To Gao Guizi
(Summer 1936)
Your Excellency, Division Commander Peiwu:

On his return, Comrade Ma Zhiming has let us know that Your Excellency is in
agreement with our proposal to form a national defense government and an
anti-Japanese united army. We are exceedingly grateful. At this time the whole
nation is about to be plunged into the tragic fate of subjugation, and for all
those who dwell upon this land, truly nothing is more urgent than national
salvation, and there is no work to do save resisting Japan. Our humble army has
traveled hard north and south, finally reaching Shaanxi, its purpose being to
save China, its goal being to resist Japan. We will unite with all individuals,
organizations, parties, or armed forces who agree to this purpose, and attack all
those who go against it. Those with whom we unite will raise the righteous
banner of national revolution. Those we attack must be considered real Chinese
traitors selling out their country, to be eliminated as demons for the benefit of
our four hundred million compatriots. Leading thousands of valiant fighters,
Your Excellency took part in the great revolutionary war in 1927, and again
four years ago in the anti-Japanese war. This glorious history has the admiration
of all our countrymen. It is understood that your being pitted against the Red
Army as an enemy was the result of coercion by Chiang Kaishek, chief of all
the traitors who are selling out the country. If you come over to our side and
fight the bandits, all past misdeeds will be forgotten. From now on the revolutionary united front against Japan and the traitors selling out the country will
have in it the broad popular masses and the Red Army as well as Your
Excellency's righteous army. Without a doubt, still more numerous righteous
forces will continuously emerge from this land of the ancient emperors' descendants. This is truly what is to be relied on to save China from the danger of
extinction. In order to eliminate all suspicions whatsoever and establish solid
mutual trust, based on what Your Excellency indicated to Comrade Mao as well
as our humble opinions, we would like to list the following items for your
perspicacious inspection:

1. The two armies are to maintain their respective original defensive positions, and are not to impinge on each other.
2. The grand plan for resisting Japan and putting down the traitors who are
selling out the country is to be done from a long-term perspective and as comprehensively as possible. Its purpose is also to place your honorable army in a
secure position. Should any traitor selling out the country endanger your troops,
we are prepared to join in a counterattack against them with all our might.
3. While your honorable army has been unable to find an opportunity to take
overt action, we are prepared to keep in strict secrecy all of our bilateral relations
and communications and contacts.
4. While your honorable army has been unable to take overt action, should
our humble side attack the forces of the traitors who are selling out the country
(Jing Yuexiu, for example), we would expect you to adopt a passive attitude, that
is to refrain from any action whatsoever to assist our enemy.
5. As for provisions and firewood for your honorable forces in Qingjian,
since we are now allied armies, naturally we would do our best to lend assistance. We request, by the same token, that Your Excellency extend your assistance to the extent possible with the things we need (for example, western
medicine, cloth, and so on).
6. Both sides should send representatives to formulate on a common basis an
initial agreement for fighting Japan and the traitors who are selling out the
country.
7. Establish bilaterally a top-secret communication network (exchange cipher codes).
8. Guarantee the safety of representatives and contact people from both sides.
Whether Your Excellency can agree to all or only some of the above-mentioned items, we wish to begin concrete negotiations with Your Excellency. At
this crucial moment when our nation faces subjugation, we for our part will
certainly not lose sight of the great catastrophe on account of trivial discrepancies. We trust that our humble earnestness in desiring to save the nation will be
acutely perceived by gentlemen of virtue such as yourselves. Furthermore, in
view of the situation today, resisting Japan and fighting the traitors cannot be
accomplished without a broad united front. This is the case not only at home, but
internationally as well. Not all armed forces stationed around the several northwestern provinces consist of Chinese traitors and collaborators. Among them
there are many noble patriots. Once we warn them about the disaster of national
doom and racial extinction, explain to them the strategy of uniting for national
salvation, and expose to them the stupidity of the Chinese traitors and collaborators, and the threat posed by these traitors, surely some of them will be moved
and rise to action. Will Your Excellency make every effort for this purpose?
Internationally, to unite every country and nation that opposes Japan is indeed an
important component of a program to resist Japan and fight the collaborators. To
say nothing of distant places, close to us in the Northwest is the great and

--- Notes

Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 30-33, where it is printed from a
copy in the Central Archives, and is dated simply "1936." We have placed it here because in
Mao Zedong wenji, which reproduces the same text, it is dated "summer 1936."

1. Gao Guizi (1891–1959), zi Peiwu, was a native of Shaanxi, and a graduate of the
Shaanxi Military Academy. At this time he was deputy commander of the Guomindang
Thirty-second Army.
SUMMER 1936 211