To Liu Yazi1
(May 21, 1949)
Dear Mr. Yazi:
I have received your various letters and celebrated work. Thank you very
much! It is kind of you to bestow these precious gifts upon me. How can I dislike
them? Jiang Qing has brought my little daughter to the Northeast to seek a cure
for her illness. I have received the letter from Madam Huang.2 My secretary has
already given Madam Huang a call, and I think that she will be able to find somewhere to live. I have not discussed the issue of the Institute of Chinese History
with my friends and I am afraid it will not be set up before a coalition government
is established. I also am not greatly in favor of your involvement in this work, Sir,
as I am afraid it is difficult and fruitless. I would also advise you against accepting
the nominal position in Jiangsu, for even if you were to do this, it would benefit
neither you nor anyone else. I have been “pouring cold water” on these two matters, but fortunately it is now summer, and perhaps you will not feel the chill. It
has been reported that certain comrades made improper comments about your
work. I’m in complete disagreement with them. I hope that you, Sir, can be magnanimous enough to get along better with them in the future. We should instruct
our leaders in order to prevent a recurrence of “the drunken official taking a latenight stroll.”3 By the way, I have a piece of news for you. We recently received
an anonymous poem, which reads, “The tiger general, You Beiping,/ Now finds
it difficult to walk at night while drunk./ The moon that rose when he climbed the
Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 321–22, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
wall has yet to set upon the Bridge of Lugou,/ The sound of the zhu can still be
heard along the Yishui River.”4 Different heroes might have different opinions,
since they have different experiences. I have already arranged for guards to be
stationed at the tomb that contains Mr. Sun Yatsen’s personal effects.5 It should
not be too difficult for us to do what we need to do there. Thank you, Sir, for your
guidance in this matter. Please pardon this hastily-written reply. Wishing you the
very best.
Mao Zedong

--- Notes

1.  Liu Yazi (1887–1958) was a poet, proponent of democracy, and a member of the
China Democratic League. At the time of this letter, he was a Standing Committee member
and secretary general of the Guomindang Revolutionary Committee.

2.  Huang Bola (1911–1980, born in Rong county, Guangxi) was the niece of Huang
Shaohong. She left Shanghai in great haste in early 1949 in order to free herself from the
surveillance of Guomindang spies. After reaching Beiping, she had difficulties finding
room and board. Liu Yazi wrote to Mao Zedong on her behalf, and Mao sent his secretary
to help her make arrangements.

3.  This expression comes from a story in Sima Qian’s Shi Ji (Record of the Historian),
which recounts that the Han dynasty general Li Guang (184 bc–119 bc) was out drinking
after retirement when he passed an emperor’s tomb guarded by a drunken guard. Upon
learning Li’s identity, the guard said, “Even a serving general is not allowed to walk at
night, let alone a former general.” Li Guang therefore stopped and slept there.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-273


4.  Li Guang, famous for having shot a tiger, was once governor of You Beiping. Lugou,
a bridge in a suburb of Beiping, is famous for its moonlit scenery. The zhu was a musical
instrument that Gao Jianli, a famous musician of the Warring States period, played along
the Yishui River when the famous warrior Jing Ke departed to assassinate the first Qin
emperor.

5.  Referring to the personal effects of Sun Yatsen in the Biyun Temple (Temple of the
Azure Clouds) in the Western Hills of Beijing.