Letter to Guo Moruo1
(November 21, 1944)
Brother Moruo:
I have read your letter with respect. You praise me too much, and I dare not
accept it. But I will study hard to live up to my old friend’s expectations of me.
Since our parting in Wuchang, I have been buried in work all day and have
lacked the opportunity to read and study. Thus, I admire your accomplishments.
We have taken your “Commemoration of the Three-Hundredth Year Since
Jiashen [1644]”2 as an official rectification document. A small victory leads to
arrogance, while a major victory leads to even more arrogance. This leads to
repeated losses. It is worth paying attention to how to avoid this problem. If you
can use your great pen to write about the experience of the Taiping army,3 it
would be very beneficial. Nonetheless, I dare not make a formal proposal because
I am afraid that it would burden you with too much. I recently read Before and
After the Xinhai Revolution,4 which is almost the same as my experience in
Hunan at that time. For an immature bourgeois revolution, that kind of outcome
is inevitable. Don’t you think that this anti-Japanese war is mature? The
international conditions are good, while it is up to us to work hard domestically.
Although I always remain extremely cautious and am afraid that something
might go wrong, who knows from where a setback will come. If you see any
mistakes or shortcomings, please let me know as soon as possible. Your historical
commentaries and historical plays greatly benefit the Chinese people. We only
complain that there are too few, not too many. Your energies will not be wasted.
I hope you continue to work hard. I am assuming that since Comrade [Zhou]
Enlai has arrived, you already know the current situation here, so I won’t
elaborate on it. We all hope to see you. Will there be such an opportunity?

I wish you good health, happiness, and great energy!
Mao Zedong
November 21, 1944, in Yan’an
Notes
Our source for the document is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 241–43, where it is reproduced from the
manuscript.
1. Regarding Guo Moruo, see above, note to the text of January 9, 1944.
2. “Jiashen sanbai nian ji” was written by Guo Moruo on the historical experience and lessons of the
peasant uprising led by Li Zicheng in the last years of the Ming dynasty. It was published in the Chongqing
Xinhua ribao in March 1944.
3. The Taiping army refers to the peasant armed forces established by Hong Xiuquan, a heterodox
Christian convert who led the large-scale revolt, generally known as the Taiping Rebellion, from 1851 to
1864.
4. Fanzheng qian hou (Shanghai: Xiandai shudian, 1929), written by Guo Moruo, mainly reflects the
author’s experience in Sichuan from 1910 to 1911.