Preface to Collected Correspondence of Members
of the New People’s Study Society (Volume 2)
(November 30, 1920)
This Volume 2 of Collected Correspondence of Members of the New People’s Study
Society is a collection of twenty-eight letters of members of the Society. The most
important are the following: one on planning for women’s development, and another
that discusses the problems of women in their work-study program in France and the
problem of communication among women, both by Xiang Jingyu; one by Ouyang Ze on
the common spirit of the New People’s Study Society; one by Mao Zedong maintaining
that the New People’s Study Society should adopt an attitude of latent potentiality;
one by Xiao Zizhang reporting on the life of our members, both male and female, in
France; one by Yi Lirong maintaining that we must be prepared before we act; one by
Luo Aojie urging the Society to oppose the vulgar and strive for the highest values;
one by Mao Zedong on Hunan self-rule and his suggestion that the Society members
should seek a common ideology; one by Zhang Guoji on the activities of the Society,
and another, also by him, giving an account of the Hunanese in Southeast Asia; one
by Mao Zedong discussing the attitude that the Hunanese should adopt in going to
Southeast Asia, in which he urges the members to go to Southeast Asia and work for
culture and nation-building there; one by Zhang Guoji telling an unusual story from
Southeast Asia; one by Luo Xuezan hoping that fellow members will pay attention
to physical education, dispel four types of myths and solve family problems; one by
Mao Zedong proposing to organize an alliance to reject marriage. The above-mentioned
letters are beneficial either to cultivating healthy minds and bodies, or to the discussion
284 This is a common popular saying expressing respect for the capacities of the literati.