in the revolution are the majority. At present, the time for us to overthrow the
landlords has not yet come. We must make some concessions to them. In the
national revolution, now is the time to knock down the imperialists, the warlords,
and the local bullies and bad gentry, to reduce land rents, to reduce interest, and
to increase the wages of farm laborers. All of this is part of the peasant problem.
If the peasant problem is solved, the problems of the workers, merchants, students, educators, and others will likewise be solved.

By this time, it was already 4 P.M., and the chairman announced a five-minute
break . . . (balance omitted).

—1927—

Report to the Central Committee
on Observations Regarding
the Peasant Movement in Hunan
(February 16, 1927)

Having arrived from Changsha in Wuchang on February 11, I hereby report as
follows on various matters.

1. On December 17, I arrived in Changsha from Hankou to participate in the
Provincial Congress of Peasants' Representatives. At the Committee for Drafting
Resolutions of the Congress we discussed various resolutions. All the resolutions
adopted on this occasion may be considered fairly realistic. The congress closed
on December 30. In accordance with a decision [X] of the district committee, all
comrades who were representatives to the congress held a brief training session
at which I presented three reports on the peasant question and on methods of
investigation.

2. Starting on January 4, I went to the countryside to carry out an investigation, which lasted until February 5. Altogether the investigation continued for
thirty-two days and covered the five xian of Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan,
Liling, and Changsha. In the countryside and in the xian seats, experienced
peasants were invited to meet with peasant movement comrades in an investigation meeting. The materials obtained are not inconsiderable. What we saw and
heard in the rural areas of these xian is almost totally different from what we
have seen and heard in Hankou and in Changsha. I shall first set forth several
large errors in our previous policy for dealing with the peasant movement. After
the investigation of the three xian of Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, and Hengshan, I
returned to the district committee and gave a detailed report to the responsible
comrades. I also presented reports both at the party school and at the [Youth]
League school. Following the investigations in the two xian of Liling and
Changsha, I gave several reports to the district committee. The former errors of
the party in the peasant movement have already been corrected in part. The
important points are as follows: (1) The fact that "the peasant movement is fine"
has served to correct the unanimous view on the part of the government, the

Guomindang, and all sectors of society that "the peasant movement is terrible."
(2) The fact that "the poor peasants are the vanguard of the revolution" has been
used to correct the opinion universally held in all circles about a "movement of
riffraff," a "movement of lazy peasants."¹ (3) The fact that no kind of united
front existed at all in the past was used to correct the argument that peasant
associations are wrecking the united front. The problem from now on is not to
accuse anyone of wrecking the united front, but jointly to shoulder responsibility
for setting up² a united front. (4) The peasant movement falls into three periods:
first, the period of organization; second, the period of revolution; and third, the
period of proposing a united front. Every place, no matter where, must go
through the second period before it can make the transition to the third period. It
is absolutely impossible to leap from the first period to the third period without
going through the second period of violently overthrowing the power and prestige of the feudal landlords. (5) Most of the xian of central and southern Hunan
have experienced a stormy period of rural revolution (the second period). The
countryside has fallen into a state of anarchy, and a system of democratic rural
self-rule must immediately be created to change anarchy into a situation with a
government that has taken concrete measures to establish a rural united front in
order to avoid the danger of the peasant villages becoming isolated. Only then
will such problems as weapons, public food supplies, education, construction,
and [X][X] be settled in the countryside. Presently, no political problem in
Hunan is more pressing than this point of carrying village self-rule through to
completion. There can be no question of provincial people's assemblies or xian
people's assemblies until after village self-rule has been completed. (6) During
the second period (the period of the revolutionary uprising in the countryside),
all actions of the peasants against the feudal landlord class are correct. Even if
there are some excesses, they are still correct, because unless they learn to go too
far [X][X], they will certainly not be able to overthrow the power of the feudal
class built up over several thousand years, and will certainly not be able to
complete the democratic revolution quickly. To right a wrong it is necessary to
exceed the proper limits; the wrong cannot be righted without doing so.³ It is for
this reason that the peasant associations must not under any circumstances ask
the government or the militia to arrest so-called "riffraff." They can only raise
the slogan of "peasant associations rectify discipline" and go themselves to
rectify those "few undesirable elements" in lower-level peasant associations.
Otherwise, it is impossible to avoid undermining the resolve of the peasants and
increasing the prestige of the landlords. (7) The problem of hoarding grain is a

problem for all levels of society. Actually, most of the poor peasants want to
hoard grain, and only a small minority of the rich peasants want it to be released.
The peasant association can only play a role of persuasion, of persuading the
poor peasants to make concessions to the rich peasants. It cannot represent the
rich peasants and go out and attack the poor peasants. If hoarding is so severe,
this is entirely because of anarchy in the countryside, which makes it impossible
to guarantee public food supplies. This is the responsibility of government. It is
not wholly the responsibility of the peasant associations. If we want grain to
circulate, the only way is quickly to set up new organs of village self-rule that
will take responsibility for guaranteeing the public food supply. (8) The various
conflicts in the countryside, such as the conflicts between peasants and workers,
between peasants and merchants, between peasants and students, between peasants and the party, between poor and rich peasants, between the peasants and the
government, must all be resolved under the banner of the Guomindang;4 we must
absolutely not raise immediately the banner of the Communist Party5 to resolve
them. Thus among the peasants we must develop the Guomindang everywhere,
letting it take the lead in mediating and directing these matters that are very
difficult to mediate and direct. In the past, there has been too great a gap between
the degree of the Guomindang's development and the degree of development of
the peasant movement. We must develop the organization of the Guomindang in
a big way among the peasantry, especially among the poor peasants. (9) The
peasant problem is solely a problem of the poor peasants, but there are two poor
peasant problems, the problem of capital and the problem of the land. Both these
problems are no longer problems of propaganda but are problems requiring
immediate action. (10) In many of the xian of Hunan, the peasants have already
completed the democratic revolution in the countryside. The revolutionary feelings of the poor peasants are accordingly very high, and given the present circumstances, they are absolutely resolved to proceed rapidly to yet another
revolution! This being true, the broad masses of poor peasants, in their tens of
millions (according to the investigation in Changsha, 70 percent are poor peasants, 20 percent are middle peasants, and 10 percent are rich peasants), want to
go forward to another revolution. My investigation indicates that no force can
resist them for long. Today the masses are going to the left, and in many places
our party, not to mention the Guomindang, shows that it has not reached the
same level of revolutionary feeling as the masses. This is something that very
much demands our attention. (11) For this reason, it should be said that in order
(a) to deal with the current situation and (b) to prepare for the revolution
which is soon to come, our party must be greatly developed. For the small Hunan

party to be effective it must expand to 20,000 members within six months (it
now has only 6,000) and must establish a local [organization] in every xian
where the peasant associations have more than 20,000 members. (12) The Hong
Society is a force [to be reckoned with]. We must win over such forces and
never adopt the method of attacking them. (13) The situation is extremely favorable for women and children to rise up in the countryside. The women in particular are a great force and must not be neglected. Above, I have outlined the
essential features of the thirteen items listed. Beginning tomorrow, within three
or four days I shall write a detailed report on the situation and send it to you for
your inspection, corrections, and further guidance.

Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan
(February 1927)1

I. Rural Revolution
1. The Importance of the Peasant Problem
During my recent visit, I made a first-hand investigation of the five xian of
Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, Liling, and Changsha. In the thirty-two days
from January 4 to February 5, I called together fact-finding conferences in villages and xian towns, which were attended by experienced peasants and by
comrades in the peasant movement, and I listened attentively to their reports and
collected a great deal of material. Many of the arguments of the peasant movement were the exact opposite of what I had heard from the gentry class in
Hankou and Changsha. I saw and heard many strange things of which I had
hitherto been unaware. I believe that the same is also true of every province in all
of China.2 Consequently, all criticisms directed against the peasant movement

the headings are indicated in the notes. None of the headings in the revised version are
numbered, except for the "fourteen great achievements" with which the report ends.
must be speedily set right, and the various erroneous measures adopted by the
revolutionary authorities concerning the peasant movement must be speedily
changed. Only thus can the future of the revolution be benefited. For the present
upsurge of the peasant movement is a colossal event. In a very short time,
several hundred million peasants in China's central, southern, and northern provinces will rise like a fierce wind or tempest, a force so swift and violent that no
power, however great, will be able to suppress it. They will break through all the
trammels that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will,
in the end, send all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local bullies, and
bad gentry to their graves. All revolutionary parties and all revolutionary comrades will stand before them to be tested, to be accepted or rejected as they
decide. To march at their head and lead them? To stand behind them, gesticulating and criticizing them? Or to stand opposite them and oppose them? Every
Chinese is free to choose among the three, but by the force of circumstances you
are fated to make the choice quickly. Here I have written up my investigations
and opinions in several sections, for the reference of revolutionary comrades.

2. Get Organized

The peasant movement in Hunan, so far as it concerns the xian in the central and
southern parts of the province, where the movement is already developed, can be
roughly divided into two periods. The first, from January to September of last
year, was one of organization. Within this period, January to June was a time of
secret [activity], and July to September, when the revolutionary army was driving out Zhao, an open time. During this period, the membership of the peasant
associations did not exceed 300,000 to 400,000, and the masses directly under
their command³ numbered little more than a million; there was as yet hardly any
struggle in the rural areas, and consequently there was very little criticism of the
associations in other circles. Because its members served as guides, scouts, and
porters, even some of the officers⁴ had a good word to say for the peasant
associations. The second period, from last October to January of this year, was
one of revolution. The membership of the associations jumped to 2 million and
the masses directly under their command⁵ increased to 10 million. (The peasants
generally enter only one name for the whole family on joining a peasant association; therefore a membership of 2 million means a mass following of 10 million.)
Almost half the peasants in Hunan are now organized. In xian like Xiangtan,
Xiangxiang, Liuyang, Changsha, Liling, Ningxiang, Pingjiang, Xiangyin,
Hengshan, Hengyang, Laiyang, Chenxian, and Anhua, nearly all the peasants
have gone into the peasant associations or have come under their command.⁶ It

3. Command → Leadership
4. The officers → The officers of the Expeditionary Army
5. Command → Leadership
6. Command → Leadership

was on the strength of their extensive organization that the peasants went into
action and within four months brought about a great revolution in the countryside, a revolution without parallel in history.

3. Down with the Local Bullies and Bad Gentry! All Power
to the Peasant Associations!

Now that the peasants have got themselves organized, they are beginning to take
action. The main targets of their attack are the local bullies, the bad gentry, and
the lawless landlords, but in passing they also hit out against patriarchal ideas
and institutions of all kinds, against the corrupt officials in the cities, and against
bad practices and customs in the rural areas. In force and momentum the attack is
quite simply tempestuous; those who submit to it survive, and those who resist
perish. As a result, the privileges the feudal landlords have enjoyed for thousands
of years are being shattered to pieces. Their dignity and prestige are being
completely swept away. With the collapse of the power of the gentry, the
peasant associations have now become the sole organs of authority, and "All
power to the peasant associations" has become a reality. Even trifling matters
such as quarrels between husband and wife must be brought before the peasant
association for settlement. Nothing can be settled in the absence of peasant
association representatives. Whatever nonsense the people from the peasant association talk at meetings, that, too, is sacred. The association actually dictates everything in the countryside, all rural affairs, and quite literally, "whatever it says,
goes." People outside the associations can only speak well of them and cannot
say anything against them. The local bullies, bad gentry, and lawless landlords
have completely lost their right to speak, and none of them dares even mutter
dissent. Faced by the intimidating force of the peasant associations, the top local
bullies and bad gentry have fled to Shanghai, those of the second rank to
Hankou, those of the third to Changsha, and those of the fourth to the xian
towns, while the fifth rank and the still lesser fry surrender to the peasant associations in the villages.

"Here's ten yuan. Please let me join the peasant association," one of the lesser
bad gentry will say.

"Ha! Who wants your filthy money?" is the peasants' reply.

Many middle and small landlords, rich peasants, and even some middle peasants, who were formerly opposed to the peasant associations, are now seeking
admission. Visiting various places, I often came across such people who pleaded
with me, "Mr. Committeeman from the provincial capital, please be my guarantor!"
Under the Qing dynasty, the household census compiled by the local authorities consisted of a regular register and "the other" register, the former for honest

7. The gentry (shenshi) → The landlords
8. Literally, "If a member of a peasant association lets a fart...," this being a
common Chinese metaphor (much used by Mao) for talking nonsense.

people and the latter for burglars, bandits, and similar undesirables. In some
places the peasants now use this to scare those who were formerly against the
associations. They say, "Put their names down in the other register!"

Afraid of being entered in the other register, such people try various devices
to gain admission into the peasant associations. Their minds are entirely set on
this, and they do not feel safe until their names are entered in the peasant
association register. More often than not the peasant associations turn them down
flat, and so they are always on tenterhooks; with the doors of the association
barred to them, they are like tramps without a home or, in rural parlance, "mere
trash." In short, what was generally sneered at four months ago as the "peasants'
gang" has now become something most honorable. Those who formerly prostrated themselves before the gentry now all prostrate themselves before the
power of the peasants. Everyone, no matter who, admits that the world has
changed since last October.

4. It's Terrible and It's Fine

The peasants' revolt in the countryside disturbed the gentry's sweet dreams.
When the news from the countryside reached the cities, the urban gentry were
immediately in an uproar. When I first arrived in Changsha, I met all sorts of
people and picked up a good deal of gossip. From the middle strata of society
upwards to the Guomindang right-wingers, there was not a single person who did
not sum it all up in the phrase, "It's terrible!" Even very revolutionary people,
influenced by the views of the "It's terrible!" school which dominated the climate in the city, became downhearted when they tried to picture the situation in
the countryside in their mind's eye and were unable to deny the word "terrible."
Even very progressive people could only say, "This kind of thing is inevitable in
a revolution, but still it's terrible." In short, no one at all could completely reject
this word "terrible." But as I have already said, the fact is that the broad peasant
masses have risen to fulfill their historical mission, and that the democratic
forces in the countryside have risen to overthrow the forces of feudalism in the
countryside. 10 This overthrowing of the feudal forces is the real objective of the
national revolution. What Mr. Sun Yatsen wanted, but failed, to accomplish in
the forty years he devoted to the national revolution, the peasants have accomplished in a few months. The patriarchal-feudal class of local bullies, bad gentry, and lawless landlords has formed the basis of autocratic government for
thousands of years, and is the cornerstone of imperialism, warlordism, and
corrupt officialdom. [To overthrow them] is a marvelous feat never before
achieved, not just in forty but in thousands of years. It is fine. It is not "terrible"

9. Before the gentry → Before the power of the gentry
10. The Selected Works text moves to this point the sentence beginning "The patriarchal-feudal class of local bullies," which appears in italics three lines below.

at all. It is anything but "terrible." To give credit where credit is due, if we allot
ten points to the accomplishments of the democratic revolution, then the achievements of the city dwellers and the military rate only three points, while the
remaining seven points should go to the achievements of the peasants in their
rural revolution. "It's terrible!" is obviously a theory for combating the rise of
the peasants in the interests of the landlords; it is obviously a theory of the
landlord class for preserving the old feudal order and obstructing the establishment of the new democratic order; it is obviously a counterrevolutionary theory.
No revolutionary comrade should echo this nonsense. If your revolutionary
viewpoint is firmly established, and if you go to the villages and have a look
around, you will undoubtedly feel a joy you have never known before. Countless
thousands of slaves the peasants are there overthrowing their cannibalistic
enemies. What the peasants are doing is absolutely right; what they are doing is
"fine!" "It's fine!" is the theory of the peasants and of other revolutionaries.
Every revolutionary comrade should know that the national revolution requires a
great change in the countryside. The Revolution of 1911 did not bring about this
change, hence its failure. Now a change is taking place, and this is an important
factor for the completion of the revolution. Every revolutionary comrade must
support this change or he will be a counterrevolutionary.11

5. The Question of "Going too Far"12
Then there is another section of people who say, "Although peasant associations
are necessary, their actions at present are undeniably going too far." This is the
opinion of the middle-of-the-roaders. But what is the actual situation? True, the
peasants are in a sense "unruly" in the countryside. Supreme in authority, the
peasant association allows the landlord no say and sweeps away the landlord's
prestige. This amounts to striking the landlord down into the dust and trampling
on him there. They coined the phrase: "If he has land, he must be a bully, and all
gentry are evil."13 In some of the places even those who own 50 mu of fields are
called local bullies, and those who wear long gowns are called bad gentry. The
peasants threaten, "We will put you in the other register!" They fine the local
bullies and bad gentry, they demand contributions from them, and they smash
their sedan-chairs. In the case of local bullies and bad gentry who are against the
peasant association, a mass of people swarm into their houses, slaughtering their
pigs and consuming their grain. They may even loll on the ivory-inlaid beds
belonging to the young ladies in the households of the local bullies and bad

11. Will be a counterrevolutionary → Will be taking the stand of counterrevolution
12. "Going too far" → The so-called "going too far"
13. This is a free rendering of a play on the four Chinese characters (tuhao lieshen)
translated as "local bullies" and "bad gentry"; the original reads, "Youtu bi hao, wushen
bulie."

gentry. At the slightest provocation they make arrests, crown the arrested with
tall paper hats, and parade them through the villages, saying, "You dirty landlords, now you know who we are!" Doing whatever they like and turning everything upside down, they have even created a kind of terror in the countryside.
This is what ordinary people14 call "going too far," or "going beyond the proper
limits in righting a wrong," or "really too much." Such talk may seem plausible,
but in fact it is wrong. First, the local bullies, bad gentry, and lawless landlords
have themselves driven the peasants to this. For ages they have used their power
to tyrannize over the peasants and trample them underfoot; that is why the
peasants have reacted so strongly. The most violent revolts and the most serious
disorders have invariably occurred in places where the local bullies, bad gentry,
and lawless landlords perpetrated the worst outrages. The peasants are clearsighted. Who is bad and who is not, who is the worst and who is not quite so
vicious, who deserves severe punishment and who deserves to be let off
lightly the peasants keep clear accounts, and very seldom has the punishment
exceeded the crime. Therefore, Mr. Tang Mengxiao15 also said "The peasants
are arresting local bullies and bad gentry; nine of ten arrested deserve it."
Secondly, a revolution is not like inviting people to dinner, or writing an essay,
or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely
and gentle, so "benign, upright, courteous, temperate and complaisant."16 A
revolution is an uprising, an act of violence whereby one class overthrows the
power of another. A rural revolution is a revolution in which the peasantry
overthrows the power of the feudal landlord class. If the peasants do not use
extremely great force, they cannot possibly overthrow the deeply rooted power
of the landlords, which has lasted for thousands of years. The rural areas must
experience a great, fervent revolutionary upsurge, which alone can rouse the

14. Ordinary people → Some people
15. Tang Shengzhi (1889–1970), zi Mengxiao, was a native of Dongan xian, Hunan,
and a graduate of Baoding Military Academy. Early in his career, in 1918, he aligned
himself with Zhao Hengti, under whom he served as a regimental commander beginning in
1918. Following Zhao's assumption of the governorship, he was promoted to divisional
commander. During the 1923 war between Zhao Hengti and Tan Yankai, he remained
loyal to Zhao. In March 1926, however, he was able to force Zhao to resign in his favor. In
July 1926, Chiang Kaishek appointed him commander in chief of front-line operations in
the Northern Expedition, with six Hunan divisions under him. In the spring of 1927, he
took the side of the Guomindang Left against Chiang Kaishek and was thus regarded by
Mao, at the time of writing, as a revolutionary military man. Indeed, on March 30, he was
appointed a member of the Interim Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of
Peasant Associations (see the text of April 9, 1927, which appears below). By late summer, however, he had turned against the Communists, and in November, 1927, he retired
to Japan.
16. These are the qualities that enabled Confucius, according to his disciple Zigong, to
obtain information about the government of the countries he visited. See the Analects, I, X,
2 (Legge, Vol. I, p. 142).

peasant masses in their thousands and tens of thousands to form this great force.
All the excessive actions17 mentioned above [result from] the power18 of the
peasants, mobilized by the great, fervent revolutionary upsurge in the countryside. It was highly necessary for such things to be done in the second period of
the peasant movement, the period of revolutionary action. Such actions were
extremely necessary during the second period of the peasant movement (the
period of revolution). In this period, it was necessary to establish the absolute
dominance of the peasants. It was necessary to forbid criticism19 of the peasant
associations. It was necessary to overthrow completely the authority of the gentry, to knock them down and even stamp them underfoot. All excessive20 actions
had revolutionary significance during the second period. To put it bluntly, it is
necessary to bring about a brief reign of terror in every rural area; otherwise we
could never suppress the activities of the counterrevolutionaries in the countryside or overthrow the authority of the gentry. To right a wrong it is necessary to
exceed the proper limits; the wrong cannot be righted without doing so. The
argument of this group seems on the surface to differ from that of the group
discussed earlier, but essentially they proceed from the same standpoint and
likewise voice a landlord theory that upholds the interests of the privileged
classes. Since this theory impedes the rise of the peasant movement and so
disrupts the revolution, we must firmly oppose it.

II. The Revolutionary Vanguard

1. The Movement of the Riffraff 21

The right wing of the Guomindang says, "The peasant movement is a movement
of the riffraff, a movement of the lazy peasants." This argument has gained much
currency in Changsha. When I was in the countryside, I heard the gentry say, "It
is all right to set up peasant associations, but the people now running them are no
good. They ought to be replaced!" This argument comes to the same thing as
what the right-wingers are saying. Both admit that it is all right to have a peasant
movement (since the peasant movement has already come into being, no one
dare say otherwise), but they regard the people running it as no good. Their
hatred is directed particularly against those in charge of the associations at the
lower levels, whom they call "riffraff." Those people in the countryside who
used to go around in worn-out leather shoes, carry broken umbrellas, wear
green gowns, and gamble-in short, all those who were formerly despised and
kicked into the gutter by the gentry, who had no social standing, and who were

17. Excessive → Which have been labeled as "excessive"
18. Power → Have been created by the power
19. Criticism → Malicious criticism
20. Excessive → Which were labeled as "excessive"
21. The movement of the riffraff → The so-called "movement of the riffraff"

completely deprived of22 the right to speak, have now dared to lift their heads.
Not only have they raised their heads, they have also taken power into their
hands. They are now running the township peasant associations (the lowest level
of peasant associations), and have turned them into a formidable force. They
raise their rough, blackened hands and lay them on the heads of the gentry. They
tether the bad gentry with ropes, crown them with tall paper hats, and parade
them through the villages. (In Xiangtan and Xiangxiang they call this "parading
through the township" and in Liling "parading through the fields.") Every day
the coarse, harsh sounds of their denunciations pierce the ears of these gentry.
They are giving orders and running everything. They, who used to rank below
everyone else, now rank above everybody else that is what people mean by
"turning things upside down."

2. Vanguard of the Revolution or Outstanding Contributors
to the Revolution

When there are two different ways of looking at a certain thing, or a certain kind
of people, two opposite assessments emerge. "It's terrible!" and "It's fine!" are
one example and "riffraff" and "vanguard of the revolution" are another. We
said above that the peasants had accomplished a revolutionary task for many
years left unaccomplished and had done the principal23 work in the national
revolution. But has this great revolutionary task, this principal24 work in the
revolution, been performed by all the peasants? No. There are three kinds of
peasants: the rich, the middle, and the poor peasants. These three categories live
in different circumstances and so have different ideas about the revolution. In the
first period, what appealed to the rich peasants (those who have surplus money
and grain are called rich peasants) was the talk about the Northern Expeditionary Army's sustaining a crushing defeat in Jiangxi, about Chiang Kaishek's
being wounded in the leg and flying back to Guangdong, and about Wu Peifu's
recapturing Yuezhou. The peasant associations would certainly not last and the
Three People's Principles could never prevail, because they had never been
heard of before. Thus an official of the township peasant association (generally
one of the riffraff25 type) would walk into the house of a rich peasant, register in
hand, and say, "Will you please join the peasant association?" How did the rich
peasants reply? "Peasant association? I have lived here for decades, tilling my
land. I never saw such a thing before, yet I've managed to live all right," says a
rich peasant with a tolerably decent attitude. "I advise you to give it up!" A
really vicious rich peasant says, "Peasant association! Nonsense! Association for

22. Completely deprived of → Had no
23. Principal → Important
24. Principal → Important
25. Riffraff→ The so-called "riffraff"

getting your head chopped off! Don't get people into trouble!" Yet, surprisingly
enough, the peasant associations have now been established for several months
and have even dared to stand up to the gentry. The gentry of the neighborhood
who refused to hand over their opium pipes were arrested by the associations and
paraded through the villages. In the xian towns, moreover, some big landlords
were put to death (such as Yan Rongqiu of Xiangtan and Yang Zhize of
Ningxiang). On the anniversary of the October Revolution, at the time of the
anti-British rally and of the great celebrations of the victory of the Northern
Expedition, tens of thousands26 of peasants, holding high their banners, big and
small, along with their carrying poles and hoes, demonstrated in massive,
streaming columns. The rich peasants27 began to get perplexed and alarmed in
their hearts. During the great victory celebrations of the Northern Expedition,
they learned that Jiujiang had also been taken, that Chiang Kaishek had not been
wounded in the leg, and that Wu Peifu had been defeated after all. What is more,
they saw "Long live the Three People's Principles!" "Long live the peasant
associations!" "Long live the peasants!" and so on and so forth clearly written on
the red and green proclamations (slogans).

"What?" wondered the rich peasants, greatly perplexed and alarmed, " 'Long
live the peasants!' Are these people now to be regarded as emperors?"28 So the
peasant associations are putting on grand airs. People from the associations say
to the rich peasants:
"We'll enter you in the other register!"
"In another month, the admission fee will be ten yuan a head!"

Only under the impact and intimidation of all this are the rich peasants tardily
joining the associations, some paying fifty cents or one yuan for admission (the
regular fee being a mere ten coppers), some securing admission only after asking
other people to put in a good word for them. But there are quite a number of
diehards who have not joined to this day. When the rich peasants join the associations, they generally enter the name of some sixty- or seventy-year-old member
of the family, for they are in constant dread of conscription. After joining, the
rich peasants are not keen on doing any work for the association. They remain
inactive throughout. How about the middle peasants? (Those who do not have
any surplus money and rice, are not in debt, and are able to assure themselves of
clothing, food, and shelter every year are called the middle peasants.) The
attitude of the middle peasants is a vacillating one. They think that the revolution
will not bring much good to them. They have rice cooking in their pots and no
creditors knocking on their doors at midnight. They, too, judging a thing by
whether it ever existed before, knit their brows and think to themselves, "Can the

26. Tens of thousands... → Tens of thousands... in every township
27. The rich peasants → It was only then that the rich peasants
28. The most common expression in Chinese for "Long live!" is wansui, literally "ten
thousand years," which was used of the emperor.

peasant association really last?" "Can the Three People's Principles prevail?"
Their conclusion is, "Afraid not!" They imagine it all depends on the will of
Heaven and think, "A peasant association? Who knows if Heaven wills it or
not?" In the first period, people from the association would call on a middle
peasant, register in hand, and say, "Will you please join the peasant association?”
The middle peasant replied, "There's no hurry!" It was not until the second
period, when the peasant associations were already exercising great power, that
the middle peasants came in. Even though they29 are somewhat better in the
peasant associations than the rich peasants, they are never very enthusiastic,30
and retain their vacillating attitude. The only kind of people³¹ in the countryside
who have always put up the bitterest fight are the poor peasants. From the period
of underground work straight through to the period of open activity, it is they
who have fought.32 As for organization, it is they who are organizing things
there, and as for revolution, it is they who are making revolution there. They
alone are the deadly enemies of the local tyrants and evil gentry, and they strike
them without the slightest hesitation. They alone are capable of carrying out the
work of destruction. They say to the rich and middle peasants:

"We joined the peasant association long ago, why are you still hesitating?"
The rich and the middle peasants answer mockingly:
"What is there to keep you from joining? You people have neither a tile
over your heads nor a speck of land under your feet!"

It is true that the poor peasants are not afraid of losing anything. They are the
disinherited or semidisinherited in rural life. Some of them really have "neither a
tile over their heads nor a speck of land under their feet." What, indeed, is there
to keep them from joining the associations? According to the survey of
Changsha xian, the poor peasants33 comprise 70 percent, the middle peasants 20
percent, and the rich peasants34 10 percent. The 70 percent, the poor peasants,
may be subdivided into two categories, the utterly destitute and the less destitute.
The "utterly destitute" are the completely dispossessed, that is, people who have
neither land nor capital, are without any means of livelihood, and are forced to
leave home and become mercenaries or hired laborers and wandering beggars, or

29. They → Their behavior
30. They are never very enthusiastic → They are not as yet very enthusiastic; they still
want to wait and see. It is essential for the peasant associations to get the middle peasants
to join and to do a good deal more explanatory work among them.
31. The only kind of people → The main force
32. Have fought → Have fought militantly. They are the most responsive to Communist Party leadership.
33. The poor peasants → Of the population in the rural areas, the poor peasants
34. The rich peasants → The landlords and the rich peasants

commit crimes and become robbers and thieves. They make up 20 out of the 70
[percent]. The less destitute are the partially dispossessed, that is, people with
just a little land or a little capital who eat up more than they earn and live in toil
and distress the year round, such as the handicraftsmen, the tenant-peasants (not
including the rich tenant-peasants), and the semitenant-peasants. These make up
50 out of the 70 [percent]. (The number of poor peasants in other xian may be
smaller than in Changsha, but there should not be a big discrepancy). This great
mass35 of poor peasants constitute the backbone of the peasant associations, the
vanguard in overthrowing the feudal forces, and the foremost heroes who have
performed the great revolutionary task which for long years was left undone.
Without the poor peasant class (the riffraff, as the gentry call them), it would
never have been possible to bring about the present revolutionary situation in the
countryside, or to overthrow the local bullies and bad gentry and to complete the
democratic revolution. The poor peasants (especially the portion who are utterly
destitute), being the most revolutionary group, have gained the leadership of the
peasant associations. In both the first and second periods almost all the chairmen
and committee members in the peasant associations at the lowest level (i.e., the
township associations) were poor peasants (of the officials in the township associations in Hengshan County the class36 of the utterly destitute comprise 50
percent, the class of the less destitute 40 percent, and poverty-stricken intellectuals 10 percent). This leadership by the poor peasants is extremely necessary.
Without the poor peasants there would be no revolution. To deny their role is to
deny the revolution. To attack them is to attack the revolution. From beginning
to end, the general direction they have given to the revolution has never been
wrong. They have discredited the local bullies and bad gentry. They have
knocked down the local bullies and bad gentry, big and small, and trampled them
underfoot. Many of their "excessive"37 deeds in the period of revolutionary
action were in fact the very things the revolution required. Some xian governments, xian headquarters of the Guomindang, and xian peasant associations in
Hunan have already made a number of mistakes; some have even sent soldiers to
arrest officials of the lower-level associations at the landlords' request. A good
many chairmen and committee members of township associations in Hengshan
and Xiangxiang xian have been thrown in jail. This mistake is very serious and
unintentionally feeds the arrogance of the reactionaries. To judge whether or not
it is a mistake, you have only to see how joyful the lawless landlords become and
how reactionary sentiments grow whenever the chairmen or committee members
of local peasant associations are arrested. We must combat the counterrevolutionary slogan of a "movement of riffraff" and a "movement of lazy peasants,"
but at the same time we should be especially careful not to help the local bullies

35. Mass Mass, altogether 70 percent of the rural population
36. The class → The stratum (here and in the following phrase)
37. "Excessive" → So-called "excessive"

and bad gentry (however unintentionally) in their attacks on the leadership38 of
the poor peasant class. In fact, though a few of the poor peasant leaders undoubtedly did "gamble, play cards, and not earn their living by hard work,"39 most of
them have changed by now. They themselves are energetically prohibiting gambling and suppressing banditry. Where the peasant association is powerful, gambling has stopped altogether and the peril of banditry has vanished. In some
places it is literally true that people do not take articles left by the wayside and
that doors are not bolted at night. According to the Hengshan survey, 85 percent
of the poor peasant leaders have made great progress and have proved themselves capable and hard-working. Only 15 percent retain some bad habits. The
most one can call them is "an unhealthy minority," and we must not echo the
local bullies and bad gentry in undiscriminatingly condemning them as "riffraff."
As to dealing with the "unhealthy minority," we can proceed only under the
peasant associations' own slogan of "strengthen discipline," by conducting propaganda among their masses, by training the "unhealthy minority," and by improving the discipline of the associations; in no circumstances should soldiers be
arbitrarily sent to make such arrests as would weaken the faith40 [in] the poor
peasants and feed the arrogance of the local bullies and bad gentry. This point
requires careful attention.

III. Peasants and the Peasant Associations41

Most critics of the peasant associations allege that they have done a great many
bad things. I have already pointed out in the preceding two sections that the
peasants' attack on the local bullies and bad gentry is entirely revolutionary
behavior and in no way blameworthy. But the peasants have done a great many
things, and42 we must closely examine all their activities to see whether or not
what they have done is really all bad, as is being said from without. I have
summed up their activities of the last few months; in all, the peasants under the
command 43 of the peasant associations have the following fourteen great
achievements to their credit.

1. Organizing the Peasants under Peasant Associations44

This is the first great thing the peasants have achieved. In xian such as Xiangtan,
Xiangxiang, and Hengshan, nearly all the peasants are organized and there is
38. Leadership → Erroneous actions
39. Did "gamble, play cards, and not earn their living by hard work" Did have
shortcomings
40. Weaken the faith in → Damage the prestige of
41. Peasants and the peasant associations → Fourteen great achievements
42. Here the Selected Works text inserts: "in order to answer people's criticisms."
43. The command the leadership
44. Under the peasant associations → In the peasant associations

hardly a remote corner where they are not on the move; these are the best places.
In some xian like Yiyang and Huarong, the bulk of the peasants have arisen, 45
with only a small section not yet arisen; these places are in the second grade. In
other xian, like Chengbu and Lingling, while a small section has arisen, the bulk
of the peasants have still not arisen; these places are in the third grade. Western
Hunan, which is under the control of Yuan Zuming, has not yet been reached by
the associations' propaganda, and the peasants of many of its xian have completely failed to rise; these form a fourth grade. Roughly speaking, the xian in
central Hunan, with Changsha as the center, are the most advanced, those in
southern Hunan come second, and western Hunan is only just beginning to
organize. According to the figures compiled by the provincial peasants' association last November, organizations with a total membership of 1,367,727 have
been set up in thirty-seven of the province's seventy-five xian. Of these members, about one million were organized during the time of October and November when the power of the associations rose high, while up to September the
membership had only been 300,000 to 400,000. Then came the two months of
December and January, and the peasant movement continued its brisk growth.
By the end of the month46 the membership must have reached at least two
million. As a family generally enters only one name when joining and has an
average of five members, the mass following must have reached ten million.
This astonishing and accelerating rate of expansion explains why the local bullies, bad gentry, and corrupt officials have been isolated; why society has been
amazed at how different the world was before and after; and why a great revolution has been wrought in the countryside. This is the first great thing that the
peasants have achieved under the command47 of the peasant associations.
The table on the following pages gives the membership of the peasant associations in all the xian in Hunan Province as of last November.48

2. Dealing Political Blows to the Landlords

After the peasants are organized, the first thing they do is to smash the political
prestige of the landlord class, and especially of the local bullies and bad gentry,
that is, to pull down the power and influence of the landlords and build up the
power and influence of the peasants in rural society. This is a most serious and
urgent struggle; it is the central struggle in the second period, the period of
revolution. If this struggle is not victorious, there can be no possibility of victory
in any of the economic struggles, such as the struggle for rent and interest
reduction, or for capital and land, 49 and so on. In many places in Hunan like

45. Here, and throughout this paragraph, Arisen (qilai) → Organized (zuzhi qilai)
46. The month → January
47. The command → The leadership
48. The whole of the following table has been omitted in the Selected Works.
49. For capital and land → To demand land and other means of production

Name of
No. of
No. of
xiang
Agr.
Share
Semi
owner
Social Status of Members
Handi- Primary
school
Owner craft
Small
xian
qu assns
assns
laborers croppers peasants peasants workers teachers merchant Women
Other
No. of
Members
Xiangxiang
16,400 91,500 41,000
13,100 28,000
190,544
Xiangyin
15,857 87,590 52,635
14,793
12,514
176,000

Liuyang
139,190
Xiangtan
27,000 54,100
12,400
8,460
7,400 1,100
120,460
Hengyang
17,358
37,725
7,532
5,628
6,135
2,256
1,579
88,223
Changsha
17,527
25,948
9,131
5,381
4,915
1,425
1,463
66,415
Anhua
62,300
Liling
6,746 35,460
6,920
3,998
3,643
58,476
Ningxiang
5,000 20,000 10,000
4,000
8,400
58,000
Chenxian
19,725
26,898
2,124
2,550
5,711
57,262
Hengshan
3,623
16,993
2,965
2,174
3,328
1,133
30,016
Suburbs
9,509
10,646
3,563
2,893
1,794
29,475
Linwu
2,183
10,143 4,146
2,291
20,000
Youxian
18,400
Yiyang
1,568
5,017
6,586
1,586
15,680
Huarong
2,000 6,595
1,887 2,453
1,216
14,652
Yizhang
1,438
8,936 1,637
1,283
14,183
Laiyang
1,145
6,865
2,684
1,844
12,946
Linli
2,000
3,000
2,400
4,000
11,660

Chaling
7,000
2,500
1,000
11,260

Yongxing
1,200
2,800
4,020
2,200
10,450

Pingjiang
1,023
4,298 1,781
1,612
1,093
10,152

Xinning
1,722
6,533
9,746

Changde
2,800
2,080
3,500
9,545

Baoqing
1,438
2,367
1,481
1,744
9,377

Wugang
1,800
4,500
9,000

Rucheng
4,195
2,957 1,228
8,865

Hanshou
1,125
3,276
1,047
1,378
7,226

Nanxian
1,384
4,064
7,000

Zhuping Lu
3,152
6,464

Xinhua
1,526
3,246
6,377

Guiyang
1,673
1,525
6,245

Qiyang
6,000

Lingxian
1,312
1,917
5,468

Zixing
2,148
1,123
5,324

Guidong
1,156
1,022 1,507
5,193

Xintian
2,927
5,150

Changning
2,378
4,549

Cili
263 1,550
1,806
4,496

Linxiang
1,195
4,077

Taoyuan
4,000

Yuanjiang
11,,74
1,615
3,839

Lanshan
1,499
3,350

Lixian
1,033
2,549

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF PEASANT ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP BY XIAN (continued)

Name of
No. of
No. of
Social Status of Members
No. of
xiang
Agr.
Share
Semi
Owner
Handi- Primary
craft school
Small
xian
qu assns
assns
laborers croppers peasants peasants workers teachers merchant Women Other
Members
Jiahe
2,452
Anxiang
2,298
Yongming
1,150
2,182
Yueyang
2,010
Xupu
1,965
Daoxian
1,435
Luxi
1,306
Suining
1,111
Ningyuan
Chengbu
Lingling
Mayang
Zhijiang
Total
6,867
1,367,727

Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Xiangtan xian, this is of course no problem since the
power of the landlords has been overturned and the peasants constitute the sole
power. But in xian like Liling, there are still some places (such as the two
western and southern xian50 of Liling) where the power of the landlords seems
weaker than that of the peasants but, because the political struggle has not been
sharp, landlord power is in fact surreptitiously opposing peasant power. In such
places it is still too early to say that the peasants have gained political victory;
they must wage the political struggle more vigorously until the power of the
landlords is completely cast down. Generally speaking, the methods used by the
peasants to deal political blows to the landlords are as follows:

a. Auditing the accounts. Most of the local bullies and bad gentry are guilty
of embezzling the public funds entrusted to them, and the books are not in order.
This time, the peasants have used the auditing of accounts as an occasion to
bring down countless local bullies and bad gentry. In many places auditing
committees have been set up for the specific purpose of settling accounts with
the local bullies and bad gentry, who shudder at the mere sight of such an organ.
Auditing campaigns like this have been carried out extensively in all the xian
where the peasant movement has arisen. Their significance lies not so much
in recovering the funds as in exposing the crimes of the local bullies and bad
gentry and knocking them down from their political as well as their social
positions.

b. Imposing fines. The peasants work out fines for such offenses as irregularities revealed by the audits, past outrages against the peasants, current activities
that undermine the peasant associations, violations of the ban on gambling, and
refusal to surrender opium pipes. For crimes like these, the peasants resolve
that such and such a local bully must pay so much, and such and such a
member of the bad gentry so much, the sums ranging from tens to thousands
of yuan. Naturally, a man who has been fined by the peasants completely
loses face.

c. Levying contributions. Rich but heartless landlords are made to contribute
funds for the relief of the poor, for running cooperatives and rural credit agencies, or for other purposes. Though milder than fines, these contributions are also
a form of punishment. To avoid trouble, quite a few landlords voluntarily make
contributions to the peasant associations.

d. Minor protests. When someone harms a peasant association by word or
deed and the offense is a minor one, the peasants collect in a crowd and swarm
into the offender's house to remonstrate with him not too severely. He is usually
let off after writing a pledge to "cease and desist," in which he explicitly undertakes to refrain henceforth from words and deeds that would harm the reputation
of the peasant association.

50. The two...xian → The two. districts

e. Major demonstrations. A big crowd is rallied to demonstrate against the
house of a local bully or one of the bad gentry who is hostile to the association.
The demonstrators eat at the offender's house, slaughtering his pigs and consuming his grain as a matter of course. Quite a few such cases have occurred. There
was a case recently at Majiahe, Xiangtan xian, where a crowd of fifteen thousand
went to the houses of six of the bad gentry to condemn them; the whole affair
lasted four days, during which more than 130 pigs were killed and eaten. After
such demonstrations, the peasants usually impose fines.

f. Parades through the villages in tall hats. This sort of thing is very common
everywhere. One of the local bullies or bad gentry is crowned with a tall paper
hat bearing the words "Local bully so-and-so" or "So-and-so, one of the bad
gentry." He is led by a rope and escorted with big crowds in front and behind.
Sometimes brass gongs are beaten and flags are waved to attract people's attention. This form of punishment, more than any other, makes the local bullies and
bad gentry tremble. Anyone who has once been crowned with a tall paper hat
loses face altogether and can never again hold up his head. Hence many of the
rich prefer being fined to wearing the tall hat. But wear it they must, if the
peasants insist. One township peasant association did things most ingeniously. It
arrested a member of the bad gentry and announced that he was to be crowned
that very day. The man turned blue with fear. But then in the end the peasants
decided not to crown him that day. They argued that if he were crowned right
away, he would become case-hardened and no longer afraid, and that it would be
better to let him go home and crown him some other day. Not knowing when he
would be crowned, the man was in daily suspense and was never at ease,
whether sitting or lying down.

g. Imprisonment in the xian jail. This is a heavier punishment than wearing the tall paper hat. A local bully or one of the bad gentry is arrested and
locked up in the xian jail, and the xian magistrate is asked to sentence him.
Those who are locked up today are not the same as they used to be. Formerly
it was the gentry who sent peasants to be locked up; now it is the other way
around.

h. "Banishment." This applies to the most notorious criminals among the
local bullies and bad gentry. The peasants have no desire to banish them, but
would rather arrest or execute them. Afraid of being arrested or executed, they
then run away. In xian where the peasant movement is well developed, almost all
the important local bullies and bad gentry have fled, and this amounts to banishment. Among them, the top rank has fled to Shanghai, the second rank to
Hankou, the third rank to Changsha, and the fourth rank to the xian towns. Of all
the fugitive local bullies and bad gentry, those who have fled to Shanghai are the
safest. Some of those who fled to Hankou, like the three from Huarong, were
eventually captured and brought back. Those who fled to Changsha are in still
greater danger of being seized at any moment by students in the provincial
capital who hail from their xian; I myself saw two captured in Changsha. Those

who have taken refuge in the xian towns are only of the fourth rank, but there are
many eyes and ears,51 and they can easily be discovered. The financial authorities have blamed the difficulties encountered by the Hunan Provincial Government in raising money on the fact that the peasants were banishing the
well-to-do. This, too, gives an idea of the extent to which the local bullies and
bad gentry are not tolerated in their home villages.

i. Shooting. This is confined to the worst local bullies and bad gentry and is
carried out by the peasants jointly with other sections of the popular masses. For
instance, Wang Zhize 52 of Ningxiang, Zhou Jiagan of Yueyang, and Fu Daonan
and Sun Bozhu of Huarong were shot by the government authorities at the
insistence of the peasants and all circles. For example, in the case of Yan
Rongqiu of Xiangtan, it was the peasants and all circles who compelled the
magistrate to execute him directly. 53 Liu Shao of Ningxiang was beaten to death
by the peasants themselves. For example, the executions of people like Peng
Zhifan of Liling, Zhuo Tianjue, and Cao Yun of Yiyang are pending, subject to
review by the "Special Tribunal for Trying Local Bullies and Bad Gentry." The
execution of one such big member of the bad gentry or big local bully reverberates throughout a whole xian and is very effective in eradicating the remaining
evils of feudalism. Every xian has such big local bullies and bad gentry, some as
many as several dozen, and others at least a few, and the only effective way of
suppressing the reactionaries is to execute at least one or two54 in each xian who
are guilty of the most heinous crimes. When the local bullies and bad gentry were at
the height of their power, they killed peasants literally without batting an eyelid. He
Maiquan, for ten years head of the defense corps in the town of Xinkang, Changsha
xian, was personally responsible for killing almost a thousand poverty-stricken peasants; this action he euphemistically described as executing bandits. In Yintian Temple, Xiangtan, 55 Tang Junyan and Luo Shulin who headed the defense corps have
killed more than fifty people and buried four alive in the fourteen years since the
second year of the Republic. Of the more than fifty they murdered, the first two were
perfectly innocent beggars. Tang Junyan said, "Let me make a start by killing a
couple of beggars." And so these two lives were snuffed out. Such being the cruelty
of the local bullies and bad gentry in former days, and such being the white terror
they created in the countryside, how can one say that the peasants should not now
rise and shoot one or two of the local bullies and bad gentry and create just a little
reign of terror in order to suppress the counterrevolutionaries?

51. But there are many eyes and ears → But the peasantry, having many eyes and ears
52. Wang Zhize → Yang Zhize
53. Execute him directly → To agree to hand him over from prison, and the peasants
themselves executed him.
54. One or two → a few
55. In Yintian Temple, Xiangtan → In the town of Yintian of my native xian of
Xiangtan
56. One or two → A few

a. Prohibition on sending grain out of the area, forcing up grain prices, and
hoarding and cornering. This is one of the great events of recent months in the
economic struggle of the Hunan peasants. Since last October the poor peasants
have prevented the outflow of the grain of the landlords and rich peasants and
have banned the forcing up of grain prices and hoarding and cornering. As a
result, the poor peasants have fully achieved their objective; the ban on the
outflow of grain is indeed watertight, grain prices have already fallen considerably, and hoarding and cornering have disappeared. This has outraged the landlords, rich peasants, the merchants, and even the government, but this is done by
the broad peasant masses who make up 70 percent. In terms of their immediate
interests, they think it should be this way. The political and economic explanation of this matter I shall take up again later.

b. Prohibition on increasing rents and deposits; agitation for reduced rents
and deposits. Last July and August, when the peasant associations were still in an
era of weakness, the landlords, following their long-established practice of maximum exploitation, served notice one after another on their tenants that rents and
deposits would be increased. But by October, when the peasant associations had
grown considerably in strength and had all come out against the raising of
rents,57 the landlords dared not breathe another word on the subject. From November onwards, as the peasants have gained ascendancy over the landlords,
they have taken the further steps of agitating for reduced rents and deposits.
What a pity, all the peasants say, that the peasant associations were not strong
enough when rents were being paid last autumn, or we could have reduced them
then. The peasants are carrying out extensive propaganda for rent reduction in
the coming autumn, and the landlords are all asking how the reductions are to be
carried out. It is absolutely impossible for them to oppose this. As for the reduction of deposits, this is already under way in Hengshan and other xian.

c. Prohibition on cancelling tenancies. In July and August of last year there
were still many instances of landlords cancelling tenancies and reletting the land.
But after October, nobody dared cancel a tenancy. Today, the cancelling of tenancies
and the reletting of land are quite out of the question; all that remains as something
of a problem is whether a tenancy can be cancelled if the landlord wants to cultivate
the land himself. In some places even this is not allowed by the peasants. In others
the cancelling of a tenancy may be permitted if the landlord wants to cultivate the
land himself, but then the problem of unemployment among the tenant-peasants
arises. There is as yet no uniform way of solving this problem.

d. Reduction of interest. Interest has been generally reduced in Anhua, and
there have been reductions in all other xian, too. But wherever the peasant

57. Raising of rents → Raising rents and deposits

associations are powerful, the landlords, for fear that the money will be communized, have completely stopped lending, and virtually no loans are available in
the countryside. This is a big problem in the rural areas; it will be discussed
in some detail later. What is currently called reduction of interest is confined
to old loans. Not only is the interest on such old loans reduced, but the
creditor is actually forbidden to press for the repayment of the principal. The
poor peasant replies, "Don't blame me. The year is nearly over. I'll pay you
back next year."

4. Overthrowing the Feudal Politics58 of
the Local Bullies and Bad Gentry in the Rural Areas—
Smashing the Du and the Tuan

The old organs of rural administration59 in the du and tuan,60 and especially at
the du level (namely just below the xian level), used to be almost exclusively in
the hands of the local bullies and bad gentry. They61 had jurisdiction over a
population of from ten to fifty or sixty thousand people. They had their own
independent armed forces, such as the township defense corps; their own independent fiscal powers, such as the power to levy taxes;62 and their own judiciary,
which could freely arrest, imprison, try, and punish the peasants and so on. The
bad gentry who ran these organs of rural administration were virtual monarchs
of the countryside. Comparatively speaking, the peasants were not so much
concerned with the president of the republic, the provincial military governor, or
the xian magistrate; their real "bosses" were these rural monarchs. A mere
snort,63 and the peasants all knew they had to watch their step. As a consequence
of the present revolt in the countryside, the authority of the landlord class has
been struck down everywhere, and the organs of rural administration dominated
by the local bullies and bad gentry have naturally collapsed in its wake. The
heads of the du and the tuan all steer clear of the people, dare not show their
faces and hand all local matters over to the peasant associations. They put people
off with the remark, "It is none of my business!"

Whenever their conversation turns to the heads of the du and the tuan, the
peasants say angrily, "That bunch! They are finished!"
Yes, the term "finished" truly describes the state of the old organs of rural
administration wherever the storm of revolution has raged.

58. Feudal Politics → Feudal Rule
59. Organs of rural administration → Organs of political power in the countryside
60. Here the Selected Works adds a parenthetical remark: (i. e., the district and the
township)
61. They → The du
62. To levy taxes → To levy taxes per mou of land
63. Snort → Snort from these people

The armed forces of the landlord class were smaller in central Hunan than in the
western and southern parts of the province. An average of 600 rifles for each
xian would make a total of 45,000 rifles for all the seventy-five xian; there may,
in fact, be more than this number. In the southern and central parts where the
peasant movement is being developed, the landlord class cannot hold its own
because of the overwhelming momentum with which the peasants have risen,
and its armed forces have largely capitulated to the peasant associations and
taken the side of the peasants; examples of this are to be found in such xian as
Ningxiang, Pingjiang, Liuyang, Changsha, Liling, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang,
Anhua, Hengshan, and Hengyang. In some xian such as Baoqing and so on, a
small number of the landlords' armed forces are taking a neutral stand, though
still with a tendency to capitulate. Another small section are opposing the peasant associations, but the peasants are attacking them and may wipe them out
before long, as, for example, in such xian as Yizhang, Linwu, and Jiahe. At the
present time, stronger measures are being taken against these forces, which may
all be eradicated soon. The armed forces thus taken over from the reactionary
landlords are all being reorganized into a "standing household militia" and are
under the new organs of rural self-government, which are organs of the political
power of the peasantry. This "taking over these old armed forces" is one part of
building up an armed force of the peasantry. Even though some of them are still
struggling, the various xian in southern and central Hunan have no problems
any more. There are some problems only in western Hunan. In addition, there is
a new way for establishing an armed force of the peasants, which is through the
setting up of spear corps under the peasant associations. The spears have pointed,
double-edged blades mounted on long shafts, and there are now 100,000 of these
weapons in Xiangxiang xian alone. Other xian such as Xiangtan, Hengshan,
Liling, and Changsha have 70,000 to 80,000, or 50,000 to 60,000, or 30,000 to
40,000 each. In every xian where there is a peasant movement, the spears are
spreading rapidly. These peasants thus armed form an "irregular household militia." This multitude equipped with spears, which is larger than the old armed
forces mentioned above, is a newborn "thing,"64 the mere sight of which makes
the local tyrants and evil gentry shiver. The revolutionary authorities in Hunan
should see to it that this kind of thing65 is built up on a really extensive scale
among the more than 20 million peasants in the seventy-five xian of the province, that every peasant, whether young or in his prime, possesses a spear, and
that no restrictions are imposed as though a spear were something dreadful.
Anyone who is scared at the sight of the spear corps is indeed a weakling! Only

64. "Thing" → Armed force
65. This kind of thing → This armed power

the local bullies and bad gentry are frightened of them, but no revolutionaries
should take fright.

6. Overthrowing the Political Power of the xian
Magistrate and His Bailiffs

That only if the peasants rise can the xian government be cleaned up has already
been proved in Haifeng, Guangdong Province. On this occasion in Hunan, we
have obtained further ample proof. In a xian that is under the sway of the local
bullies and bad gentry, the magistrate, whoever he may be, is always66 a corrupt
official. In a xian where the peasants have risen there is clean government,
whoever the magistrate may be. In the xian I visited, the magistrates had to
consult the peasant associations on everything in advance. In xian where the
power of the peasant movement was very strong, the word of the peasant association worked miracles. If the peasant association demanded the arrest of a local
bully in the morning, the magistrate dared not delay till noon; if they demanded
it by noon, he dared not delay till the afternoon. When the power of the peasants
was just beginning to make itself felt in the countryside, the magistrate worked
in league67 with the local bullies and bad gentry. When the peasants' power grew
till it matched that of the landlords, the magistrate took the position of trying to
accommodate both sides, accepting some of the peasant association's suggestions while rejecting others. The remark that "the word of the peasants68 works
miracles" applies only when the power of the landlords has been completely
beaten down by that of the peasants. At present the political situation in xian
such as Xiangxiang, Xiangtan, Liling, and Hengshan is as follows:
a. All decisions are made by a joint council consisting of the magistrate and
the representatives of the revolutionary mass organizations. The council is convened by the magistrate and meets in his office. In some xian it is called the
"joint council of public bodies and the local government," and in others the
"council of xian affairs." Besides the magistrate himself, those attending but not
voting are the representatives of the xian peasant association, trade union council, merchant association, women's association, school staff association, student
association, and Guomindang party office. At such council meetings the magistrate is influenced by the views of the public organizations and "invariably does
their bidding." The adoption of a democratic committee system of xian government does69 not, therefore, present the slightest problem in Hunan. The present
xian governments are already quite "democratic" both in form and substance.
This situation has been brought about only in the last two or three months, that

66. Always → Almost always
67. Worked in league → Worked in league . . . against the peasants
68. The peasants → The peasant association
69. Does → Should

is, since the peasants have risen all over the countryside and overthrown the
power of the local bullies and bad gentry. It has now come about that the
magistrates, seeing their old props collapse and needing new props to retain their
posts, have begun to curry favor with the public organizations, and the situation
has changed as described above.

b. The judicial assistant has scarcely any cases to handle. The judicial system
in Hunan remains one in which the xian magistrate is concurrently in charge of
judicial affairs, with an assistant to help him in handling cases. To get rich, the
magistrate and his underlings used to rely entirely on "collecting taxes and
levies, procuring men and provisions for the armed forces," and "extorting
money in civil and criminal lawsuits by confounding right and wrong," the last
being the most regular and reliable source of income. In the last few months,
with the downfall of the local bullies and bad gentry, all the legal pettifoggers
have disappeared. What is more, the peasants' problems, big and small, are now
all settled in the peasant associations at the various levels. Thus the xian judicial
assistant simply has nothing to do. The one in Xiangxiang told me, "When there
were no peasant associations, an average of sixty civil or criminal suits were
brought to the xian government each day; now it receives an average of only four
or five suits a day." So it is that the purses of the magistrates and their underlings
perforce remain empty.

c. The armed guards, the police, and the bailiffs all keep out of the way and
dare not go near the villages to practice their extortions. In the past the people in
the villages were afraid of the people in the towns, but now the people in the
towns are afraid of the people in the villages. In particular the vicious curs kept
by the xian government the police, the armed guards, and the bailiffs are
afraid of going to the villages, or if they do so, they no longer dare to practice
their extortions. They tremble at the sight of the peasants' spears.

7. Overthrowing the Clan Authority of the Ancestral Temples
and Clan Elders, the Religious Authority of Town and
Village Gods, and the Masculine Authority of Husbands

A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of three systems of
authorities: (1) the state system (political authority), ranging from the national,
provincial, and xian government down to that of the township; (2) the clan
system (clan authority), ranging from the central ancestral temple and its branch
temples down to the head of the household; and (3) the supernatural system
(religious authority), ranging from the King of Hell down to the town and village
gods belonging to the nether world, and from the Emperor of Heaven down to all
the various gods and spirits belonging to the celestial world. As for women, in
addition to being dominated by these three, 70 they are also dominated by men

70. These three → These three systems of authority

(the authority of the husband). These four authorities-political, clan, religious,
and masculine are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideological
system,71 and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly
the peasants. How the peasants have overthrown the political authority of the
landlords in the countryside has been described above. The political authority of
the landlords is the backbone of all the other systems of authority. With the
politics72 of the landlords overturned, the clan authority, the religious authority,
and the authority of the husband all begin to totter. Where the peasant association is powerful, the clan elders and administrators of temple funds no longer
dare oppress those lower in the clan hierarchy or embezzle clan funds. The worst
clan elders and administrators, being local bullies, have been thrown out. No one
any longer dares to practice the corporal and capital punishments73 that used to
be inflicted in the ancestral temples, such as flogging, drowning, and burying
alive. The old rule barring women and poor people from the banquets in the
ancestral temples has also been broken. The women of Baiguo in Hengshan xian
gathered in force and swarmed into their ancestral temple, firmly planted their
backsides on the seats, and joined in the eating and drinking, while the venerable
clan bigwigs had willy-nilly to let them do as they pleased. At another place,
where poor peasants had been excluded from temple banquets, a group of them
flocked in and ate and drank their fill, while the local bullies and bad gentry and
other long-gowned gentlemen all took to their heels in fright. Everywhere religious authority totters as the peasant movement develops. In many places the
peasant associations have taken over the temples of the gods as their offices.
Everywhere they advocate the appropriation of temple property for peasant
schools and to defray the expenses of the associations, calling it "public revenue
from superstition." In Liling xian, prohibiting superstitious practices and smashing idols have become quite the vogue. In its northern districts the peasants have
prohibited the incense-burning processions to propitiate the god of pestilence.
There were many idols in the Daoist temple on Fubo Hill in Lukou, but when
extra premises were needed for the district party offices [of the Guomindang],
they were all piled up in a corner, big and small together, and no peasant raised
any objection. Since then, sacrifices to the gods, the performance of religious
rites, and the offering of sacred lamps have rarely been practiced when a death
occurs in a family. Because the initiative in this matter was taken by the chairman of the peasant association, Sun Xiaoshan, he is hated by the local Daoist
priests. In the Longfeng Nunnery in the North Third District, the peasants and
primary school teachers chopped up the wooden idols and actually used the
wood to cook meat. More than thirty idols in the Dongfu Monastery in the

71. Ideological system→ Ideology and system
72. Politics → Political authority
73. The corporal and capital punishments → The cruel corporal and capital punishments

Southern District were burned by the students and peasants together, and only
two small images of Bao Gong were snatched up by an old peasant who said,
"Don't commit a sin!" Everywhere it has always been the case that74 only the
older peasants and the women believe in the gods; all the younger peasants do
not.75 Since the latter control the associations, the overthrow of religious authority and the eradication of superstition are going on everywhere. As to the authority of the husband, this has always been weaker among the poor peasants
because, out of economic necessity, their womenfolk have to do more manual
labor than the women of the richer classes and therefore have more say and
greater power of decision in family matters. In sexual matters, they also have
relatively more freedom. Among the poor peasants in the countryside, triangular
and multilateral relationships are almost universal. With the increasing bankruptcy of the rural economy in recent years, the basis for men's domination over
women has already been weakened. With the rise of the peasant movement, the
women in many places have now begun to organize rural women's associations;
the opportunity has come for them to lift up their heads, and the authority of the
husband is getting shakier every day. In a word, the whole feudal-patriarchal
ideological system76 is tottering with the growth of the peasants' power. But in
the past and at the present time, the peasants are concentrating entirely on
destroying the landlords' political authority. Wherever it has been wholly destroyed, they are beginning to press their attack in the three other spheres of the
clan, the gods, and male domination. But such attacks have only just "begun,"
and there can be no thorough overthrow of all three until the peasants have won
complete victory in the economic fight. Therefore, our present task is to lead the
peasants to put their greatest efforts into the political struggle, so that the
landlords' authority is entirely overthrown. The economic struggle should follow
immediately, so that the economic problems77 of the poor peasants may be
fundamentally solved. As for smashing the clan system, superstitious ideas, and
one-sided concepts of chastity,78 this will follow as a natural consequence of
victory in the political and economic struggles. If too much of an effort is made
arbitrarily and prematurely to abolish these things, then the local bullies and bad
gentry will seize the pretext to put forward such slogans79 as "the peasant association has no piety towards ancestors," "the peasant association is blasphemous
and is destroying religion," and "the peasant association stands for the communization of wives," all for the purpose of undermining the peasant movement. A
case in point is the recent events at Xiangxiang, Hunan, and Yangxin, Hubei,

74. Everywhere it has always been the case that . . . → In places where the power of
the peasants is predominant, . . .
75. All the younger peasants do not → All the younger peasants no longer do so
76. Ideological system → Ideology and system
77. The economic problems → The land problem and the other economic problems
78. One-sided concepts of chastity → Incorrect relationships between men and women
79. Such slogans → Such counterrevolutionary slogans

where the landlords exploited the opposition of some peasants to smashing idols.
It is the peasants who made the idols, and when the time comes they will cast the
idols aside with their own hands; there is no need for anyone else to do it for
them prematurely. Our 80 propaganda policy in such matters is, "Draw the bow,
but do not release the arrow, having seemed to leap."81 The idols should be
removed by the peasants themselves, the ancestral tablets should be smashed by
the peasants themselves, the temples to martyred virgins and arches for chaste
and filial widows and daughters-in-law should be demolished by the peasants
themselves.82

While I was in the countryside, I did some propaganda against superstition
among the peasants. I said: "If you believe in the Eight Characters, you hope for
good luck; if you believe in geomancy, you hope to benefit from the location of
your ancestral graves. This year within the space of a few months the local
bullies, bad gentry, and corrupt officials have all fallen from power. Is it possible
that until a few months ago they all had good luck and enjoyed the benefit of
well-sited ancestral graves, while suddenly in the last few months their luck has
turned and their ancestral graves have ceased to exert a beneficial influence?
"The local bullies and bad gentry jeer at your peasant association and say,
'How odd! Today, the world is a world of committeemen. Look, you can't even
go to pass water without bumping into a committeeman!' Quite true, the towns
and the villages, the peasant associations and the labor unions, 83 the
Guomindang and the Communist Party, all without exception have their executive committee members it is indeed a world of committeemen. But is this
caused by the Eight Characters and the location of the ancestral graves? How
strange! The Eight Characters of all the poor wretches in the countryside have
suddenly turned auspicious! And their ancestral graves have suddenly started
exerting beneficial influences!
"The gods? Worship them by all means. But if you had only Lord Guan and
the Goddess of Mercy and no peasant association, could you have overthrown

80. Our → The Communist Party's
81. Mao here takes his text from the Mencius, VII, I, XLI, 3 (Legge, Vol. II, p. 474).
Legge adds the words "with it to the mark" after "having seemed to leap," to convey his
understanding of the passage. Couvreur (Les quatre livres, Vol. IV, p. 628) translates "Il
saute en quelque sorte"; his parenthetical explanation reads: "C'est-à-dire, le sage enseigne ses disciples beaucoup plus par ses examples que par ses paroles; il les précède
dans la voie, et avance comme par bonds." The moral that Mao wished to draw from the
passage is clear, in any case: the master illustrates the action to be taken, driving home the
message with dramatic gestures, but leaves it to the disciples to carry out the action. No
doubt he also had in mind a sentence which comes immediately after the one he cited:
"Those who are able, follow him."
82. By the peasants themselves → By the peasants themselves; it is wrong for anybody else to do it for them.
83. The peasant associations and the labor unions → The labor unions and the peasant
associations

the local tyrants and evil gentry? The 'gods' and 'goddesses' are indeed miserable objects. You have worshipped them for several thousand years, 84 and they
have not overthrown a single one of the local bullies or bad gentry for you! Now
you want to have your rent reduced. Let me ask you, what method will you use?
Will you place your faith in the gods, or in the peasant associations?"
When I spoke these words, the peasants laughed, and in the midst of their
laughter, I imagined that the gods and idols all fled from sight.

8. Spreading Political Propaganda
Even if ten thousand schools of law and political science had been opened, could
they have brought as much political education to the people, men and women,
young and old, all the way into the poorest and remotest corners of the countryside, as the peasant associations have done in so short a time? I think they
certainly could not have. Down with imperialism! Down with the warlords!
Down with the corrupt officials! Down with the local bullies and bad gentry!-
these political slogans have grown wings, they have found their way to the
young, the middle-aged, and the old, to the women and children in countless
villages, they have penetrated into their minds and flowed back from their minds
into their mouths. Suppose, for example, you watch a group of children at play. If
one gets angry with another, if he glares, stamps his foot, and shakes his fist, you will
then immediately hear from the other the shrill cry: "Down with imperialism!"
In the Xiangtan area, when the children who pasture the cattle get into a fight,
one will take the part of Tang Shengzhi and the other that of Ye Kaixin. 85 When,
after a while, one is defeated and runs away with the other chasing him, it is the
pursuer who is Tang Shengzhi and the pursued Ye Kaixin. As to the song "Down
with the Imperialist Powers...," of course almost every child in the towns can
sing it, and now many village children can sing it too. Some of the peasants can
also recite a little of Mr. Sun Yatsen's Testament. They pick out from it the
terms "freedom," "equality," "the Three People's Principles," and "unequal treaties" and apply them, if rather crudely, in their life. When somebody who looks
like one of the gentry encounters a peasant on the road and stands on his dignity,
refusing to make way along a pathway, the peasant will say angrily, "Hey, you
local bully, don't you know the Three People's Principles?"
Formerly, when the peasants from the vegetable farms on the outskirts of
Changsha entered the city to sell their produce, they used to be pushed around by

84. Several thousand years → Several hundred years
85. As indicated above, in note 15 to the present text, Tang Shengzhi had forced Zhao
Hengti to resign the governorship to him in March 1926. Zhao thereupon appealed for aid
to his principal ally, Wu Peifu, who sent a strong force from Hubei under the command of
Ye Kaixin (like Tang Shengzhi a Hunanese). On May 2, Ye's troops entered Changsha,
and continued to press their attack southward. Tang Shengzhi responded by aligning
himself with the Guomindang, was appointed commander in chief of front line operations
for the Northern Expedition, and had soon fought his way back to Changsha. By early
July, Tang was firmly reestablished as governor, and Ye Kaixin had retreated to Wuhan.

the police. Now they can find a weapon, which is no other than the Three People's
Principles. When a policeman strikes or swears at a peasant from a vegetable farm,
the peasant from the vegetable farm immediately answers back by invoking the
Three People's Principles and the policeman has not a word to say. Once in
Xiangtan, when a district peasant association and a township peasant association
could not see eye to eye about a certain matter, the chairman of the township
association declared: "Down with the district peasant association's unequal treaties!"

The spread of political propaganda throughout the rural area is entirely an
achievement of the peasant associations.86 Simple slogans, cartoons, and
speeches have produced such a widespread and speedy effect among the peasants that it is as though every one of them had been to a political school.
According to the reports of comrades engaged in rural work, the influence of
extensive political propaganda was to be found in the three great mass movements:87 the anti-British demonstration, the celebration of the October Revolution, and the victory celebration for the Northern Expedition. In these
movements, political propaganda was conducted extensively wherever there
were peasant associations, arousing the whole countryside. Consequently, the
impact was very great. From now on, care should be taken to make use of every
opportunity gradually to enrich the content and clarify the meaning of the simple
slogans mentioned above!

9. Peasant Bans and Prohibitions
When the peasant associations88 establish their authority in the countryside, the
peasants begin to forbid strictly or to restrict the things they dislike. Gaming,
gambling, and opium smoking are the three things that are most strictly forbidden.

Gaming: Where the peasant association is powerful, mahjong, dominoes, and
card games are wholly banned.
The peasant association in the Fourteenth District of Xiangxiang burned two
basketfuls of mahjong [pieces].
If you go to the countryside, you will find none of these games played;
anyone who violates the ban is promptly and strictly punished.

Gambling: Former hardened gamblers are now themselves forcefully suppressing gambling; this abuse, too, has been swept away in places where the
peasant association is powerful.

Opium smoking: The prohibition is extremely strict. When the peasant association orders the surrender of opium pipes, no one dares to raise the least objection. In Liling xian, one of the bad gentry who did not surrender his pipes was
arrested and paraded through the villages.

--- Notes

Our source for this document is the reproduction in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, pp.
255-57, of the text as displayed at the Museum of the History of the Chinese Revolution.


1. These are the same terms used in Mao's longer report on the Hunan peasant movement, translated below.

2. Emphasized by the use of dots next to the characters in the original.

3. This entire sentence in Chinese is identical with that in Mao's longer report on the
Hunan peasant movement. See the following text.


4. Here (and throughout this passage) the Guomindang is designated in the Chinese
text by the letters "K.M.T.," standing for Kuomintang. This was common usage in CCP
documents of the time.

5. The text here has the letters CP.


6. A secret society, descended from the Heaven and Earth Society (Tiandihui), widespread in the Yangtze valley. The term may stand here for secret societies in general.


The full text of this report was first published in Zhanshi, a weekly put out by the Hunan
District Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Nos. 35-36, 38, and 39, between
March 5 and April 3, 1927 (see Nianpu, Vol. 1, p. 284). Our translation is based on the
text in Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 1, pp. 207-49, which is taken from the 1944 and 1947 editions
of Mao's Selected Works.

1. Although this text is dated March 1927 in the Selected Works, and was first published in March, it was almost certainly written in February. As indicated below, the
investigation on which it is based took place between January 4 and February 5, 1927. On
February 16, Mao produced the report to the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee
translated above, which ends with the statement that he will be writing a longer report
during the next few days. The version of Parts I and II of this report published in Xiangdao
No. 191, March 12, 1927, carries the parenthetical indication after the title: "Correspondence of February 18 from Changsha." That date is perhaps as likely as any, but since it is
not otherwise confirmed, we give simply the month.
The variants between what Mao originally wrote in 1927, and the text as he revised it
for publication in 1951, are indicated below by the devices explained in the "Note on
Sources and Conventions" which appears at the beginning of this volume. One exception
should, however, be noted. In the new version, the main headings, "I. Rural Revolution,"
and "II. The Revolutionary Vanguard," have been eliminated. To indicate this by setting
these headings in italics would lead to confusion with the next level of subheadings, which
appear in italic bold throughout the volume. We have, however, put in Roman the second
half of subheading 112, which has been dropped in the Selected Works. Other changes in

2. Every province in all of China → Many other places


86. The peasant associations → The Communist Party and the peasant associations

87. Mass movements → Mass rallies

88. The peasant associations → The peasant associations, under the leadership of the
Communist Party