Comments on the Report Striving for a Bountiful Harvest
(October 9, 1957)
This document is well worth reading. Just as the Old Man Who Moved the Mountains sought to transform China, Lijiazhai provides an excellent example.
I request that comrades select one outstanding case from each county this winter and next spring and send it to me, so that we may compile a book. Please mail these directly to me before the end of February 1958. Ideally, it should be a vivid account of a cooperative, verified through investigation to contain no false information. I would be most grateful if you could accomplish this. In addition, please also send me, concurrently, the agricultural plan outlines at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels. Those that have not yet been finalized may be submitted by May 1, 1958.
Mao Zedong
October 9, 1957
[1] Refers to the work team of the Junan County Party Committee’s report dated April 29, 1957, concerning the Dashan Agricultural Cooperative in Lijiazhai Township, Junan County, Shandong Province, which made every possible effort to achieve successive bumper harvests. The report was published in the October 13, 1957 issue of the People’s Daily under the title “The Heroic Cooperative Conquers Barren Mountains and Harsh Waters—A Record of the Dashan Agricultural Cooperative’s Magnificent Achievements in Developing the Mountainous Region.” O

These two documents (1) are to be printed immediately. One copy is to be distributed to each attendee at the Third Plenary Session this afternoon at three o’clock. Please handle this, Comrade Yang Shangkun (2).
Mao Zedong
8:00 A.M., October 9th
Mao Zedong’s inscription for Lijiazhai in Junan County, Shandong Province.
With gratitude to the Xiawu Fu Zhou Tuan,
Yu Rui W Li.
Gu\ x《Life “2
“1” refers to the report by the work team of the Junan County Party Committee of the CPC and Mao Zedong’s comments on this report.
“2” refers to Yang Shangkun, who at that time served as an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
Mao Zedong’s handwritten directive regarding the deeds of Lijiazhai.