To: Huang Yanpei [1]

(December 4, 1956)

Mr. Renzhi:

Your esteemed letter has been received and noted. Your conference [2] has been conducted very well, and I extend my sincere congratulations! The method of criticism and self-criticism has actually been put into practice within your party, among industrialists and businessmen across the country, and among senior intellectuals, and it is being carried out in an increasingly sound manner. This is truly good news.

Society is always full of contradictions. This is true even in socialist and communist societies, though the nature of the contradictions differs from that in class societies. Since contradictions exist, they demand exposure and resolution. There are two methods of exposure and resolution: one is for dealing with the contradiction between the enemy (referring to saboteurs and counterrevolutionaries) and ourselves, and the other is for dealing with contradictions among the people (including those within parties and between parties). The former employs the method of suppression, while the latter employs the method of persuasion, that is, the method of criticism. The class contradictions within our country have already been basically resolved (that is to say, they have not yet been completely resolved; those manifested in the ideological sphere will persist for a long period to come. In addition, a small number of counterrevolutionary elements will also continue to exist for a long time), and all the people should unite. However, problems among the people will still emerge one after another, and the method for resolving them is precisely this: starting from the desire for unity, conducting criticism and self-criticism, and thereby achieving unity. I am delighted to hear that the China Democratic National Construction Association holds its meetings in this way, and I hope that this method will be adopted wherever problems exist.

There are quite a few troublesome issues in international affairs, but there will always be ways to resolve them. I am an optimist, and I believe you, sir, are the same.

With respectful regards!

Mao Zedong

December 4, 1956

Last year and this year, I composed one ci poem each [3], which I am transcribing for your review and correction, in return for the elegant sentiments of the poems you have sent me on various occasions.

Langtaosha · Beidaihe

A heavy rain falls on Youyan,

White billows surge to the sky.

Off Qinhuangdao, fishing boats ply.

A vast expanse of ocean, all out of sight,

Who knows where they lie?

Events of a thousand years pass by;

Wei Wu cracked his whip on high,

Eastward he came to Jieshi, leaving verses that never die.

The soughing autumn wind is here again today,

But the world has changed in every way.

Shuidiao Getou · The Yangtze

Just drank Changsha water,

Now savor Wuchang fish.

Swimming across the ten-thousand-li Yangtze,

I gaze as far as the Chu skies, vast and free.

Heedless of wind and waves,

It’s better than strolling in a tranquil yard at ease—

Today I have leisure to spare.

The Master said by the river:

“Thus do things pass away, never ceasing!”

Sails stir with the breeze,

Tortoise and Snake Hills stand still,

A grand vision begins to unfold.

A bridge will fly from north to south,

Turning the deep chasm into a thoroughfare.

We shall also build a stone wall in the western river,

To cut off the clouds and rain of Wu Mountain,

And a smooth lake will rise in the towering gorge.

The Goddess of the Peak should be unharmed,

But she will marvel at the changed world.

Published based on the manuscript. The letter has been included in Selected Letters of Mao Zedong. The two ci poems have been included in Selected Poems of Mao Zedong.

Notes

[1] Huang Yanpei, courtesy name Renzhi, was then Chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

[2] This refers to the enlarged meeting of the Central Standing Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association held in October 1956 and the Second Plenary Session of its First Central Committee held in November of the same year.

[3] Here, “last year” should read “the year before last,” i.e., 1954; Langtaosha · Beidaihe is a ci poem composed by Mao Zedong in the summer of that year. “This year” refers to 1956; Shuidiao Getou · The Yangtze is a ci poem composed in June of that year. When published in the January 1957 issue of Poetry Monthly, its title was changed to Shuidiao Getou · Swimming. In the poem, the line “Thus do things pass away, never ceasing!” was corrected to “Thus do things pass away, never ceasing!” in a letter to Huang Yanpei dated December 16 of the same year (see page [ ] of this volume); the line “A bridge will fly from north to south, / Turning the deep chasm into a thoroughfare” was revised to “A bridge will fly from north to south, / Turning the deep chasm into a thoroughfare” when transcribed for Zhou Shizhao on December 5 of the same year (see page [ ] of this volume).