This is a report written in clear and simple language by Comrade Gao Kelin² which
describes what actually happened, and is worthy of emulation by all. The practice
of "writing torrents of words, all of which are miles from the mark" must now be
wiped out, along with all that "indulging in exaggeration," as well as subjectivism
and formalism. Comrade Gao Kelin wrote this report after an investigation meeting one evening with three people. He did a good job in his investigation meeting,
and his report is very well written. What we need is this kind of thing, not all those
"indulgent exaggerations" that repeat each other endlessly, or all those Party eightlegged essays.3

1. According to a note to the Chinese text, this report describes Lu’s leading a transportation team carrying salt a long distance to the “Sanbian” (Yanbian, Jingbian, and Dingbian)
area within the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region. Lu has not been identified.
2. At this time Gao Kelin was associated with the newly founded Nationalities Institute
in Yan’an.
3. “Eight-legged essays” refers to a stereotyped form in which essays had to be written
in the imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Mao (and other May 4th
intellectuals) frequently used the term to signify formalistic jargon in general. _Dang bagu_,
which we have here translated literally as “Party eight-legged essays,” is also frequently
rendered as “stereotyped Party writing” or “Party formalism.”