Representatives of the Masons' and Carpenters' Union—
Ren Shude and Chou Shousong

Representatives of the Barbers' Union—Wang Zishou,
Yang Qiusheng, and Ma Ziqiang

Representatives of the Tailors' Union—Tang Bi, Zhang
Hanfan, and Zheng Fusheng

Representatives of the Writing-Brush Makers' Union—
Zheng Yingkui and Zhang Bingshen

Representatives of the Typesetters' Union—Xiao Ru and
Liu Maonan

Representatives of the Union of Lithographic Workers—
Tan Yingzhu and Zhang Haiping

Representatives of the Rickshaw-Pullers' Union—Huang
Jie and Luo Rongxi

Representatives of the Mechanics' Union—Wang
Lusheng and Xiao Kaizhen

Representative of the Boot and Shoe Craftsmen's
Union—Li Binggan

Letter from the Typesetters' Union to
Reporter Dun of the Dagongbao

(December 14, 1922)

Mr. Dun:

Naturally we are very thankful for your great kindness in donning your long
gown to exhort us workers. But would we not be even more grateful to you, sir,
if you were to take off your long gown and stand on the side of us workers to
give us your sincere advice? We ourselves recognize that we are not college
students, that we hold no doctorates, that we do not belong to the upper classes.
We are, very simply, each and every one of us, workers. So of course we should
be subject to the "generous instruction" of others. But we also recognize that in
this world there is not only one group of people that is to be lectured to. Speaking of the present, students, workers, and the people are the ones who are lectured to; those doing the lecturing are naturally the ones in the society of long
gowns. Among students, workers, and the people there are none who are not
ignorant and unschooled. So it is entirely appropriate that those others don long
gowns and bring out their intellectual chauvinism and their academic chauvinism
with which to teach other people lessons. Their class is the intellectual class; the
tools of their trade are scholarship and learning. The way they make their living
is by knowing how to write articles and lecture people. It is also entirely appropriate that we and they each defend our respective interests and give full play to
our respective abilities. However, as for those who lecture people, we very much
hope that they will first take a look at the second chapter of Tolstoy's Confession. We ourselves are not qualified to lecture people, but we wish to invite Old
Man Tolstoy to imitate them in giving sincere advice.

We recognize that we ourselves are ignorant and unschooled and need to be
instructed by others, and very much hope that others are able to teach us. Harsh
words are good medicine and honeyed words are poison; how dare we not
respectfully accept them? But what we wish to make clear is the following:
1. Our hope is that those giving us instruction can do so by standing on our
side; that they can come down to our level and be our friends, instead of acting

This letter, and Dun's reply, appeared together in the Changsha Dagongbao on December
14, 1922. Thus the date shown above is that of publication, rather than that of composition. We have translated these two items from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, pp. 103-7.


as our teachers or superiors. Instead of always coming out with such phrases as
"you workers," or "lacking common sense," or "being disorderly," or "becoming
more and more depraved," or "we give you workers sincere counsel," or "encouraging bad habits among the workers," it would be so much better to say, "all
of us." Gentlemen, can you truly help us and give us sincere counsel? In that
case, we are very eager to shake your hand. Please extend us your hand right
now, and don't keep saying "you people, you people," as if "we" were some sort
of "officials" and "you people" were no more than "insignificant wretches."

2. Our hope is that those giving us instruction would investigate the facts
clearly and not make any sinister insinuations. Even less should they denigrate
the human dignity of others. For example, if we say that your newspaper receives
certain amounts of money from a certain individual every month, will you admit
it? Let me ask you further: when you refer to "not again (the word 'again' was
deleted by our workers when they set the type) being manipulated by others or
becoming the victims of others' ideological experiments," have you, sir, actually
seen anything that would justify your saying this? We beg you to give us a
response as soon as possible. How we wish that journalists would stick to the
facts a little more when they speak! You will surely say that you wish us not to
act this way. If you are really making sinister insinuations, we will, of course,
disagree with you. It is excusable if you say you do hope we act this way, but we
will not grant that you are well-meaning. To denigrate the human dignity of us
workers could not be your sincere desire, and such wishes should not reside in
the heart of the same Mr. Dun who has expressed sympathy for us workers. In
addition you say that "because of this victory, from now on the workers are
bound to become gradually more aggressive; they will grow daily in number and
variety. Despite the presence of people in charge of maintaining order, I'm afraid
it cannot be done." What evidence have you seen to justify such a prediction?
We are afraid that once certain words are written down, it may be difficult to
retract them do you really have a crystal ball? These words, like the ones you
uttered before, are not what you should have said. Moreover, isn't what you say
about "failure to maintain order" rather deliberately exaggerated and unnatural?

3. It is our hope that those instructing us will come down to our level and
actually do some teaching. It is quite right that what we workers need is knowledge. We workers also very much wish that educated people would come forward and become our true friends! Sir, you say that we are being manipulated by
others and are the victims of others, and that you "pity" us. Then you, Sir, should
be our true guide. We very much wish that you would take off your long gown,
resign your position as high and mighty editor, and help us run the labor movement. At the very least, you should be a true labor educator and never again
stand on the sidelines saying things like, "I thus give further sincere counsel to
those of you engaged in the labor movement." Sir, we only acknowledge as good
friends those who can sacrifice their position and endure hunger and hardship to
work to advance the interests of the great mass of us workers! Since you say that

we are wrong, that our teachers are wrong, and that we are being manipulated
and victimized by others, we are going to sack our teachers immediately. With
110 percent sincerity, we welcome you, Sir, our peerless sympathizer! Would
you kindly honor us with your visit? Hurry, please, and take off your long gown!

4. If only those who give us instruction would look at things closely from our
point of view. How could we gain the opportunity to study and get some exercise? Newspaper production workers at a newspaper have to work both during
the day and at night, and you are very much in favor of their working the night
shift. Let us leave aside for now the issue of night work. We ask you, though,
where can they get the time to go to remedial schools [for adults] to study? Do
you mean to say that they have some kind of power to be in two places at once?
Before you open your mouth, please look into how many such schools there are
and how many workers there are, in the city of Changsha. We admit now that
unless our work hours are reduced, we will not have the opportunity to study.
Unless we ourselves unite and establish our own adult education schools, we will
not have a place to study. We want to reduce our work hours, but the employers
ignore us. We want to unite, but others undermine us, so we have no alternative
but to have a movement. We want to support our interest in study, but others say
we should not do so. We want to invite people to guide us and become our true
friends and teachers and again, others say we are "being manipulated by others"
and "the victims of others' ideological experiments." Fine. So then we invite
those who were doing all the talking about these things, but again they want to
don their long gowns, and cannot come after all. Sir, please come help us work
out a better way of acquiring knowledge so that we may be spared having to go
on forever receiving the instruction of others!

As for working the night shift, you feel that as far as the principles of health
are concerned, there is no problem. Indeed, newspaper editors work at night;
officials, politicians, and members of parliament all work at night. Why are they
all so nice and plump? We work not only at night, but also during the day. We
cannot sleep until late afternoon. We do not have any meat to eat. The health of
laborers is often impaired by poor nutrition and overwork. The only remedy for
the poor is sleep and rest. Don't you know that? You even want us manual
laborers to do physical exercises after we are exhausted from work! Sports? Do
you really want to see us dead? The two issues you have raised, the night shift
and the [labor] movement, cannot be explained to you in a word or two. We are
not going to say any more at this point, but allow us to give you a bit of counsel
for a change. You really have been reading too much! We would like to invite
you to come and have a taste of physical labor with us.

Sir, we very much want to thank you. We also want to express our great love
and respect for you, as you are not totally indifferent to us. You are much better
than many of the big-shot journalists at many of the big-shot newspapers in
Changsha, who haven't had a word to say about our problems! But when we
have something to say, we feel compelled to say it to you, just as when you have

something to say, you must say it to us. Wherever we have used offensive words,
we ask you, please, to pardon the workers' ignorance. That is our weakness!

[Dun's reply]
I'm extremely happy that the workers can conduct a proper written debate with
me. However, I mean to be giving the workers sincere counsel in good faith, but
they consider it lecturing to them. What I express as hope for the workers, they
regard as sinister insinuations. I can't say anything! For example, there are two
sentences in the article: do not be manipulated by others; do not be the victims of
others' ideological experiments. (I might add here that the version I submitted to
the typesetters did not contain the word "again," which was not deleted by the
typesetters.) I said this because in this world there are often those who use labor
movements for experimental purposes. My hope is that the workers will watch
out for such people in the future, and not fall unwittingly into their trap. I did not
say that the workers had already been manipulated by others or fallen victim to
their experiments. This cannot be construed as being mean-spirited. Finally, I
also want to offer a few words of sincere advice. Now that the workers' wages
are being increased and their work hours are being reduced, if they want to seek
long-term independence and true happiness, it would still be a good idea for
them to find some time every day to do some studying and physical exercise!
(Dun)

-1923-

Telegram to Mr. Xiao Hengshan¹ from the
All-Hunan Federation of Labor Organizations
(February 20, 1923)

To Mr. Xiao Hengshan at Wuchang:

The troops under your command have murdered thirty-two railway workers,² an
oppressive act so savage as to make the rivers freeze over. Sir, you are like a sly

This telegram has been translated from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 9, p. 161, where the
source is given as Beifang diqu gongren yundong ziliao xuanbian (1921-1923) (Beijing:
1981). There is no indication that the text was published prior to 1981. We have no direct
evidence that Mao participated in writing this document, or the three texts on the February
7th massacre which follow, but he is uniformly characterized as the leader and moving
spirit of the All-Hunan Federation of Labor Organizations at this time. (See Li Jui, Early
Mao, p. 262, and Li Yongtai, Mao and the Great Revolution, p. 144.) Thus, whether or not
Mao actually drafted them, we feel that these four brief documents have their place here.
1. Xiao Yaonan (1875-1926), zi Hengshan, a trusted subordinate of Wu Peifu, had
been appointed military governor of Hubei in August 1921 in the context of the campaign
by the Zhili faction to oppose Zhao Hengti's attempts at extending his influence into the
neighboring province. Wu Peifu (1874-1939), zi Ziyu, was a native of Shandong. After
graduating from the Baoding Military Academy, he rose through the ranks of the military,
under Yuan Shikai and Cao Kun. In 1918 Wu led troops into Hunan and recovered most
of the province for the Beijing government. When Premier Duan Qirui refused to appoint
him governor of Hunan, Wu followed an increasingly independent course. In 1920 he
joined Cao Kun in the so-called Zhili-Anhui war, which led to the overthrow of Duan
Qirui and great power for Wu, who was appointed inspector general of Hubei and Hunan.
After defeating Zhang Zuolin in the first Zhili-Fengtian war in 1922, Wu Peifu became the
dominant military figure in North China.
2. In the spring of 1922, an agreement had been concluded between the Communist
leadership of the Secretariat of Chinese Labor Organizations, which was then actively
engaged in setting up unions of railroad workers, and Wu Peifu. It provided for the
appointment of six "secret inspectors," who were given free passes for travel throughout
the rail network. Wu Peifu had been described by the Second Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party as a "comparatively progressive militarist," and his program called for
the "protection of labor" (baohu laodong). From Wu's point of view, the Communists
could be useful in undercutting the influence of his pro-Japanese rivals of the Communications clique on the railroads, from which he derived revenues to maintain the Zhili army
and finance his plans to unify China. In the autumn of 1922, during the first rail strikes,
Wu Peifu had required the management to adopt a conciliatory attitude. In January 1923,
however, when workers on the Beijing-Hankou line announced their intention of forming
a General Union of the Beijing-Hankou Railway, which would be an amalgamation of