Speech at the Second Term Opening Ceremony of the Northern Shaanxi Public School

(April 1, 1938)

Comrades:

Today marks the opening of the school term. You have opened a term several times already, and many have graduated. You have come from all parts of the country, from the war zones, from the rear areas, from the Nanyang Islands; from places thousands and tens of thousands of li away. Today we hold the opening ceremony for the second term. I believe the Chinese Communist Party is very glad about today’s opening, and therefore it is an honor for me, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, to welcome all of you comrades.

As I said the other day, you do not seek official promotion or wealth; rather, you are prepared to, or are already preparing to, sacrifice your lives to join the War of Resistance. Why have you, over one thousand five or six hundred strong, come here instead of going elsewhere? I think it is because of your faith in the Communist Party. If the Central Committee of the Communist Party were not here, none of you would have come. For example, once you arrived in Yan’an, why didn’t you go straight out the North Gate and keep heading north? There are still many places you could go there, yet you didn’t leave—you stayed right here. Or, you all know about Xi’an, where transportation is convenient; you wouldn’t have to live in caves or eat millet there, but you didn’t stay in Xi’an either. Unafraid of hardship, you traveled eight or nine hundred li on foot to come here. There is only one reason: the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, is right here.

So what is so good about the Communist Party? Why do you like the Communist Party? Japanese imperialism does not like the Chinese Communist Party, and there are many others who don’t like it either. In the past, many pictures circulated outside; they depicted Communists with hair standing straight up, with very long, very sharp teeth, drawn like demons. They also depicted Communists murdering, burning, not only sharing property but sharing wives. But you do not see the Communist Party that way. One comrade told me that, before he came, he thought the Communist Party must look very ugly. But once he came here and took a look, he found the Communist Party not ugly at all, and rather handsome. I think it’s rather handsome too; yet there are still some shortcomings. So one can only say rather handsome. And it is precisely because of this that people have faith in the Communist Party and come here.

Why is the Communist Party trusted by you, yet detested by Japanese imperialism and certain others? I think it’s because it has its special characteristics, that is, qualities others have a hard time matching. They are as follows:

First, it has a direction, a political direction. This direction—which the whole nation considers good—is to overthrow imperialism and establish democratic politics. This political direction represents the views of the overwhelming majority of people throughout China. The Communist Party, from the very day of its birth, set this direction. Externally, because imperialism oppresses us, we raised the slogan of overthrowing imperialism. Internally, some of the old things have grown stale and decayed and must be overthrown, and democratic politics must be established. This is the overall direction the Chinese Communist Party has set forth over the past seventeen years, an overall direction the whole nation endorses. There is another direction as well: the ideal of socialism. Just think: once democratic politics is established, after we ourselves graduate, do we go on with our studies or not? We must go on. Is there a school where we can continue our studies? Yes, the university of socialism. It can bring the people the greatest happiness. You cannot walk the path of democracy and then stop moving forward. You must keep going, and that path is the socialist one. But if you want to reach socialism, you must first take the present path, following the present direction.

Why does the whole nation especially like the Communist Party? Because it not only has a political direction, but also persists in this direction.

Some say the Communist Party changes often. For example, Northern Shaanxi Public School has changed many times within a few months. They claim they have run countless schools that have never changed, always remaining the same, with teaching materials perhaps even dating back to the first year of the Republic. We say, we do change. Over seventeen years, the Chinese Communist Party has changed three times: First, during the civil war from 1924 to 1927; second, during the Soviet movement; third, from after the September 18th Incident through the Xi’an Incident to the present Second United Front. Indeed, we have changed. But is there something that has not changed? Yes, there is: the overall political direction has not changed. What was the purpose of the First Great Revolution? To overthrow imperialism and establish democratic politics. What was the purpose of the Soviet movement? To overthrow imperialism and establish democratic politics. The present War of Resistance is also for this overall direction. Your school song contains a line: “We remain faithful to the cause of national liberation.” That is good. For seventeen years, the Chinese Communist Party has remained faithful to the cause of national liberation. Not only has it had a political direction welcomed by the whole nation, it has also persisted in this political direction. Some, however, cannot do this, and moreover, they want us not to do it. We have climbed the most difficult mountains to climb, crossed rivers and grasslands, and were unafraid to lose our heads; hundreds of thousands of Party members gave their lives, yet still we pushed forward—some died, and the living tread upon their bloodstains and continue forward, still holding high the bright banner!

This is the first point that makes the whole nation like the Party.

There is another point: it has a style of work, a habit of struggle. Lu Xun had Lu Xun’s style, the Resistance University has the Resistance University’s style, and your Northern Shaanxi Public School also has its own style. The Communist Party likewise has its style, which is: arduous struggle! This is the style of every Communist Party member, of every revolutionary.

One comrade received a letter, probably from a graduate of the Resistance University or Northern Shaanxi Public School. The letter said, after staying a long time in Yan’an, he had gained nothing; every day they just climbed mountains. There are mountains everywhere—why come all the way to you Communists here to climb mountains? He is an opponent of mountain-climbing-ism. I am an advocate of mountain-climbing-ism. I don’t know whether Northern Shaanxi Public School climbs mountains every day; the Resistance University does every day. I think mountain-climbing is necessary.

Marxism is the head. A person has a head but must also have feet; mountain-climbing-ism is the feet. To overthrow Japanese imperialism, you need feet. Mountain-climbing becomes a prevailing spirit, and whatever work you do, you develop a spirit just like that of climbing a mountain. This spiritual atmosphere is a style of work. Other nations have their own styles; our nation has a style of diligent, frugal, arduous struggle. Look at peasants in the fields: whatever the weather, they work, enduring hardship and sweating. Isn’t that a style of arduous struggle? Workers and soldiers also have this style; the vast majority of people have this style. Other social strata have it too. For example, Mr. Sun Yat-sen had it: when he suffered defeats, he still held high his banner and pushed forward. The Communist Party has this style too.

Yet everyone feels the Communist Party is a bit better than others in this regard. Why is that? Because the Communist Party persists in its political direction. Over seventeen years, when confronted with times of extreme difficulty, it still persisted in its political direction. This kind of arduous struggle has become a traditional spirit throughout the entire Party, just like Cheng Fangwu.[1] Our Party demands that every Party member, in addition to being educated to persist in the political direction, also cultivate a style of work. That is: being frank, telling the truth, fearing no hardship, and struggling against all unhealthy tendencies and against the enemies of the nation. Wherever the Communist Party is, if it says fight Japan, then it truly fights Japan; if it says practice democracy, then it truly practices democracy; if it says oppose corruption, then it truly struggles against those bad elements. The majority of Party members have this style. But there are also bad elements. We know that the Communist Party is not some old Communist member living on a mountain, training disciples and perfecting some magic weapon to send them down the mountain in batches; therefore, bad elements do exist. Seventeen years of facts prove that most Party members persist unchanged; they work arduously. To have such a group of outstanding Party members is the glory of the nation. You, this group of fine boys and girls, rally around the Party—this too is the glory of the nation. But there are also bad elements in our nation; they study the school of official promotion, the school of getting rich, and they even learn such things in universities and research institutes. But it is very clear: on one side, the great majority of good elements; on the other, a tiny minority of bad elements. Many good elements have joined the Communist Party, and some bad elements may say they too don’t seek promotion or wealth, and are willing to sacrifice everything—they join the Party, but they are absolutely a tiny minority. Because of this, with these outstanding Party members acting as its guarantors, the Communist Party persists in its political direction, maintains the working style of arduous struggle, and marches down the path of national liberation.

[1] Cheng Fangwu (1897–1984), a native of Xinhua, Hunan, was then president of Northern Shaanxi Public School.

With these two good qualities, everyone feels the Communist Party is good. Now the Communist Party seems handsome; in fact, it has always been this handsome. It’s just that the people who drew the pictures drew badly—they painted the Communist Party ugly. We drew pictures of them too, but we didn’t paint them nearly so viciously. Now it’s fine; we no longer paint ugly pictures of each other, because we are fighting on the same front. It’s very civilized; we’ve stopped.

Today Northern Shaanxi Public School opens its term; I ought to send some gifts. But I don’t have much, so I can only give you two gifts.

The first: an unswervingly firm political direction.

The second: a working style of arduous struggle.

In your future work, you will encounter great and numerous problems. The road is difficult to travel, and there are two kinds of attitudes. One is: after scraping or bruising a bit of skin, shedding a little blood, you put on a bitter face; then you hit another snag—oh, it’s terrible, the Yellow River’s waters come from the sky—you weep, and then you about-face and start marching the other way. The other attitude is quite different. When he falls, he gets up and keeps going, never discarding his banner. Moreover, he uses his wits. For instance, to climb that opposite mountain: if you try to climb from the entrance of Cheng Fangwu’s cave dwelling, you cannot get up. So, you make a detour: from the south, where there is a path, or a slope that isn’t so sheer, you can climb up.

This War of Resistance shows that our nation has just such a style: fearing no hardship or difficulty, fearing no sacrifice, we hold fast. This guarantees our victory.

The path you have chosen is very correct, and your enthusiasm for learning is very high. I fully approve of what President Cheng just said to you: that you should become militarized, draw close to the masses, and overcome arrogant self-conceit. Those are very good ideas.

These are my two gifts. Are they good or not? Think it over again. I think they will be useful. So long as we have a united political direction, a working style of arduous struggle, and persist in this direction and style, we can unite the entire nation, and we can defeat Japanese imperialism.