1. The statement “old accounts are generally not settled” was included in the Zhengzhou speech [2], which is incorrect; it should be revised to read: “old accounts are generally to be settled.”
Only by settling accounts can we put into practice the objective law of value that objectively exists.
This law is a great school. Only by making use of it can we possibly educate our tens of millions of cadres and hundreds of millions of people, and only then can we build socialism and communism.
Otherwise, nothing will be possible.
We cannot relieve the people’s grievances.
As for the cadres, they will be ruined by us.
There are a hundred harms and no single benefit.
A commune actually managed to return over four million yuan in cash income originally belonging to the former advanced cooperatives back to their rightful owners. Why can’t other communes do the same? We should not cling to the notion that “it is hard to part with good wealth.”
We must understand that this is looted property, not charitable wealth.
It is impermissible to appropriate others’ labor without compensation.
(March 30) Printed from Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript.


2. All these documents [3] are worth reading.
In particular, “The Situation at the Mass Meeting in Macheng County” is highly instructive. The approach taken was excellent: at both the county and commune levels, all amounts that ought to be returned were swiftly disbursed to the production teams, thus clearing the books. Following this, attention could turn to resolving conflicts between the teams and individual commune members, allowing the communes to develop substantially.
Mao Zedong, April 2, 1959

3. This document [4] is outstanding; every county and commune should follow suit.
Settling accounts fosters unity; it helps cadres extricate themselves from the mire of embezzlement and waste, leaving them clean and unburdened; it teaches cadres sound methods of management and operation; and it enables the five hundred million farmers to manage their own communes and oversee commune-level cadres at all levels, ensuring that they do only what is right and refrain from wrongdoing—thereby realizing genuine mass oversight and true democratic centralism.
Mao Zedong, April 3, 1959

4. No mass meetings are to be held in counties and communes during April.
Originally scheduled for May, the commune- and team-level representative conferences might be convened in the county in early or mid-May to thoroughly address the three issues left unresolved by the March meeting [5]: decentralization of power, final settlement of accounts, and determination of output targets. Subsequently, leadership bodies of the Party at various levels within the communes, as well as the administrative organs of the communes and teams, would be elected.
With regard to the matter of settling accounts, we were ill-prepared mentally for the provincial and county-level meetings held in March. In Zhengzhou, it was stated that such accounts are generally not settled; this position should be reversed—on the contrary, they should generally be settled. Some provinces have already made this shift, such as Hubei, though even there it has not been fully implemented.
What is required is for the county and commune authorities to settle with the production teams the accounts arising from the extensive reallocations and seizures of recent months, thereby resolving the tensions between the larger collective and the smaller collectives. This, of course, must be addressed first. There is another conflict that must be resolved concurrently: the tension between the leaders of the production teams and those of the production subteams, on the one hand, and the broader body of commune members, on the other—the contradiction between the smaller collectives and the individual commune members.
Addressing this issue on the scale seen in Macheng County only recently came to our attention and entered our sphere of understanding. It concerns the widespread phenomenon of appropriating others’ labor gratuitously through corruption—a pervasive and historical problem, not a recent development. Yet it could only be tackled in 1959, and only now can genuine mass oversight be established.
Such a large-scale, mass-based issue, in my view, cannot be resolved without firm resolve at the provincial level and direct leadership at the county level. Therefore, I propose that the May meeting be held in the county.
I leave it to your committee to deliberate whether this is advisable.
Mao Zedong, 6:00 p.m. on April 3, printed from the handwritten manuscript.
Notes [1] This piece is a marginal note written by Mao Zedong on a report dated March 29, 1959, submitted by Tao Lujia, First Secretary of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee, concerning the situation at the five-level cadre conference held across Shanxi’s counties. [2] Refers to Mao Zedong’s speech delivered at the expanded meeting of the CPC Central Political Bureau in Zhengzhou on February 27, 1959. [3] Refers to the four documents submitted to Mao Zedong by Wang Renzhong, First Secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, on March 31, 1959: two reports dated March 27 from Wang Yanchun regarding the mass meeting in Macheng County and concerning technical measures for cotton cultivation, addressed to Wang Renzhong and the Hubei Provincial Committee; a separate report from Wang Yanchun on the same day about the issue of poorer teams catching up with richer ones, also addressed to Wang Renzhong; and a report dated March 23 from Xu Daoqi, Secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee, on a discussion with grassroots cadres about the topic “food is free,” addressed to Wang Renzhong, Wang Yanchun, and the Provincial Committee. Among these, the report on the mass meeting in Macheng County states that at the gathering, party committees at the county, commune, and management district levels conducted layered self-criticisms, acknowledged their mistakes, and prompted grassroots cadres to do likewise, thereby strengthening relations between superiors and subordinates. Following the self-criticism, emphasis was placed on settling accounts and fulfilling commitments, with earnest efforts to resolve the problems of equalization, arbitrary redistribution, and excessive collection of funds. Money and materials previously transferred from production teams to the commune were immediately returned; those facing food shortages received immediate rations; and loans were promptly extended to impoverished teams in need of support. [4] Refers to the second report dated March 30, 1959, submitted by Wang Yanchun to Wang Renzhong and the Hubei Provincial Committee regarding the mass meeting in Macheng County. The report notes that, in order to mobilize the masses and settle the accounts of the production teams, the county party committee decided to employ a variety of methods—holding mobilization meetings, small group sessions, individual talks, pilot projects, and radio broadcasts—to explain the policy and encourage commune members to participate in the accounting process. During the accounting process, it was discovered that many production team cadres had engaged in serious embezzlement and misappropriation. The county party committee therefore required any cadres found to have committed violations to come forward at the meeting, confess their errors, and take responsibility. After returning home, a thorough settlement was to be carried out through the convocation of commune member representative conferences or general commune member meetings. [5] Refers to the six-level cadre conferences held in certain provinces and the five-level cadre conferences held in counties during March 1959.