Annotations on the Question of Transition [I]
(March 23, 1959)

This document [1] may be distributed to county Party committees for study and reference.

Mao Zedong
March 23, 1959

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[1]
The first part is a directive written for the transmission of a report by the Tongcheng County Party Committee on the evening of March 19, 1959, concerning the situation of the five-level cadres’ conference, addressed to the Anqing Prefectural Party Committee and submitted to the Anhui Provincial Party Committee. The second part is an annotation written when transmitting this report. When forwarding it, Mao Zedong changed the title of the report to *The Experience of Tongcheng County* and drafted the directive under the title *Introducing the Experience of Tongcheng County*.

[2]
The report of the Tongcheng County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China states that in conducting the county’s five-level cadres’ conference, attention was paid to five points:
(1) Before the conference, organizations at all levels, from the county Party committee down to the communes and production brigades, were divided into two sets of personnel—one set to attend the conference and the other to manage current production and daily life.
(2) Large meetings were combined with small meetings, first focusing on resolving the ideological issues of commune and brigade cadres so that they would become the backbone in leading the conference.
(3) Some experienced and capable cadres were drawn from county-level organs to help production brigade-level cadres grasp the spirit of the policies.
(4) The fundamental issue of the three-level ownership system was taken up for discussion first, tracing the problem to its roots and resolving ideological issues thoroughly and deeply.
(5) Practical solutions to various concrete problems were seriously studied and formulated.