The same cold and warmth all over the globe.
There Is No Urgency for Us to Seek
Combat in the Next Few Days
(October 6, 1935, 9:00 P.M.)
Peng [Dehuai]:
I have taken note of your 5:00 P.M. telegram.1 There is no urgent need for us to
seek combat in the next two or three days. Tomorrow (the 7th) we will set out
from Zhangyibao, you will set out from Malianchuan by way of Zhangyibao, and
all of us will advance eastward to Qingshizui. It is sixty li from Zhangyibao
northward to Guyuan, thirty li westward to Malianchuan, fifty li eastward to
Qingshizui, and fifty li southward to Longde.
Mao

We have translated this telegram from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, p. 371, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the archives.
Mount Liupan¹
(To the tune “Pure and Serene Music”)
(October 1935)²

The sky is high, the clouds are pale,
We watch the wild geese flying south until they vanish.
If we reach not the Great Wall³ we are no true men,
Already we have come twenty thousand li.

High on the crest of Mount Liupan,
Banners⁴ idly wave in the west wind.
Today the long cord⁵ is in our hands,
When shall we bind fast the Gray Dragon?⁶

It Is Necessary to Prepare for Battle
When Passing Through Hongde City and
Huan Xian
(October 13, 1935, 3:00 P.M.)

Peng [Dehuai]:

1. The First Column will march today for about seventy li, to the
Miaojiazhuang, Zhengjiawan, and Xiaonan’gou line, and camp there. It is
planned to go via Helianwan tomorrow (the 14th) to Hongde City and the area to
the east, and camp there.
2. The Second and Third Columns should go tomorrow by way of the southern edge of Helianwan, advance to the area southeast of Hongde City, and camp
there.
3. According to people who came from Huan xian on the 12th, there are two
regiments of the enemy’s Thirty-fifth Division in Huan xian. It is unclear how
many enemy troops are in Quzizhen. On that morning no cavalrymen had arrived
in Huan xian, but the Sixth Cavalry Division may have arrived yesterday or
today. As for the enemy troops pursuing us, they may reach the Miaojiachuan–
Lianjiachuan line today.
4. When our troops arrive at and pass through the Hongde City–Huan xian
line tomorrow, they must be prepared to fight the enemy cavalrymen who may
appear. If the enemy force is small we will wipe it out. If it is large we will pin it
down, and then pass through the gaps in that line under cover of darkness.

Mao

We have translated this document from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 372–73.

Our source for this poem, which first appeared in the January 1957 issue of Shikan, is the
Shici duilian, pp. 59–60.

--- Notes

1. A note to Mao Zedong junshi wenji states that Peng’s telegram to Mao, Lin Biao,
and Nie Rongzhen of 5:30 P.M. that day reported on the enemy’s situation, and proposed
that the Shaanxi-Gansu detachment seize an opportunity to attack the enemy in Guyuan.


1. Mount Liupan, located in Guyuan xian in the southern part of what is now the
Ningxia Autonomous Region, is the main peak in the range bearing the same name. Mao
led the Central Red Army across this peak in early October 1935.

2. The editors of the Shici duilian note, “According to the reminiscences of Comrade
Chen Changfeng and others, the author made final revisions to the text of this ci in
December 1935, in Wayaobao (now Zichang xian).”

3. Mao here evokes the destination of the Long March.

4. When the poem was first published in Shikan, this line read: “Yak-tail banners idly
wave in the west wind.” Animal tails used as banners were traditional in China, especially
in the western regions, and the Tang dynasty poet Cen Shen, who by the twentieth century
was known as China’s foremost “frontier poet” and to whom Mao has elsewhere made
reference, wrote a line about a general who “held the yak-tail banner.” According to the
editors of the Shici duilian, in 1961 when Mao wrote out the poem “at the request of
comrades from Ningxia,” he substituted “red flags” for “yak-tail banners.” (See the
October 7, 1961, issue of Guangming ribao for a facsimile of the poem in Mao’s
calligraphy.) Beginning with the 1963 edition of Mao zhuxi shici, “red flags” has been used.

5. “Sky-leaning sword” is a common poetic expression for a long sword (see Song Yü’s
“Dayan fu”). Mao’s line in this case is derived from Li Bo’s “Linjiang Wang Jieshi ge.”

5. Traditional legend has it that during Han Wudi’s time, an army was sent out to
Southern Yue. They asked Wudi for a long cord, promising to bind up and bring back the
king of Yue.

6. This is the way the line appeared in the Shikan version of the poem, but in a 1963
edition of Mao’s poetry (Mao Zhuxi shici) it was changed to “And return one piece to the
Eastern countries.” The Shici duilian notes this fact, but uses, like all recent Chinese
editions, the revised version of the line.

6. “Gray Dragon” stands for the planet Jupiter, which is considered an ill-omened,
evil force in ancient Chinese lore. Chinese commentaries on this poem state that it refers
to Chiang Kaishek, although earlier translations of the poem have indicated that it may
also stand for the Japanese invaders. The editors of the Shici duilian also state that this
line alludes to a ci to the tune “Congratulating the Bridegroom” by the Song dynasty poet
Liu Kezhuang, which contains the line, “When will the long cord come into our hands/To
bind fast the military commander?”


7. Taiping, a traditional concept much used by Mao in his early years. See, in
particular, Volume I, p. 135 and note 11.