Mourning Comrade Xu Fanting
1947, September 23
(Xinhua News Agency, Jin-Sui Border Region, November 11 dispatch) The funeral of Comrade Xu Fanting, Director of the Administrative Office of the Jin-Sui Border Region, was solemnly and grandly held on the 18th of this month at a certain location in Lin County. Representatives from all sectors of the Jin-Sui Border Region, delegates from various organizations in Lin County, and emancipated peasants from nearby villages all gathered to attend the burial. Chairman Mao sent a telegram of condolence from northern Shaanxi, along with a floral wreath and elegiac couplet. The elegy reads:
For the liberation of the nation, for the emancipation of the class, the cause was nearing completion—why did you, sir, depart so suddenly? With a breadth of vision like clouds and waters, with the integrity of pines and cypresses, a paragon is abruptly lost, and all are steeped in grief!
Jin-Cha-Ji Daily, September 24, 1947
Mourning Comrade Xu Fanting, 163