A Letter to Ye Zilong [2] Regarding Notification to Read the Work Report of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the CPC [1] (December 17, 1957) Comrade Ye Zilong: Please notify Comrades Shu Tong, Zeng Xisheng, Jiang Weiqing, Liu Shunyuan, Ke Qingshi, Ye Fei [3], and Premier Zhou—seven comrades in all—to read the document “The Work Report of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee to the Second Session of the Second Congress of the CPC Zhejiang Province” between eight and nine o’clock this morning, and to finish reading it before one o’clock in the afternoon. Other tasks may be postponed until tomorrow morning. Mao Zedong 2:00 a.m., December 17

Based on the manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to the “Work Report of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee to the Second Session of the Second Congress of the CPC Zhejiang Province,” delivered by Jiang Hua, First Secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, on December 9, 1957. The report consists of nine sections: I. The Rectification Campaign and the Struggle Against the Rightists; II. Rural Work; III. Industrial Production and the Working Class; IV. Finance and Trade; V. Work Among Intellectuals and Cultural-Educational Affairs; VI. The Bourgeoisie and Democratic Parties; VII. The Question of Suppression; VIII. Military Work; IX. Party Work. The first section states: “After the socialist revolution in the sphere of ownership of the means of production has been basically completed, class struggle has not yet come to an end. The struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the struggle between the capitalist road and the socialist road, remains the principal contradiction of the transitional period; only now this contradiction is manifested primarily not between the productive forces and the relations of production, but between the economic base and the superstructure.” “The struggle between the socialist and the capitalist roads may take either the form of an antagonistic contradiction or that of a contradiction among the people. However, under present conditions in our country, the former case is relatively rare, while the latter is far more common.” “The situation of class struggle ebbs and flows. Following a decisive victory in this struggle, the class enemies are forced to retreat, and the situation may temporarily ease for a certain period.” “This fluctuating pattern of struggle will recur repeatedly over several years. As the socialist revolution deepens and socialist construction advances, domestic class struggle will, through these fluctuations, gradually weaken and eventually disappear.” The report criticized both the rightist tendency within the Party at that time, which failed to recognize the continued existence of antagonistic contradictions, and the “leftist” tendency to exaggerate such contradictions and attempt to resolve them by applying methods suited to dealing with antagonistic contradictions rather than those appropriate for intra-Party contradictions. This report was published in the December 28, 1957 issue of People’s Daily under the title “Uphold the Party’s Correct Line and Strive for Complete Victory in the Rectification Campaign on All Fronts.” The newspaper included an editorial note stating: “Comrade Jiang Hua’s report takes the Rectification Campaign as the ‘general guiding principle for all work,’ systematically reviews the various aspects of a province’s work over the past year, inspires enthusiasm, and refutes fallacious arguments. The issues addressed in the first section of the report are not local but national in scope. What, after all, is the principal contradiction of the transitional period? How should we understand the relationship between the contradiction between two classes and two roads and the contradiction among the people? Why does the Party emphasize intra-Party contradictions at one moment and class struggle at another? These are major questions of concern to everyone. In his report, Comrade Jiang Hua, following the instructions of the Central Committee and Chairman Mao, provides correct answers. Addressing ideological differences within the Party, he criticizes both the tendency to ignore antagonistic contradictions and the tendency to exaggerate them, thereby upholding the Central Committee’s policy on the proper handling of intra-Party contradictions. The erroneous viewpoints criticized here still exist in party organizations elsewhere and must likewise be clarified. The extensive debate on these theoretical and principled questions at the Zhejiang Provincial Party Congress is of great significance for carrying forward the socialist revolution on the ideological and political fronts and securing complete victory in the Rectification Campaign.” Half a month after Jiang Hua delivered the above report, Ke Qingshi gave a speech titled “Ride the Waves and Accelerate the Construction of a New Socialist Shanghai!” at the Second Session of the First Congress of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee on December 25, 1957. Mao Zedong reviewed this report and made several revisions. The first section of Ke Qingshi’s report reads: “Even after class contradictions have been eliminated, contradictions such as right versus wrong, reform versus conservatism, advanced versus backward, active versus passive will continue to arise constantly under various conditions and in diverse circumstances. And human society will advance precisely through the continuous overcoming of these contradictions.” Mao Zedong added the sentence “Contradiction is forever the driving force behind the progress of human society” after this passage.

[ ] Ye Zilong, who at that time served as Director of the Confidential Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and as Mao Zedong’s secretary.

[3] Shu Tong, then First Secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee. Zeng Xisheng, then First Secretary of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee. Jiang Weiqing, then First Secretary of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee. Liu Shunyuan, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee. Ke Qingshi, then First Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee. Ye Fei, then First Secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee.