Letter to Xu Deheng[1] and Others

(November 2, 1936)

Dear Professors:

We have received the various gifts you so kindly sent (hams, pocket watches, etc.)[2], for which we express our heartfelt thanks and feel deeply honored! In spirit we are completely at one with you. Our enemy is one and one alone, namely Japanese imperialism, and we are preparing everything so as to move swiftly to unite the whole country, dispatch troops, and resist Japan. The day when we shall meet you is not far off. To struggle to drive out Japanese imperialism and to struggle for a Chinese democratic republic—these are the banners of the people of the whole country, and they are also our common banners and yours! With

salutations of the national revolution!

Mao Zedong

November 2

[1] Xu Deheng (1890–1990), a native of Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. In his early years he participated in the Revolution of 1911 and the May Fourth Movement. In 1936 he was a professor at Peking University and, together with professors Ma Xulun, Yang Xiufeng, Zhang Shenfu, Cheng Ximeng, and others, organized the “Beiping Cultural Circles National Salvation Association” and actively engaged in the anti-Japanese national salvation movement. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he served as Vice Chairman of the Fourth and Fifth National Committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fourth through Sixth National People’s Congresses, and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Jiusan Society.

[2] At the end of 1935, having learned that Mao Zedong had arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xu Deheng and his wife Lao Junzhan purchased more than 30 pairs of cloth shoes, 12 pocket watches, and over a dozen hams, and entrusted Xu Bing and Zhang Xiaomei of the underground Chinese Communist Party to arrange their delivery to northern Shaanxi.

Manuscript of Mao Zedong’s letter to Xu Deheng and others.