Mao Zedong
To Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai1
(September 22, 1936)

For the perusal of the honorable Messrs. Jingran and Xianchu:

Months and years go by without end, and the seasons flow on like a stream.
Looking back on 1933 and 1934, when you, elder brothers, and we were cooperating to save the country,2 I realize that another three years have passed. The
national crisis is daily becoming more urgent, as the [Japanese] bandits continue
to advance. Even to this day, the Nanjing authorities still have shown no repentance for their evil deeds which have brought about this calamity. The civil war
continues as before, and the people of the whole country are still struggling in an
abyss of misery. Thinking of the future, my heart burns with anxiety! Currently,
however, the situation in the world has moved into a new stage, while the
patriotic movement in our country is developing vigorously. Under the leadership of you gentlemen and your colleagues, the glorious Nineteenth Route Army
is continuing to struggle unremittingly. Meanwhile, your younger brothers are
getting closer to the anti-Japanese battlefront, after fighting in various places in
the south and the north. The united front to resist Japan and save the nation from
extinction has won praise and support from various parties, factions, social circles, armed forces, and all patriotic people with a conscience. Even within the
Guomindang some changes have begun. All this tells us that, compared to the
past, things have now taken on a new aspect. It is evident that the day when we
can drive out the Japanese bandits and save the nation from extinction is not far
away. Our humble Party has put forward a new and concrete plan in our letter of
August 25 to the Guomindang. I am enclosing a copy and respectfully request

We have translated this letter from Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 73-75, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.
1. Jiang Guangnai (1888-1967), zi Jingran, and Cai Tingkai (1892-1968), zi
Xianchu, were both natives of Guangdong. They had risen to prominence in 1932 because
of their resistance to the Japanese in Shanghai as commanders of the Nineteenth Route
Army. In 1933-1934, they had participated in the Fujian rebellion against Chiang
Kaishek.
2. Although negotiations took place between Jiang, Cai, and their associates, on the
one hand, and the Jiangxi Soviet Republic on the other, both before and during the
military action by which Chiang Kaishek suppressed the "People's Revolutionary
Government" in Fujian, in the end the Communists failed to support the rebels. (On
Mao's role in these events, see the Introduction to Volume IV of this edition, pp.
lxxix-lxxxiv.) Mao's statement here about "cooperating to save the country" is therefore
something of an exaggeration.