but I am unable to avoid those of sentiment. The only area in which I cannot
avoid making mistakes is that of sentiment. But I do not mean the same kind to which
you refer. Mine tends to be personal. I often feel that, as regards certain people who
address themselves to the public,273 if I don’t admire them, or if I find out that there
are some shortcomings in their characters, I am disinclined to believe their arguments.
I recognize that to dismiss someone’s argument because of his personality is one of
my shortcomings. I must strive to correct this from now on. I often make mistakes of
the last three types, especially when I am talking excitedly and enthusiastically, even
though I know I am wrong. This is called offending wilfully (sometimes in writing,
too).
I hear that the “Work-Study Promotion Association” has been renamed “Work-Study
World Association,”274 but I do not know the details. Please write me about the organization, progress, administration, and so on. I have not received your correspondence
the obituary notice signed by Mao in this volume.)
272 In a letter of July 14, 1920, Luo Xuezan had defined four types of error: judging things on the
basis of sentiment rather than of reality, considering only a part rather than the whole, failing to consider
changes over time, and judging according to one’s subjective beliefs.
those who write for the public, such as journalists, and those politicians and political activists who
engage in public speaking — in other words, all those who seek to shape public opinion.
274 In February 1920 Li Fuchun, Li Weihan, and others formed the Work-Study Promotion Association in Paris. Most of its members were Hunanese members of the New People’s Study Society in
Paris on the work-study program. In August 1920 the name was changed to the Work-Study World
Association. It ceased activities in June 1922 after the founding of the Chinese Youth Communist Party
in Europe.

yet. As far as exchanging newspapers, I can deal with this. Please continue to send me
your articles. (Mail to Changsha Cultural Book Society, to my attention.)
The marriage system based on capitalism is absolutely undesirable. In theory, it
offers legal protection to that most unreasonable thing, rape, while forbidding that
most reasonable thing, free love. In practice, innumerable men and women around the
world voice their discontent about this institution. I think the problem is that although
many people have spoken out in opposition to the marriage system, no one has yet
taken any action. The reason they do not act is quite simply “fear.” So when I heard of
the “union of Xiang and Cai,”275 I rejoiced. Xiang and Cai have already smashed this
“fear,” and have carried out the rejec
tion of marriage. I think we should regard Xiang and Cai as our leaders and organize
an “Alliance for the rejection of marriage.” Those who have marriage contracts should
break them (I am opposed to humanism). Those who do not have marriage contracts
should not enter into them.
Once the alliance is formed, the members will immediately become the army of
the alliance. At first, we can take a passive stance, “defending” outwardly against our
enemies who oppose us. Inwardly, we should strive to straighten out the internal order,
so that all members hold fast to the vow of “abolishing marriage.” Later, we can turn
to an active stance, beginning to carry out “propaganda” directed at the world, and to
“attack” the enemies who oppose us, so that the whole human race will be liberated
from the marriage system and all of them will become members of our alliance. This
may sound like a joke, but actually the “miseries of the family” you bitterly regret
cannot be eliminated without implementing such comical measures. Even if no one
agrees with my method, my own “alliance of one” has already been concluded. I think
that all those men and women who live under the marriage system are nothing but a
“rape brigade.” I have long since proclaimed that I would not join this rape brigade.
If you don’t agree with me, please put into writing your opposing views. Wishing you
progress!
Your younger brother,
Zedong
November 26, 1920
275 Cai Hesen went to France in 1919 on the work-study program. He returned to China in 1921,
joined the Chinese Communist Party, and served as editor of its organ Xiangdao zhoubao (The Guide
Weekly) in 1922. He remained in active correspondence with Mao during his stay in France, and urged
on Mao the necessity of following the Russian model of proletarian dictatorship. At the same time, he
and Xiang Jingyu took the lead in flouting social conventions. Mao alludes here to Cai’s letter of May
28, 1920, stating that Cai and Xiang had concluded “a kind of union based on love” to give outward
expression to their long-standing relationship. For the relevant passage, see Xinmin xuehui ziliao, p.
127.