Letter to Zhou Suyuan

(October 6, 1937)

Dear Elderly Mr. Suyuan:

I have received your letter and noted its contents. We regard you as a very dear and respected friend and a revolutionary comrade, and we do not feel that you are "enjoying preferential treatment without contributing." Your activities and work should be entirely determined by your health and interests, because you are an elderly person, not a young one. This is something that not only we should take into account, but you yourself should also consider. Only under more suitable conditions and circumstances, where your health is better assured, can your work be better.

Regarding the plan you proposed to return to Guizhou and work there, if you have made up your mind and believe this is the better course, I fully agree. I intend to provide 300 yuan for travel expenses—please calculate whether this will be sufficient and let me know. In the future, when our funds are more ample, we can provide you with a monthly living allowance, roughly equivalent to living in Yan'an. This is entirely because you are a person of struggle, and for no other reason whatsoever. Before you leave, please leave your contact address and inform me. Let me know when you are departing, and I will come to see you off.

With salutations!

Mao Zedong

October 6

[1] Zhou Suyuan (1879–1958), a native of Bijie, Guizhou. In 1936, he accompanied the Second Front Army of the Red Army on the Long March to northern Shaanxi. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he served as a senior adviser to the Eighth Route Army. In 1938, he returned to his native place. After the founding of New China, he served as Vice Chairman of the Guizhou Provincial People's Government and Vice Governor of Guizhou Province.