[Revisions and Annotations to Wang Hairong’s Article “My Experiences”] [2] (October 17, 1960)  1. We must firmly bear in mind that true knowledge is gained through practice. Any book learning is truly useful only when its authors have, in their practical experience, reflected objective truth. Otherwise, the principles set forth in books are merely empty, spurious doctrines—by no means the kind of practical truths capable of transforming the world.

2. Although I have no personal experience of the arduous life once endured by workers, for I was but an eleven-year-old “yellow-haired girl” at the time of national liberation and understood nothing of such matters, conversations with many veteran workers at the Beijing Chemical Plant have made me keenly aware of how immensely fortunate our present conditions of life and work are in comparison with those prevailing before liberation. Printed according to Mao Zedong’s revised manuscript.

3. What I have just been saying has all been about good things, and that is indeed the case. Are there then no bad things, or, to put it another way, no errors and shortcomings? Of course there are—every year, every month. How should we deal with them? In the spirit of the working class as masters of society, we must overcome each and every error and shortcoming one by one. Printed according to Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

4. Ask Wang Hairong to come here this afternoon between three and five o’clock for a talk. Mao Zedong, morning of October 17; printed according to the handwritten draft.

Notes [ ] This is an article written in July 1960 by Wang Hairong, Mao Zedong’s niece’s granddaughter, at the invitation of the editorial department of the magazine China Youth. The article recounts her experiences and reflections during her apprenticeship at the Beijing Chemical Plant after graduating from high school. After reviewing and revising it, Mao Zedong titled the piece “My Experiences” and added beneath the title the words “Apprentice Wang Bo.” The article was subsequently published in the twenty-third issue of China Youth, dated December 1, 1960.

[2] Parts one and two of this text consist of Mao Zedong’s revisions to “My Experiences,” with the additions and alterations he made rendered in Song typeface; part three is a passage he appended to the article; and part four is his marginal note on a letter dated August 1, 1960, which Wang Hairong addressed to Ye Zilong, Mao Zedong’s secretary. In her letter, Wang Hairong stated: “The editorial department of China Youth has asked

me to write an article about my experiences and insights as an apprentice, in order to help young journeymen workers feel more secure in their work. At the same time, they also hope to obtain Chairman Grandfather’s instructions and expectations regarding young journeymen. I have already finished drafting the piece and would like to request that, despite your busy schedule, you spare a little time to revise it for me.”