and evil gentry know them, but Chiang Kaishek has a shortcoming, which is that
if he knows them, he does not dare to openly disseminate them and tell other people). When4 everyone has5 understood the truth and purpose,6 they will deliberate, discuss, and will come to carry them out as one. When7 the masses work as one,
all things will be easy to do. The principle8 of Marxism-Leninism is to unify the
minds of the masses.9 Fighting a battle is the same; the intent of a battle by one
commander should not only be clearly understood by the cadres but should also
be clearly understood by the soldiers. Only if those above and below all understand clearly can we actively and bravely work as one to fight a battle well. The
Shanbei army has already undergone rectification and an airing of grievances,
so the soldiers’ consciousness has been raised and everyone clearly understands
why we fight, how to fight, each is eager to enter into action, everyone is discussing fighting, all want to fight, and they fight a battle well as soon as they set out. In
Water Margin’s “Three Fights at Zhujiazhuang,” the first two times they suffered
defeat, so Song Jiang made everyone understand why they had failed and why
they needed to fight; morale was then very high, so the third time they triumphed.
People10 think that only a few cadres need to know the policies,11 not the
masses. This is the basic reason12 why work13 is often not done well. Over the past
twenty-odd years,14 our Party has spoken of the mass line every day, but the mass
line often cannot be carried out.15 The reason16 is that things are not explained
clearly to everyone.17 When something happens, if we make everyone understand, then it will be easy to solve. But if only a few people understand, then how can it
succeed? If you ask everyone to move their hands and feet to act when they do not
know how, and you again do not tell them how, how can it be done well?
Newspapers18 speak of the mass line every day, but newspapers themselves do
not have a mass line.19 For example: the newspapers often have incorrect characters and have not made correcting these characters a matter that should be completed, just like the acting in plays in Beiping, which is careless. If20 a newspaper
makes a mistake of some characters, then gather the newspaper personnel,21 from
the cooks and horse keepers to the leaders, do not speak of anything else, only
speak of this matter, just speak about it for ten minutes, speak clearly about the
reason for the mistake,22 and ask everyone to give the matter serious attention.
After three or four times,23 it is guaranteed that this will transform this bad work
style.24
Communists should be brave and aboveboard in doing things and should not
be sneaky. We25 should make sure that26 we get not only the leading cadres but
also the masses27 to understand and master every policy, every movement, and
every struggle.28 This is a fundamental principle of the art of Marxist-Leninist
leadership. You must know that it is also the dividing line that determines whether
or not we make mistakes.29 When the masses are not aware and you go on the
offensive, this is adventurism. When the masses are unwilling to do it, but the
it should be done. In this way, how can people be expected to start moving, how can things
get done well? To solve this problem, fundamentally, it is necessary to educate the masses
ideologically of course, but also teach the comrades many concrete methods. One of the
methods is to make full use of newspapers. To run newspapers well, you need to make
them fascinating. It is an important issue of principle for the work of the Party that should
not be underestimated, that is, propagating the Party’s policies correctly in newspapers and
strengthening the ties between the Party and the masses through the newspapers.
leaders insist on leading them to do it, it will be useless and we will certainly fail.
When the masses want to go on the offensive and you do not go on the offensive, this is tailism.30 Chen Duxiu’s mistake of opportunism was31 not leading the
masses to advance.32 Our newspapers should propagate this viewpoint well and
make everyone understand.
(2)33 Comrades are all intellectuals. Intellectuals are often ignorant and often
have no experience34 in practical matters and only grasp a little from books. You
cannot quite understand the pamphlet “How to Analyze the Classes in the Rural
Areas” issued in 1933; on this point, the peasants are more than a match for
you.35 Two district peasant representative assemblies in Guo county, consisting
of 184 people, only met for five days, and resolved many land-division problems
because the representatives understood land division. If you take those problems
to your editorial department because you don’t understand them, I am afraid that
after discussing them for two weeks, you will still be unable to solve the problems.36 To change what is unknown to what is known, you must do things and see
things.37 Some comrades working on the newspaper went out to take part in landreform work for a time; it is good of course, but not everyone has to go.38 To have
a workers’ movement, you do not necessarily all have to go and become workers;
to have land reform, you do not necessarily all have to go and become peasants.
The main thing is to use your eyes to see, your ears to listen, listen to more, and
watch more materials on peasants, and do more research on the situation: that
is learning.39 Our slogan for training troops is, “Cadres teach soldiers, soldiers
teach cadres, soldiers teach soldiers.” This is called mutual help and learning.
Comrades40 working on the newspapers must often study materials coming from
below, and gradually become experienced.41
(3) The Jinsui Daily made very great progress following the conference of
secretaries of the prefectural Party committees.42 From September to December
the main task was to oppose rightism (some comrades who were present said:
after opposing Ke li kong43; opposing Ke li kong was raised in June, which was
during the meeting of secretaries of the land committee). Your newspaper’s content was rich, incisive, and forceful, with a youthful spirit, and it reflected that
the great mass struggle was speaking for the masses. I quite liked to read it, and
during the December Central Committee meeting I praised your newspaper in my
speech, but your newspaper during this period44 is a bit deflated, lacking in clarity, forcefulness, and materials, with a thin air and a bit too much of a vacuum,
resulting in a “low tide.”45 Now you can squeeze out some moisture, make the air
condense into a solid, and hope a high tide will come again; then the newspaper
will be run better. How do you run the newspaper better from now on? When46
you have summed up your experience in combating Right and Left deviations and
have become more clear-headed, your work will improve. The leftist deviations
occurred in the past because no one had experience; at the same time this was a
problem in the entire border region. From countering rightist leanings to countering leftist leanings, within a very short period of time everyone knew what was
going on with countering rightism and countering leftism. Without undergoing
this unavoidable process, everyone would not have known what was going on.
In the past, your struggles against rightists47 and opposing Ke li kong were
completely correct. If this were to be called incorrect, then what would be correct?
Could it be that the Central News Agency of the Nationalist Party’s newspaper is
correct? Your48 newspaper’s earnest articles fully reflect the real situation.49 You
made comments, in the form of editorial notes, on the viewpoints and materials that you regarded as wrong. This shows the newspaper is “seriously putting on
a drama.” Jin Shengtan annotated The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Other
people view the annotations negatively, but I view them positively. It makes people find some clues, but of course the annotations are not completely correct.
There were shortcomings too in some of your later comments, but your conscientious spirit was good. Your shortcomings lay chiefly in making the atmosphere
too strained, like a huqin, drawing the bowstring much too tight.50 If a bowstring
is too taut, it will snap. (Laughter.) The ancients said: “In civil and martial ways,
one stretches and one loosens.” Now it is time to loosen a bit. Comrades should be
clearheaded. Committing errors comes from lack of experience and lack of understanding. No one is determined to make an error. Now51 you have done a total
review and have rectified leftist tendencies, which has been a complete success.
After rectifying52 deviations, some people53 believe “I am completely wrong.”54
These people have not thought of so many peasants having obtained land,55 toppling feudalism, rectifying the organization,56 again rectifying leftist leanings, and
educating many cadres.57 Is this not a great success?58
The59 newspaper’s past merits must be preserved; they must be incisive and
forceful. We must clearly and earnestly carry out things, scrupulously abide by
the truth, and the truth must be incisive.60 Dull blades do not draw blood even after sawing for a long time. After rectifying erroneous tendencies, some cadres doubt
that in the past there was Marxism and doubt now there is no Marxism. I say that
in the present there is still Marxism, but we must trim our hair a bit, wash our
faces, manicure our nails, and adorn ourselves a bit. Could it be that Marxists do
not need to cut their hair, wash their faces, manicure their nails, or adorn themselves? They need to. (At this moment Comrade Lu Dingyi briefly explained to
Chairman Mao the situation about the Jinsui Daily’s investigation of some problems during this period.) Chairman Mao proceeded to say: Now we must implement this guiding principle (referring to reviewing experience and inspecting
work) and review experience. There are many problems about which Comrade
Ren Bishi already has written specialized articles for discussion. Now the newspaper comrades need to become clear. Comrade Ren Bishi only researched one
village’s materials, spent some ten days’ laboring, and then resolved the problem.
Under heaven, crows are generally black and their characteristics are identical;
you need only research one set of materials that can explain the problem, and
that is enough. If you insist on distinguishing between big crows, little crows,
fat crows, skinny crows, Chinese crows, foreign crows, and include a bunch of
materials, become buried in the materials, yet still cannot summarize your experience, then that is the summarizing method of empiricism, which is very foolish.
After you have reviewed experience, inspected work, made full use of the merits
and rectified shortcomings, cut your hair, washed your face, and manicured your
nails, you will run the newspaper better.

---

Notes

Our source for this text is Jinian Qianjinbao chuangkan zhounian, ed. Huadong junqu
san yezhanjun houqin ganxiao xiaozheng Qianjin baoshe, April 1951, pp. 58–61. A revised
version appears in Xuanji (1960), pp. 1317–21. Text in italics reflects the original text,
which was removed in the revised 1960 version. For more details, see “Note on Sources
and Conventions.”
1.  Chairman Mao’s Talk to the Editorial Staff of Jinsui Daily → A Talk to the Editorial
Staff of Jinsui Daily
12.  the basic reason → one of the basic reasons
13.  work → some of our work
14.  Over the past twenty-odd years, → Over the past twenty-odd years, we have done
the work of the masses every day, over the recent ten-odd years
15.  but the mass line often cannot be carried out. We have always maintained that
revolution should rely on the masses and that we should all work together, rather than relying on a few people to give orders. However, among the work of some comrades, the mass
line is still not being implemented; they are depending only on a handful of people to do
their work coolly and quietly by themselves. → We have always maintained that revolution
should rely on the masses and that we should all work together, rather than relying on a few
people to give orders. However, among the work of some comrades, the mass line is still
not being implemented; they are depending only on a handful of people to do their work
coolly and quietly by themselves.
16.  The reason → One of the reasons
17.  everyone. → the led people. They do not know how to activate and harness the
enthusiasm and creativity of those who are led. Subjectively, they also want people to
move their hands, but not by letting people understand what is going to be done and how
18.  Newspapers → You comrades are newspapermen. Your job is to educate the masses,
to let them know their interests, their tasks, and the Party’s guidelines and policies. Running
a newspaper is like doing anything else, you must be serious about it in order to make it run
well and to be alive. Our newspaper must also be run by everyone, by the whole people,
by the whole Party, and not just by a few working behind closed doors. Our newspapers
19.  do not have a mass line. → do not often practice the mass line.
20.  If → If we apply the method of the mass line, when
21.  gather the newspaper personnel, → gather all the newspaper personnel,
22.  speak clearly about the reason for the mistake, → tell them clearly what the mistakes are, explain why they occurred and how they can be eliminated,
23.  After three or four times, → After this has been done three or five times,
24.  this will transform this bad work style. → the mistakes will be corrected. That is
true for the little things, and for the big things as well.
25.  We → We should be good at translating the Party’s policies into the actions of the
masses,
26.  make sure that → be good at
27.  the masses → the broad masses
28.  every struggle. → every struggle we launch.
29.  make mistakes. → make mistakes in our work.
30.  tailism. → Right opportunism.
31.  was → was lagging behind the level of consciousness of the masses, and
32.  advance. → advance, but also opposing their advance. Many comrades do not
understand these problems yet.
33.  (2) → In order to educate the masses, newspaper staff must first learn from the
masses.
34.  have no experience → have little or no experience
35.  you. → you, for they understand it fully as soon as they are told about it.
36.  the problems. → the problems. The reason is simple, you do not understand those
problems.
37.  see things. → see things; that is learning.
38.  Some comrades working on the newspaper went out to take part in land reform
work for a time; it is good of course, but not everyone has to go → Comrades working on
the newspapers should go out in turn to take part in mass work and in land reform work for
a time; that is very necessary.
39.  The main thing is to use your eyes to see, your ears to listen, listen to more, and
watch more materials on peasants, and do more research on the situation: that is learning,
→ When not going out to participate in mass work, you should hear a great deal and read
a great deal about the mass movements and devote time and effort to the study of such
material.
40.  Comrades → The soldiers have a lot of practical combat experience. The cadres
should learn from the soldiers, and when they have made other people’s experience their
own, they will become more capable. Comrades
41.  gradually become experienced. → gradually enrich their practical knowledge and
become experienced. Through this, you will be able to do your job well, and take on the
task of educating the masses.
42.  Party committees. → Party committees last June.
43.  Ke li kong refers to the falsification and emptiness of news reports.
44.  but your newspaper during this period → but since January of this year, when we
began to correct Left deviations, your newspaper
45.  resulting in a “low tide.” → making people less inclined to read it.
46.  When → Now you are examining your work and summing up your experience; this
is very good. When
47.  In the past, your struggles against rightists → The struggles against rightists waged
by Jinsui Daily from June of last year
48.  Your → In the struggles against rightists, your
49.  situation. → situation about the mass movement.
50.  A huqin is a family of bowed-string instruments used in Chinese music. The instrument consists of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom and a neck that
protrudes upwards.
51.  Now → The work you did in the past has had its achievements, but also shortcomings, which mainly come from its “leftist” inclination. Now
52.  After rectifying → After we rectify
53.  some people → some people see their past work as totally unproductive, and
54.  believe “I am completely wrong.” → believe “I am completely wrong.” This is
incorrect.
55.  obtained land, → obtained land under the leadership of the Party,
56.  rectifying the organization, → rectifying the organization, improving the work
style of the cadres,
57.  many cadres. → many cadres and masses.
58.  Is this not a great success? → Is this not a great success? We should adopt an
analytical attitude toward our work and the cause of the masses, and we should not deny
everything. In the past, there was a “leftist” inclination because we were inexperienced. If
we have no experience, we will inevitably make mistakes. It takes some steps to go from
inexperienced to experienced. In the short period from last June to the present, after the
struggle against the rightists and the “leftists,” we all know what it is like to fight against
the rightists and the “leftists.” Without such a process, we would not understand.

--- Notes

Chairman Mao’s Talk to the Editorial Staff of
Jinsui Daily1
(April 2, 1948)
On April 2, 1948, when the Jinsui Daily editorial staff went to meet Chairman
Mao, they brought up six issues for instructions. Chairman Mao gave detailed
instructions regarding the dissemination of Party policies by Party newspapers,
the mass line, and various other matters. For study by comrades engaged in news
work, we hereby arrange (the instructions) according to the notes and summaries
taken by several comrades. Among these, there are unavoidably some discrepancies in the conversation. It is hereby declared. (Jinsui xinwen zhanxian Editor)
When we were compiling a pamphlet commemorating the one-year anniversary of the launch of the publication of Qianjinbao, we purposefully published this
essay here. The aim is to hope students, especially correspondents, study it well,
comprehend the spirit of Chairman Mao’s instructions, and improve our newspaper’s communication work. (Editor)
(1)2 Issues concerning policy should3 be given publicity in the Party papers
or periodicals, should make the vast masses know them, make the cadres, Party
members, and soldiers know them (also make Chiang Kaishek and local tyrants

2.  (1) → Our policies should be made known not only to our leaders and cadres, but
also to the vast masses.

3.  should → should as a rule

4.  When → We are in the process of reforming the rural land system. All policies
related to land reform should be published in the press and broadcast on the radio so that
the general public can be informed. When

5.  everyone has → the masses have

6.  purpose, → has a common purpose,
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-109

7.  When → This is the same as fighting a battle; to fight a good battle, not only the cadres
need to be united, but also the warriors. After the troops in northern Shaanxi were trained and
aired their grievances, the soldiers became more aware of why and how to fight the battle,
were eager for a fight, and their morale was high. The battle was won right off. When

8.  principle → basic principle

9.  to unify the mind of the masses. → to enable the masses to know their own interests
and unite to fight for their own interests. The role and power of the newspaper is that it
can make the Party’s program and Party line, policy, working tasks and working methods
known to the masses most rapidly and extensively.

10.  People → In our local leading bodies, some people

11.  the policies, → the Party’s policies,

59.  The → After checking your work and summing up your experience, I believe that
your newspaper will be run much better. The

60.  incisive. → incisive. We Communists have always considered it shameful to conceal our viewpoints. The newspapers run by our Party, all propaganda work carried out by
our Party, should be telling, vivid, clear-cut, and straightforward. This is the proper fighting
style of our revolutionary proletariat. We need this fighting style if we are to educate the
people to know about the truth and to mobilize them to rise up and fight for their liberation.