Answers to the Questionnaire
Regarding Lifetime Aspirations for Members
of the Young China Association
(December 1921)

Name
Mao Zedong
Prospective lifelong academic interest Pedagogics

Prospective lifelong career
Education

Date and place for starting career
Already started in July, 1919, in Hunan¹

Prospective lifelong means of
livelihood
Monthly salary for educational work,
and income from writing

Further comments
I have only started preparing for my
desired career. After three or four
years' preparation, I must go abroad to
study for at least five years; the place
will be Russia. Afterwards, on return, I
will set about the career I want to undertake.

This couplet was first published in Minjian duilian gushi, No. 6, 1986. We have taken it,
like all of Mao's poems and couplets, from Shici duilian, p. 161.
1. Li Lisan (1899–1967), original name Li Longzhi, a native of Liling, Hunan Province, was also known under the aliases of Bai Shan and Li Minran. After studying at the
Changjun Middle School in Changsha, Li went to France in 1919 on the work-study
scheme. There he was an active sponsor of the Socialist Youth League and was deported
by the French government in 1921 for related activities. Li Lisan had met Mao Zedong
during his student days, but Mao remarked later to Edgar Snow that their friendship "never
developed." Nonetheless, when Li returned to Hunan in 1921, he called on Mao at his
home in Changsha. According to a note in Shici duilian, Mao, summoned to the door by
his wife Yang Kaihui, exclaimed, "A guest has returned to Lake Dongting." Thereupon Li
Lisan responded, "On the banks of the Xiao and the Xiang I encountered my old friend." It
had long been a custom among the Chinese literati to compose a line and invite another
person to complete the couplet. Mao's contribution to this literary dialogue might be
described as noncommittal.

Mao's reply was included in the results of this survey as reported in December 1921 by
the Executive of the Young China Association. We have taken as our source the version
reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, p. 87.
1. Mao was in fact appointed a history teacher at the Xiuye Primary School in
Changsha immediately after his return from Shanghai on April 6, 1919, and held this post
until December of the same year.