A Short Note and a Scroll for Fu Sinian[1]

(July 5, 1945)

Mr. Mengzhen:

I have written a few characters as you requested. They are hardly presentable, but may serve as a memento. Today I heard talk of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, which seemed overly modest, so I have set down a poem by a Tang poet to broaden the sentiment.

Respectfully wishing you ease in your travels!

Mao Zedong

July 5

Bamboo strips and silk go up in smoke, the imperial enterprise turns hollow;
The passes and rivers vainly locked the First Dragon’s abode.
Before the ashes in the pit had cooled, rebellion broke out east of the mountains;
Liu and Xiang, as it turned out, never did read books.

A Tang poet’s meditation on history, written out and presented to Mr. Mengzhen.

Mao Zedong

[1] On June 2, 1945, seven members of the National Political Council—Chu Fucheng, Huang Yanpei, Leng Yu, Wang Yunwu, Fu Sinian, Zuo Shunsheng, and Zhang Bojun—jointly sent a telegram to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, proposing a visit to Yan’an and expressing the hope “to continue discussions so that victory in the War of Resistance may come at an early date.” This is the short note and scroll Mao Zedong wrote to Fu Sinian. Fu Sinian (1896–1950), courtesy name Mengzhen, was a native of Liaocheng, Shandong, with ancestral roots in Yongfeng, Jiangxi. He was a historian, an academic leader, one of the student leaders of the May Fourth Movement, and the founder of the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica. Fu served as acting president of Peking University and president of National Taiwan University.

Manuscript of Mao Zedong’s short note and scroll for Fu Sinian.