A Note on a Revision of a Principled Nature [1]
(June 22, 1956)

It may be revised in this way.

Mao Zedong
June 22

[1]
On June 21, 1956, Liao Luyan, Vice Minister of the Rural Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, wrote in a letter to Peng Zhen, Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: In the revised draft of the *Model Charter for Advanced Agricultural Producers’ Cooperatives*, a sentence was added to Article 14: “When necessary, for those who have completely lost the ability to work and have historically depended on land income for their livelihood, appropriate land remuneration may be temporarily retained.” This is a revision of a relatively principled nature; please consider whether it is appropriate. In his letter forwarding this to Liu Shaoqi, Peng Zhen wrote: “I think the revision is acceptable. However, regarding cooperative members who have completely lost the ability to work, after discussing by telephone with Luyan and the Premier, I feel it would be better to use the public welfare fund to resolve their living difficulties rather than granting land remuneration.” Liu Shaoqi indicated: “I intend to agree to revise it in this way.” After reading this, Mao Zedong wrote beside the sentence “appropriate land remuneration may be temporarily retained”: “It may be revised in this way.”

On June 30, 1956, when the Third Session of the First National People’s Congress deliberated and approved this charter, this sentence was revised to: “For cooperative members who have completely lost the ability to work and have historically depended on land income for their livelihood, the public welfare fund shall be used to maintain their livelihood, and when necessary, appropriate land remuneration may also be temporarily granted.” The charter was published in the *People’s Daily* on July 1, 1956.

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From June 15 to June 30, 1956, the Third Session of the First National People’s Congress was held in Beijing. The picture shows Mao Zedong receiving representatives of ethnic minorities attending the congress.
In June 1956, Xu Jingzhang, a peasant representative from Xingping County, Shaanxi Province, presented the bountiful wheat harvest to Mao Zedong.

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In 1956, Mao Zedong and Wang Guofan cordially shake hands.