Directive on the Issue of Cooperative Pig Raising [1]
(November 1956)

Please have Shangkun handle this.
This article is to be printed and distributed for all comrades attending the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee to read. Responsible comrades of all provinces, municipalities, and regions are asked to take note: if you agree, then print and distribute this article to all agricultural cooperatives for reference, and act accordingly. You should know that Yanggu County is the hometown of Wu Song, the tiger-slaying hero, yet this area did not have the custom of raising pigs. This cooperative changed this practice and began raising pigs. The first year they failed, the second year they succeeded, the third year they developed, and the fourth year they greatly expanded, averaging about two pigs per person, totaling twenty thousand head. If this cooperative can do this, why can't other cooperatives do the same?

Mao Zedong
November 9, 1956

Part one of this text is the directive written by Mao Zedong after reading the article "Our Cooperative Plans to Raise Twenty Thousand Pigs" by Song Baosen, deputy director of the Agricultural Production Cooperative of Shimensong Township, Yanggu County, Shandong Province. This article and the directive (with the salutation and first sentence removed) were later published in the People's Daily on December 23, 1956. Part two was written on a letter from Chen Yun to Deng Xiaoping dated November 15, 1956, regarding the plan to issue a draft decision on developing pig production for soliciting opinions. Part three was written on a report submitted by the State Planning Commission on November 14, 1956, from a deputy division chief of the Commercial Bureau on the pig-raising methods of the Tongxin Cooperative in Kunshan County, Jiangsu Province.

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Directive on the Issue of Cooperative Pig Raising
Return immediately to Comrade Chen Yun:
On pages five and six, there is one small modification[1], please consider and decide at your discretion.
Mao Zedong
November 21, 3:00 AM

Have Shaoqi, Chen Yun, and Xiaoping read this. This document[2] seems suitable for circulation to the provincial, municipal, and regional party committees for reference. Please have Xiaoping consider and handle this at his discretion.
Mao Zedong
November 30

[1]
In the fifth page of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council's draft decision on developing pig production, after the sentence "In the future, for every fat pig purchased, ten to fifteen catties of meat shall be retained for the pig-raising farmer," Mao Zedong added "(of which there should be four to five catties of lard)." On the sixth page, the sentence "Apart from large cities, all institutional, military, and school mess units in small and medium-sized cities and towns, wherever conditions permit, may raise pigs" was changed to "Apart from the urban districts of large cities, all institutional, military, and school mess units in the suburbs of large cities and in small and medium-sized cities and towns, wherever conditions permit, may raise pigs."

[2]
Refers to the report from a deputy division chief of the Commercial Bureau of the State Planning Commission on the pig-raising methods of the Tongxin Cooperative in Kunshan County, Jiangsu Province. The report stated that the characteristics of this cooperative's pig raising were: (1) The cooperative allocated specific cultivated land to grow vegetables for feed. (2) Each pig was only fed to a gross weight of 120 catties, allowing for 7 pigs to be raised per mu of land. (3) Two batches were raised per year, each pig raised for only half a year. This method is worth promoting in places where conditions permit.
On December 5, 1956, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China forwarded this report to the party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.
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