Letter to Xiao Zizhang (November 1920)276
Dear Brother Zizhang,


I have received all the letters and photos you sent me along the way. Thank you
very much for your kindness. I haven’t sent you even a single letter in reply. I apologize
profoundly! Since the conclusion of the “Bansong Park Conference,” resolutions have
been taken to Europe by you and Zanzhou,277 and the “Montargis Conference” records
have been brought back to Asia by you and Zisheng.278 Moreover, Zisheng himself
has returned to China, and I will be able to see him in no time. How happy I am!


I trust you are well and are still at the school. I hope that you will devote yourself
to one field of study in France, selecting at least one field suited to your own nature
and mastering it really thoroughly. I have felt recently that just relying on general
knowledge is inadequate. I am angry with myself because I have not specialized in
any one field. In the last two years, I have been distracted by many things and have
not been able to work hard on my studies. I truly feel sharp regret at this and hope
that you can give me some advice. The two publications put out by the Society are
Collected Correspondence of Members and Report on the Affairs of the Society. At
least three collections of correspondence will be issued this year. Please try to collect
the manuscripts of new and old correspondence among Society members in France and
mail them to me at the “Changsha Cultural Book Society,” as material for the fourth
and fifth issues. Thank you very much. (Please tell all the friends to use the Changsha
Cultural Book Society as the mailing address from now on.)


Your younger brother, Zedong


276 The original of this letter is undated. As noted by the editors of the Wengao, it must have
been written in November because of Mao’s allusion to the fact that he was engaged in editing the
correspondence of the New People’s Study Society. Xiao’s letter to which he is replying was dated June
22, 1920.
277 Chen Shaoxiu.
278 Xiao Zisheng went to France in 1919 on the work-study program. He was delegated to return
to China in the winter of 1920 immediately after the Montargis Conference to report on conditions in
Europe to New People’s Study Society members at home. He met with Mao in March 1921 in Changsha.
In early 1923 he went to France again, returning in late 1924. For details of his early life, and relationship
with Mao, see the note to the “Letter to a Friend” of July 1915.