Views on the New Fourth Army Staff
Work Conference¹
(March 16, 1939)
Ye [Ting], Xiang [Ying], Zhou [Zikun], and Lai [Chuanzhu]:2
Our views on the staff conference follow; please take them into consideration. The
general orientation for the conference should be to review and summarize experiences and lessons learned from past staff work, to expand on its achievements, to
correct its mistakes, to establish various systems for staff work, and to define the
main content of staff work. We must insist that the political caliber of staff personnel be raised, and that the level of some former technical staff workers be raised to
the level of tactical staff personnel and strategic staff personnel, in order to improve the work of the commanding organs and to prepare them to exercise leadership in battle under new circumstances. For this purpose:
1. In addition to summarizing past work, the conference should decide on future work, determine the tasks of staff departments at various levels and the division of labor among the various sections, establish various systems, formulate
various rules and procedures, and stipulate the priorities in our work during a
certain period of time.
2. In addition to discussing future work, the training of staff officers and the
enhancement of their education should be discussed. This should be done on the
basis of the priorities specified above.
3. The level of political position and conviction of staff personnel is to be raised.
4. Sufficient preparatory work should be done beforehand, such as holding
smaller meetings in advance, and discussing separately the work of the various
departments and various systems and regulations. It is expected that you will inform us by telegram of the results of the conference.
Mao [Zedong] Wang [Jiaxiang] Teng [Daiyuan]
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 458-59, where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.
To Nie Rongzhen

(March 18, 1939)

Address at the Evening Meeting
Commemorating "March 18th"

(March 18, 1939)

Comrade Rongzhen:

I have received the [manuscript of the] book you wrote,¹ the album of photographs
you sent me, and your letter. These are all very precious things. We plan to publish
the book in both Yan'an and Chongqing (Director Wang [Jiaxiang] and I will each
write a preface to it). The photographs are being passed around for all the comrades to see. I hope that you continue to struggle hard, deepen your studies, and
write more new works.

Mao Zedong

"March 18th"-a magnificent and heroic day dyed in blood! Shortly after six o'clock,
the Shaangong Auditorium was packed with people as usual, both inside and outside.
The program of the meeting began in a solemn atmosphere.... Waving his hand as if to
sweep away all the traitors to the nation, Comrade Mao Zedong said:

If we want to eliminate the enemy we must wage two kinds of war: One is an overt
war, and the other is a covert war. The covert war consists of both strategic
offensives, striking deep within the enemy's heart, and strategic defense to protect
ourselves. To defeat the enemy it is necessary to attack from both within and
without, so both are of equally great significance. [We] demand that every
security staff member recognize the importance and honor of this task, and we
hope that each and every security staff member has stamina and perseveres until
the victory of the War of Resistance and until the final victory of Communism.

The audience responded with prolonged applause.

Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, p. 153, where it is reproduced from
a copy in the Central Archives.
1. This refers to Nie's book about the anti-Japanese struggles in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei (Jin-Cha-Ji) Base Area, which was published in Yan'an by the publishing house of
the Balujun junzheng zazhi in December 1939. Its title, personally inscribed by Mao, was
An Anti-Japanese Model Base Area-The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Mao, Zhu
De, and Wang Jiaxiang each wrote a preface to it (see above, the text dated March 2, 1939,
for Mao's preface).

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 6, p. 31, where it is reproduced from
Xin Zhonghua bao, March 22, 1939.

--- Notes

1. This was the New Fourth Army's second conference on staff work, held at Army
Headquarters in Yunling, Jingxian, in Anhui Province, from March 18 to 24, 1939.

2. Ye Ting (1896–1946), zi Xiyi, was a native of Guangdong. He joined the Chinese
Communist Party in 1924, while studying in the Soviet Union, participated in the Nanchang
and Guangzhou uprisings of 1927, and then spent a decade in Europe, returning to China in
1937 on the outbreak of the war against Japan to become commander-in-chief of the New
Fourth Army.
Xiang Ying (1898-1941), a native of Hubei, joined the Chinese Communist Party in
1922 and was active in the labor movement from then until 1927. In 1928, he went to
Moscow to attend the Sixth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, at which he was
elected a member of the Central Committee and of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. During the Jiangxi Soviet period, he occupied various responsible posts in the Party
and the government. When the main Red Army forces embarked on the Long March, he
was left behind to engage in guerrilla warfare. After the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war,
he became deputy commander and political commissar of the New Fourth Army.
Zhou Zikun was deputy chief of staff, and Lai Chuanzhu was chief of staff.