Comment on Yang Shuda’s[1] Letter and Reply
(March 17, 1955)

Forward to the Academy of Sciences, and request the relevant units to pay attention to this matter.

Mr. Yufu:

Your gracious letter of February 14[2] has been received and read. The preface has been reviewed. I have also forwarded your letter to the Academy of Sciences, requesting them to pay attention to it. This is my reply. With best wishes for your health!

Mao Zedong
March 17

[1] Yang Shuda, courtesy name Yufu, became acquainted with Mao Zedong during his early teaching years in Changsha. He subsequently devoted himself to the teaching and research of philology and was, at the time, a professor at Hunan Normal College.

[2] Refers to the letter Yang Shuda sent to Mao Zedong on February 14, 1955. In the letter, he requested that Mao review the author’s preface to his work *Nailin Jiawen Shuo* (Explanations of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from the Nailin Studio), in which he criticized the bureaucratic approach of the Chinese Academy of Sciences during the review of the manuscript.