Talk at a Regular Meeting of the New People’s Study Society[1]

(January 16, 1921)

I feel that general knowledge is important. The learning of those nowadays reputed to have specialized knowledge still only counts as general or even falls short of it. I have decided for myself that up to the age of thirty I shall seek only general knowledge. Owing to a lack of basic knowledge in the natural sciences such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, I want to find ways to make up for it. Although I cannot produce creative writing, I do have an interest and delight in it, and I enjoy studying philosophy. On the applied side, I study pedagogy and educational methods, etc. As for doing things, I feel that the method of “each doing his own thing” is utterly ineffective and extremely uneconomical. I am willing, in undertakings that everyone decides to pursue, to shoulder a part of them, so that after a number of years, when combined with the parts shouldered by others, a thing will be successfully accomplished.

In the work I do in Changsha, apart from education, I plan to devote my efforts to the enrichment and expansion of the Cultural Bookstore. In my studies over the next two years, I plan to gain a general understanding of world academic thought through translated works, newspapers, and periodicals. However, doing things cannot be combined with reading books. In the latter half of last year, I completely sacrificed [reading], and this was the most painful sacrifice. In the future, I want to manage to read books for one hour and newspapers for one hour every day.

[1] On January 16, 1921, the New People’s Study Society held a regular meeting at the Cultural Bookstore. Twenty-one people attended the meeting, continuing the discussion of unresolved issues from the New Year General Meeting: (1) individual plans for the progress of society members; (2) individual lifestyles of society members; (3) introductions to and criticisms of individual personalities. Section one of this text is part of Mao Zedong’s talk on individual plans. Section two of this text is part of Mao Zedong’s talk on individual lifestyles.

The work I am willing to do: one is teaching, the other is journalism. In the future, I will most likely have to rely on the monthly salaries from these two kinds of work to make a living. At present, I feel that work using only the brain is very hard. I want to learn a kind of work that uses physical strength, such as knitting socks or making bread. Once such work is learned well, one can earn a living wherever one goes in the world. As for consumption, I approve of simplicity and oppose extravagance. (He does not agree with Xiong Jinding’s views on consumption.) A luxurious life is not only unbeneficial but also harmful. I advocate following scientific guidance, focusing mainly on nutrients suited to the body’s internal needs, the temperature the body should maintain, and appropriate housing. This is “sufficiency.” Whatever exceeds “sufficiency” is superfluous, and harm will encroach from it.