Speech to the Cadres Following the Army to the South[1]

(November 1, 1944)

You must learn two kinds of skills — the first is the skill of the pine tree, and the second is the skill of the willow tree. The pine tree grows and thrives, unafraid of wind and snow, standing firm and unshaken even in bitter cold. The pine tree possesses "principledness." The willow tree takes root wherever it is planted, and when spring comes, its branches grow long and its leaves flourish, swaying gracefully in the wind — a most lovely sight. The willow tree possesses "flexibility."

A Communist Party member should have both the "principledness" of the pine tree and the "flexibility" of the willow tree. Neither can be dispensed with.

[1] The Southward Detachment was formed by drawing a portion of the main force from the 359th Brigade and selecting a group of working cadres from the Organization Department of the Central Committee. It constituted the "First Independent Guerrilla Unit of the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army," with Wang Zhen serving as detachment commander and Wang Shoudao as political commissar. The entire detachment was organized into six large contingents, of which the Fifth and Sixth Contingents were composed of cadres accompanying the army southward. On November 9, 1944, they bade farewell to Yan’an and set out on the southern expedition. This is part of a speech delivered by Mao Zedong to these cadres following the army to the south.