Letter to Liu Shaoqi
(December 24, 1943)
Comrade Shaoqi:
There are two short essays by Engels in this book,1 and they are wonderful and
worth reading. The one by Gorev2 is also worth reading. Materialism by Gorev
was once translated by Qu Qiubai3 and I read it. It was not bad. Later I learned
that he made some mistakes. I still do not know what his mistakes were. I am
looking for other books to read on the materialist view of history. When I finish
them, I will send them to you.
Salutations!
Mao Zedong
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 219–20, where it is reproduced from the
manuscript.
1. Referring to the book Cong yuan dao ren (From Ape to Human), translated by Cheng Song and
published in Shanghai in September 1930. It is a collection of essays by Engels and other Marxist thinkers on
historical materialism.
2. Boris Isakovich Gorev (Goldman) (1874–1937) was a Soviet philosopher and historian. His major works
include Outline of Historical Materialism and Materialism: Philosophy of the Proletariat.
3. Qu Qiubai (1899–1935) joined the Communist Party in 1922 while studying in the Soviet Union. After

returning to China, he rose to become Party leader in August 1927, but he was stripped of his position as
secretary at the Sixth Congress in June 1928. He went back to the Soviet Union until 1930; after he returned
to China he was soon demoted, and was later captured and executed by government forces.