23. Mao here uses the Roman letter C to stand for “Communist” in the Chinese text.
The War between Chiang Kaishek and
the Guangxi Warlords
(To the Tune of "Clear Calm Music")¹
(Autumn 1929)

A sudden shift in wind and clouds,
And the warlords have renewed their conflicts.
Scattering only enmity upon the world,
Yet another yellow millet dream is dreamt.²

Red flags have leapt across the Ting River,³
Straight down to Longyan and Shanghang.⁴
A piece of the golden cup⁵ has been restored,
Now we are truly busy sharing out the land.

This poem was first published in Renmin wenxue, May 1962. We have translated it from
Shici duilian, pp. 26-28.
1. When this poem was first published (along with five others) in People's Literature,
each ci had a "tune title" but no subject title (for the convention of "tune title" [cipai], see
note 1 to Mao's 1927 poem, "Autumn Harvest Uprising"). Under the general heading for
all six poems, there appeared an "author's note," as follows: "These six ci were composed
by humming them out on horseback between 1929 and 1931, and then were all forgotten.
The comrades of the editorial board of People's Literature have collected them and sent
them to me, wishing to publish them. I have made minor changes in them. April 27,
1962."
2. "Yellow millet dream," meaning something like "a pipe dream," comes from a
popular story of the Tang dynasty in which a poor scholar who complains to a Daoist of
his misfortunes is given a pillow upon which to lay his head and sleep. When he wakes
from a dream of great fortune, the millet put on to cook before his nap is not yet done.
3. Tingzhou, which the Red Army had captured on March 14, 1929 (see, in particular,
the report of March 20, 1929), is located on the Ting River in Fujian.
4. Longyan and Shanghang are xian in Fujian Province taken by the Red Fourth Army
in May and June, 1929.
5. The image of a golden cup is used to signify the territorial integrity of the nation.
(This metaphor is attributed to the first emperor of the Liang dynasty, during the period of
the Northern and Southern dynasties.) Mao's idea is that, by setting up a soviet régime, he
and his comrades had reclaimed at least a small fragment of the country for the real China.

Double Ninth Festival
(To the Tune of "Picking Mulberries")¹
(October 1929)

Men grow old; heaven ages not,
Year after year comes the Double Ninth.
Today is Double Ninth again,
On the battlefield, yellow flowers² most fragrant.

Once a year comes the relentless autumn wind,
Resembling not the glories of spring.
And yet more glorious than spring,
River and sky a vast expanse, ten thousand leagues of frost.³

This is another of the six poems first published in Renmin wenxue, May 1962. We have
translated it from Shici duilian, pp. 29–30.
1. The Double Ninth Festival occurs on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar
calendar (in 1929 it fell on October 11) and is traditionally celebrated with feasting,
mountain climbing, and chrysanthemum viewing.
2. I.e., chrysanthemums.
3. An allusion may be intended here to the chrysanthemum, for which one name is
shuangxia jie, “hero under the frost.”