The Eighth Route Army Is an Army Led
by the Communist Party and United
with the People
(October 25, 1942)
I
This is a very good document.1 It should be printed and distributed to those who
attend the meeting before the report is given, and it should also be printed and
distributed to all cadres above the rank of battalion commander in the entire
army after the report is given to serve as material for cadre education. However,
do not publicly distribute it and take care to keep it confidential. While this
report is being delivered, consider inviting Li Dingming and others2 to listen.
II
As for defects among the government and the people, no matter how serious they
are, instead of vicious revenge and attacks, we should always make well-intentioned suggestions, for only this is the correct attitude that a revolutionary
soldier should have toward the revolutionary government and the revolutionary
people. Any other way would just be the attitude of a warlord.
III

We are sure that all the points discussed in this report3 can be carried out
throughout the army. Because our Eighth Route Army is of such excellent
quality, we are the best army in the nation, we are the army led by the
Communist Party, the army that is united with the people, and the army with a
glorious and historic tradition. We believe that we certainly can promote our
glorious tradition, overcome our shortcomings, and fulfill the task of rectifying
the army.
Notes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 686–87, which is based on Mao’s handwritten
manuscript in the Central Archives.
1. These are comments Mao wrote on He Long’s “Outline Report on Rectifying the Army,” presented to
the Senior Cadres Conference of the Northeastern Bureau of the Central Committee on November 4, 1942.
For details on this important meeting from October 1942 to January 1943, see Selden, China in Revolution,
pp. 160ff.
2. Li Dingming (1881–1947) was a non-Party member and a leading representative of the gentry of the
Suide area; at this time he was vice chair of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government under
the “Three-Thirds” system.
3. Section 3 of He Long’s report, on which Mao’s comments were written, proposed ten points for
rectifying the army.