Letter to Fu Dingyi[1]
(July 7, 1953)

Mr. Yucheng:

I received your letter today, in which you mentioned that your work *Lianmian Dictionary* is to be reprinted and requested that I write an inscription for it. As I have not studied your work, I am therefore unable to offer any opinion.

As for what you referred to as "the undertakings of Qin Shi Huang and Han Wu Di," you must have misheard. You are an author, and it seems somewhat inappropriate to draw an analogy with the enterprises of ancient feudal emperors. I beg your kind forgiveness for having to decline your request.

Mao Zedong
July 7, 1953

[1] Fu Dingyi, courtesy name Yucheng, was then a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History.


Mao Zedong's handwritten title inscription for Fu Dingyi's *Lianmian Dictionary*.

Letter to Fu Dingyi