Letter to Jiang Duanfu[1]
(May 8, 1950)

Mr. Duanfu:
I have received your congratulatory verses[2] and am deeply moved by your kind sentiments. I hereby express my sincere thanks and wish you
success in your teaching work!

Mao Zedong
May 8, 1950

[1] Jiang Duanfu (1900-1972), a native of Xinxi Village, Yanglin Township, Shaoshan City, Hunan Province, was a village teacher. Mao Zedong became acquainted with him in 1925 when carrying out the peasant movement in Shaoshan.
[2] This refers to four qijue (a traditional four-line verse form) poems written by Jiang Duanfu after the founding of New China in 1949, extolling the new China and Mao Zedong.