To the Draft Directive of the Central Committee on Allocating Private Plots to Commune Members to Facilitate the Development of Pigs, Chickens, Geese, and Ducks: Annotations and Revisions [1]
(May 7, 1959)

Discussed and agreed upon yesterday with Comrades Li Xiannian, Tan Zhenlin, and Liao Luyan.[2]

Mao Zedong
May 7, 2:00 a.m.

[1]
The text printed in Song typeface in the three sections of this piece consists of words added or revised by Mao Zedong; Section Four is a sentence added by Mao Zedong at the end of the draft directive. Mao Zedong also drafted the title for the directive: "On Allocating Private Plots to Individuals to Facilitate the Development of Pigs, Chickens, Geese, and Ducks." On May 7, 1959, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued this directive to the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.

[2]
Li Xiannian and Tan Zhenlin both served at the time as secretaries of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice premiers of the State Council. Liao Luyan served at the time as deputy director of the Rural Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and minister of agriculture.

Volume 41 of the Complete Works of Mao Zedong

To be delivered immediately to Liu, Deng, Zhou, Zhu, and Lin[1] for review; Shangkun[2] is to dispatch it by telephone and have additional copies printed as per the original.

In recent months, the number of pigs raised has decreased significantly. This is extremely detrimental to three major matters: the supply of grain, fertilizer, and pork, as well as the acquisition of private pocket money. To swiftly change this situation, it is imperative to adopt the policy of placing equal emphasis on collective pig-raising at all levels of the commune and private raising by commune member households, walking on two legs. The same applies to chickens, ducks, and geese.

IV

This matter[3] must be handled quickly; you are requested to make an early decision and issue it for implementation.

[1]
Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who served at the time as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice premier of the State Council. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Lin refers to Lin Biao, who served at the time as vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice premier of the State Council.

[2]
Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, who served at the time as alternate secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the General Office of the Central Committee.

[3]
This refers to allocating a certain amount of private plots to commune members for the private raising of pigs, chickens, geese, and ducks. The directive draft revised by Mao Zedong stated: "To enable commune members to raise pigs, chickens, geese, and ducks privately, they must be given a certain amount of private plots. The size of the private plots should follow the provisions of the original higher-level agricultural cooperative charter, calculated on a per capita basis, not exceeding 5 percent of the average per capita landholding. It may also be calculated on a per-pig basis, with one fen or two fen of feed land allocated per pig, to be decided by the Party committees of each province, municipality, and autonomous region based on local specific conditions."