Letter to Li Jinxi
(May 22, 1950)

Source: Shuxin, p. 373.

According to the source, Li (1890-1978), a.k.a. Shao Xi, was a native of Xiangtan
Hunan - Mao's native village. Li was a linguist and Philologist who at the time of this

cidian (A General Chinese Dictionary) and professor and chairman of the Department’
of Chinese Language at Beijing Normal University. For more biographical informa
tion on Li, see Zhonggong renming lu, p. 970. ;

Mr. Shao Xi:
Your letter of May 17 has been received. I can agree with all the opinions 4
you have expressed concerning the Dictionary Bureau,’ and I have discussed §
these with Comrade Hu Qiaomu.’ He is also in agreement with us. Please.
contact Comrade Hu on the telephone and discuss the matter with him. 4
I send best regards for your health.
Mao Zedong
May 22, 1950

Notes

1. According to the source, this refers to the opinions, expressed by Li in a letter to Mao, on the 4
planning of a rational course of action and development in organizing the personnel at the Bureau ¥
for the Compilation of the Zhongguo da cidian, and on the question of under which department of F
branch of the government the bureau should be placed. 4

2. Hu Qiaomu (b. 1907) is a chief propagandist of the CPC. Known by his nom de plume of 4
Qiaomu (which incidentally he shared with Qiao Guanhua in the 1930s and 1940s, thus earning
for him the quaint sobriquet of Bei Qiaomu, or Qiaomu of the North, as opposed to Qiao Guan- °§
hua’s Nan Qiaomu or Southern Qiaomu) Hu began his career as a writer for the Communist cause .
in the Shanghai area in the mid-1930s. From 1937 on, Hu worked for the Party in Yanan, largely
devoting himself to youth organization. He was at this time an editor of the influential Yanan
journal Zhongguo qingnian (China Youth), and later, in the early- to mid-1940s, became Mao
Zedong’s ‘‘political secretary,’’ after serving a short stint as Zhou Enlai’s secretary. In this capacity he shared with Chen Boda many responsibilities and opportunities of drafting major documents for the Central Committee of the CPC. In 1945, he accompanied Mao to the negotiations |

APRIL — JUNE 1950 / 93

e KMT at Chongqing and there served as the editor of the Xinhua ribao (New China

r After Liberation, Hu became a chief organizer of the New Democratic Youth League (see
Daily) | 18, 1951, note 8) and the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth, and ultimately of
text e sential preparatory committee of the All-China Journalists’ Association. With these
the 1” nces and positions behind him, Hu very easily and naturally became a major spokesperson
expere CPC in the circles of journalism and propaganda, From 1949 to 1954 he was a deputy
for ne of the Xinhua (New China) News Agency and the managing director of Renmin ribao
iret Je’s Daily). Hu is also well known as the author of the book Zhongguo gongchandang di
are nian (Thirty Years of the Communist Party of China), a history, from the Marxist perspec-sa " of the development of the CPC up to the time of the founding of the PRC. Hu was criticized
“i ‘removed from his official positions during the Cultural Revolution and was rehabilitated in
1974. For more biographical information on Hu, see Zhonggong renmin lu, pp. 378-379, and D.
Klein and A. Clark, eds. (1971), I, pp. 374-377.

The source describes Hu as being, at the time of this letter, Mao’s secretary and director of the
Press Administration of the Government Administration Council.

th th