(June 1930)

I. The Problem of Vagabonds Has Become a Grave Issue in the Struggle

In various localities, especially in the Red Army, the problem of vagabonds has
become a very grave issue as the struggle develops. Many comrades have expressed incorrect points of view regarding this problem, saying such things as
"The vagabonds know how to fight; we should not exclude them"; "People of all
sorts may join, all we have to do is deal with anyone who breaks the rules"; "As
long as the officers do a good job of leading, the organizational makeup of the
troops is not important"; "Don't attack the vagabonds right now; it won't be too
late to attack them when there are general uprisings"; and so on. Such erroneous
viewpoints often crop up in the Red Army. The vagabond elements in the Red
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, pp. 135-39, where it is reproduced from a documentary collection published in China in 1982. No earlier version is
known to exist.
1. The social category under discussion in this text, liumang, is now commonly translated and understood in China as "hooligan," but its meaning in 1930 was broader. The
term might be rendered as "vagrant ruffian," but liumang evokes people in either of these
categories, in other words those who are drifters, rogues, or both. It is difficult to find a
precise English equivalent, but "vagabond," for which the Oxford English Dictionary
gives the definition "leading an unsettled, irregular, or disreputable life," seems as appropriate as any. More commonly, Mao refers to these people as youmin, using an expression
which has the rather similar meaning of "floating elements." This latter term is sometimes
rendered as "lumpenproletariat," but we have consistently translated it in our edition as
"vagrants." When, however, Mao combines liumang or youmin with wuchanjieji (proletariat) or wuchanzhe (proletarians), and speaks, for example, of liumang wuchanjieji, we
have used Marx's term of "lumpenproletariat." Mao's approach to the problem in this text
is very different from that which he had adopted earlier, especially in his essay "An
Analysis of the Various Classes among the Chinese Peasantry and Their Attitudes Toward
the Revolution" of January 1926, translated in Volume II, pp. 303-09. There he listed five
of the same categories that he enumerates here-soldiers, bandits, thieves, beggars, and
prostitutes and concluded: "These people are capable of fighting very bravely, and if a
method can be found for leading them, they can become a revolutionary force."
Army have produced many erroneous political and organizational concepts such
as roving-rebelism, the purely military viewpoint, flightism, the policy of burning and killing, the policy of corporal punishment, a system of severe treatment,
individual hedonism, individual heroism, small-groupism, and ultrademocracy,
which are extremely harmful to the revolution. Especially at this time, when the
high tide of revolution is approaching swiftly, and it is increasingly urgent to
prepare for a general uprising in the whole country to achieve nationwide victory, the future of the struggle will be fraught with dangers if all forms of right
opportunist vagabond consciousness are not overcome, and the vagabond elements are not cleaned out.

II. The Social Status and Role of the Vagabonds

Many comrades are very confused in their concept of vagabonds; lacking a clear
understanding of vagabonds, they are unable to determine a correct policy toward them. Therefore, a detailed analysis of vagabonds is a precondition for
determining a policy toward them.

A. The Origin of Vagabonds

The brutal exploitation by imperialism in semicolonial China has led to widespread bankruptcy among peasants and handicraft workers, thus creating an
enormous mass of unemployed. Since there can be no large-scale national industries to absorb them, these unemployed masses have no way out, and this gives
rise to large numbers of vagabonds.

B. The Social Occupations and the Characteristics of Vagabonds

Vagabonds have approximately thirty illegitimate occupations, such as: (1) bandits;
(2) thieves; (3) prostitutes; (4) mercenary soldiers; (5) opera performers; (6) errand runners; (7) gamblers; (8) beggars (there are large masses of the above eight
categories; the categories below contain relatively few people); (9) court henchmen;
(10) baojia henchmen; (11) witnesses (with certain exceptions); (12) opium shop
owners; (13) opium shop assistants; (14) diviners; 2 (15) fortune-tellers;
(16) physiognomists; (17) geomancers (with certain exceptions); (18) jugglers
or acrobats; (19) remedy and ointment peddlers; (20) martial arts demonstrators
(with very few exceptions); (21) itinerant teachers; (22) hired snoops; (23) kidnappers; (24) vandals; (25) matchmakers; (26) traders in human beings;
(27) monks (with certain exceptions); (28) Daoist priests (with certain exceptions); (29) witches; (30) Christian converts (with certain exceptions).

2. Diviners (buguade) foretold the future by the Eight Diagrams; the next category,
fortunetellers (suanmingde), might do so by various methods.
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