No Need to Issue Universal Regulations for the Time Being[1]

(December 22, 1948)

I

On this matter, it is not appropriate to stipulate things in too minute and detailed a manner at present. In fact, it cannot be accomplished, and to force it would be dangerous. This document should be reconsidered. For the time being, it is sufficient to stipulate only a few items that are easy to implement and most likely to win social sympathy.

II

At present, any law should only stipulate the broad outlines and must not be made too meticulous; otherwise, it will be disadvantageous.

Books are different from newspapers. For the time being, except for confiscating the bookstores of the Guomindang, we may allow all others to operate freely. Intervention may be carried out individually when reactionary books are encountered. There is no need to issue universal regulations for the time being.

[1] The first part consists of the main content of a letter from Mao Zedong to Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Lu Dingyi, and others after reviewing the "Interim Measures for the Publication and Sale of Books in the Newly Liberated Areas." The second part consists of Mao Zedong's written comment on the "Interim Measures for the Publication and Sale of Books in the Newly Liberated Areas."