Comrade Xu Lao:

You were my teacher twenty years ago; you are still my teacher now; you will certainly remain my teacher in the future. When the revolution failed, many Communist Party members left the Party, some even going over to the enemy’s side, yet you joined the Communist Party in the autumn of 1927, and adopted an attitude that was most resolute. From that time until now, throughout the long and arduous struggle, you have been more active than many young and middle-aged Party members, more undaunted by difficulties, more humble in learning new things. What “old age,” what “declining health and spirit,” what “difficulties and obstacles”—all have surrendered before you. Yet before some people, these very things have become excuses for timidity and inaction. You understand a great deal and yet always feel you know too little, whereas some people, with only “half a bucket of water,” insist on “making a great splash.” What you think in your heart is what you say with your mouth and do with your hands, whereas in some corner of some people’s hearts there inevitably lurk some filthy, sordid things. You are always one with the masses at all times, whereas some people seem to take delight in standing aloof from the masses. In every respect you show yourself to be a model of obedience to Party and revolutionary discipline, whereas some people seem to think discipline is only for binding others, themselves not included. For you, revolution comes first, work comes first, others come first, whereas for some people, showing off comes first, rest comes first, self comes first. You always choose the hardest tasks to do, never shirking responsibility, whereas some people only want to pick easy jobs, dodging away whenever a moment of responsibility arrives. In all these respects, I admire you, I am willing to continue learning from you, and I also hope that all comrades in the Party will learn from you. On the occasion of your sixtieth birthday, I write this letter to congratulate you, wishing you good health, wishing you long life, wishing you to become a model for all revolutionary Party members and all the people.

With

Revolutionary salutations!

Mao Zedong

January 3, 1937, at Yan’an