Letter to He Kaifeng on Press and
Translation Questions
(September 15, 1942)
Comrade Kaifeng:1
Today I talked with Bo Gu2 for half the day. Work in the newspaper office has
made progress, and we hope that it will be transformed from an incomplete Party
newspaper to a complete Party newspaper. He gave a report to over 200 people
and the response was very good (according to Shu Qun).3 The staff in the
newspaper office are now discussing improvements. Speaking of each department
using newspapers to help in their work, I think we should have another
discussion in order to draw the attention of comrades in every department of the
Central Committee. The authorities in each base area still have not begun to
appreciate newspapers as the very important weapon they are. I am thinking of
sending out a telegram (or using the name of the Secretariat) to point out this
mission. After rectification is finished, the Central Committee should set up a big
editing and translation department into which the editing and translation bureau
of the military committee should be amalgamated, with about twenty or thirty
people working there, to translate a large number of works by Marx, Engels,
Lenin, and Stalin, and other Russian books. If they have more energy, they could
translate English, French, and German classics. I think that Liangping4 has made
great contributions in translation; it would be best if he could lead the editing and
translation department. What do you say? I do not know whether he is willing.
For the sake of the whole Party, it is better to do translation rather than to do
local work. To model on Tang Sanzang5 or Lu Xun would be of boundless merit.
After Luo Mai leaves,6 you will be in charge of the Central Research Institute.

Page 4 of Liberation Daily is short of articles, and it still favors literature and art.
I have already contacted about a dozen people, trying to help Shu Qun solicit
articles. They include Ai, Fan, Sun Xuewei,7 and the labor, women’s, and youth
committees. I contacted Feng Wenbin8 in the Youth Committee to solicit articles
of 6,000–10,000 words each month on the Youth movement, but I do not know
whether it can be done.
The unhappy things will be over soon.
Best wishes!
Mao Zedong
Notes

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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 441–42, which is based on a manuscript copy.
1. He Kaifeng (1906–1955) was at this time vice director of the Central Committee Propaganda
Department as well as acting head.
2. That is, Qin Bangxian (Bo Gu, 1907–1946), who was a leader of the Russian returned-student faction
and was general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1931 to 1935. At this time he was managing
director of the Jiefang ribao.
3. Shu Qun (1913–1989) was then editor of features (or supplements) in Jiefang ribao.
4. Wu Liangping (1908–1986), translator of Engels’s Anti-Dühring, was then an editor at the Yan’an
weekly Jiefang.
5. That is, the monk Xuanzang, who brought the Indian Buddhist classics back to China and translated
them in the AD seventh century.
6. Luo Mai (alternate name for Li Weihan) (see note 4 to the previous text, “To Xue Juezai,” September 15,
1942).
7. Ai Siqi (1910–1966) was a noted Marxist philosopher. Fan Wenlan, a noted historian (see above, note to
the text of January 17, 1942). Sun Xuewei (alternate name for Liu Xuewei, 1912−) was a friend of the doomed
Wang Shiwei who turned against him during the June 1942 anti-Wang struggle sessions in Yan’an. All were
researchers at the Central Research Institute.

8. Feng Wenbin (1911–1997) was in charge of the Yan’an Youth Arts Theater and the Central Committee’s
Youth Department.