Central Government Circular
(June 1, 1933)

To comrades of the presidiums of the district and xian soviets and chairmen of
the township soviets in the eight xian of Ruijin, Huichang, Yudu, Shengli,
Bosheng, Shicheng, Ninghua, and Changting:

The land question is still an extremely serious question in many areas where the
struggle is lagging behind. In order to launch a wide and deep Land Investigation
Movement before the Second National Congress of the Soviets, thoroughly resolve the land question in the course of the Land Investigation Movement, eliminate counterrevolution, and transform the soviets and mass organizations, the
Central Government has decided to begin by convening an "Eight-xian Conference of Responsible Soviet Officials at and above the District Level" and an
"Eight-xian Congress of Representatives of the Poor Peasant League" from
Ruijin, Huichang, Yudu, Shengli, Bosheng, Shicheng, Ninghua, and Changting.

A. The Conference of Responsible Soviet Officials at and Above
the District Level in Eight Xian

1. The meeting place: Yeping, Yunji District, Ruijin xian.
2. The dates of the conference: everyone is to arrive by June 16; the conference begins on June 17 and ends on June 20.
3. Participants:
District level: the chairman, the director of the land department, the director of the worker-peasant procuratorate, and the special commissioner of
the security bureau

Xian level: the chairman, the director of the land department, the director
of the worker-peasant procuratorate, and the head of the security bureau
Provincial level: the vice chairman, the director of the land department, the
director of the worker-peasant procuratorate, the head of the security bureau
4. Those who are coming to the conference may entrust someone else with
their responsibilities temporarily.
5. Those who are supposed to attend the conference, as designated above,
must not absent themselves on any pretext.
6. Those who are coming to the conference should prepare the following
reports, and bring them to the conference (the list of items is omitted).
In order to gather materials for these reports, the district soviets should, as
soon as this circular is received, immediately call together the chairmen of all the
townships and the heads of the poor peasant league in the district for a meeting at
which the materials will be collected. There is no need for the xian soviets to call
a meeting of the district soviets; it suffices that they collect materials from the
various departments and the mass organizations at the xian level. The provincial
soviet should likewise collect materials from the various departments and the
mass organizations at the provincial level. Everyone who is coming to the meeting must bring all the aforementioned reports with him. All those without reports
will be regarded as guilty of negligence in their work. The reports must be
truthful and may not be fabricated. Those who are found guilty of making false
reports to save face will be punished when this is discovered.
7. For those who are coming to the conference, their travelling expenses
going and coming will be paid by the financial departments at all levels, while
their food during the conference will be provided by the Central Government.
8. Those who are coming to the conference should bring their bowls, chopsticks, and coverlets.

B. The Congress of Representatives of the Poor Peasant League
in Eight Xian

1. The meeting place: Yeping, Yunji District, Ruijin xian.
2. The dates of the congress: everyone is to arrive by June 24; the congress
begins on June 25 and ends on July 1.
3. Participants: the poor peasant league in each township should elect one
delegate. If the poor peasant league has more than three hundred members, they
should elect two delegates.
4. The election of the delegates and their departure:
a. As soon as this circular reaches each district, the district soviet should
call a meeting of the chairmen of all the township soviets and the heads of the
poor peasant league, and report to them on the great revolutionary significance of the present call by the Central Government for a congress of representatives of the poor peasant league in eight xian, as well as on the methods

for electing delegates and carrying out propaganda among the masses.
b. The chairman of the township soviet and the head of the poor peasant
league in each township should return to their own townships immediately
and summon the members of the league to a general meeting, explaining the
significance of this call by the Central Government for a congress of the poor
peasant league, and then conducting the election of delegates.
c. As regards the qualifications for the delegates, they must be poor peasants and farm laborers who have generally taken part in the struggle against
the landlords and rich peasants all along and are enthusiastically involved in
various activities. The head, or the secretary, of the poor peasant league may
be elected as a delegate if he meets these qualifications. In the event that
neither the director nor the secretary meets the qualifications, then another
member of the league must be elected. The delegate must definitely be elected
at a general meeting of the league members. It is not permissible to choose
someone at random as a delegate, still less to elect someone who is a passive
element, or even a class-alien element.
d. When the delegates have been selected from all the townships, they
gather at the district soviet. Then, the acting chairman of the district soviet
calls them together for a meeting to organize a delegation. An extremely
competent person should be chosen from among the delegates to act as head
of the delegation. The delegates should also hear a report about the importance of their trip to this meeting called by the Central Government and
receive their traveling funds. Led by the head of the delegation, they then set
off, arriving in Ruijin on June 24.
5. Each delegate should bring a brief report, containing the following information: (a) the population of the township in question; (b) the number of members of the poor peasant league and their class status; (c) the date when the
league was founded; (d) whether or not the league has branches in the villages;
and (e) how many subdivisions it has.
6. The traveling expenses of the delegates will be paid by the district
soviets, while their food during the congress will be provided by the Central
Government.
7. The delegates should bring their own bowls, chopsticks, and coverlets.
8. After the departure of these delegates, the propaganda should start. Town-ship soviets should select, from each township's representative assembly or poor
peasant league, five revolutionary activists to form a "Propaganda Team for the
Land Investigation Movement." After the delegation of the poor peasant league
has set off, the members of this propaganda team should go forwards and backwards to every village and household and hold mass meetings, telling people that
the reason why the Central Government is calling this congress of the poor
peasant league in eight xian is to launch a great movement to investigate land
and classes, and that a certain person from this township has already been elected
to attend the congress, and so have delegates from every township and district in

this xian. The masses should be prepared, and keep an eye on those landlords
and rich peasants who have received some land by fraudulently claiming to be
middle peasants or poor peasants. As soon as the delegates are back, the investigation will get into full swing, and all the feudal forces will be entirely wiped
out, for only then can the impoverished masses enjoy the greatest benefits. But
Land Investigation is by no means a redivision of the land. It is rather a movement of the masses themselves to ferret out those landlords and rich peasants
who have passed themselves off as middle peasants and poor peasants. Only
after they are found out and overthrown can the impoverished masses be liberated. In addition, we farm laborers and poor peasants are determined to unite
with all the real middle peasants, and the rights of the middle peasants will be
completely protected by the soviet. The role of this kind of propaganda is simply
to inform the broad masses that the delegates of their own townships, and the
delegates from other districts and townships, are going to attend the congress
called by the Central Government, in order that a great class investigation movement may be launched throughout the nine hundred townships in these eight
xian, so that a powerful atmosphere of class investigation will have been built up
in every township even before the delegates are back. Meetings in the villages
may be held after sunset, and the chairman of the township must take the leading
responsibility.
Responsible comrades of Ruijin, Huichang, Yudu, Shengli, Bosheng,
Shicheng, Ninghua, and Changting xian, in the xian, district, and township
soviets, if we want these two big meetings to achieve complete success, we
must attend to the following points: (1) everyone who comes to the meetings
brings a reliable report; (2) all the delegates of the poor peasant league are
revolutionary activists, not passive or compromising elements; (3) everyone
who is supposed to attend the meetings gets there, and gets there on the day
stipulated; and (4) propaganda for the Land Investigation Movement is carried
out universally in every township. You must all make the greatest efforts to
achieve these four things. If these four points are not handled well, this may
make it impossible for the congress to be completely successful. If that happens,
you will be blamed. Be advised of this.

Chairman of the Central
Government Mao Zedong
Vice-Chairmen Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao
--- Notes

This document was first published in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 85, June 14, 1933. We have
translated it from Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 3, pp. 227–31, which reproduces the text from that
source.