The Lowly Are the Most Intelligent; the Noble Are the Most Stupid [1]
(May 18 and 20, 1958)

This document [2] is to be printed and distributed for all comrades attending the conference to read. I request that all central industrial and transportation departments individually collect materials and compile a popular, concise booklet of short biographies of scientific and technological inventors from around the world (including China) over the past three hundred years. Let us see whether it can be proven that most scientific and technological inventions come from the oppressed classes—that is to say, from those people of lower social status, less learning, poorer conditions, who are always looked down upon at the start and even attacked, tormented, tortured, or executed. This work should also be undertaken by the Academy of Sciences and universities, as well as by every province, municipality, and autonomous region. All sides should proceed simultaneously. If this point can be systematically proven, it will encourage many petty intellectuals, many workers and peasants, and many new and old cadres to shed their sense of inferiority, cast aside self-belittlement, shatter superstition, and rouse a dauntless creative spirit that dares to think, dares to speak, and dares to act. It will certainly be of great assistance in our tasks of catching up with Britain in seven years and then surpassing the United States in another eight or ten years. Bian He presented the jade and had his feet cut off after three [two] months; "As the moon sets over Hangu Pass, one crosses hearing cocks crow," came from the company of cock-crowing and dog-stealing rogues. This has been so since ancient times and is even more intense today. Is this not true?

Mao Zedong
May 18, 1958

Comrade Xiaoping [1]:
Please arrange for this document to be distributed to the conference immediately.
Mao
Morning of May 18
To be delivered to Xiaoping for distribution.

[1] Xiaoping, i.e., Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC.

The Lowly Are the Most Intelligent; the Noble Are the Most Stupid

This document is useful. Print and distribute for all comrades to read.
In yesterday's document, "executed" was mistakenly written as "carved"; "three months and his feet were cut off," "three" should be "two."
Mao Zedong
May 20

Inscription Celebrating the Successful Trial Production of a Tractor by the Dandong May 18 Tractor Parts Factory [1]
(May 18, 1958)

The lowly are the most intelligent; the noble are the most stupid.
Mao Zedong
May 18

[See the facsimile of Mao's handwriting for the Dandong May 18 Tractor Parts Factory's successful tractor trial production.]
Mao Zedong's inscription celebrating the successful trial production of a tractor by the Dandong May 18 Tractor Parts Factory.

[1] On May 18, 1958, Mao Zedong visited the Dandong May 18 Tractor Factory and wrote the twelve Chinese characters meaning "The lowly are the most intelligent; the noble are the most stupid," presented to the entire factory staff.