Comrade Jiaying:320
Please make a copy of the letter from Yang Xiusheng321 and forward it to
Mr. Yang Kaizhi in Changsha.322 Inquire of him whether or not the things described in that letter are true. I have absolutely no recollection of these things.
For this current year [our commitment] is to send, as a subsidy, 12 million
yuan (RMB)323 to the Yang family. The six million for the first half of the year
should be sent out immediately. Please handle this matter.
Madam Li Shuyi is the widow of Comrade Liu Zhixun of Changsha (a
martyr).324 Her vocation is teaching, but she is advanced in years and the teaching is becoming too much of a burden for her, and it would be difficult for her
to go on much further. Someone has asked me to recommend her to a position
at the Beijing Literature and History Museum. The requirements of the Literature and History Museum [in terms of the qualifications of its staff members],
however, are rather high. I have indeed recommended several people, but they
have not been accepted and it does not seem appropriate for me to make any
more recommendations. I intend, rather, to aid her with some of the fees I
receive for my writing, and thus to resolve this problem. What I do not know
is whether or not she herself, on her part, would accept this type of assistance.
She is a very close friend of Yang Kaihui’s, so there is nothing wrong with my
assisting her in some way. Please write a letter to Mr. Yang Kaizhi, asking him
to relay the question to Madam Li Shuyi, and ask her to express her feelings
[on this].
(Signed and dated)
Source: Selections from Mao Zedong’s Letters, p. 475.