Notice to Merchants and Intellectuals
(March 16, 1929)
Fellow-merchants:
Fellow-intellectuals:
1) The Red Army led by the Communist Party has come to where you are.
How is the Communist Party going to deal with you? How are you going to deal
with the Communist Party? How are you going to deal with the revolution?


2) The revolution led by the Communist Party at the present time is called the
democratic revolution. It aims to overthrow three counterrevolutionary things.
The first aim is to overthrow imperialism. Foreigners should not be allowed to
perpetrate violence in China. China should be managed by Chinese, and foreigners should not be allowed to control it. The second aim is to overthrow the
landlord class. The rent collection system should be abolished, and land should
be fairly distributed among the peasants. The third aim is to overthrow the
Guomindang government and establish a worker-peasant-soldier government.
These are the three great tasks in the struggle the Communist Party is now
leading.


3) You should not be terrified at the enunciation of these three tasks. Not
only should you not be terrified but you should welcome them wholeheartedly.
The worker and peasant classes long for the accomplishment of these three tasks,
and you will derive great benefit from it as well. Do you understand your position? You are the petty bourgeoisie in a semicolony. Imperialism is oppressing
China, and foreign goods are constantly imported, so that Chinese industry and
commerce have been unable to develop. Can you imagine how great the benefits
to you will be when the imperialists are overthrown? The land has been concentrated in the hands of the semifeudal class who exact heavy rents and interest, so
that the peasants are extremely poor and the people in the countryside do not
have money to buy goods in the city. Consequently, the industries and businesses
in the city cannot develop fully. If the landlord class is overthrown, and the
tenancy system eliminated, the peasants will have the entire harvest, and their
buying power will be greatly increased. Just think, won't business in the cities
enjoy great development? The Guomindang and its government are lackeys of
This document has been translated from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, pp. 17-20, which
has taken it from three documentary collections published in China between the years
1979 and 1981. No contemporary text appears to be available.
the imperialists, and they represent the landlord class. If the Guomindang and its
government are overthrown, the imperialists will lose their running dogs, and the
landlord class will have no one to represent them. When the worker-peasant-soldier government seizes political power, then there will be hope for the success of
the democratic revolution (the revolution that eliminates imperialists and the
landlord class). Don't you think this would benefit you?


4) The Communist Party's policy on the cities is to abolish exorbitant taxes
and levies and protect the commercial dealings of the merchants. During the
revolution, only the big merchants, not the small merchants, will be requested to
help raise funds to provide military supplies. The possessions of the reactionaries
in the cities (the running dogs of the warlords, the corrupt bureaucrats, leading
Guomindang officials, scabs, and renegade peasants and students¹) will be confiscated. The same thing will happen to local bullies who exact rents and heavy
interest in the countryside while they themselves reside in the cities. As for
ordinary merchants and the petty bourgeoisie, their possessions will remain untouched. But these ordinary merchants and the petty bourgeoisie in general
should support the worker-peasant revolution, accept the leadership of the
worker and peasant classes, and strive together to accomplish the three great
tasks of overthrowing imperialism, the landlord class, and the Guomindang government. Do not be two-faced, paying lip service but harboring enmity within.
You must know that the democratic revolution led by the Communist Party is bound
to succeed and will succeed quickly. If you disobey now, you will embark on the
counterrevolutionary path and will assuredly have no place to stand in the future.


5) The only way out for intellectuals is also to join the worker-peasant revolution. If the intellectuals are willing to take part in the revolution, the workerpeasant classes will always accept them, and they will be given more or less
important work, in accordance with their talents. The Red Army Political Department is recruiting a great number of political workers. Those students, teachers, and staff members who are willing to endure hardships and dare to struggle
may all join the Red Army and do political work.


6) War between Chiang Kaishek and the Guangxi faction has already broken
out in Hunan and Hubei. The new nationwide war among the warlords has
already been initiated. The Guomindang, which deceives the popular masses, has
completely disintegrated. The Three Principles of the People are absolute rubbish,2 and the unification of the whole country is stinking talk. The running dogs
of the Americans, the Chiang and Feng [Yuxiang] factions, the running dogs of
the British, the Guangxi faction, and the running dogs of the Japanese, the
Fengtian and Yan Xishan factions, have begun a confused struggle against one

--- Notes

1. Gongzei, nongzei, xuezei. The first of these three terms is the standard expression for
scab or strikebreaker. The other two compounds are not commonly used, but obviously
have the same sense of renegade, traitor to one's class, and so on.

2. Goupi, literally, "dog fart."