Reply to Xu Fanting[1]

(December 25, 1942)

Your esteemed letter has been respectfully received. I have been busy lately, and you are also ill; it would be better for us to talk after a short delay. Your health is somewhat poor—I hope you will keep it up. My right arm is a little better than in the first half of the year; the Chinese medicine seems to be effective. Another year has passed—truly it is a case of "Heaven increases the years, and man increases in age"! I will not exhaust all else here.

[1] This is the main content of Mao Zedong's letter in reply to Xu Fanting.