Letter to Mao Yuju
(May 15, 1950)

Source: Shuxin, p. 370.

According to the source, Mao Yuju was Mao Zedong’s older cousin and his tutor in an
old-style village school when Mao was a child.

Dear Yuju:

I have received your several letters in rapid succession. Thank you very
much. Please let me know at your convenience more things about how conditions are in our native village. If Zou Puxun (Heng er)” is in dire straits and
seriously ill, and if you have some extra cash on hand, please help him out a
bit and let me pay you back later. Please also give the enclosed message to
Zou Puxun.

My best regards for your health.

Mao Zedong
May 15, 1950

Notes

1. On the practice of using the personal name in salutation, see text Nov. 17, 1949, note 2.
Here Mao used the term Yuju xiong in which the latter character, meaning “elder brother,” is
common for addressing one’s friends who are either indeed older than one is or acquaintances
Regardless of age as a sign of simple courtesy. Nonetheless, here Mao and his correspondent have
a closer relationship, which gives this term a special meaning.

2. “Heng er,” which Mao put in parentheses in the original, is a childhood nickname of Zou’s.
According to the source, Zou was Mao’s neighbor and schoolmate in the village school.