Talk at the Opening Ceremony of
Yan’an University
(May 24, 1944)
Comrades! Today is the first day of Yan’an University. This school of ours offers
courses in politics, economics, and culture, which you have to study in
preparation for working in these fields in the future. Some parts of this school
were administrated separately in the past; now they are all together. As Comrade
Zhou Yang1 said, there are shortcomings and mistakes in our work, but they are
temporary. Communists correct mistakes and shortcomings in their work as soon
as they discover them. Communists should not be afraid of self-criticism. When
there is a shortcoming, say it openly; when there is a mistake, say it openly. Once
they are corrected, shortcomings will no longer be shortcomings and wrongs will
become right. We used to run schools for many years without much success.
Now we have made progress, and our policies and methods are on the right track.
This is related to the overall progress in the work of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region and of the various base areas in North China, Central China, and
the northwestern parts of Shanxi.
All our work has only one goal—to defeat the Japanese imperialists and to
drive them out of China. The Japanese imperialists have invaded deep into
China’s territory. It is the mission of every single Chinese to fight against Japan.
But some people oppose the Communist Party and are at odds with us. They have
violated this principle. On this issue, they are not of one mind. But we are of one
heart and one mind. We share one mind at big meetings. We also share one mind
at small meetings. We are, both publicly and secretly, of one mind to fight off the
Japanese. To fight off the Japanese, base areas must be built. Anywhere in China
that has not fallen under Japanese control is an anti-Japanese base area: The great

rear area is a base area; North and Central China are base areas; Guangdong and
Hainan Island are base areas; and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is a
base area. Our Communist Party has set up base areas in many places. Some
people say that this is not good and that these areas should not have been
established. This is not appropriate. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth
Army would have no food to eat and no place from which to set out to fight the
enemy if there were no base areas. Who hates our base areas the most? They, the
Japanese imperialists. They do not like our base areas because these base areas
are located in their rear areas and threaten to shove them out. Once we have base
areas, we must work on military affairs, politics, economics, culture, Party affairs,
and so on. The Party School is for students to study Party affairs. The school pays
more attention to the study of the theory, history, and the work style of the Party,
but it also offers courses in politics, economics, culture, and some in military
science. Students at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University also study
politics, engage in production, and attend to the economy. Now all of our troops
attend to economics. The 359th Brigade, for instance, has engaged in production
and requires each and every soldier and cadre to produce fine grains of 6 dan and
1 dou. Is this not economics? All our troops produce food, make clothes, fix
houses, build large and small auditoriums, and make desks, chairs, and benches
on their own. These are all economics. The curriculum of Yan’an University
emphasizes three fields—politics, economics, and culture. People in every base
area all work in these fields. Our only goal is to defeat the Japanese imperialists
and to transform China into an independent and free new China. Comrade Zhou
Yang earlier said that we ought to serve the border region, and we ought to serve
the base areas. Can we have one, two, two hundred, two thousand people to offer
services in the base areas of the northwestern parts of Shanxi and in the base
areas of the Taihang mountains, Mount Tai, and the Wutai mountain? Those are
also called border regions. Basically, all our base areas are called border regions.
If we are to serve the base areas, why don’t we say we will serve the whole
country? After all, you have to choose to land some place, just like a plane that
flies in the sky has to land some place; it cannot fly around in the air without
descending to the ground. Dogmatism does not land; it hangs on in the air. We
must keep away from dogmatism and stand on solid ground serving the people
realistically.

Japan is a solid entity; in China it stations hundreds of thousands of troops to
fight us. At present, our various base areas are confronting many enemies,
fighting 58 percent of the Japanese army and 90 percent of the puppet army.
Some people do not see this fact and slander us for not at all engaging the
Japanese army and its puppet forces. Last year, Liberation Daily published our
article, which was titled “A Comparison of the Achievements of the Guomindang
and of the Communist Party in the War of Resistance.”2 This article provides
figures, such as 58 percent and 90 percent. Right now, we have 470,000 troops of
the Eighth Route Army and of the New Fourth Army, and about 250,000
personnel working for the Party, government offices, and civilian organizations;
470,000 plus 250,000 totals more than 700,000. Currently, in all the anti-Japanese
base areas there is a population of more than 80 million people who directly or
indirectly pay the agricultural tax in grain. But there used to be a population of
100 million before the Japanese army’s mopping-up operations. Because the
Japanese adopted the main policy of luring the Chinese into capitulation through
political action and making military attacks subsidiary in the front-line
battlefields, in those mopping-up operations they transferred a large number of
troops from their front line to gather their forces to destroy us through their
“mopping-up,” “nibbling,” and “reinforcing security” operations and their
campaign to “burn all, loot all, and kill all.” To deal with the Japanese, we must
have our own tactics, that is, a set of military, political, economic, cultural, and
Party-related strategies. In 1941 and 1942, when the most brutal war occurred,
every anti-Japanese base area faced tremendous hardships. Liberation Daily
carried an editorial, titled “The Darkness Before Dawn,” calling upon all our
efforts to overcome this difficulty. The Party, the government, the army, and the
people of every base area survived through our collective efforts and execution of
the ten major policies.3 There are many difficulties in our bases behind enemy
lines as well as in Yan’an, such as the problem of “Wild Lilies”4 and the problem
of having only millet but no pork. It is good that production is developing at
Yan’an University; such a development should be continued so that people can
have more pork to eat. The other day I talked with Comrade Zhou Yang about all
of you spinning and weaving and working on various sorts of special production.
These activities are all very good. But I think that they are insufficient, and we
should put more effort into our production. The situation behind enemy lines is

worse. Generally, every base area is facing tremendous difficulties because the
enemy is enforcing its policy of “burn all, loot all, and kill all.” Life is extremely
hard behind enemy lines, and the struggle is fierce as well; however, we have
survived the seven-year War of Resistance. This brutal war passed its most
difficult years in 1941 and 1942, and we are advancing again this year. It is
precisely because we have our anti-Japanese base areas that China exists as it is
today. Of course, it is not appropriate to say that the big base area in the great
rear echelon has contributed nothing to saving China. It is totally senseless,
however, when somebody says that only his base area in the great rear echelon
saves China while the border regions and the base areas behind enemy lines do
not. In what ways do you save China? Your 3 million troops are fighting with
only 42 percent of the Japanese army and 10 percent of its puppet forces, whereas
our 470,000 troops are battling a far greater proportion of the enemy. Our base
areas are smaller, but our burdens are heavier because we have no assistance and
we only rely upon the joint efforts of the union of the Party, the government, the
army, and the common people. Take this battle for Henan, for instance: In facing
over 100,000 Japanese soldiers, the Guomindang’s force of about 400,000 soldiers
was not up to the task. They “turned around and marched off” when they heard
the first gunshot. Nowadays many things are difficult to do, so we need to find a
way out. Democracy is the answer, although there are people who disagree.
Another solution is unity, and there are people who ignore this idea as well. They
distribute pamphlets, hold big and small meetings, and curse the Communist
Party “as the treacherous party,” the Eighth Route Army as “the treacherous
army,” and the border region as “the treacherous region.” They are not at all
interested in unity.
In short, Yan’an University should serve the needs of each anti-Japanese base
area. Once the work of the base areas and the various kinds of work in politics,
economy, culture, and party affairs are on the right track, our schools will also be
on the right track. We must, however, overcome the shortcomings of the past and
eliminate dogmatism.
Politically, you need to learn the Party’s principles and policies, such as the
United Front, the “Three-Thirds” system,5 and the policy of Crack Troops and
Simple Administration. You need to study subjects such as industry, agriculture,
commerce, transportation, and finance because our present policy is to maintain

complete self-sufficiency. Regarding the practice of the “Three-Thirds” system, it
was a little bit too rightist prior to the Senior Cadres Conference6 two years ago
and a little bit too leftist last year. Our general policy is very clear and definite—
to defeat the Japanese. Thus, we would like to unite with all parties, classes, and
political and nonpolitical organizations, as long as they agree to fight against
Japan and they are willing to collaborate with the Communist Party instead of
sabotaging our Party. This policy will remain unchanged forever. When you
comrades study politics, you must uphold such a policy and unite all the people
in China in order to achieve the goal of defeating the Japanese.
Economically, we must attain complete self-sufficiency. We have made
tremendous progress in economic development during the past few years,
especially since last year. To attain complete self-sufficiency, in addition to food
production we must produce all necessities. Now the government of the border
region has given orders requesting that all families in every household in the
region, a total population of 1.4 million, or 350,000 households, secure surplus
food for one year. We are not only preventing droughts but also preparing for
counteroffensives. This goal was not achieved last year, but it must be
accomplished in the next two or three years. We are in Yan’an and we work in
the border region, and we run Yan’an University. If all of these lead to having
surplus food for one year for all of the 350,000 peasant households, our
Communist Party will be remarkable. Moreover, the mountains in northern
Shaanxi are all bald like monks’ heads. We are to plant trees so that hairs will
grow on these heads. There should be a plan for forestation. Suppose one
household plants 100 trees, 350,000 households will plant 35 million trees. We
shall carry on the plan for eight or ten years to see the results; as the saying goes:
“It takes ten years to grow trees, but a hundred years to rear people.” Also,
regarding industrial development, at the Factory Representatives Conference,7 we
proposed complete self-sufficiency in the industrial production of daily
necessities. There are 1.5 million people, consisting of workers, peasants,
businessmen, students, and soldiers, in the border region, and they need 310,000
bolts of cloth a year. But now our yearly production, which reaches only 100,000
bolts, is 210,000 bolts short. Relying upon our past experience, we are confident
that we will achieve complete self-sufficiency in cloth within the next two to
three years. In the past, cotton, cotton yarn, and cloth in the border region were

bought from outside, spending several billion of the border region’s currency; this
is like losing blood. If we grow cotton, spin yarn, and weave cloth on our own,
with the help of 1.5 million people, we shall stop the bleeding and will make our
economy stronger. Every year we need 4.7 million jin of iron for public and
private use. Except for a small proportion, most of it has to be purchased from
outside using billions of the border region’s currency—we are bleeding again.
Now we ask ourselves to achieve complete self-sufficiency for the 4.7 million jin
of iron within the next two to three years by mining, smelting, and creating the
necessary machinery and farming tools on our own. We have various types of
industrial production, the major two being spinning and weaving, and iron
making. We must accomplish self-sufficiency in these two areas, as well as in all
other types of production. This is what we call complete self-sufficiency.
There is much work to be done on cultural and educational problems. We must
achieve this goal: Every one of the 1.5 million people—consisting of 1.4 million
common people and 100,000 personnel of the Party, government, and army—must
be able to read. We have to be literate in order to study politics. In the future,
administrative heads of towns, districts, or xian must all be literate. Even
peasants will be required to be able to read once the economy of the border
region is developed. We are to teach all the people of the border region 1,000
words a year and continue for eight to ten years. It will be even better if we can
make each of them read 1,500, 2,000, or 3,000 words a year. At least we must beat
the goal of 1,000 words and have a winter school in every village. Learning to
read should become a mass literacy movement. It is not effective to rely only on
our teaching “one, two, three, four” or such simple characters as “man, hand,
knife, cow, and lamb.” Anyone among the common people who is able to read a
hundred words is capable of teaching others.
And there is health work. As Comrade Zhou Yang has said, we need to start a
health training class to help people learn some things. There should be a small
clinic in every town. All together there are 1,000 towns in the border region. Let
us select 1,000 people from the population of 1.5 million to study medicine for
four months or for one year. Then send these people to be doctors in the clinics.
Epidemic diseases have been rampant in Yan’an recently. Since we, the
Communist Party, are governing this place, we should treat this seriously and we
ought to think about how to stop it. Comrade Li Dingming, the vice chair of our

Border Region Government, is a doctor of Chinese medicine. And there are some
others who have studied Western medicine. These two kinds of doctors have
never worked together. Let us think whether there should be a united front in
this field. I know neither Chinese medicine nor Western medicine. It does not
matter which kind it is; the function of medicine is to cure illness. There is also a
possibility that an illness is not cured due to the skills of the doctor. We should
not despise Chinese medicine or Western medicine simply because a patient is
not cured. If they can help infants survive to adulthood, if they can cure the sick,
we should encourage and reward doctors of both Chinese and Western medicine.
We suggest this slogan: The two kinds of doctors should collaborate.
Culturally, you need to study drama, practice yangge dance, and master
singing, such as singing “The Yellow River” or chorus singing. Politics,
economics, and culture are subjects of study at our Yan’an University; you must
master them and be able to do work in these fields. We must serve realistically.
Do not practice dogmatism. Do not detach yourselves from the real world.
Comrade Zhou Yang just now mentioned rectification and cadre investigation.
These two tasks are very meaningful. They have reformed our cadres and their
thinking. At the same time, however, there have also been mistakes, which are
undergoing correction. In addition to what Comrade Zhou has said, I would like
to add a few more things. We have a policy called “kill no one.” Some people still
do not believe it, saying who knows whether the government will kill some day.
Even if someone is indeed a secret agent who used to sabotage the border region,
the Eighth Route Army, and the New Fourth Army and to collect our secret
information, as long as one makes it clear what one has done, we will kill no one.
No one has been killed from April of last year until now. Is this harmful? No. To
those real secret agents, the real bad guys in the past, our aim is to transform
them. Our policy is to educate people. This policy has been determined, and I am
proclaiming it to you once again. Some people believe it; others do not. It is up to
you to believe it. In the Analects it says, “What is spoken can be made good,”
meaning that what has been said should be carried out. Now that the policy
decision of the Central Committee has been declared, it will be carried out.
Everybody can wait and see. It is of great significance that we kill no one. No
matter how serious the crime, we can educate the person because we do not kill.
After the person has been educated, he is still useful. We hope those real secret

agents who did bad things in the past can repent and follow us to defeat the
Japanese imperialists. If among a hundred such people, there are one or two who
simply do not repent or cooperate, what should we do? What we should do is to
let him get millet on his own. What is bad about his using his own hands to
develop production and to make himself amply clothed and sufficiently fed? If he,
stubbornly, does not repent or cooperate with us, will we spare him? We will still
spare him. Why? To placate the majority of the people. Because executing him
will make other people with similar problems panic. Should he remain stubborn
for ten years, we will work on him for ten years; should he remain stubborn for
twenty years, we will work on him for twenty years. We will be as stubborn as
he is. This is what is called “right is right and wrong is wrong.” If he was a secret
agent, he was a secret agent. It has to be clear. We must prevent them from doing
the job of a secret agent again and make them cooperate with the Communist
Party to fight Japan. Wrong is wrong. If he was not a secret agent but had been
wrongly accused of being one, we shall withdraw the accusation to clearly
distinguish right and wrong and shall weigh the degree of seriousness. During
the time of the “Rescue Campaign,”8 the atmosphere was very tense. A lot of
people were “rescued,” but for many this was in error. Wrong is wrong. So today
we need to take these hats off officially—taking off the wrong “hat” that we put
on them. The Communist Party may make mistakes when things are not clear,
but once they become clear, the mistakes must be rectified. This is how things
should be done. Making a mistake is bad, but it can be changed into a good thing.
For example, if I wronged you and now using my own hands I remove the “hat”
that I put on you by mistake, I will gain experience so that in the future I will not
carelessly put hats on others. As for those who are wronged, they feel
uncomfortable and in much pain, but they have also gone through hardship and
gained experience so that they will be more careful when they investigate others
in the future. Regarding the cadre investigation, we apply nine policies: leading
cadres taking the responsibility, attending to work with their own hands, leading
the main cadres to join with the masses, combining general calls with concrete
guidance, investigating and researching, distinguishing right and wrong, training
cadres, and educating the masses. Now cadre investigation in Yan’an must apply
these policies. Right is right; wrong is wrong. We are to carry out the policy of
leniency.

Today the term begins. There is one more thing to say. Some of your classes
are taught by the responsible comrades of various departments of the Border
Region Government. They have real work experience. You are here to learn. It is
very good that the leaders who engage in practical work can come to teach.
Meanwhile, you should often consult them by visiting or telephoning them. If
some day they do not show up in class, you must urge them, insisting that they
come to class.
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 149–57, where it is reproduced from the
transcript of the speech preserved in the Central Archives.
1. On Zhou Yang, see above, note to the text of March 16, 1943. By 1944 he was director of the Cultural
Work Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and president of Yan’an
University.

--- Notes

2. Published in Jiefang ribao, August 24, 1943.

3. On the “ten major policies,” see above, the text of October 1, 1943.

4. On “Wild Lilies” and its author, Wang Shiwei, see above, note to the text of March 22, 1944.

5. On the “Three-Thirds” system, see above, note to the text of January 26, 1942.

6. The Senior Cadres Conference was held in Yan’an by the Northwestern Bureau of the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from October 19, 1942, to January 14, 1943.

7. Referring to the conference held in Yan’an May 1–25, 1944, for factory managers and representatives of
workers in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.

8. The “Rescue Campaign,” also called the “Campaign for Rescuing the Unintentional Wrongdoers,” refers
to the period from roughly the end of 1942 to August 1943 during which the Rectification Campaign went to
an extreme on the issue of investigating cadres. See the Introduction to this volume, pp. xxxii, xxxiv–xlix.