Comrade Fan Wenlan: I have read the outline [2] and am very pleased. If you can write it up, it will be of great benefit, for this would be the first time that Confucian classics scholarship has been critically examined from a Marxist perspective. At present, the retrograde and reactionary forces of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie are running rampant, and the primary task in the ideological struggle is to oppose this reactionism.


Your historical research should be continued, as it will undoubtedly have a significant impact on this struggle.


I was unable to attend the third lecture due to illness and do not know whether it included any criticism of the shortcomings of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Zhang Binglin, and Hu Shi [3]. I also wonder whether it touched upon Liao Ping, Wu Yu, Ye Dehui [4], and others. The more we criticize these recent figures, the greater our influence will be within academic circles.


I myself have no expertise in history; should I be able to learn even a little from your research, I would consider it a great privilege.
With respectful greetings! Mao Zedong, September 5th. Printed from the manuscript.


Notes [1] Fan Wenlan (1893–1969), native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. At the time, he served as Director of the Historical Research Office at the Marx–Lenin Institute in Yan’an.
[2] Refers to Fan Wenlan’s lecture outline on a brief history of Chinese classical exegesis, delivered at the annual meeting of the New Philosophical Society in Yan’an in 1940. This outline was later revised and published in two consecutive issues (Nos. 2 and 3) of Volume 2 of Yan’an’s journal Chinese Culture under the title “The Evolution of the History of Chinese Classical Exegesis.”
[3] Kang, Liang, Zhang, and Hu refer to Kang Youwei (1858–1927, from Nanhai County, Guangdong Province), Liang Qichao, Zhang Binglin, and Hu Shi. All were scholars who exerted a major influence on the history of Confucian classics and intellectual thought in modern China.
[4] Liao Ping (1852–1932), from Jingyan County, Sichuan Province, was a prominent scholar of the Confucian classics in modern China. Wu Yu (1871–1949), from Xinfan County, Sichuan (now part of Xindu), wrote articles around the time of the May Fourth Movement criticizing traditional rites and customs; later, however, he seldom put forward new ideas. Ye Dehui (1864–1927), from Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, was a scholar of classical Chinese literature who staunchly upheld feudal rule.