Letter to Yang Shaoxuan and Qi
Yanming1
(January 9, 1944)
Comrades Shaoxuan and Yanming:
I have seen your opera.2 You have done excellent work. I thank you and please
extend my thanks to the performers as well. History is created by the people, but
on the stage of old opera (and all the old literature and arts that were divorced
from the people), the people were but the dregs of society, and the stage was
dominated by nabobs, rich wives, and young masters and misses. You now have
reversed this inversion of history and have restored history’s true face. From now
on, the old opera will turn over a new leaf, and this is worth celebrating. In the
area of historical drama, Guo Moruo3 has done excellent work. You have done
the same in the realm of the old opera. This beginning that you have made will
be the start of a revolutionary epoch for old opera. I am greatly pleased to think
about this. I hope you will compose and perform much that will become common
practice throughout the entire country!
Salutations!
Mao Zedong
night of January 9
Notes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 222–23, where it is reproduced from Mao’s

handwritten manuscript.
1. Yang Shaoxuan (1893–1971) was a researcher at the Central Party School. Qi Yanming (1907–1978) was
director of the Cultural Education Section of the Dean’s Office of the Central Party School.
2. The opera by Yang and Qi was titled “Bishang Liangshan” (Driven to Liangshan), meaning “driven to
rebellion”—the rebels of Liangshan in the Song dynasty are well known in Chinese literature.
3. Guo Moruo (1892–1978) was a noted historian, writer, and revolutionary activist. During the War of
Resistance Against Japan, he was the head of the Third Section of the Political Department of the Military
Commission of the National Government and the director of the Cultural Work Committee. He organized
progressive cultural figures to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda work in the Guomindang-controlled
areas.