1] Several passages added while reviewing Yang’er’s manuscript “A Critique of Wu Xun and the Propaganda About Him” (June 1951)  One of Wu Xun’s central undertakings was his so-called begging and establishment of “righteous” schools. This matter has deceived many naive, childlike, uncritical good-natured people; in reality, it was a fraud. Wu Xun may have intended to set up schools for poor children, but in fact he could only provide education for the offspring of the wealthy. Genuine poor children would never have been able to attend such schools. Moreover, institutions controlled by mandarins and successful candidates in the imperial examinations would never have allowed truly impoverished youngsters to enroll. Wu Xun’s “righteous” schools were, in essence, unjust schools. The funds were procured through ruthless means: first, by coercion—Wu Xun was a vicious beggar who threatened kind-hearted people with deadly poisons to extort money from them; second, by charging exorbitant interest rates (three fen per month); and third, by leveraging official influence to solicit donations. All three sources of funding were illegitimate. The schools he established were not, as claimed, “for poor children”; “for poor children” was merely an empty slogan. In practice, they served the children of the rich. Only those utterly naive would believe that there really existed a group of “poor children” frolicking about in Wu Xun’s “righteous” schools. For now, setting aside the methods and outcomes of Wu Xun’s educational endeavors, let us focus solely on his motives—that is, assuming he genuinely wished to enable poor children to become literate and thereby improve the wretched conditions of the impoverished—was such an aspiration improper? We maintain that what Wu Xun himself thought is one matter, whereas the posthumous promotion of his legacy by others is quite another. If Wu Xun alone harbored misguided notions, this would be of little consequence. However, when his successors propagate his ideas—and even seek to produce films, books, and scholarly papers to widely disseminate these views among the Chinese people—a fundamental issue arises.

Two Wu Xun suffered only before he coined the slogan of “righteous schools.” Once he introduced this attractive and moving phrase, he began to enjoy increasing respect day by day, eventually becoming a favorite of the reactionary government. Consequently, the more he begged, the more energetic he became, and he no longer experienced any hardship.

Three As you can see, Wu Xun was adept at posing; he understood the hierarchical order of feudal society. The more convincingly he portrayed himself, the more favor he won among mandarins and high-ranking officials, and the greater his fame grew. Even after amassing considerable wealth, he continued to beg. The more he begged, the more renowned he became, and the richer he grew. Wu Xun was a man of both shrewdness and ruthlessness, which is why he came to be known as the “unparalleled beggar of all time.” Only the most naively credulous were ever duped by him. Older reactionary writers, however, deliberately presented Wu Xun’s deceptive tactics as heartwarming tales. The statement attributed to Wu Xun, “As a beggar, I dare not presume to treat teachers as equals,” is prominently featured in his biography within the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty.

Printed according to Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft. Originally published in Issue 5 of Volume 4 of the journal “Study,” dated June 16, 1951. Notes [1] Yang’er refers to Xu Liqun, who at the time served as Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China. [2] “How then shall we solve the problem of illiteracy among the poor?” Yang’er’s article argues that instead of addressing the fundamental social conditions necessary to ensure poor children can attend school, the approach taken is to emulate Wu Xun’s “ascetic practices”—prostrating oneself and soliciting alms—to establish “righteous” schools. While reviewing this manuscript, Mao Zedong inserted these words in parentheses after the term “ascetic practices.”