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Investigations in Dongtang and Other Places
(November 8, 1930)1

the basic unit. The method of redistribution which uses the village as the basic
unit favors rich peasants, and is disadvantageous to poor peasants; it should be
changed.

1. Investigation in Dongtang

Dongtang Village is in the 15th township of Tongshui district in Jishui xian.
There are one thousand households, or three thousand people, in the township.
Land has been redistributed using the village as the basic unit.

There are 290 people in this village.
The village government has its chairman and secretary, both support themselves at their own expense.
give up 3 dou 4 sheng of land.
From the city of Ji'an to Jingtan, Tongshui and Futian, almost every family in
this area about seventy to eighty li in diameter has women employed in
weaving cloth; they produce a huge amount, using the yarns (foreign-made)
supplied to the peasant families by businessmen, rich peasants and landlords.
The process of the capitalist destruction of the family cottage industry is not
over yet.

2. Investigation in Daqiao

[Daqiao] is under the jurisdiction of the ninth township of Jingtan district in
Jishui xian; it is fifty li from Ji'an.
The district is divided into thirteen townships.
This township is divided into five villages.

```

This village is called Daqiao.
The chairman of the township government is Sun Xiu'en.
cannot be grown on two-thirds of the land since there is no water. The land on
which the second-crop rice can be grown and the land on which it cannot are
packaged together during redistribution, with each person getting a bit of each
kind. Getting eight or nine luo of land both refer to the combined harvest from
the first and second crops of grain. Each person consumes ten luo of rice every
year. Those who got eight luo are short two luo; those who got nine luo are short
one luo. The method of making up for the shortfalls is, first, engaging in other
employment, such as dyeing cloth, processing rice, working as carpenters, smiths
and tailors. More than three hundred people go to other townships to find employment. Of these, more than 170 to 180 people go to Ganzhou to find jobs.
Most of them process rice or work as tailors and small businessmen. About one
hundred people go to Ji'an, most of them processing rice and dyeing cloth. Their
families have all received redistributed land. This township does not grow nonrice crops. The second method is for housewives to weave cloth, as they do in
most households. Each piece of cloth measures 12 zhang, or 130 chi, for which they get paid 400 cash. It takes ten days for a fast worker to finish one piece.
Each worker can make 1,200 cash every month. The slower workers and those
hampered by their children cannot finish one piece in ten days. Rich peasants
and small businessmen buy foreign-made yarns from Ji'an and distribute them
among villages and households. The less-accomplished weavers may get 300
cash, or sometimes 200 cash, for one piece. Some even have to pay for unacceptable products. For one piece of cloth, they also make an additional two liang of
yarn, which can be woven into two chi of cloth. One chi of cloth sells for
100-110 cash. Peasants depend on such additional yarn for making their own
clothes. The monthly income of the weavers, 1,200 cash, is used as money for
salt and cooking oil. The odd jobs and weaving mentioned above make up the
main sources to augment the shortfalls in daily living expenses. Now there is not
much cloth to be woven, nor are there enough odd jobs to be found. The workers
who have gone to Ganzhou have not returned; of the 100 workers who have gone
to Ji'an, about 50-60 have come back.
This township does not have a school yet.
Recently the district issued an ordinance that each township produce twenty
conscripts as volunteers for the Red Army. Eighteen people from this township
joined up. All of them volunteered. There is a send-off party today at the
Wugang district government.

3. Investigation in Lijiafang
The nineteenth township in Rufang district of Ji'an xian is called Lijiafang (40 li
from Ji'an).
This township has nine villages and six village governments.
Of the nine villages, six are large ones, and the other three are smaller ones.
Six larger ones are Lijiafang, Shangzhaotang, Cangxia, Xuyuan, Jinbi and
Zhouyuan. Three smaller villages are Yejiafang, Xiaolijiafang and
Yangpingzhou. The three smaller villages share the same village government as
Lijiafang. Each of the remaining five villages has its own village government.
There are four officers in the village government: one chairman, one secretary, one land officer who is also the grain officer, and one messenger who is
also the cook. The chairman, secretary and messenger-cook live and work in the
village government; they eat at the expense of the government. The land-andfood-clerk lives at home and eats at his own expense. He eats at the
government's expense only when he goes to the village government to take care
of official business.
The expenditures of the village government consist of (1) the daily cost of
food for three and the cost of food for an average of two visitors per day. Each
person costs 0.1 yuan in big foreign dollars every day; the monthly total cost is
fifteen yuan, (2) three yuan in office expenses for lamps, kerosene, paper and
pens, (3) money for straw sandals, hair-cuts and tobacco for the Red Guards and

Young Pioneers when they are sent off on missions; the amounts vary from 500
cash to one string of cash (reimbursed to the full actual cost; extra money is
returned and shortfalls are made up). There have been nine attacks on Ji'an. On
longer missions they sometimes returned home after more than a month. In the
past, such items cost three yuan per month. For previous missions the village
government also paid for the cost of food. Later, the practice was changed, and
the township government pays for the cost of food, with the village government
paying only for incidental expenses. Of the three items above, the monthly
expenditures amount to a total of 21 yuan.
The previous village government employed nine people to run its affairs:
chairman, secretary, treasurer, buyer, land officer, food officer, arbitrator, transportation officer, and cook. All nine of them work in the village government and
eat at the government's expense. This state of affairs continued between the time
the revolution began in January of this year and March 19, between June 4 and
September 4. Between March 20 and June 3, the reactionary garrison team
occupied [the village] and abolished the village government. The head of the
government fled to Futian. Since September 5, the practice has been changed;
now four people regularly work in the village government; the expenditures were
higher when there were nine people working here.
In the township government, starting on January 10 and ending on March 19,
and starting on June 4 and ending on September 5, there were these administrators: chairman, secretary, buyer, treasurer, cultural officer, land officer, food
officer, arbitrator, transportation officer and cook. There were also three women,
three Young Pioneers (team leader, deputy team leader and instructor-secretary),
and the head of the children's league. Altogether there were eighteen people, all
of whom ate at the government's expense. Since September 6 the number of
administrators has been cut to only seven: chairman, secretary, land and food
officer, cultural officer, chairman of the women's committee, head of the Red
Guards who is also the cook, and another secretary. The secretary has two jobs to
do: act as the "commissar for confiscation" and "go to the countryside to propagandize about and expand the Red Army." The seven people mentioned above
regularly work and eat in the township government. There are four members of
the women's committee who come to eat in the government only when they have
business to do there, and stay home when there is nothing for them to do. The
job of the four members of the women's committee is to go down to the countryside to organize working women into the Red Guards, relief teams, and laundry
teams, as well as persuade men to join the Red Army.
In February this year, eight people from this township joined the Red Army.
On June 18, when the second attack on Ji'an was launched, two people from
each village joined the Red Army. Altogether eighteen people joined up. In July,
when the seventh attack on Ji'an began, another seven went. On August 13, after
the ninth attack on Ji'an was underway, forty-six people went to join the Red
Army and were grouped into an independent regiment; they received training at
the headquarters of the Second Independent Regiment in Datang. Altogether
eighty people from this township have gone to join the Red Army; all of them
were encouraged to go. But of the last group of forty-six people, four or five
people wept and showed reluctance to join up; they were forced to go.
There are nine villages in this township: Lijiafang, with the surname Hu, 228
people; Xiaolijiafang, with the surname Li, 30 people; Yejiafang, with the surname Ye, 45 people; Yangpingzhou, with the surname Xiao, 24 people. These
four villages have a total of 327 people (155 men and 172 women). In
Shangzhaotang the surname is Liu, and there are 200 people. In Cangxia, with
the surname Yan, there are 315 people (150 men and 165 women). In Xuyuan,
with the surname Zhou, there are 300 people. In Jinbi there are 190 people. In
Zhouyuan, there are 372 people (176 men and 196 women). In all, there are
1,704 people in the nine villages.
The first four villages, including Lijiafang, have a total of 921.1 mu of land.8
In Lijiafang, each person got 2.7 mu of land, with a yield of seven dan of grain.
In Yejiafang, each person received three mu of land, with a yield of six dan of
grain. In Xiaolijiafang, each person was given two mu of land, with a yield of 5.5
dan of grain. In Yangpingzhou, each person got 2.5 mu of land, with a yield of
5.5 dan of grain. Lijiafang has a surplus of 17.9 mu of land, six mu of which was
transferred to Xiaolijiafang; another six mu of land was transferred to Yejiafang.
The remaining 5.9 mu of land is held "in public trust." In Yangpingzhou, the
remaining 2.3 mu of land after redistribution is being held "in public trust."
There is leftover land because it is difficult to redistribute the remaining balance.
It is used as the public land of the village government; the grain rent derived
from it is used as public funds. The rate of rent is 60 percent.
Shangzhaotang village has a total of 820 mu of land; each person was given
2.4 mu of land, with a yield of 2.5 dan of grain. There is a balance of 29.2 mu of
land after redistribution; it is held "in public trust."
Cangxia village has altogether 690.3 mu of land. Each person received a plot
of land with a yield of 7.8 dan of grain.
Xuyuan has a total of more than 820 mu of land. The method of re-distribution of land was: each person living at home received 3.5 mu of land. The land of
this village is more fertile and each mu can yield five luo of grain (two luo equal
one dan); altogether, [this much land] can yield 17 luo of grain. Each worker
received 1.75 mu of land, which is half of what a peasant got. Those who have
gone elsewhere received 1.4 mu of land.
Jinbi village has a total of 489 mu of land. Each person was given 2.7 mu of

---

Notes

Our source for this investigation is Mao Zedong nongcun diaocha wenji, pp. 254-63,
which reproduces the text as it was originally published in Yan'an in 1941.
1. This date does not appear at the head of the Chinese text, but it is implied by the
first paragraph of Mao's own account of his movements, and given in Nianpu, Vol. 1, p.
323.
2. I.e., during the Joint Conference of the General Front Committee and of the Jiangxi
Provincial Action Committee in Luofang (see, above, the note to the text of October 26, 1930).
3. Here Mao uses the Chinese dry measures sheng (approximately a litre), dou (approximately a decalitre), and dan (approximately a hectolitre). Land in this village is being
measured, not in terms of the harvest it will normally yield, but in terms of the amount of
seed required to sow it. Thus one dou of land, having been sown with one decalitre of
seed, will yield one hectolitre of grain at the harvest, or ten times the amount of seed used.
In the balance of the text, land is measured sometimes in terms of seed required, sometimes in terms of yield.
4. It can be seen from this example, and others in the present text, that the actual yield
of a piece of land does not necessarily correspond to the nominal yield used to measure it,
but varies with the quality and location of each plot.
5. Here Mao (or local usage) introduces yet another complication, by the use of the
unit known as a luo (basket), equal to half a dan. At the same time, yield (rather than seed
required) is being used as the measure of land.
6. Here both criteria (seed and yield) are being used simultaneously, and the grain
produced is apparently twenty times the amount of seed.

--- Notes

On October 30, 1930, the Front Committee of the Red Army decided in Luofang
to adopt the strategy of luring the enemy deep into our territory.2 On November
6, the Red Army crossed the Gan River at Xiajiang, heading for Yongfeng and
Nancheng. I traveled from Xiajiang to Ji'an to make arrangements for the withdrawal, and stayed overnight in Dongtang on November 7, arriving in Ji'an the
next day. I conducted some brief investigations along the way. The investigation
in Lijiafang helped me understand the organization and activities of the soviets at
the village and township levels in those places in the land struggle. I had only
foggy ideas about such facts before this investigation. This investigation enabled
me to find out about the importance of redistribution of land using the village as
the basic unit. There are several dozens of xian in southwest Jiangxi where land
has been redistributed. The land laws promulgated by the higher-level governments call for redistribution taking the township as the basic unit. Officials in
most higher-level organs also think that land is being redistributed using the
township as the basic unit. They do not seem to know that the real situation is
completely different. Everywhere redistribution takes place using the village as
the basic unit. There are very few cases of redistribution using the township as

During land redistribution, each person received 1 dou 3 sheng of land that
yield about 2.5 dan of grain (every dou of land yields two dan of grain).3
In some other villages, each person got two dou of land. Two dou was the
upper limit; nobody got more than two dou in this township.
The secretary of the village government, Hu Deshun, 48, also teaches in the
community's school. He has eight mouths to feed. In addition to himself, he has
five sons, his wife and his daughter-in-law. His eldest son works both as a tailor
and a farm hand. He is 25. His second son, aged 19, is learning to be a carpenter,
and is apprenticed in Yongfeng xian. He does not make any money. His third son
is 14 and learning to be a bamboo-smith. He is also an apprentice and makes no
money. His fourth son, 7, is going to school. His youngest son is three years old.
Previously, he owned 1 dan 3 dou 8 sheng of land and could harvest 27 dan of
grain, which was not enough to feed the family.4 [He] relied on growing sweet
potatoes, raising pigs, and money earned by his eldest son, as well as his own
labor in the fields. He owed three hundred strings of cash. In the land redistribution this time, the eight of them received in all 1 dan 4 sheng of land, and had to

For the 570 people in the Liu village of Jiaokeng township, each received
nine luo of land, or four and a half dan.⁵ For the 110 people in the Tang village
of Jiaokeng township, each received land with a yield of nine luo of grain. For
the fifty people in the Wu village of Jiaokeng township, each also received nine
luo of land. The three villages, Liu, Tang and Wu, share the same village government, and every person got nine luo of land.
In Daqiao Village those surnamed Guo number 1,027, each of whom was
given eight luo, or two dou, of land, which yields four dan of grain.⁶ In
Shenjiangyu, those surnamed Luo in two villages number 210 people, and share
the same village government. Eight luo of land was redistributed to each person.
For the people of the Guo and Luo villages, each received eight luo of land
because the quality of the land there is slightly better. The villagers in the three
villages, Liu, Tang, and Wu, got nine luo of land each because the quality of the
land there is a bit poorer. On average, for young and old, each person consumes
ten luo (or five Dan)⁷ of grain every year.
Second-crop rice can be grown on one-third of the land in each village; it

7. As already indicated, two luo or "baskets" are equivalent to one dan. There are 100
jin or Chinese pounds in the unit of weight written Dan in this volume. Here it is apparently being assumed that when dealing with grain, the two measures are roughly equivalent (just as one litre of water weighs one kilogram). In Section V of the Xingguo
Investigation, on the other hand, Mao gives the proportion as .9 Dan per dan.

8. Here yet a third system of measurement of land, in terms of area, is introduced. As
noted elsewhere in this volume, the mu, like most traditional Chinese measurements,
varied somewhat, but was equivalent to approximately.15 acre. As will be seen from the
figures below, yields varied from approximately 1 to 3 dan per mu.

9. Here once again it is being assumed that the two dan (unit of weight and unit of
volume) are roughly equivalent in dealing with grain.