Peasant Movement at Present
Central Committee Circular,¹ Peasant Series, No. 9
(July 20, 1927)
that the Chinese revolution has entered a new stage, the stage of agrarian revolution. The agrarian revolution is, quite simply, a process. The development of this
process requires a democratic political power of the workers, peasants, and petty
bourgeoisie led by the proletariat and an armed force of the workers and peasants. At present, this revolution has encountered a setback in China. The reasons
are that (a) the leadership of the proletariat is not yet firmly established; in other
words, the subjective organizational capacity of the proletariat is not sufficient
for leading this revolutionary alliance of workers, peasants, and petty bourgeoisie; (b) an armed force of the workers and peasants has not been established;
(c) our Party has made the mistake of having wavering and uncertain policies;
(d) the class nature of the Wuhan Central Committee of the Guomindang, the
We have translated this document from Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji (Selected
Documents of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party), Vol. 3 (1927)
(Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1989), pp. 216-22. There the
source is given as the original mimeographed text in the Party archives, corrected in one
instance on the basis of the version that appeared in the Shaanxi shengwei tongxun (Bulletin of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee), No. 6, March 10, 1928. Neither of these early
publications is available to us. The text followed here is slightly more complete and
accurate than one published in 1983, which is reproduced in the Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan,
Vol. 9, especially as regards section (7).
National Government, and the so-called revolutionary army is that they are the
representatives of the landlord class and cannot shoulder the new historical task,
the agrarian revolution. They have gone from restricting the worker and peasant
movements to the completely counterrevolutionary stance of opposing and killing the workers and peasants. This betrayal is historically inevitable and shows
that the deepening of the revolution is in no way surprising. The duty of our
Party can consist only in waging resolute struggles against this new counterrevolution, gathering together all revolutionary forces, and carrying out the revolution in
its new stage, the agrarian revolution. This is the objective situation of the revolution
at present, which requires us to give an answer in the form of new tactics.
new and old warlords. The burdens of over ten years of wars among the new and
old warlords and the economic aggression of imperialism have been imposed
mainly on the poor peasants. In the north, heavy taxes and levies have already
made the majority of peasants abandon their land, so they cannot earn a living. In
the various provinces of the south, the sufferings of the peasants are no different
from those of the peasants in the north. Such freedoms as were won after repeated struggles have been completely taken away again. Whether in the south
or in the north, the majority of the poor peasants (tenant peasants, semi-owner
peasants, farm laborers, unemployed peasants, and the majority of ownerpeasants²) who suffered excessive oppression have already awakened and are
fighting their enemies everywhere. Especially in the south, since the killings by
Li Jishen³ and Tang Shengzhi, the peasants' resistance and struggle have become more heroic and resolute. At the same time, new and old warlords, because
of the conflicts among them and their internal contradictions, cannot establish a
unified reactionary political regime. On the contrary, they now continue to collapse rapidly one after another. Therefore, the national revolutionary tide, though
seemingly at a temporary low ebb, is actually rising. The present counterrevolutionary situation is only a reflection of the class conflicts at a time when the
revolution has entered the period of solving the land question. Only by taking a
resolute stand on behalf of this agrarian revolution can our Party lead the advance of this revolutionary tide. How can we develop the tide of the agrarian
revolution? This goal can be reached only by quickly grasping the objective
conditions, seizing every opportunity, raising appropriate slogans, and leading
the broad masses to continue the struggle without interruption.5 At present, the
Henan, owner-peasants and semi-owner peasants account for the majority. They
are increasingly bankrupt under the misery of harsh taxes and levies and become
bandits or flee to other provinces. In these places, we should regard the ownerpeasants, poor peasants, tenant peasants, and farm laborers as the center in uniting all the impoverished popular masses in the countryside, together with the
small landlords, in a fighting alliance to oppose all heavy taxes and miscellaneous levies and advance payments of money and grain, oppose all requisitions
in time of war, and reduce rent by 25 percent. At the same time, following on
from the development of these struggles, we should move forward to seize
political power in the countryside, seize weapons, and even confiscate the land
of all ancestral halls, monasteries, despotic gentry and big landlords, and counterrevolutionaries, and redistribute it among the peasants and tenants without
compensation.
In the southern provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, tenant
peasants are the majority, followed by owner-peasants and semi-owner peasants.
Tenant peasants are exploited by the landlords' heavy rent, while owner-peasants
and small landlords are exploited in the extreme by the taxes and levies of the
warlords. We should immediately, under the slogans of reducing rents "by 25
percent," and of resisting vexatious levies and taxes and taxation in advance,
carry out rent and tax strikes. On the one hand, this will serve to lay bare the
hypocritical features of the Wuhan and Nanjing governments' reduction of rent
and taxes. On the other hand, it will enable us to unite all the impoverished
popular masses in the countryside, including the small landlords, around the
nucleus of tenant peasants, owner-peasants, and poor peasants, in order to deal
heavy blows to the local bullies and bad gentry, greedy officials and corrupt
bureaucrats, to seize political power and arms in the countryside, under the
peasants' associations, and even to confiscate all land belonging to despotic
gentry and big landlords, counterrevolutionaries, and all ancestral halls and monasteries, in order to promote the agrarian revolution. This is the slogan which we
should now propagate with all our might, concentrating the forces of the peasant
masses in order to realize it.
Everywhere without exception, the struggle to oppose usurious loans with
annual interest exceeding 20 percent should be carried out thoroughly, because
this is the common demand of all the oppressed popular masses.
power is a main characteristic of this process. Only through a struggle to seize
political power can the rule of the feudal landlords in the countryside be overthrown, can the explosion of the land question be accelerated, and can a powerful organ be provided to resolve this issue. In various southern provinces such as
Guangdong and Hunan, though the main characteristic of the peasant movement
has already become the expropriation of the big landlords, it is in fact impossible
to solve the land question on its own if the peasants have not grasped political
power. According to the experiences in Hunan and Guangdong, this analysis is
absolutely correct.
What is called the struggle for political power means establishing the revolutionary democracy of the peasants, or in other words, establishing the political
power of the peasants' associations. In the history of the peasant movement in
China, the peasants' associations are no longer an occupational organization, but
are rural political alliances with the poor peasants as the backbone. The reason is
that in fact the peasants' associations have united not only the ordinary peasants
(those who cultivate the land and those who are unemployed), including handicraft workers, primary school teachers, and small merchants, but also those small
landlords who have freed themselves from the influence of the big landlords and
expressed sympathy for the peasants' associations. Therefore, the peasants' associations are currently the revolutionary political alliance of the poor peasants
with the rest of the petty bourgeoisie in the countryside, the political power of
the peasants' associations. This is a correct form of political power in the countryside, and we must begin realizing it everywhere in practice.
of Hunan and Hubei, a few points for special attention regarding the organization
of peasants' associations should be stated:
a) In every province, the peasant movement should concentrate our
human and financial resources in the areas that are important from a political, military, or communications standpoint, so as to set up central bases
for leading the movement in the whole province. It is better to deepen the
movement in these areas, at the expense of a temporary delay in expansion; we must absolutely not pursue expansion alone and forget the work
in the central bases.
b) In addition to uniting ordinary peasant masses, handicraft workers, primary school teachers, and small merchants, the peasants' associations have
also included small landlords under certain conditions. We must, however,
pay attention to the composition of the leading organs of the peasants' associations at all levels. Generally speaking, small landlords are not admitted to the
leading organs. In addition, tenant peasants, poor owner-peasants, and unemployed peasants should each make up at least one-fifth of the members of the
executive committees of district associations. It is necessary to elect primary
school teachers to the executive committees of district associations. 8
c) The peasants' associations at all levels should set up women's departments and youth departments. The children's movement and children's
organizations are completely under the direction of the youth department
of the peasants' associations. Female peasants are to join the peasants'
associations, and a separate body for women is not to be organized.
struggle of the peasants' associations for political power and in the agrarian
revolution. But the present so-called revolutionary armies are in fact led by
reactionary officers who represent the landlord class and are slaughtering the
peasants everywhere. Armed clashes have already become an extremely widespread phenomenon in the peasant movement and are therefore a most serious
and urgent issue at the present stage of the peasant movement. Any participant in
the peasant movement who has neither given 120 percent of his attention to this
issue, nor sought a correct answer to it, has in fact not prepared for the victory of
the peasant revolution. The Party headquarters at all levels should use all sorts of
methods to provide military training to the peasants and to enable them to arm
themselves. We now point out a few important ways of doing this:
a) Using various methods to seize weapons from the landlord class and
all counterrevolutionaries and to arm the peasants with them.
b) Brave and trained members of the peasants' associations may join
the armies in an organized way to receive military training and to carry out
the work of undermining the army organizations and seizing their weapons
by various methods.
c) The above methods may be also adopted with regard to the military
forces of the landlord class, such as the militia headquarters [tuanfangju]
and the local militia [baoweituan], when it is impossible to take over their
arms immediately.

--- Notes
during the period of active collaboration between the Communists and the "Left
Guomindang" in Wuhan, from March to June 1927. On July 15, 1927, at an enlarged
session of the Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee, the Wuhan
Guomindang resolved to exclude Communists from their party, and this decision was
made public on the following day. The present circular outlines the tactics laid down by
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and by the Peasant Department of
the Central Committee, in response to the situation thus created. It was probably not
drafted by Mao Zedong, but he was involved in the Peasant Committee, and undoubtedly
made a contribution to shaping this text. His influence is reflected, in particular, in subsection d.iii of paragraph 6, which echoes his call of July 4, 1927, for "going up the mountains," translated above.
governor of Guangdong.
translation of Trotsky's "permanent revolution" (buduan geming). It reflects the general
climate in the Party in the autumn of 1927, when the Central Committee, headed by Qu
Qiubai, called for wujieduan geming, "uninterrupted revolution."
impetus for promoting the agrarian revolution should come from slogans such as
"refuse to hand in heavy taxes and supplementary levies," "refuse to pay in
money and grain in advance," "reduce rent by 25 percent," "abolish usury,"
"confiscate the land of big landlords, local bullies and bad gentry, and counterrevolutionaries," "take over ancestral halls and monasteries and all other public land," "carry out [the policy of] land to the tiller," "down with greedy
officials and corrupt bureaucrats," "down with the local bullies and bad gentry,"
"down with new and old warlords," "implement revolutionary democracy, "
"establish the political power of the peasants' associations in the countryside,"
"elect xian governments,” “disarm the reactionary armies," "restore the peasants'
associations," "arm the peasants," "peasants have the freedoms of assembly,
association, speech, publication, and resisting rent and taxes."
Principles," a term commonly used at this time by Mao and others to convey the idea of
democracy.
this is probably wrong, but offers no guess as to what the correct character might be. The
version in the Bujuan has dihu, or "rural household." "Tenants" seems as good a solution
as any, but the situation remains obscure.
primary school teacher and the principal of a primary school.


--- Notes

1) The development of the peasant movement in recent years has already shown

2) The peasants of the whole country are now gasping for breath under the

4) The agrarian revolution is simply a process, and the struggle for political

5) In light of the experience of the peasant movements in the two provinces

6) Only if there is a revolutionary armed force can victory be assured in the

1. Volume II of this edition ended with a series of documents illustrating Mao's role

2. Zigengnong, literally, "peasants who cultivate their own land."

3. Li Jishen (1886–1959), zi Renchao, a native of Jiangsu, was at this time military

4. On Tang Shengzhi, see the relevant note to the text of July 4, 1927.

5. Buduan de douzheng. The adverb used here is the same as that in the Chinese

3) In the various northern provinces such as Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, and

6. Literally, "people's rights" (minquan), the second of Sun Yatsen's "Three People's

7. The term which appears here in our source is dizhu, "landlord." A note indicates that

8. This recommendation may not be unrelated to the fact that Mao himself had been a