Letter to Xu Mingqing[1]

(April 14, 1946)

Comrade Mingqing:

We have all read your letter and were deeply moved. Comrade Guanlan’s illness being as it is naturally causes you such a degree of grief; but when a fact confronts us, if there is nothing to be done about it, further anxiety and further pain are of no avail, and one can only accept the fact and deal with it objectively. Moreover, Guanlan’s illness may not necessarily be as you describe, and it may not necessarily be beyond remedy… Please convey our regards to Comrade Guanlan on our behalf.

Mao Zedong

April 14

[1] At that time, Wang Guanlan was gravely ill, his life hanging by a thread. Wang Guanlan’s wife, Xu Mingqing, with tears in her eyes, wrote a letter full of sorrow to Mao Zedong. At this moment, Mao Zedong was extremely busy with work in response to the Kuomintang’s preparations for a full-scale civil war, but upon receiving Xu Mingqing’s letter, he still promptly wrote this reply in his own hand.