Letter from the General Political Department
of the Central Revolutionary Military
Commission to the Soviet Government of
Jiangxi Province
The System of Private Ownership of Land
During the Democratic Revolution
(February 27, 1931)'
To Comrade Zeng Shan, with the request that he pass it on to other comrades in
the soviet:
Spring has arrived, but very few peasants have begun to plow the fields. This
matter merits our attention. Why have very few peasants begun plowing? To
some extent, of course, the reason lies in force of habit, for the plowing season
has always been put off. According to our investigations, there are, however,
several other reasons: (I) the fact that land distribution has not been finally
settled, (2) the shortage of draft animals, and (3) the threat from pacification
bandits on the borders between Red and White areas, which makes it difficult to
plow the fields.
As for land distribution's not having been finally settled, this is a big problem in the Red area at present. In the past the land belonged to the soviet and
there was a strong sense that the peasants had only the right to use it. In
addition, the land was divided up over and over again, four or five times, thus
making the peasants feel that the land was not their own and that they had no
right to do as they wished with it. Consequently, they did not settle down to
plowing the fields. This situation is very bad. The provincial soviets should
notify governments everywhere at every level that each government should
issue announcements urging the peasants to plow and plant. The announcements should make clear that the land already distributed in the past (applying
the policies of drawing on the plentiful to make up for the scarce [chouduo
bushQo] and drawing on the fat to make up for the lean [choufoi bushou]1) is to
count as settled, and those who have received land are in charge of the land
distributed to them. This land is their private property, and others have no right
to encroach on it. In the future a family's land is that family's fixed property,
with no additions upon births or confiscation upon deaths. The family is at
liberty to rent, lend, mortgage, or sell it at will. After paying land taxes to the
government, everything produced from the land belongs to the peasants. What
they do not consume they are completely free to sell. Money thus obtained may
be used for daily expenses, and what they do not spend they can save, to invest
either in improving the land or in doing business. The government may not find
excuses to impose fines, and organizations of the popular masses may not levy
enforced contributions. It is an utterly false rumor that the peasants' savings and
surplus grain all go to the soviet for public use. If a peasant family is short on
labor power and is unable to cultivate all of their land, or has no labor power at
all and is unable to till their own land, they are permitted to rent it out. After
renting, the amount [of harvest shared] is negotiated in each locality, according
to the principle that neither party should lose out. In addition, people are free to
do business in the Red areas, and all such earnings belong to the individual. All
of the aforementioned regulations are appropriate to the process of democratic
revolution.-t Communism cannot be built in a day. The revolution in the Soviet
Union, too, went through many stages before it reached its present socialist
victory. It is to be hoped that all responsible comrades at the various levels of
4. Mi11qutvt gemhlg.

soviets and organizations of the popular masses have understood this. During
the implementation of the aforementioned methods,5 the AB Corps6 and other
reactionary groups may use every chance to spread rumors, saying that communism has failed and that the landlord system will be restored. Responsible
comrades at all levels of government should refute this, basing themselves on
the idea of democratic revolution. They should explain that the only good
way only to advance toward communism is to carry out the policies required
by the present period of democratic revolution, that the landlord system is
absolutely not being restored, and that what those reactionary groups are
saying is completely false.
As for the shortage of draft animals, first of all, we should promote mutual aid
in plowing and planting; those who have more oxen in the nearby villages should
help those who have fewer oxen with their plowing. But this assistance is not
totally free. Apart from cases where those who have more oxen volunteer to
plow without charging any rent, we should allow the renting of oxen. Only by
officially permitting the renting of oxen can we solve the problem of the shortage
of draft animals. Second, in those townships and districts where there is such a
great shortage of oxen that it is simply impossible to start plowing, the governments at the xian, district, and township levels should find a way to effect
redistribution by encouraging those districts and townships with many oxen to
lend or sell them. Here the governments at the xian and district levels should
undertake a survey of the number of oxen in their xian or district, for only after
they have done this can they carry out a proper redistribution. Third, it is forbidden to kill oxen. At the moment, there is a shortage of oxen on the one hand, and
on the other hand oxen are being killed at every fair. This goes against the
interests of the poor peasants, and must be forbidden. Fourth, the circulation and
exchange of ordinary agricultural and industrial commodities between the Red
region and the White region should be completely free. Except in special circumstances (such as a famine) there should be no prohibition [of such circulation],
and no restrictions on prices (no restrictions on prices of any kind should be
allowed within the Red area itself). At present, however, because there is such a
big shortage of draft animals in the Red region, and its impact is very great,
traffic of oxen from the Red region to places outside should be temporarily
forbidden.
As far as the problem of living along the border between the Red and the
White regions, the peasants suffer the threats of the local pacification bandits to
such an extent that they are afraid to plow the land, and much land is even left
uncultivated. The only way to solve this problem is to lead the armed forces of
the workers and peasants to launch a fierce attack on the armed forces of the
landlords, so that the Red region will continue to expand, and it will be possible
FEBRUARY I93J
to plow and plant those places where cultivation was impossible in the past.
We hope that you will discuss and carry out the suggestions put forward
above, and that you will write back to us.
Head of the General Political Department
of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission
Mao Zedong

--- Notes

Our source for this document is Jitmgxi do"gshi ziliao, Vol. 18, pp. 4l-4S. II also
indication that it was originally a letter to Zcng Shan (a supporter of Mao then serving as
chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Soviet). We have followed lhe first version as regards
lhe prcscnunion oflhe text, but have corrected it on the basis oftbe Mao Zedong wtmji in
one place where a phrase is missing. A Chinese study of Mao's activities during the
Jiangxi Soviet period states that Mao wrote this document after visitina and talking with a
peasant family in lhe Huangpi area in the course of seeking information on how best to
carry out the policies outlined in the Central Bureau's February 8, 1931, document entitled, ”The Land Problem and the Anti-Rich Peasant Strategy" (Yu Boliu and Chen Gang,
Mao ZHong zai zlrongya~~g suqu (Mao Zedong in lhe Central Soviet Area] [n.p.;
I. The version ofthis text in lhe Mao Zed01rg wenji is dated February 28, 1931, but in
letter on the 27th, which is also the date given in the Jiangxi dangshi zillao.
I8


2. Tbc reference is to local military forces in the Service of the landlords. Mao here
Refers to them as jing foi, literally ”pacification bandits," just as the Guomindang called
the Red forces gongfei or "Conununist bandits."

3. These policies, which are characteristic of Mao's approach to land reform in the
1~30s, were first adopted in the Land Law of August 1930, translated in Volume Ill of
this edition. Sec there especially p. 504 and n. 3.

S. This phrase is missing in lhe lcxtasprinted inJUur,p"itlongshizilieJO.

6. For discussion of the AB Corps. see the IDtroducdon.


appears in Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. I, pp. 256-58, with a difTcn::ntlitle, and withoutlhe
Zbongguo shudian, 1993], pp. 243-44 (hereafter, Mao in the Central Soviet]).
the Nianpu, Vol. I, p. 334, an equally authoritative source, it is stated that Mao wrote lhc