A Letter Written After Re-reading the People’s Daily Editorial “Mobilize the Whole Nation to Discuss the Forty-Point Outline and Usher in a New High Tide in Agricultural Production” (May 26, 1958)  To Comrades of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat, to the First Secretaries of the Party Committees of Provinces, Municipalities, and Autonomous Regions, and to Other Comrades Attending This Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau:

After re-reading the People’s Daily editorial of [date], I found it most instructive. The theme is clear, the tone poised and confident, the analysis sound, and the tasks well defined. It was from this article onward that the term “great leap forward” began to replace “adventurism.” These two terms are diametrically opposed. Since the slogan of the “great leap forward” was put forward, those who had been advocating caution have fallen silent. One can readily denounce “adventurism” (which has become synonymous with left-wing adventurism), and indeed one can do so with great aplomb. But how about the “great leap forward”? That is quite another matter; it is much harder to oppose. To challenge it would immediately place one in a highly disreputable position.

When this article was published, some of us were in Moscow; it was our comrades at home who steered its issuance, and their contribution is no less than that of Yu the Great. Were it ever to be deemed appropriate to confer doctoral degrees, I would suggest that the first such degree be awarded to the scientist—or scientists—who invented this great slogan (“the great leap forward”).

Mao Zedong, 7:00 A.M., May 26, printed from the manuscript.