To Xie Juezai
(August 17, 1942)
Old Xie:1
I have read your letter. I am interested in the “Yi de shu” column2 and have
benefited from it. Still, I feel that occasionally one or two points are not so
appropriately expressed, but there is no cause for anxiety.
It looks as if the Consultative Congress of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border
Region should be postponed to next spring. By then, the situation may be more
promising, and it will be easier to express our opinions to the outside. We should
not regard this Consultative Congress as for this region only. Instead, it should be
regarded as the leader of all the Consultative Congresses in the base areas in
North and Central China. Moreover, after the end of this year, it will be easier to
summarize our area’s work experience. So this is worth reconsidering.
With best wishes!
Mao Zedong
Notes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 197–98, which is based on a manuscript copy.
1. Xie Juezai (1884–1971) was at this time the vice chair of the Consultative Congress of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
2. The column was published in Jiefang ribao by Xie Juezai under the penname Huan Nan between April
and November 1942. The title invokes a popular saying, “Even a fool occasionally hits upon a good idea.”

Xie’s essays in the column largely commented on problems in work and cadre attitudes in Yan’an.