Letter to Li Na [1] (December 30, 1959)  Li Na: Have you recovered from your illness yet?
I’m thinking of you.
You should read books that are easy to understand first, gradually moving from simple to more complex works, building up your knowledge bit by bit.
Read fewer thick tomes for now; over the course of ten or twenty years, you can slowly increase the amount you read, and eventually you will surely master your studies.
I am doing very well.
Every day I read and go hiking.
What I am reading is economics [2]. I have made up my mind to thoroughly grasp this subject.
The weather is cold, so take good care of yourself and try not to catch a cold again.
Father  Sixth hour in the morning, December 30  Printed from the manuscript.
Included in Selected Letters from the Homes of the Older Generation of Revolutionaries.
Notes  [1] Li Na is Mao Zedong’s daughter.
At that time she was studying in the History Department of Peking University.  [2] From December 10, 1959, to February 9, 1960, Mao Zedong led a study group that successively studied the second volume of the Soviet textbook “Political Economy” (third edition) in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
When this letter was written, Mao Zedong was in Hangzhou.