From the period of the Northern Expedition in 1927 until my departure from the Central Soviet Area in 1934, the materials I personally collected in the countryside now remain only in the following sections: (1) The Xunwu Investigation; (2) The Xingguo Investigation; (3) Investigations of Dongtang and other places; (4) The Mukou Village Investigation; (5) The Situation of Land Distribution in Southwest Jiangxi; (6) Questions Concerning Shareholding in Crops and Land Leasing; (7) Errors in the Land Struggle in Jiangxi; (8) The Problem of Rich Peasants After Land Division; (9) Two Early Land Laws; (10) The Changgang Township Investigation; (11) The Remaining Investigations of Caixi Township.


The last two sections were once published in the Central Soviet Area’s newspaper “Struggle” [2]; their original manuscripts have been preserved through the Long March and have not yet been lost.


Everything else has been lost.


Most regrettable of all was the survey of five counties—Changsha, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, and Liling—in Hunan, conducted in the spring of 1927, which was lost due to Xu Kexiang’s counter-revolutionary coup [3]; and the surveys of Ninggang and Yongxin counties, carried out on Jinggang Mountain in the spring of 1928 [4], which were likewise lost when Jinggang Mountain fell.


What remains here consists entirely of materials from the Central Soviet Area. The first nine sections pertain to the initial stage of the land revolution, while the final two belong to its more advanced phase.


Although incomplete, they still offer a glimpse into that era.


To prevent further loss, several copies are being printed for the reference of our comrades.


This is a historical document; some of the views expressed therein reflect the prevailing opinions at the time and have since been revised.


Printed according to the “Collected Works of Mao Zedong’s Rural Surveys,” published by the People’s Publishing House in 1982.


Notes [1] This is a preface written by Mao Zedong in Yan’an for a book titled “Rural Surveys” that was then being prepared for publication. The book was not actually printed that year, but appeared in Yan’an in 1941, with another preface penned by Mao Zedong.


[2] The newspaper “Struggle” served as the official organ of the CPC Central Bureau in the Soviet Areas. Mao Zedong’s “Investigation of Changgang Township” and “Investigation of Caixi Township” were serially published in issues 42–44 of January 1934 and issues 45, 46, and 48 of February 1934, respectively.


[3] Xu Kexiang’s counter-revolutionary coup is commonly known as the “May Day Incident.” Following Chiang Kai-shek’s April 12 counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai in 1927, on May 21 (the day designated “Horse” in the traditional Chinese calendar), under the instigation of He Jian, commander of the Nationalist Army’s 35th Army, Xu Kexiang, commander of the 33rd Independent Regiment of that army, launched a counter-revolutionary rebellion, laying siege to revolutionary mass organizations such as the Hunan Provincial Trade Union and the Provincial Peasants’ Association, and arresting and executing communists and revolutionary workers and peasants.


[4] The Ninggang investigation was conducted in November 1927, while the Yongxin investigation took place in the spring of 1928.