Letter to Cao Yunfang
(August 11, 1956)

Source: Shuxin, pp. 512–513.

According to the source, Cao Yunfang is the widow of Luo Zhe. During the period of the
Great Revolution (1925–1927), they both worked with Mao in the Communist underground.

Comrade Yunfang:
I have received your letter of July 8, and I am very gratified. I have long received
some news of the heroic sacrifice of Comrade Luo Zhe.1 When I saw our friend
Zhang Wei2 in Chongqing in 1945, I asked him for news of your whereabouts. [At
the time] he only told me that your sister, Madam Wang, had already passed away;
he didn’t know anything about your circumstances. I am very happy to find out
now that you are still alive and well, and that you have two daughters to carry on
the work and heritage of [Comrade] Luo Zhe. Luo Zhe worked hard and arduously
for the interests of the Party; to that I can personally attest, although at the time [of
his sacrifice] no other certificate or testimony was issued. The question of who
should receive the pension money should be decided by the local government. If
its decision is to award it to [your] stepson and not to [your] daughters, let it be;
there is no need to challenge it, or to quarrel about it. [Luo’s] grave can be
maintained by the members of his family. I enclose herein three hundred yuan
(rmb);3 see how you would want to dispose of it and handle the matter. If, in the
future, you encounter more difficulties, you may let me know so that I can see what
I can do. Of those two children [of mine] that you have met, one gave his life in
the war, and the other has become crippled with illness.4 I send my congratulations
for the successful work you have done in Guiyang.
My best wishes for good health and safety.
Mao Zedong
August 11, 1956

Notes
1. Luo Zhe was, according to the source, a native of Zhuzhou, Hunan, and a member of
the early CPC who worked with Mao during the period of the Great Revolution (1925–1927)
in the peasant movement. He died in 1928.
2. See text Sept. 19, 1950, vol. I, source note.
3. Mao is referring here to the new renminbi currency. See text Oct. 2, 1952(1), vol. I,
note 4.
4. Mao refers here to his two sons by his first wife Yang Kaihui (see text Oct. 9, 1949,
vol. I, note 1, and text May 11, 1957, note 1). The elder son, Mao Anying (1922–1950) was
killed in the Korean War (see text Nov. 1950, vol. I). The second son, Mao Anqing, is
reported to have had a long history of mental illness. Mao is also known to have two daughters
by his third wife, Jiang Qing.