Pay Attention to Correcting “Left”-Deviating
Errors During Land Reform1
(November 29, 1947)
At that time, rightist thinking occurred wherever the land struggle had not penetrated deeply, and no one dared take action to mobilize the masses to become
deeply involved in the land struggle. Meanwhile, wherever the land struggle had
already penetrated deeply, “leftist” thinking occurred. Many middle peasants and
even poor peasants were carelessly labeled landlords and rich peasants, thus harming the interests of the masses. Both errors mentioned above must be rectified, but
these two documents are being disseminated mainly to correct “left”-deviating
errors. At present, with the unfolding and deepening of the land struggle in the
various Liberated Areas, the convening of the Land Conference, and the issuing
of the Outline Land Law, rightist thinking has been dealt a serious blow. This is
altogether necessary. But the deepening of the struggle is sure to be accompanied
by the phenomenon of “left” deviation. The dissemination of this document to
all locations must not become an excuse for hindering the struggle of the masses.
Rather, as we set about to mobilize the peasant masses for a resolute struggle to
thoroughly carry out the policy of equally dividing the land, appropriately correcting excessively leftist actions that have already occurred and that have already
hindered the interests of the masses can help unite hired laborers and poor peasants, resolutely protect the middle peasants (this is a fixed and unalterable policy),
correctly implement the Outline Land Law, and eliminate the feudal and semifeudal systems.


Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 322–23, where it is
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.

--- Notes

1.  On November 29, 1947, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
sent a directive to all central bureaus and their branches stating that the 1933 policy of the
Chinese Soviet Republic to not distribute land to landlords and to distribute poor land to
the rich peasants was an extreme left and erroneous policy, but the provisions on class composition were generally correct. The Central Committee had excised the erroneous parts
of two documents laying out these policies and was distributing the remaining portions as
reference material. The Central Committee requested feedback from the localities regarding class analysis, which would then be incorporated into Central Committee documents.
The Central Committee promulgated the revised and footnoted documents on May 25,
1948, for use in land reform.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-57