Letter to Xie Juezai1
(July 28, 1944)
Comrade Juezai:
I do not have the Brief Account of the Late Ming in the North and South2 or
miscellaneous histories of the Ming period. You might find them at Comrade Fan
Wenlan’s3 place, and you can go there to inquire. I will send you the book
Tolerant Study Notes4 together with another letter. I also have some other sketchform novels, and I can send them to you if you need them.
Salutations!
Mao Zedong
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 235–36, where it is reproduced from the
manuscript.
1. Xie Juezai was at this time deputy chair of the Provincial Assembly of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region.
2. Referring to the two books Mingji bei lüe and Mingji nan lüe compiled by Ji Liuqi (1622–1687?) in the
early Qing dynasty. The former records events during the late Ming dynasty, 1595–1644, and the latter
narrates events during the Southern Ming dynasty, 1644–1645.
3. Fan Wenlan, a noted historian, at this time worked for the Propaganda Department of the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

4. Rongzhai suibi is a common-place book (biji) of sketch notes written by Hong Mai (1123–1202) during
the Southern Song dynasty about classics, history, philosophy, literature, and the arts, as well as anecdotes
and figures of the Song dynasty.