Comrades Ding Ling and Ouyang Shan:
Dawn is about to break for Ouyang Shan. Your articles [2] prompted me to read them in one breath after bathing and before sleep. I celebrate on behalf of the Chinese people, and celebrate the new writing style of you both! The cooperative society meeting requires me to deliver a speech [3], but I have no material whatsoever and do not know where to begin.

Apart from thanking you for your articles, I would also like to know more. If possible, I intend to invite you to my place for a chat this afternoon or evening—would that be acceptable?

Salutations!

Mao Zedong
Early morning, July 1

Published based on *Selected Letters of Mao Zedong*, People’s Publishing House, 1983.

**Notes**
[1] Ding Ling (1904–1986), a native of Linli, Hunan. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, she served as deputy director of the Cultural Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and editor of the literary page of *Liberation Daily*.
Ouyang Shan, born in 1908, a native of Jiangling, Hubei, was then director of the Literature and Art Office of the Central Research Institute in Yan’an.
[2] Refers to Ding Ling’s *Tian Baolin* and Ouyang Shan’s *Living in the New Society*, two articles introducing model figures in the cooperative work of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, published in *Liberation Daily* on June 30, 1944.
[3] On July 3, 1944, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China hosted all delegates attending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Cooperative Society Conference at the Central Auditorium in Yangjialing. Mao Zedong attended and delivered a speech, expounding on the principles and tasks of the cooperatives.