Letter to Jiang Zhuru
(May 1, 1955)

Source: Shuxin, p. 492.

According to the source, Jiang Zhuru was a fellow native of Mao's of Xiangtan xian,
Hunan. He was Mao's schoolmate at the First Normal School of Hunan in Changsha,
and an early member of the Xinmin xuehui (New People’s Study Society) founded by
Mao, Cai Hesen et al. He was engaged in education work, See also text Jan. 14, 1951,
note

My dear Zhura:

Your gracious letter of February has been received; thank you very much,
You are engaged in linguistic studies, and have proposed some unconventional opinions. Although I cannot agree with you [on these views], I am sure
that the debate would be beneficial {to all of us]. Your letter has been sent to
the Committee for Language Reform for studying. A phonetic language is by
and large a form of language that is more convenient and easy to handle. Chinese characters are too complicated and difficult. At the moment we are only
engaged in reforming [the language] by simplifying them; in the future, there
will come the day when we have to carry out some basic reforms.’

In response, and with best regards for your work in teaching,

Mao Zedong
May 1, 1955

Note

1 The plans for reforming (mainly simplifying and thereby popularizing) the Chinese language went back as far as mid-1951.. (See text 1951, source note and text.) For a general study of
this subject, see J. DeFrancis (1984), J, DeFrancis (1972), W. Lehman (1975), and P. Seybolt
and G. Chiang, eds, (1979).


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