Directive on Language Reform
(1951)

Source: This. possibly an excerpt from a lengthier and more general directive, was cited in a speech by Ma Xulun (see text June 19, 1950(1), source
note) at the inaugural session of the Committee for Studying the Reform of the
Chinese Language, February 5, 1952. This speech is published in Zhongguo
yuwen (July 1952), 4.

Mao's 1951 directives on language reform are further paraphrased in PR, 16:32
(Aug. 10, 1973), 11 The July 1952 inaugural issue of Zhongguo yuwen also carried
other articles in which Mao's concern for language reform was cited. One such is a
report of a speech by Guo Moruo at the same inaugural meeting of the Committee to
Study Language Reform, another was an article by Wei Yi in which an undated quotation by Mao is cited saying “the language must, under certain specific conditions, be
reformed. Our language must be one that draws [us] closer to the masses.”

The written language must be reformed and oriented toward [the use of] a
phonetic system as is common with the world's [other] written languages.
[The reformed script] must have a national form, [its] letters and methods [of

alphabetization] being formulated on the basis of Chinese characters in current use,