Letter to Zhang Zhizhong[l ］
(May 22, 1958)
Mr. Wenzi:
I received your letter of May 3, 121, quite some time ago. I kept it sealed until today, when I finally opened it and read “A Summary at Sixty” in one sitting. I was very pleased. However, my pleasure did not stem from your worldview; on that score, there remains a gap between us. Rather, it came from the overall tone of the work, from those passages that allow one to glimpse the author’s heart, and from your continued desire to forge ahead. I can well imagine how difficult this past year or so has been for you—a man of advanced age—having to weather such tremendous storms. I fully understand how you must be feeling. I hope to arrange a meeting with you at your convenience; unfortunately, it will not be possible in the next few days.
Wishing you good health! Please extend my regards to your wife and children!
Mao Zedong
7:00 A.M., May 23rd
[I ]
Zhang Zhizhong, whose courtesy name was Wenbai, was at the time a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission.
[2]
Refers to Zhang Zhizhong’s letter to Mao Zedong dated May 3, 1958. In the letter, Zhang discussed the “Self-Examination” he had written during the Rectification Movement within the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and enclosed both the “Self-Examination” and his earlier work, “A Summary at Sixty,” which he had composed in the winter of 1949, for Mao’s review.

Letter to Zhang Zhizhong
The handwritten draft of Mao Zedong’s letter to Zhang Zhizhong.