A Matching Couplet with Mao Yuju[1]
(25 June 1959)

The Chairman offers a toast—far too great an honour, far too great!
(Mao Yuju)

Respecting the old and honouring the worthy—only right and proper, only right and proper!
(Mao Zedong)

[1] On 25 June 1959, Mao Zedong returned to his hometown Shaoshan. That evening, Mao invited his former teachers, schoolmates, friends, members of the Peasant Association and Red Guards, and martyrs’ family members to dinner. During the meal, Mao Zedong went around toasting the elderly people who had contributed to the revolution. When he toasted the elderly Mao Yuju, who had been his teacher at the Nan’an private school, Mao Yuju repeatedly said: “The Chairman offers a toast—far too great an honour, far too great!” Mao Zedong then replied: “Respecting the old and honouring the worthy—only right and proper, only right and proper!” Mao Yuju (1881–1964), a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, also known as Zhizhu, Yuzhu, and Yuju. Mao Yuju and Mao Zedong shared a great-great-grandfather; he was Mao Zedong’s elder male cousin on the paternal side and his teacher when Mao was a boy attending a private school. From the autumn of 1906 to the summer of 1907, Mao Zedong studied at Mao Yuju’s private school in Jingwanli, about five li from the Shangwuchang in Shaoshan Valley. Mao Yuju joined the Communist Party of China in 1926 and left the Party after the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927. He had a deep foundation in classical literature and was skilled at writing. In 1940 he worked with Mao Guoqiao to compile the fourth revision of the Mao clan genealogy. Before the founding of New China, he taught in the countryside all along. After the founding of New China, he served as a member of the Hunan Provincial Research Institute of Culture and History. He passed away in 1964.