December 13, 1925

* This article is actually the work of Li Chuntao. In the first edition of “Collected Works of Mao Zedong,” it was mistakenly attributed to Mao Zedong and included in its entirety. The reason may be that the article appeared in the Political Weekly following an unsigned piece signed “Run” titled “So This Is What Redification Means,” and bore no authorial attribution. In the second edition of “Collected Works of Mao Zedong,” the body of the text was removed, leaving only the title with a note reading “Deleted.” Here, we have transcribed the full text as it appeared in the first edition, while making textual corrections and additions based on Li Chuntao’s Collected Works (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1985). Words enclosed in brackets “[ ]” in this text were represented as “□” in the first edition of “Collected Works of Mao Zedong”; we have filled them in according to Li Chuntao’s Collected Works. Furthermore, in the phrase “one should first…,” the character “should” (“应”) was printed as “[begin]” (“[起]”) in the first edition; we have corrected it to match Li Chuntao’s Collected Works. — Editor’s Note


In Chen Jiongming’s anti-Communist propaganda writings, there is an essay entitled “A Word to Young Students.” At the end, he makes the following remarks: “The Communist Party’s policy aims to annihilate the intellectual class. We young students are, after all, part of the intellectual class. Once the Communists succeed, they will kill every single educated young student one by one.” To determine whether Chen Jiongming’s words are correct, we must first analyze the social position of China’s intellectual class. We believe that people with knowledge cannot be regarded as a distinct class; rather, they are merely individuals possessing knowledge, since they lack any common interests that would unite them into a cohesive class. Some serve as secretaries or staff officers for warlords such as Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Chen Jiongming; others act as spokesmen or clerks for industrialists like Zhang Jian, Mu Ouchu, and Chen Lianbo, arguing against rent reductions for peasants and strikes by workers. Yet at the same time, a certain segment of the intelligentsia has already joined the ranks of the peasant and worker classes. Accordingly, it becomes clear that every person with knowledge is simply an intellectual. As an inevitable consequence of modern industrial development, these intellectuals have long since lost the dignity and security once associated with their so-called free professions, temporarily descending from the middle class into the proletariat. Under such circumstances, they have no choice but to wholeheartedly participate in the peasant and worker movements. If, however, they were to forget their own position within the existing social order and instead turn back to collaborate with warlords, comprador capitalists, local tyrants, and gentry, then indeed one might say that the educated youth have been wiped out—wiped out by whom? Directly, by being unjustly persecuted and killed at the hands of those very forces; indirectly, by being poisoned through imperialist domination.




○ Political Weekly, Issue 2    Guangzhou Political Weekly Press    December 13, 1925