Letter to Wang Mei[1]

(March 10, 1940)

Comrade Wang Mei:

Your letter and the grain payment from substitute farming have been received. Thank you for your kindness and assistance. I am not lacking in material supplies. I have decided to transfer the 3,500 yuan you gave me back to you, as a gift to express my thanks to you, and I hope you will accept it.

With comradely salutations!

Mao Zedong

March 10

[1] Beginning in 1939, the army and people in the various anti-Japanese base areas successively launched vigorous and large-scale production campaigns. In the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, every soldier and civilian was required to participate in grain planting and cotton spinning work. Mao Zedong was also allotted a plot of land for cultivation, and whenever he had time, he would pick up a hoe and start working. Later, because Mao Zedong was too busy with work, Wang Mei, a peasant from Yan'an, took the initiative to do substitute farming for Mao Zedong and handed over the proceeds from the substitute farming to Mao Zedong. This is Mao Zedong's reply letter to Wang Mei.