Comments on the Draft Directive of the CPC Central Committee Forwarding Reports from the Provincial Committees of Hubei and Other Provinces Concerning the People’s Communes and Rural Work〔1〕 (May 8, 1959) To be forwarded immediately to Liu and Deng〔2〕 for their review; to be handled by Shangkun〔3〕. … Printed according to Mao Zedong’s manuscript.
Notes 〔1〕 This directive of the CPC Central Committee states that a proper summation of the experiences and lessons learned during the Great Leap Forward in agricultural production in 1958—building on strengths while correcting shortcomings—with the aim of doing the work even better, will provide a stronger guarantee for this year’s Great Leap Forward.
Agricultural production targets must be realistic: those that can be achieved through every possible effort should be striven for; those that remain unattainable despite all efforts ought to be revised, rather than being imposed rigidly.
The spring famine period still has more than one to two months before it is basically over, and it must not be neglected again; utmost vigilance is required regarding the potential occurrence of a summer famine.
The documents forwarded by the Central Committee included: the report dated April 26, 1959, from the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC to the Central Committee and to Mao Zedong concerning the proceedings of its enlarged meeting, together with the minutes of the Hubei Provincial Committee’s enlarged meeting on eighteen issues related to the people’s communes; the report dated May 3 by the Hebei Provincial Committee to the Central Committee and to Mao Zedong on implementing the spirit of the Seventh Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee; and the report dated April 28 by the Guangdong Provincial Committee to the Central Committee and to Mao Zedong on the current situation and arrangements for rural work.
Mao Zedong made several textual revisions to this draft directive.
On May 10, the CPC Central Committee issued this directive to the party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.

〔〕 Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi.
Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time served as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. 〔3〕 Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at that time was an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Central Office.