The Problem of the Rich Peasants after
Land Redistribution (The Situation in
Yongxin and Beilu) 1
Report by Wang Huai and Chen Zhengren,
as noted by Mao Zedong
(October 1930)
Exploitation by the rich peasants in the Red areas in Yongxin is carried out, first,
through hoarding grain and, second, by selling industrial products. There are two
ways of hoarding grain: (1) hoarding one's own surplus grain and (2) buying
poor peasants' grain at cheap prices. This year's serious spring famine was
caused in this way. Since rich peasants will hoard grain, and the government sets
the maximum grain prices, they hide away their grain altogether, to the point
where once the poor residents and workers in the cities ate rice gruel for a whole
week. Unable to get rice, the farm laborers and poor peasants in the countryside
also went hungry. Later, the leadership of the xian soviet led a spring famine
struggle, fought the rich peasants resolutely, and made no concessions to them,
in a determined effort to bring down grain prices. The Party played a role in each
district and township, organizing young pioneers to dig out the hidden grain;
they found a large amount of grain concealed by rich peasants in wine barrels,
hollow walls, straw huts, clay-brick yards, and underneath their beds. As a result,
there was not only enough grain to eat, but even a surplus. When new grain was
harvested, rich peasants, one after another, hauled the old grain to the cities for
sale. In the small business of selling industrial products, rich peasants make an
enormous profit, mainly from salt, machine-knitted socks, towels, sugar, soap,
and so on. They have capital and all kinds of old social connections. Rich
peasants can do things that poor peasants and farm laborers cannot.
Our source for this report is Mao Zedong nongcun diaocha wenji, pp. 252-53, which
reproduces the text as it appears in the 1941 Yan'an edition of Nongcun diaocha, with
helpful annotations.
1. In March 1930, the Southwest Jiangxi Special Committee had set up Eastern, West-ern, Southern, and Northern Route action committees, under its own control, to help in the
task of leadership. The reference here is to the area controlled by the Beilu or Northern
Route Action Committee.
2. This observation was added by Mao himself to the text as published in 1941.
592


OCTOBER 1930
593
(The above is reported by Wang Huai; what follows is reported by Chen
Zhengren. )1
Not only is it like this in Yongxin, it is the same in Beilu. There, too, a spring
famine struggle was waged this year. Rich peasants made money in business,
just as in Yongxin. In Futian there is a shop called the Jiuru Tang; the owner is a
small capitalist. When there was a shortage of salt in Beilu, he went to Nanchang
to buy salt. When there is no ink or paper, he can also get them in Nanchang.
Because he has been able to establish contact with the head of the Guomindang's
self-defense corps,4 he has old social connections. The salt and other goods he
sells are all very high-priced. During June and July, his salt is sold for as much as
six hundred cash per jin. He has two sewing machines, which have deprived the
tailors in Futian of work, so they are all against him. Moreover, because his
prices are too high, the municipal soviet of Futian, at the demand of the masses,
arrested him and fined him one thousand yuan. Having paid the fine, he continues to do business in Futian. After Ji'an was liberated, his business grew even
bigger. At the time of the spring famine in Beilu, rich peasants sold grain to the
White areas. The spring famine struggle was to stop grain from flowing into the
White areas, and allow it to circulate only between the Red areas.
3. Wang Huai (1906-1932) was a native of Jiangxi, who had joined the Chinese
Communist Party in 1926. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Southwest
Jiangxi Special Committee from March to October 1930. Chen Zhengren (1907-1972), a
native of Jiangxi, had joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925. In October 1928, he
became deputy secretary of the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Area Special Committee. He was
secretary of the Northern Route Action Committee of Southwest Jiangxi from May to
October 1930; in October, he became head of the Propaganda Department of the Jiangxi
Provincial Action Committee.
4. The "self-defense corps" [shouwang dui] was an organization that the landlords
forced the peasants to join for the purpose of sabotaging the Red areas.