fifty research topics for reference by secretaries of prefectural-level party committees and other leading cadres. Mao Zedong’s commentary and the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee’s notice were distributed at the Chengdu Conference as conference documents.

--- Notes

Commentary on the Notice from the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Regarding Organizing Leading Cadres and Theoretical Education Workers to Conduct Specialized Research (March 15, 1958) This document [1] may be reviewed. Please have comrades in the Secretariats of the Party Committees of all provinces, municipalities directly under the central government, and autonomous regions study it, formulate a set of topics, and distribute them to a number of cadres; at the same time, send one copy to the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. Mao Zedong, March 15. Printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to the notice issued by the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee on February 16, 1958, concerning the organization of leading cadres at the county level and above, together with theoretical education workers, to carry out specialized research. The notice stated that, in order to enable all leading cadres and theoretical workers throughout the Party to conduct a relatively systematic study of the new problems raised during the Rectification Campaign and the upsurge in industrial and agricultural production—so as to effectively improve practical work, promote the Great Leap Forward in industry and agriculture, and encourage leading cadres to adopt a method centered on the study of concrete problems in the Chinese revolution, thereby deepening their study of Marxist–Leninist theory and gradually raising both their theoretical and professional levels—the provincial committee decided that all leading cadres at the county level and above who possess the conditions for engaging in theoretical research, as well as theoretical education workers with a certain amount of practical experience, should, whenever possible, employ the method of specialized research, either individually or in small groups, to study at least one major issue related to current practical work each year and to write a special paper or report. The notice also listed