(June 14, 1954)

There are two places in the draft constitution that need to be revised; these are opinions put forward by the delegates to the National People's Congress, and it would be better to change them. One place is the third paragraph of the Preamble: after "the First National People's Congress," add the five characters "First Session." The date below should also be filled in, written as "September __, 1954." Before the date, there is no character "yu," because at the beginning our two language consultants (language experts) were unanimously opposed to adding the character "yu"; it was proposed several times but could not pass, so we the majority had to defer to them the minority. Below, "our country's first constitution" is to be changed to "the Constitution of the People's Republic of China." These revisions are all textual in nature, but they must be made. In the past, China has had eight constitutions (not including drafts): the Qing dynasty's "Outline of the Constitution," Sun Zhongshan's "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China," Yuan Shikai's "Constitutional Compact of the Republic of China," Cao Kun's "Constitution of the Republic of China," Jiang Jieshi's "Provisional Constitution for the Period of Political Tutelage of the Republic of China" and "Constitution of the Republic of China," the "Outline of the Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic" promulgated by the Central Worker-Peasant Democratic Government in Ruijin, and the "Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference." To say that this constitution is "our country's first constitution" is inappropriate; to say it is "the Constitution of the People's Republic of China" is true to its name. This is a revision that is textual in nature but important; not to change it would be less than appropriate.

Another place is Article 3, Paragraph 3: "All nationalities... have the freedom to preserve or reform their own customs, habits, and religious beliefs." The problem lies in the five characters "and religious beliefs." Some delegates have proposed that to say reforming "religion" is acceptable, but reforming "belief" is inappropriate, and besides, Article 88 already stipulates that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China have freedom of religious belief." The so-called "freedom of religious belief" means: you may believe in a religion, or you may not; you may believe in this religion, or you may believe in that religion; after believing, you may also stop believing; originally not believing, you may later come to believe. Since the stipulation of Article 88 already exists, for Article 3 to again speak of "freedom to reform religious beliefs" is repetitive. This is an opinion put forward by the Tibetan delegates, who say that this wording is not good, as it seems to want to get rid of religion. To say "reform religion" is still acceptable. There have been many religious reforms in history, for example, the reforms of Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Lamaism, and so on. I think this opinion is reasonable. Delete the five characters "and religious beliefs," and change it to "have the freedom to preserve or reform their own customs and habits." Because Article 88 exists, deleting this phrase does not matter; it avoids misunderstanding, avoids repetition, and also avoids ungrammatical language. The linguists oppose writing it this way, saying "reform belief" is ungrammatical. This article was copied entirely from the Common Program. It can be seen that the Common Program also has its shortcomings. This point should be mentioned in Comrade Liu Shaoqi's report on the draft constitution.

Today's meeting is for the purpose of changing these two places. Is this way of changing them acceptable? Are there any opinions?

In addition, some people have proposed: in Article 74, the term of office of the president of a court is in the first paragraph, while the organization of the courts is placed in the second paragraph, and they say it should be changed. We feel it is also fine not to change it. Some people also say that in Article 5, "The ownership of the means of production at present mainly takes the following forms," the word "mainly" should be removed. We have considered it and are afraid it is better to keep it; let's not change it.

The constitution is not a seamless heavenly garment; it will always have shortcomings. "Seamless heavenly garment" is what is said in books. A heavenly garment, I have never seen one, nor have I taken one down from heaven to look at. The clothes I have seen all have seams, for example, this piece of clothing I am wearing has seams. The constitution, as well as other laws, will all have shortcomings. Whenever they are discovered, revisions can be proposed. In any case, the National People's Congress meets once a year, and it can be revised at any time. If it is passable, then let's not change it.

If there are no opinions, let's put it to a vote. (Unanimously passed)

The text of the draft constitution will not be reprinted again today. Of course, it will be reprinted once more before it is passed by the Congress. I ask the heads of each delegate group to take responsibility for convening a meeting of their respective delegate groups to explain these two revisions from the provisional meeting of the Central People's Government Council to everyone. This provisional meeting and these two revisions will not be published in the newspapers.

This is a relatively complete constitution. First, it was drafted by the Central Committee of the CPC, then discussed by more than five hundred senior cadres in Beijing, then discussed by more than eight thousand people nationwide, then there was a three-month nationwide popular discussion, and this time it has been discussed again by more than one thousand delegates to the National People's Congress. The drafting of the constitution should be said to have been cautious; every article and every character has been carefully deliberated. But there is no need to say it is without any shortcomings, a seamless heavenly garment. This constitution is suited to our current actual situation; it has upheld matters of principle, yet it also has flexibility.

[1] This was a speech by Mao Zedong at a provisional meeting of the Central People's Government Council, when the draft Constitution of the People's Republic of China was revised and passed.