May 25, 1948

[This inner-Party directive was drafted by Comrade Mao Tse-tung for the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China.]

I

It is necessary to pay attention to the seasons. In areas designated by the
bureaus or sub-bureaus of the Central Committee, the whole of next autumn
and winter, that is, the seven months from this September to next March,
must be devoted to carrying out the following tasks in the proper order:

  1. Make an investigation of rural conditions.


  2. Carry out the initial work for Party consolidation in accordance with
  correct policy. A working corps or working team sent by a higher organ to
  a rural district must first of all unite with all the activists and better
  members in the local Party branch and together with them lead the work of
  land reform.


  3. Organize or reorganize or strengthen the poor peasant leagues and the
  peasant associations and launch the land reform struggle.


  4. Identify class status according to correct criteria.


  5. Distribute feudal land and property in accordance with correct policy.
  The final result of the distribution must be such that it is considered fair
  and reasonable by all the main strata and that the landlords too feel that
  there is a way for them to make a living and that this is assured.


  6. Form people's representative conferences and elect government councils
  at the township (or village), district and county levels.


  7. Issue land certificates taxing the ownership of land.


  8. Adjust or revise the rates of the agricultural tax (i.e., public grain).
  These rates must conform to the principle of giving consideration to both
  public and private interests; in other words, they must on the one hand help
  support the war and on the other get the peasants interested in restoring
  and developing production, which will help improve their livelihood.


  9. Complete the work of the organizational consolidation of the Party branches
  in accordance with correct policy.


  10. Shift our work from land reform to rallying all the rural working people
  and to organizing the labour power of the landlords and rich peasants in
  a general struggle to restore and develop agricultural production. Start
  organizing small-scale work-exchange groups and other co-operative units
  according to the principles of voluntary participation and exchange of equal
  values; prepare seed, fertilizer and fuel; work out production plans; issue
  agricultural credits (chiefly loans for means of production, to be definitely
  repaid and to be strictly distinguished from relief grants) when necessary
  and possible; draw up plans, where possible, for building water conservancy
  works.


This is the whole process of work from land reform to production, a process
which all comrades directly engaged in land reform must be brought to understand
so that they can avoid one-sidedness in their work and, without missing the
seasons, accomplish all the above tasks in the coming autumn and winter.

II

To achieve these aims, it is necessary to get the following work done in
the next three months -- from June through August:

  1. Designate the areas for land reform. Each such area must meet the following
  three conditions:


  a. All the enemy armed forces must have been wiped out and conditions must
  have become stable; it must not be an unstable guerrilla zone.


  b. The overwhelming majority of the basic masses (the farm labourers, poor
  peasants and middle peasants), not just a minority, must already be demanding
  the distribution of land.


  c. Party cadres must be adequate both in numbers and in quality to grasp
  the work of land reform and must not leave it to the spontaneous activity
  of the masses.


  An area where any one of these three conditions is lacking should not be
  designated for land reform in 1948. For instance, since they do not meet
  the first condition, we should not include in this year's plan for land reform
  those parts of the Liberated Areas in northern and eastern China, the Northeast
  and the Northwest, which border on enemy territory, nor most of the area
  enclosed by the Yangtse, Huai, Yellow and Han Rivers, which is under the
  jurisdiction of the Central Plains Bureau of the Central Committee. Whether
  they are to be included in next year's plan will depend on circumstances.
  In these areas we should make full use of the experience acquired during
  the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan and put into effect the
  social policy of reducing rent and interest and of properly adjusting supplies
  of seed and food grains, as well as the financial policy of reasonable
  distribution of burdens, so as to unite with or neutralize all social forces
  that can be united with or can be neutralized, help the People's Liberation
  Army to wipe out all the Kuomintang armed forces and strike blows at the
  local tyrants who are politically the most reactionary. Neither land nor
  movable property should be distributed in these areas, because they are newly
  liberated and border on enemy territory, and distribution there would not
  be of advantage to uniting with or neutralizing all social forces that can
  be united with or neutralized for the accomplishment of the basic task of
  wiping out the Kuomintang forces of reaction.


  2. Make cadres' conferences a success. At cadres' conferences concerned with
  the work of land reform and Party consolidation, all the correct policies
  relating to these two tasks must be fully explained and a clear line must
  be drawn between what is and what is not permitted. All cadres working on
  land reform and Party consolidation are required to study seriously and
  understand fully the important documents issued by the Central Committee;
  cadres must be enjoined to adhere to them all and must not make any unauthorized
  change. In case parts of the documents do not suit local conditions, cadres
  may and should propose amendments, but they must secure the approval of the
  Central Committee before actually making any change. The higher leading organs
  of the various areas must make adequate and proper preparations beforehand
  for the cadres' conferences which are to be held at different levels this
  year. That is to say, before a conference is convened, there should be
  discussions among a few persons (with one of them taking the main
  responsibility), in the course of which questions are raised and analysed
  and an outline is written; this outline must be carefully worked out in content
  and wording (be sure to make it clear and concise and avoid long-windedness).
  Then a report should be made at the conference, discussion should be unfolded,
  the outline should be supplemented, revised and finalized in the light of
  the views expressed in the discussion, and the final document should be
  circulated in the whole Party and published, as far as possible, in the
  newspapers. It is necessary to oppose holding meetings in an empiricist way,
  that is, with no advance preparations, no problems raised or analysed and
  no report, carefully prepared and well-weighed in content and wording, submitted
  to the cadres' conference, but with the participants allowed to indulge in
  pointless, random talk so that the sessions drag on without reaching any
  clear, well-considered conclusion. Pay attention to eliminating this harmful
  empiricist way if it is found in the leadership work of any bureau or sub-bureau
  of the Central Committee, or in any area, provincial or prefectural Party
  committee. Conferences to discuss policy should not be attended by too many
  people and can be shortened if there is enough preparation. Generally it
  is proper for a dozen or so people, or twenty to thirty, or forty to fifty
  -- the number varying according to circumstances -- to meet for about a week.
  Meetings for transmitting policy may have a larger attendance but must not
  last too long either. The only conferences which may have a larger attendance
  and may last longer are those for Party consolidation among senior and
  middle-rank cadres.


  3. By the first half or at the latest the second half of September, all cadres
  who are to take a direct part in the land reform must arrive in the villages
  and start work. Otherwise, it will be impossible to utilize the whole of
  the coming autumn and winter to complete the land reform, the Party consolidation
  and the formation of organs of political power and to prepare for spring
  ploughing.

III

At cadres' conferences as well as in their work, cadres must be taught how
to analyse concrete situations and how, proceeding from the concrete situations
in different areas with different historical conditions, to decide on their
tasks and methods of work in a given place and time. Distinctions must be
drawn between the cities and the rural areas and among the old Liberated
Areas, semi-old Liberated Areas, areas bordering on enemy territory and new
Liberated Areas; otherwise mistakes will be made.
IV

The land problem should be considered solved and the question of land reform
should not be raised again in areas where the feudal system has been
fundamentally abolished, where the poor peasants and farm labourers have
all acquired roughly the average amount of land and where there is still
a difference (which is permissible) between their holdings and those of the
middle peasants, but where the difference is not great. In these areas the
central tasks are to restore and develop production, to complete the Party
consolidation and the formation of organs of political power and to support
the front. If, in certain villages in these areas, some land is still to
be distributed or readjusted, the class status of some individuals still
needs to be revised and some land certificates still have to be issued, these
tasks should of course be completed in accordance with the actual circumstances.
V

In all the Liberated Areas, whether or not the land reform has been completed,
we must direct the peasants to cultivate the wheat fields and to plough part
of the land this autumn. In the winter, the peasants should be called upon
to collect fertilizer. All this is vitally important to agricultural production
and the 1949 harvests in the Liberated Areas and must be accomplished through
administrative measures co-ordinated with mass work.
VI

It is necessary resolutely to overcome certain manifestations of indiscipline
or anarchy existing in many places. There are people who, without authorization,
modify the policies and tactics adopted by the Central Committee or other
higher Party committees and apply extremely harmful policies and tactics,
which go against the united will and discipline but which they opinionatedly
believe to be correct. There are also people who, on the pretext of pressure
of work, adopt the wrong attitude of neither asking for instructions before
an action is taken nor submitting a report afterwards and who regard the
area they administer as an independent realm. All this is extremely harmful
to the interests of the revolution. Party committees at every level must
discuss this matter again and again and work earnestly to overcome such
indiscipline and anarchy so that all the powers that can and must be centralized
will be concentrated in the hands of the Central Committee and its agencies.
[1]
VII

The Central Committee, its bureaus (or sub-bureaus), the area (or provincial)
Party committees and the prefectural, county and district Party committees
down to the level of Party branches must establish close contact with each
other in order to have a good grasp of trends in the various movements,
constantly exchange information and experience, and promptly correct mistakes
and spread successes. For these purposes, they should make full use of such
means of communication as the radio, telegraph, telephone, posts and couriers;
of such methods of consultation as small meetings (of four or five persons),
joint local conferences (of a few counties) and personal talks; of such
inspection tours as may be made by small groups (of three to five persons)
or by individual committee members with prestige; and of the news agency
and newspapers. There should be no waiting for several months, half a year
or even longer before a lower organization submits its summary report to
the one above, or before a higher organization issues general directives
to those below. For such reports and directives often become out of date,
losing all or part of their usefulness. And mistakes are made and cannot
be corrected in time, causing serious damage. What the whole Party urgently
needs is reports and directives that are timely, lively and concrete.
VIII

In exercising their leadership, the bureaus and sub-bureaus of the Central
Committee and the area, provincial, prefectural and municipal Party committees
must give proper attention to both urban and rural work, to the tasks of
both industrial and agricultural production. That is to say, they should
not, on account of directing the land reform and agricultural production,
neglect to give leadership to urban work and industrial production or slacken
their efforts in this regard. Since we now have many big, medium and small
cities and a vast network of industries, mines and communications, we shall
make mistakes if any of the leading organizations concerned becomes negligent
or slackens its efforts in this respect.
NOTES

1. The agencies of the Central Committee, as referred to
here, were its bureaus and sub-bureaus.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.