Congratulatory Speech at the Mass Meeting
Sponsored by the Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party to Celebrate the
Sixtieth Birthday of Comrade Wu Yuzhang

(January 15, 1940)

(A sketch written for this paper) . . . Comrade Li Fuchun¹ told the people present that the
party was held to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Comrade Wu Yuzhang.² After that, Comrade Mao Zedong, beaming with heartfelt joy, stood up and said:

Today, as you all gather joyfully in this hall to honor the venerable Wu on his
birthday, I am reminded of what I felt when we were celebrating the birthday of
the venerable Xu two years ago. On that occasion, I emphasized that it was not
without a reason that we offered him birthday congratulations. I remember that
when I was small, I did not like old folks, because they treated young people highhandedly. Who does not err when young? But you could not afford to err: they
were so overbearing when you did. Children and young people had no say about
anything. Young people of China suffered very bitterly from feudalism in the family and in society. But now the world has changed, and young people love old
people. Thus our venerable Wu, Lin,³ Xu,⁴ Dong, and Xie,⁵ for example, are all

This speech was first published in Xin Zhonghua bao, January 24, 1940. We have translated
it from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 6, pp. 139-40, where it is reproduced from that source.
1. Li Fuchun (1900-1975) was a native of Hunan, who had spent several years in France.
He went to the Jiangxi Soviet Area in 1931, and participated in the Long March. At this
time he was deputy head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
2. Regarding Wu Yuzhang, see above the note to Mao's letter to him dated 1939.
3. Regarding Lin Boqu, see the note in Volume V, p. 622.
4. The reference is to Xu Teli (1877-1968), who had been Mao's teacher at the First
Normal School in Changsha. Regarding Xu's sixtieth birthday three (not two) years earlier,
see Mao's letter to him dated January 30, 1937, in Volume V, p. 601.
5. The last two persons on this list are Dong Biwu (1886-1974) and Xie Juezai (18841971). Dong was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. After studying in Moscow, he returned to China, went to the Jiangxi Soviet Republic, and then participated in the Long March. At this time, he was working with Zhou Enlai in the Eighth Route
Army liaison office in Chongqing, and was also a member of the People's Political Council.
Xie had joined the Communist Party in 1925, and worked in the Shanghai underground. He
participated in the Long March, and was a leading official in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region. The five individuals mentioned here by Mao are those who were commonly
regarded as the "elders" of the Party.

extremely popular with the young people. Why has this change taken place? Because these senior comrades, far from treating the young people high-handedly,
are very warmhearted in helping them. They act in a way that has made them
models for the young people, so they are respected highly by the young. There are
also many old people outside the Party who are esteemed by the young. Ma
Xiangbo,⁶ for example, is one of them. When he was celebrating his birthday, the
Communist Party sent him a congratulatory telegram because he favored resistance against Japan and democratic politics. All men will grow old alike. Why are
old people valuable? If they were valuable simply because they were old, there
would be too many valuable people. So we must have a criterion. That is, a person
is valuable if he has done good things all his life, and not bad things; if he has done
things that are beneficial to humanity, and not things that harm people. If one does
good things at first, and bad things later, this is what is called lack of consistency.
It is not at all hard for a person to do a few good things. What is difficult is to do
good things all one's life and nothing bad; to be beneficial throughout to the broad
masses of the people, to youth, and to the revolution; to persist tirelessly in hard
struggle for decades. That is truly the most difficult thing.
Our venerable comrade Wu Yuzhang is precisely such a person who has been
consistent for decades. He is sixty years old this year. From the time of the
Tongmenghui until the present, he has been making revolution for forty years. He
remained resolute and unchanging despite the miseries of all sorts he suffered in a
homeless and drifting life. That is truly not easy. Of the people who joined the
Tongmenghui, very few are still alive today. Fewer still are those who have persisted in working for the revolution and under no circumstances have given up
their revolutionary aspirations. To do this, one must not only have a firm and correct political orientation but also a spirit of hard struggle. Without this, one can
never succeed in fighting evil forces or conquering dangers of all kinds, such as
threats of death, starvation, and failure of the revolution. Our Comrade Wu Yuzhang
has survived numerous such threats and dangers. So we should emulate all his
good points and learn from him his persistence in revolution in particular. That is
a quality that cannot be praised enough, which brings honor to our Party and to the
Chinese revolution. In my opinion, it is here that the main significance of our most
joyful meeting to celebrate his sixtieth birthday lies.

6. Ma Liang (1840-1939), referred to here by his zi, Xiangbo, was a noted Catholic
educator, who had also played a role in diplomacy under the empire. As early as 1906, he
advocated democracy, and in 1931-1932 he wrote articles denouncing Japanese aggression. The birthday celebration to which Mao refers is presumably that in early 1939, when
Ma attained the Chinese-style age of 100 sui. He had died on November 4, 1939, but Mao
was probably not yet aware of this.