Cultural Education Problems in the
Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region1
(March 22, 1944)
Today I want to discuss with you comrades the question of culture and
education. I have not thoroughly studied this issue; I’ve just heard some things
here and there that I want to bring up in order to give us a place to start. We will
be discussing many issues at the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Senior
Cadres Conference. Although cultural education problems are not scheduled for
discussion, I think that we should put them on our agenda for our Senior Cadres
Conference this winter and that they should be an important part of our agenda.
In recent years, the border region has achieved much. This is especially true
with regard to last year’s production. This year, if the rainfall is sufficient, we
will possess the requisite natural conditions, and the Senior Cadres Conference
has made ideological preparations for it, so our work will go even better. In terms
of the environment, we are better off this year than we were last year; we will
probably not have the clashes that we had then. [U.S. president Franklin]
Roosevelt does not approve of us Chinese clashing like that. Chairman Chiang
[Kaishek] does not want to fight, and we want to even less. No one wants to
fight, so naturally no fighting will be launched. This is what is called “peace is
precious.” The environment of the border region is like this. We raised our slogan
long ago: it is “War, Production, Education.” Even as we fight the Japanese
imperialists behind enemy lines, we can simultaneously make advances in
construction, production, and education. The border region is not enduring the
conditions of war and so we can directly work on the two tasks of production
and education. There is also the task of education in the armed forces: political,
military, and cultural education. This winter there will be a large training session.

A few years ago, when Comrade Chen Xuezhao2 first arrived in the border
region, she said that many things here were constructed poorly. She said that the
Communists knew how to take care of military matters but were less able to
construct the country. She said this three years ago. Was she right? I think she
was. We are not bad when it comes to politics and military matters, but at that
time we indeed did not really know what to do when it came to production and
construction. Everyone should think about what our achievements in the realm
of production were three years ago. If we had managed our production well, then
maybe “Wild Lilies”3 would not have been written. Three years ago, everyone’s
food was bad, many people were ill, and it was said that half the students at the
Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature would fall asleep during class, probably
because the vitamin content of millet was inadequate.
During the Civil War and the early days of the War of Resistance, our Party
learned how to fight and how to wage war. We are relatively good at politics and
military matters; of course, we still have a few problems, but we are more
familiar with these two courses of study than we are with economics and culture.
We have done a little economics already because if we had not we would not
have been able to fight. If you want to be able to fight, you must first have rice to
eat. So, the fact that we have been able to fight in the past is because we have
done a little economics. In the past, the central Chinese soviet areas also did a
little in the way of culture. For example, they had navy dances, which some of
the comrades here have seen. They also set up reading groups, newspapers, and
schools. But we cannot say that the entire Party has mastered cultural activities,
so these activities have not really achieved a whole lot. When we speak of
ordinary people, there are some right now in northern Shaanxi whose food is
bad, and there are still many who do not have enough to eat. In the border
region, having sufficient food and clothing is still a goal that only some people
have achieved. But during the past year, production and economics have gotten
on track. This is a major prerequisite, and it is a new thing. The agenda of this
year’s Senior Cadres Conference includes financial and economic issues because
although economics has gotten on track, we still have not yet mastered the
subject. We must continue to learn.
Cultural issues have not yet been included on the agenda for this conference.
In the border region’s Party committees and government, and even a few of its

management units, such as those for propaganda—none of these have included
cultural education issues on their agenda—there are still some comrades who do
not know what to do in these areas. For example, I have heard that some of the
propaganda departments at the xian and the regional levels do know what to do
and in fact do things well enough, but some do not know what to do. Right now
the situation is like this: We know what to do when it comes to military and
political affairs, but not when it comes to economics and culture. What will
happen if we do not know how to perform in culture and economics? If we do
not understand this, then the Communist Party will be essentially useless. It will
still be slightly useful: It is good at smashing old things, at attacking the enemy,
and at defeating the enemy, but it will not be greatly useful. This is because if
you do not master economics and culture, then not everyone will be able to eat
their fill of grain, and ordinary people will not have pork to eat, will be illiterate,
and won’t be able to perform the yangge dances. The yangge still exists to an
extent, but how to disseminate it is a problem. There is still much to do in terms
of culture; we must set up reading groups, we must sing and write Spring Festival
couplets, and so on. Therefore, things will be bad if we do not master economics
and culture.
During the Civil War and the early days of the War of Resistance, and even
right now, a way of thinking still exists among some comrades, which is that
political and military affairs are the most important thing, and culture and
economics are only of secondary importance. Are there grounds for thinking like
this? Indeed, political and military affairs are the most important; if you do not
defeat the enemy, then you will not be able to concern yourself with millet or rice
or yangge because the enemy will still be oppressing you. Can you still run
schools and produce under the oppression of the enemy? So, of course, defeating
the enemy comes first. Since this is the case, those whose job it is to fight the
enemy are held in high esteem and are popular, whereas those who produce
millet and work on the yangge are not much sought after; during meetings they
never sit at the head of the table, and the election presidium has no seats for
them. If we do not defeat the enemy, we will not be able to produce millet or
other things, and so the job of fighting the enemy should come first. But we
should know that politics is the superstructure and economics the base. Politics is
like a house, and economics is the foundation. Why do we meddle with politics,

government, and the military? In order to smash the old politics, government,
and military that block the development of the productive forces. Japanese
imperialists occupy our land. What productive forces do we have that we can
develop? This is what blocking the development of the productive forces is. If we
do not eradicate the old politics and military affairs that block the development of
productive forces, then we will not be able to liberate the productive forces and
the economy will not be able to develop. Therefore, the first task is to defeat the
old politics and military affairs that obstruct the development of the productive
forces. And the sole reason that we engage in political and military affairs is to
liberate the forces of production. All comrades who have studied the social
sciences understand that the most basic issue is the upward development of the
forces of production. It is because of this that we have for many years engaged in
political and military matters. Marxist social science also is primarily occupied
with discussing this issue: that is, how the forces of production have developed
over the course of history. Culture is the manifestation of politics and economics,
and it also leads politics and economics; it reflects military matters and also
guides them. Today in the border region we have two kinds of yangge dances.
One is old and reflects old politics and economics; one is new and reflects new
politics and economics. There is a yangge called “Zhao Fugui,” and there is
another one called “Zhang Zhiguo.”4 I have heard that after the performance in
Wuqi, a soldier from the Third Guard Brigade bound his hands together and ran
to his commander and requested to be punished. Why did he ask to be punished?
He said, “I wanted to desert. Not only did I want to desert, but I wanted to
organize others to desert as well.” Then he said that he had sewn a lot of money
into his clothes. He demanded to be punished. But since he had confessed
everything on his own, of course he was not punished. This is an example of the
strength of our culture. Why couldn’t those grand operas and novels of a few
years ago give rise to this kind of strength? Because they did not reflect the
politics and economics of the border region. In the past, hundreds and thousands
of authors, artists, and people of culture were alienated from the masses. But after
the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, they worked all last year on these ideas,
and they gradually mastered them. As soon as they did so, the broad masses
welcomed them. What I mean by “mastered” is that they know how to reflect the
lives of the masses and how to genuinely to reflect the politics and economics of

the border region. This enables them to fulfill the function of leading. The
relationships among politics, military affairs, economics, and culture are as
follows: the strength of politics and military affairs is a strength with which to
overthrow the obstacles to the development of the productive forces. The goal of
overthrowing these obstacles is to liberate the forces of production and to develop
the economy. Economics is the foundation of politics and military affairs; politics
and military affairs are the superstructure. The foundation is economics, and the
essential goal is to develop the economy. The reason politics and military affairs
come first is that without them, the forces of production will not be able to
achieve liberation, and there will be no possibility of talking about other issues.
Culture is the reflection of political and economic struggle, but at the same time it
is able to guide political and economic struggle. We must not have too little
culture. Any society that lacks culture cannot be established. Feudal society had
feudal culture; feudal culture propagated the principles of feudalism. Capitalist
societies have capitalist culture; if they did not, they, too, would not be able to
become established. Right now, China is not yet a capitalist country; capitalism is
not dominant. Therefore, Chinese culture is very weak. In true capitalist
countries, capitalist culture raises the level of productive technology. Right now
we are establishing a new democratic society whose character is capitalist but
also is of the popular masses; it is not socialist, nor is it the old kind of capitalism.
It is new capitalism or, in other words, new democracy. Such a society also needs
culture. For example, if you set up work-exchange teams and cooperatives, you
must keep accounts, and to do so you need culture. For a village to set up a workexchange team, at least one person who can write the names of everyone in the
village is necessary. In a word, culture is necessary. During the time of the
Northern Expedition, the new troops were better than the old. This is related to
the establishment of the Huangpu [Whampoa] Military Academy. At that time,
most of the students at the Huangpu Academy were young, and these youths had
both knowledge and revolutionary fervor. They had culture, and the other troops
could not compare to them. In addition to possessing a revolutionary spirit,
revolutionary troops must also have knowledge. If they do not, and their cultural
and political levels are not raised, then it will also be impossible to raise the
quality of the troops.
To what level has the border region developed now? I think that if we do not

develop culture, then our economy, politics, and military affairs will all be
hindered. Now we’ve been dragged to a standstill; backward things are dragging
down good things. For example, illiteracy and the inability to keep accounts are
obstructing the development of our economy, politics, and military matters. If we
all knew how to read and our culture was higher, then we would progress even
faster. Therefore, I propose that from now on we must bring up the question of
cultural development, and I ask everyone to think it over and look into it. When
winter comes around this year, we should have a meeting for eight or ten days to
open up a discussion. Next year, we will do things a bit better. We should have a
five-year plan; last year will count as the first year, and this year as the second.
During these five years, we will entirely eradicate illiteracy among the 1.4 million
ordinary people of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the 100,000
members of the Party, government, and military: a total of 1.5 million people.
This will raise the cultural level of the people of the border region to the
necessary level. What must we do to achieve this goal? I think that in general
there are four issues here: newspapers, schools, art, and hygiene. I will now
discuss each of these separately.
First: newspapers.
At present, senior comrades, and even some middle-level comrades, all have a
similar feeling about newspapers, which is that if they do not have newspapers,
they cannot do their jobs well. When their meals arrive, so do their newspapers.
Some read the paper before they eat. One comrade, who was born into a local
family of workers and farmers, told me that he always reads his paper before
eating. If in every xian the number of comrades like this could be increased to
fifteen or twenty, then we would do our work better. Liberation Daily [Jiefang
ribao] has become an organizer in the border region. Without this newspaper, it
would be very difficult to work in this sparsely populated, vast area, which is one
of the most backward places in the country. With Liberation Daily, it is possible
to organize the political and cultural life of the entire border region. There is also
Border Region Masses Daily [Bianqu qunzhong bao], whose distribution is even
greater, and which even more people read. There are also many local newspapers
in the border region that are run by the prefectural Party committees. I have seen
central Shaanxi’s and Suide’s newspapers, and I have heard that eastern Gansu
and Sanbian also have their own newspapers. The newspapers of central Shaanxi

and Suide seem to be pretty good; the news is written and edited well. I have not
seen the newspapers of eastern Gansu and Sanbian yet. The reason local papers
are necessary is that if we only have a Liberation Daily, then a Border Region
Masses Daily is still not enough. Wherever a newspaper is established, things can
be made known even more directly and quickly. I think that this is good. Our
comrades in the prefectural Party committees should take newspapers into their
own hands and use them as a weapon with which to organize all their work and
to make known politics, military matters, and economics; they should make
newspapers into a weapon with which to guide politics, military matters, and
economics and to organize and educate the masses. We must focus our energy on
this task and advance it with each passing year. Does every brigade of ours have
its own newspaper? I know that the central Shaanxi brigade has one, and the
359th Brigade also has one. I have heard that some regiments also have
newspapers, but the xian still do not. Can’t we publish newspapers in every xian?
We still have absolutely no experience with this. And, after all, is it really
necessary? I think it is unnecessary in some places, like Yan’an for example,
because Liberation Daily and Border Region Masses Daily are published there. Is
it necessary in some of the xian that are far from Yan’an? For example, some
prefectural Party committees could publish mimeographed newspapers and each
ask an intellectual to assume the responsibilities involved. Such papers could
come out periodically or at irregular intervals. One person would probably be
enough for everything from editing to distribution, including making the original
steel plate. What should we print in these papers? For example, we have here a
man named Shen Changlin,5 and the things he has done could be published.
There’s also a man named Chen Defa6 who could be written about without
waiting for Liberation Daily. Comrades should consider this idea. You, of course,
should not think that Yangjialing has had a meeting about this and that therefore
an order has been issued for everyone to set up a newspaper; if it is not necessary,
then do not do it. We could also first set up papers in a few xian to try things out.
In the past we mastered one way of working: that is, holding meetings. This
way of doing work is practiced everywhere, and for many years now we have
not cast it aside. If you now begin to use the method of newspapers, then it will
be possible to disseminate much wisdom and many role models via the
newspapers. We must now learn how to use this work method. In the border

region right now, holding meetings is the most important work method. If we
publish newspapers, we will be able to save ourselves from having to hold so
many meetings. We can discuss so many issues in a newspaper that it will serve
as a meeting or a training group, and all sorts of directives can be sent via the
newspapers rather than by letter. So newspapers can also be an important
method of work and education. Wall newspapers are also a kind of newspaper,
and publishing wall newspapers can also serve as an important work method. But
we still do not know how to use this type of newspaper; we still have not come
out with a sensational revolutionary wall newspaper that will attract everyone in
Yan’an to come look at it. I think that a canteen unit of, say, one hundred people,
could come up with a wall newspaper. There will always be a leader of the unit
who can use the wall newspaper as his own weapon for organizing work,
educating the masses, inspiring the initiative of the masses, and writing his own
editorials. At present, some wall newspapers are not done well and are read only
by the people who know how to write articles. Could we hold a meeting on wall
newspapers? For example, right now there are two hundred organizations that
are making wall newspapers. An editor and a leader should come from every one
of them, so we will have a meeting of more than four hundred people. The
leaders must attend this meeting. Only if the leaders take responsibility and do
things themselves will the wall newspapers be done well. We must make wall
newspapers that have both a revolutionary content and also a vivid and lively
style so that they become a way of working that will organize the work of every
organization.
If we run newspapers in this way, then there will be about a thousand
newspapers of one sort or another throughout the border region. This could be
called “the entire Party running newspapers.” Organizations can run papers, too,
and both Party members and non-Party members may participate in them. This
could be called “an alliance between Party members and non-Party members.” If
this happens, then our newspapers would be extremely useful. In the past, we
have not paid enough attention to this idea, but now the leaders of every
organization should take charge and use the newspapers as their own excellent
way of working. There is a lot of political and economic work that we could do
much better if we set up good newspapers.
Second: schools.

Yesterday, news about Yan’an Elementary School appeared in the paper. It was
very good news. This sort of good news is much more useful than our talking a
lot because this elementary school has already produced practical achievements
which we should broadcast to the entire country. This elementary school is run
very well. In the past, many elementary schools were not run well and were not
popular with the masses, but we still insisted on keeping them. That was
commandism. There was a teacher in Yangjialing whom I asked, after he had
been teaching for about a year, whether people understood the classes that he
taught. He said that people did not really understand, but he still insisted on
teaching. I say that we Communists must learn something, which is that we will
not teach what people will not listen to. The Education Department had a
meeting at which they declared that schools should be run by the people
themselves. I think that this is very good. Comrade [Hu] Qiaomu7 told me that
schools should only be run by villages. I have heard that in Chen Defa’s township
there are twenty-five natural villages but only one elementary school. Students
must walk several dozen li in order to study, which is very inconvenient. There
was another piece of news in the paper yesterday, saying that Suojiaya village
will establish an elementary school that will adopt the system of three terms in
one year. During the busy farming season, the school will be closed so that
students can help their families with the farming. In this way, they both study
and help their families. And at the same time, there is no danger of their
becoming government employees [gongjiaren]. In the countryside, it is more
convenient if each village sets up an elementary school. If every township sets up
an elementary school, then children must board at school, which will require that
they bring grain. If they eat at home, 6 or 7 dou of grain are enough; if they have
to bring grain to school they will need 1 dan and 3 dou. And all they will learn is
something about “ten thousand nations in the world and the nine divisions of
ancient China,” none of which comes from the peasants’ real needs. Moreover,
they also will run the risk of becoming government employees, which would be
inappropriate. To become an employee of the revolution is a natural process—just
as when the militia become guerrilla troops, and when the guerrilla troops
became regular troops; it is a natural process. Now, it is a little unnatural. For
someone to join our work and to become alienated from production is as if a
piece of flesh has been cut off from the body; it is very abrupt. It is possible for us

to think of a way to resolve the question of teachers. We can organize reading
groups. The border region previously organized reading groups, but they failed. I
think that they did not actually do it properly. This is like the situation when the
idea of increasing the grain tax revenue on flour and rice by 400,000 dan was
raised; the idea was raised, but no one took charge of how to increase the amount
of grain. But the year before last, the Senior Cadres Conference8 raised the idea of
increasing tax revenue on flour and rice by 80,000 dan, and in the end it increased
it by 160,000 dan. This occurred because in January of last year, Wu Manyou’s9
plan to tax according to the different household circumstances appeared in the
newspaper. The Construction Department found him and held a three-day
meeting. Only after understanding Wu Manyou did we see how many more dan
we should ask of the border region, and how we should go about increasing the
amount collected. I think that the so-called failure of the reading groups was
because there was no specific direction and the production movement among the
masses had not yet developed. Things are different now; there is a demand for
them among the people. If we issue an appeal for support, we will be able
gradually to expand [the reading groups]. We have the following overarching
plan: In northern Shaanxi there are 350,000 households and 1.4 million people.
Within ten years, we will eradicate all illiteracy there. People will learn one
character a day. There are 365 days in a year, so they will learn 365 characters.
After ten years, they will know 3,650 characters. A period of ten years can be
divided into two five-year plans. During each five-year plan, every person should
learn 2,000 characters. Everyone knowing 2,000 characters is close to having
eliminated illiteracy. On this foundation, within five years a population of 1.4
million will be able to read Border Region Masses Daily. Since we will extend
things for another five years, within ten years it will be possible for everyone to
be able to read Border Region Masses Daily. We Communists are famous for our
lofty ambitions. In ten years, we want every one of the people to be able to read
Border Region Masses Daily and one-third of them to be able to read Liberation
Daily. If one-third of a population of 1.4 million can read Liberation Daily, it will
have to be printed in large numbers. I am afraid that when this happens, we will
have to build many paper mills. In the past, we ate steamed cornbread, wore rags,
and were freezing to death; how could we think about learning to read? Things
are different now. We have made great progress in production. If we do this for

another year, we should start thinking about cultural work. I think we should do
some [cultural work] this winter because the people demand it. We could, for
example, have winter school for three or four months. It is not easy to do this in
the spring or summer, since people are terribly busy going to the hills to till the
land. Let us mobilize this winter and lay a foundation, and next year there will be
even more progress. To raise the cultural level and to eliminate illiteracy we must
rely on reading groups. Of course, willingness is also our principle. At the
beginning, we might as well organize one or two groups, invite a few people to
learn to read. Of course, knowing how to read is better than not knowing, so
those who learn will feel more confident. We then should choose some model
students and reward them with some towels. They will know how to read and
also will have some towels. If we do this for two years, it will become an
established practice.
Which people will teach? Common people will teach common people. Right
now among our troops, officers teach soldiers, soldiers teach soldiers, and soldiers
teach officers. Last year, after training in Yan’an for five days, some cadres went
back to train soldiers. One company has one hundred people, and there is always
a good soldier among them. A cadre could compete with him, and as he would
not necessarily win, he could have the soldier teach. In the reading groups, the
people can teach the people. Someone who knows ten characters can be the group
leader; someone who knows one hundred characters can be the committee chair.
We should also edit some books; we should put together some books regarding
knowledge of production and such to serve as teaching materials. Students should
master how to use an abacus, how to write a letter, how to keep accounts, and
how to write travel permits. In this way, the families of the students will see that
the students can do everything after only a few days of study at elementary
school. This will be better than the situation of students in the past. Back then, as
soon as we emerged from school, we thought we were so great; we pushed
ourselves forward and felt self-satisfied.
We should also advocate paternal kindness and filial piety. I used to argue
about this with my father. He said I was not filial, and I said he was not kind. I
said that the first thing is for fathers to be kind, and filial piety comes second;
these are two sides of the same coin. If a father beats his son until he cannot see
straight, how can the son practice filial piety? This is the dialectics of Confucius.

This year when we celebrated [International] Women’s Day on March 8, we
brought up the idea of constructing model households. This is one great measure
of the progress of the Communist Party. We advocate household harmony in
which fathers are kind and children are filial, and older brothers are loving and
younger brothers are respectful. Each side helps the other and everyone lives
harmoniously.
Elementary schools have now decided on the policy of being run by the people.
This is very good. In addition to this, there are also those run by the government.
There are six higher-level middle schools and normal schools run by the
government. It is unprecedented in history that the border region, with its
population of 1.4 million, should have six normal schools and middle schools; this
only came about during the era of the Communist Party. Along the line from
Suide to Mizhi, education historically has been rather developed, and it may be
that right now the situation is not quite as good as it was in the past. As for
Sanbian and Longdong, the situation is now completely different: Sanbian now
has normal schools and this is a great step forward. We now hand over the power
to the prefectural commissioner’s offices and the prefectural Party committees.
You must look after things now, and you must do it well.
In terms of which teaching methods to use, teachers must teach their classes
according to the circumstances of their students. For teachers not to follow the
demands of their students, but instead to teach entirely according to what they
themselves want, is not acceptable. Teachers must also learn from their students;
they cannot merely teach their students. I think that we now are in need of a
system, called the Thirty-Seventy System. In this system, teachers will first learn
70 percent from the students, understand their histories, personalities, and needs
and afterward teach 30 percent to the students. This system may sound very new,
but actually it has been around for a long time. Confucius used it to teach. He
answered the same question differently to Zilu and Ranyou.10 Zilu had an
impatient personality, and Confucius’s answer was meant to slow him down.
Ranyou had a slow personality, and Confucius tried to speed him up with his
answer. I have heard that last year Yan’an held a training session that lasted
about a month, in which township heads and branch secretaries were all gathered
together for training. What were they taught? They were taught some of the
materials that appeared in Liberation Daily during the months of July, August,

and September of last year, and “A Comparison Between the Achievements of the
Communists and the Guomindang During the War of Resistance.”11 Should we
teach these things? Yes. “A Comparison Between the Achievements of the
Communists and the Guomindang During the War of Resistance” has special
educational significance. But merely teaching these few things is not enough; to
go to the rural villages and only to be able to talk about a comparison of the
achievements in the War of Resistance is not sufficient to accomplish anything.
We should teach them how to work, so that they will understand how a branch
secretary and a township head should work, and so they will know that their
work methods and ways cannot always be the old ones but, rather, should accord
with the situations in front of them. As for the schools in Yan’an, for example,
the Central Party School, Yan’an University, and the School of Administration,
they must also emphasize integrating with reality. Every school, from the Central
Party School, Yan’an University, and the Administration Institute, to the
elementary schools in every village, must do this. I’ve heard that the two
Departments of Propaganda12 are paying attention to this issue; that is very good.
Education right now includes, on the one hand, popular education, including
social and literary education, and, on the other hand, cadre education. With these
two types of education, we can turn the whole border region into a large school;
every township will be a school. All the common people and cadres will study
production and culture in this large school. Within a few years, the culture of the
masses in the border region will be higher than that in other places; it will be
higher than that in large cities such as Wuhan and Chongqing. We just need to
do this well, and we can do it well within five or ten years. We will have made
great progress and will have developed greatly.
This is no idle talk.
Third: art.
The yangge is one item. There are also Spring Festival couplets, songs, and
New Year’s pictures.
When the Yangjialing Yangge Troupe went to Ansai for a few days to perform,
a fundamental problem was solved. In the past, intellectuals from other places
were estranged from the local common people. But when the Yangjialing Yangge
Troupe performed in Ansai, several of the labor heroes also participated and
jumped in with the troupe. I think this is very good. The labor heroes felt that

your Yangge Troupe was singing their praises, and this eradicated their previous
estrangement. Yesterday, Liberation Daily printed Zhou Yang’s article, which
discusses yangge. It is worth reading. At present, yangge has not been
popularized. This year, people in Yan’an watched yangge until they were sick of
it, but common people all over the border region have not seen enough of it yet.
They demand to see yangge plays performed three times. I therefore think that
we can organize a few more yangge troupes. We can set up one per township,
and with new content. One region can have one, two, three, or four—there is no
limit. We should do it this winter. This is just what I think; it is not a regulation.
Comrades can think it over. I think that during the tenth lunar month Yan’an’s
intellectuals should hold numerous meetings to study how to continue
investigation and work. The comrades of the Women’s Committee of Yangjialing
studied spinning for only two weeks, and when they got to the villages they were
greatly welcomed by the women there. If you do not study this basic ability, how
can you organize women? You say you are revolutionary, so you need to study
the basic skills. This winter, intellectuals from schools in Yan’an will all go to the
countryside to do the work of the masses, to help the masses perform yangge, to
set up winter schools, to set up training classes, to draw up individual household
plans, and so on. They will work there for three months and will truly learn some
basic skills. I think that these people should be liberated for a little while; every
year we can follow this system. It can be both vacation travel and attending the
“classroom,” which is the border region. There is one condition, which is that if
you go, you must help the masses; you cannot hinder them. We did a lot of stupid
things in the past, things that got in the way of people doing their spinning,
looking after their babies. When you go to the countryside this time, you must
“eat the food that is there and cut the clothes according to the figure.”
There are 350,000 families in the border region. If every house were to hang a
Spring Festival couplet with new content, then the face of the border region
would take on a new appearance. Comrades in the two Propaganda Departments
should study this issue. We should compile books for writing Spring Festival
couplets and come up with some new couplets. New Spring Festival couplets are
literacy and political textbooks for the masses; 350,000 couplets with similar
content but perhaps different words are an important aspect of the masses’
cultural activities. Should we also make up a few songs to sing? We could, for

example, write three or five songs that the 1.4 million people here could all sing
and whose meaning they could understand. I think this is also a kind of learning
and a way to eradicate illiteracy, similar to the writing of Spring Festival
couplets. We could also come up with some New Year’s pictures.
In a word, our art should do things that are really welcome by the common
people. Right now, they do not even have Spring Festival couplets, and we still
are just talking about raising their level. This can only be empty talk. The major
problem in the border region is still the problem of how to popularize learning.
The artistic lives of the masses are impoverished, and we comrades who are
engaged in cultural work must make efforts on many fronts.
Fourth: hygiene.
The problem of hygiene is a very serious one in the lives of the masses in the
border region. I will now discuss it as a cultural problem. The Spring Festival
propaganda this year, including the yangge performed by the General Sanitation
Office at Ansai, demonstrated that common people welcome the new culture. In
the border region, incidents of superstitious phenomena are much fewer now
than they were before, but they cannot yet be entirely eliminated. One important
reason for this is that medical and hygiene work has not yet been popularized.
The masses have no other means by which to overcome the threats of disease and
death, so they can only turn to supernatural beings. At present, Yan’an only has
three hospitals. But how many people does it have? There are 30,000 people in the
Party, the government, and the army, and 14,000 common people. Those
fortunate enough to enjoy hygiene and medical treatment are few. As for the
remaining 1.3 million common people in the border region, there is absolutely no
one looking after them. We should now promote our medical and hygiene
knowledge and work and find a way for every district to train people in
medicine. Every district could send people to study in Yan’an, or Yan’an could
send people to every district to train people. I think either way would be fine.
Every prefectural Party committee, every prefectural commissioner’s office, and
every district should make a plan so that, within five to ten years, they will each
have a clinic that can deal with common illnesses. The border region should
develop industry to deal with the problem of medicine. We should make common
medicines by ourselves as much as possible. Some necessary medicines can be
bought outside of the border region; when the benefit of the people is at stake, of

course we can go to outside areas to buy things. When our economy has
developed and we have obtained a favorable trade balance, we will be able to go
to outside areas to buy things. To propagandize hygiene, we should cure the
illnesses of the masses. Within five to ten years, we demand progress in the
popularization of scientific knowledge. Medicine and hygiene should be included
in our plans and should be improved along with our production plans.
We hope that the population will develop and that science will progress. If we
had discussed this problem two years ago, it would not have been possible for
anything to be done, but now there is such a possibility. The Party should, of
course, pay attention to the possibility of solving these problems. If we do, we
could eradicate superstition, and the common people would not worship Buddha.
When I used to travel from Changsha to Shanghai, there were two kinds of boats.
One was the foreign boat, and the other was the wooden boat. The people who
ran the foreign boats did not believe in the Dragon King, and their customers did
not worry about paying respects to the Dragon King. But those on the wooden
boats paid their respects to the Dragon King; he was their “insurance company.”
Wooden boats flip over easily, and to avoid this they had to throw some money
into the “insurance company” of the Dragon King. So, if you do not want the
common people to worship gods, you need to develop and popularize science. If
science does not develop and is not widespread, then spirit worship will be
completely necessary for them. If we had more people like Alexander Alov,13
then, of course, no one would worship Guanyin. With scientific knowledge,
superstition can be smashed. Without it, the common people will continue to be
superstitious.
Today, I will only discuss these few things. If the Communist Party
accomplishes these things in the border region; if every system improves its work
methods; if we make progress every day and every year; if within five to ten
years we establish many kinds of newspapers, organize many reading groups,
eradicate illiteracy, popularize the arts to another level, also pay attention to
medicine and hygiene, and improve the conditions for medical treatment, then
we will have done almost everything. The question of whether or not the
Communist Party is useful, that is, the question of whether or not the existence of
the Communist Party is necessary will also be resolved. Ye Qing14 wrote an
article stating that the Communist Party is not necessary. We say it is, and we

will use reality to prove it.
Over the past twenty years, our Party first mastered politics and then mastered
military affairs. Last year, we mastered economic construction, and this year we
will master cultural construction. If our cultural construction achieves glorious
results, then we once again will have mastered a great skill, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region will be an even better model for the whole
country!