Critique of the Report on What Was Seen and Heard
(November 10, 1958)

To be sent immediately to Comrades Lin Tie and Zhang Chengxian:

This document concerns the situation in Xushui County, with both strengths and weaknesses. Please study it. Such a situation may exist in more than one commune.

Mao Zedong
10 PM, November 10

Take this document back with you; I don't need it.

[1]
Lin Tie was then the First Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee of the CPC. Zhang Chengxian was then a Secretary of the Secretariat of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee of the CPC.

[2]
Refers to the report to Mao Zedong by the Confidential Office of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on October 17, 1958, regarding what was seen and heard during labor in Xushui County, Hebei Province. The report stated that in mid-September of this year, some comrades from Zhongkun and the Confidential Office went to Qian Suoying Village of Shangzhuang People's Commune in Xushui County to participate in the autumn harvest and wheat planting labor. This time, they completely ate, lived, and worked with the local masses, and the masses responded very well. The following is a report on some of the situations seen and heard during the labor. The most prominent characteristics of the masses here are poverty and blankness, soaring enthusiasm, and full of hope and confidence for tomorrow. This area used to suffer from frequent floods and droughts, and the people's lives were very hard. Last winter and this spring, under the leadership of the county party committee, the people of the whole county vigorously engaged in water conservancy construction, realizing the "starry sky, grape bunch" water conservancy, and the people's lives have been significantly improved. The labor organization here is completely organized into companies and battalions like the army, the labor is militarized and combatized, and the discipline is very strict. In order to rush to harvest autumn and plant wheat, a field army was also organized to eat and camp in the fields, which is a shock force in the labor. This village has also established canteens, kindergartens, homes for the elderly, sewing groups, laundry groups, clubs, indigenous fertilizer plants, supply and marketing cooperatives, grain processing plants, etc., implementing a supply system, which is supported by the commune members. Since the communization of this village, all private plots, houses, and scattered fruit trees have belonged to the commune, completely cutting off the tail of private ownership. In addition, the exercise of large-scale labor cooperation has greatly improved the ideological awareness of the peasants. We also saw some problems in the labor, mainly: (1) At present, the cultivated areas of each battalion (that is, the original villages) are still the original cultivated areas before communization, which are very scattered, and there are many areas where the communes intersect each other, which is not conducive to cultivation and the organization of labor cooperation. It is recommended that the cultivated land of each commune be re-divided, breaking the boundaries of the original small communes, to adapt to the needs of the new labor form. (2) Subjectivism and coercion still exist in some areas. Because some cadres have a low level of political and ideological awareness, they only emphasize militarization and discipline, and ignore the ideological work of the commune members. When they arrange production tasks, they are issued in simple orders, and they rarely consult with the commune members in case of trouble, especially when dealing with problems such as lack of enthusiasm for labor and backward thinking, they often adopt simple and crude working methods. (3) There are some false phenomena. According to the commune cadres, because the tasks arranged by the county are urgent and numerous, the cadres below feel great pressure, so there are many false reports in the work. The county and the communes mostly overestimate the grain yield. (4) The problem of raising chickens and ducks. After communization, there are no more private plots, and meals are eaten in the canteen, and individuals no longer raise chickens and ducks, and there is no organized collective raising here, and if this continues, there will be no chicken, duck, or eggs to eat. The elderly in the homes for the elderly should be organized to collectively raise chickens and ducks to solve this problem. (5) Several slogans worth studying. At the National Day celebration meeting of the Shangzhuang Commune, the secretary of the commune party committee put forward such slogans in his report: "Build socialism in 1960, build communism in 1963," "By that time, there will be whatever you want to eat, whatever you want to wear, and whatever you want." We feel that there are some problems with these slogans being announced publicly at the commune members' meeting, because some slogans are not practical enough, and some are not accurate enough in their wording. If they are shouted out and cannot be realized by then, it will have a bad impact on the masses. In the past, this county announced that it would strive to become a cultural county in September 1958, but there are still many illiterate people, and it has not actually been realized.

On November 10, 1958, Mao Zedong had a cordial conversation with the soldiers of the cooking squad of the First Company of the First Battalion of the Central Guard Regiment.

[Images omitted]