Second Preface to Upsurge of Socialism in China's Countryside
(December 27, 1955)

Source: Gaochao, pp. 1-4. Other Chinese Texts: Xuanji, V. pp. 221-224;
RMRB (Jan, 12, 1956), 1; Shi Jingtang et al., eds. (1957), Tl, pp. 76-78; Gaizao wenji, Wl, pp. 71-73; Xuexi, 1 (1956), 1-2, Available English Transtations: Socialist Upsurge, pp. 1-6; SW, V, pp. 238-241.

See texts Sept. 25, 1955, and Dec, 27, 1985 (2),

This is a book of collected materials for people working in the countryside to
read. A preface for this book was originally written in September os.
months have since passed and that preface is ulready outdated, 6 4 Mow.
thing to do is to write 4 new one, E>
The situation is this. This book has been edited twice ~ once in § Sate
and once again in December. One hundred and twenty-one ar; em we
collected for the first editing. Most of these reflected the
first half of 1955, while a smaller nuke reese ih isaon in he a ~~
half of 1954, At that time [galley] proofs were made of these m
distributed to comrades in positions of responsibility in provincial, mu
autonomous region, and [special] district Purty committees who wen
ing the Sixth (Enlarged) Plenum of the Seventh Central oinmnittpa fit
Communist Party of China, which was being held from October 4 to © tobe
11, 1955. Their opinions were solicited, and they felt that additional my
was needed. After the meeting, most of the provinces, municipalitie 4
autonomous regions sent additional material. Much of this m : n
the situation in the latter half of 1955. This is what
editing. We deleted 30 of the original 121 articles, leaving 91. a
85 articles from the newly collected material. Together this mi st
176 urticles, about 900,000 characters, which became dite box ok. A
material collected in this book has been gone over by the several cor a
who were responsible for editing it, and some changes nie ae mind
phrasing; they have added notes to explain difficult terms and have
topical index [to it} according to the nature of the problems [that th
deal with]. BST ee. Se ee eae Of
material, criticizing certain erroneous ideas and making some 51
order to distinguish these from the comments written by the ed
periodicals in which the material originally appeared, we have used the ap
lation ‘Editors of this book” for the comments that we have written, §
some of the comments were written in September and others were well
December, there are some differences in tone between them.
The problem is not simply a matter of the material, but rather [is 0
the fact) that the situation in China underwent a fundamental chan
the latter half of 1955. At the present time, late December 1955, 1
60 per cent, that is, over 70 million of China's 110 million pe
households have responded to the call of the Central Committee 0 fi
Chinese Communist Party and have joined the semisocialist pricultinran P
ducers’ cooperatives.’ In my report of July 31, 1955, regarding the qt M
of agricultural cooperativization,* 1 stated that 16.9 million re
holds had joined cooperatives; in only a few months [since], Some
million [more] households haye joined cooperatives. This is a trem
event. It indicates to us that only one year, 1956, will be required to ba
accomplish semisocialist cooperativization in agriculture, Then, in
three or four years, by 1959 or 1960, we can basically accomplish the 8 tal
formation of the cooperatives from a semisocialist [character] to a fully 4
ist (character|, This event indicates lo us that we should also strive to #

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OCTOBER — DECEMBER 1955 | 69}

plish the socialist transformation of China’s handicraft industries and
capitalist industry and commerce a bit ahead of schedule, and that only then
can the needs of agricultural development be met. This event indicates to us
that the scale and rate of China's industrialization as well as the scale and rate
of its development in the various enterprises in the areas of science, culture,
education, public health, and so forth can no longer remain entirely as originally intended but also must be appropriately expanded and accelerated.

Is such a rapid advance in agricultural cooperativization being carried out in
a healthy way? Absolutely. Party organizations everywhere are giving overall
leadership to this movement. The peasants have joined this movement with
such great enthusiasm and in such an orderly fashion. Their enthusiasm for
production has never been higher. For the first time the broadest masses can
see their own future clearly. By the time three five-year plans are completed,
that is, by 1967, the [annual] production of grain and of many other agricultural products will possibly be two to three times higher than the highest
annual output prior to the establishment of the People’s Republic. Illiteracy
can be wiped out in a relatively short time (for example, in seven or eight
years),’ Many of the most serious diseases that are harmful to people, such as
schistosomiasis and so forth, for which people in the past have thought there
were no treatments, can now be treated. In short, the masses can already see
their great future.

‘The problem that now confronts the whole Party and the people of the entire
country is no longer the problem of repudiating rightist conservative thought
with regard to the speed of the socialist transformation of agriculture; that
problem has already been resolved. Nor is it the problem of the speed of transforming capitalist industry and commerce into fully joint state-private enterprises by entire trades; that problem has also already been resolved, The question of the speed of the socialist transformation of the handicraft industries
ought to be discussed a bit during the first half of 1956, [but] this problem,
too, can be resolved easily, The current problem is not in these areas but
rather lies in other areas, It lies in the areas of agricultural and industrial production (including state, joint state-private, and cooperative owned
{enterprises]); handicraft production; the scale and speed of basic construction
in industry, communications, and transportation; the coordination between
Commerce and other sectors of the economy; the coordination between scientific, cultural, educational, and health work; and the various kinds of ecosomie undertakings, etc. In all these areas there is the shortcoming of underestimating the situation, This must be criticized and overcome in all areas so
that (our work] will correspond to the development of the entire situation.
People’s thinking must correspond to the changed situation. Of course, individuals cannot indulge in ungrounded, wild flights of fancy; they cannot
exceed the conditions allowed by the objective situation in planning their own
actions, They must not force themselves to do what is not actually possible,
But the current problem is still that of rightist conservative thought making
trouble in many areas and making it impossible for our work in many areas to


692) MAO ZEDONG

correspond with the development of the objective situation, The presgeny »
lem is that many things that, if given the effort, are essentially fey,
considered by many people to be infeasible. Therefore. it is absaly:
sary to unceasingly repudiate the rightist conservative thought th
does exist,
This book is for comrades working in the countryside to read. Can pea
the cities read it? Not only can they read it, they ought to read
{cooperativization) isa new thing. Just as new things in the cause of;
occur each day and each hour in the cities, so too do they occur in the
side. What ure the peasants doing? How does what the peusants dy
the working class, the intellectuals, and all patriotic personages? Read
material about the countryside will be helpful to. understanding th "se thi !
in order to let even more people understand the current situation it he oy
tryside, we plan to choose 44 articles out of the 176, approximate ha '
characters, and print an abridged edition.’ This will allow those "
read the entire book to stay in touch with the issue,

Notes

1, See text Aug. 12, 1953, note 9, and text Oct. 15, 1953, note 2.

2, See text in this volume under (hrs date.

1. See text Dec. 6, 1955, note LI.

4. Forty-three of the commentaries Watten by Mao on the urticles in rhis collection w
lished in SW, -V. pp.