This meeting is to address two very important issues: first, egalitarianism between production teams; and second, egalitarianism among individuals within each production team.
Unless these two problems are properly resolved, it will be impossible to fully mobilize the masses’ enthusiasm.
It appears that the people’s communes need a set of regulations.
The existing regulations for advanced agricultural cooperatives have become outdated.
For several years now, no new, comprehensive regulations have been issued.
The draft work regulations for rural people’s communes that we have prepared this time is too complex and lengthy, lacks logical coherence, and fails to hold one’s attention from beginning to end.
It should be condensed to around eight thousand words.
Let us discuss this at today’s meeting—first, we will hear your views.
After you return, please conduct further investigations, and a decision can be made at the next meeting.
Systematic research spanning from history to the present situation must be carried out.
The first secretaries of the provincial party committees should personally lead these investigations.
As a first secretary myself, I intend to focus solely on ensuring that all first secretaries take the lead in this effort.
Other secretaries should also undertake such investigations, with responsibility assigned to each of you to oversee implementation.
Once the first secretaries at the provincial, prefectural, county, and commune levels all engage in thorough investigation and study, matters will proceed much more smoothly.
In January of this year, I came across an article I had written thirty years ago [2]. Upon rereading it, I found it still contained some valid points, though I am unsure how others might view it.
“One’s own writing always seems best,” yet I do not particularly care for many of my own works; this particular piece, however, I do like.
It was composed after a major ideological struggle, following the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of the Fourth Red Army [3], in 1930.
For a long time, I had searched everywhere without success.
I would like everyone to study this article carefully and offer their opinions: which parts do you agree with, and which do you disagree with?
If there is broad agreement in principle, we will implement it as is, without further explanation.
The central theme of the article is that those engaged in leadership work must rely on their own firsthand investigations to resolve problems.
Written reports may be consulted, but they cannot substitute for direct, personal observation.
One should either travel extensively or settle down for a systematic investigation lasting anywhere from one week to ten days.
When dealing with rural conditions, it is sufficient to first thoroughly investigate a single township; once that is done, subsequent surveys of other townships can be conducted with greater confidence and clarity.
Over the past few years, our mistakes have primarily stemmed from a lack of clear understanding of the actual situation.
Without a clear picture, policies cannot be correct, resolve becomes weak, and methods often prove ineffective.
A doctor begins by making a diagnosis—traditional Chinese medicine employs the four diagnostic methods of inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, and palpation—to ascertain the nature of the illness before prescribing treatment.
In warfare, reconnaissance comes first: gathering intelligence on the enemy and the terrain, assessing the situation, then making a decision and deploying troops and logistics accordingly.
Throughout history, the primary cause of defeat has almost invariably been a failure to obtain accurate information.
In recent years, we have suffered greatly due to insufficient knowledge of the circumstances, paying a high price as a result.
Many officials have ceased conducting field investigations altogether.
I have undertaken some investigations myself, but most of them have merely involved skimming surface-level reports.
Going forward, I plan to establish several key sites—bases for investigation—and spend time there cultivating personal relationships.
I have no special expertise regarding urban issues, though I have long intended to investigate a number of factories.
At present, I have established several such bases and dispatched teams to reside in various locations.
Comrades Chen Boda, Hu Qiaomu, and Tian Jiaying [4] will return to their posts after this meeting.
I propose that we jointly undertake a series of investigative studies focused on supplementary food production, with the aim of solving practical problems rather than simply compiling reports.
We currently receive countless forms, and official reports claim increases in grain yields, pig populations, and cash crop output, whereas in reality no such growth has occurred.
In my view, we should disregard these tables; I personally do not bother reading such reports—they hold little meaning for me.
Henan province has required lower-level authorities to submit detailed reports on six categories of cadres, with instructions to deliver them by tomorrow.
Such requests can only result in fabricated accounts.
We must learn from this experience.
There is some merit to maintaining certain reporting systems—for example, statistical agencies require data for their analyses—but our primary means of gaining insight into the situation should not rely on formal reports or hierarchical chains of submission.
Instead, we must directly familiarize ourselves with conditions at the grassroots level.
For three whole years, the people’s communes lacked any formal regulations; naturally, various directives were issued in their place, including resolutions adopted at the Beidaihe Conference [5], the Wuchang Conference [6], minutes from the Zhengzhou Conference [7], the Shanghai Eighteen Articles [8], and the six points outlined in my letters to production teams and sub-teams [9]. Some of these documents and provisions proved effective in certain areas, while in others they failed to take hold.
In Category One counties, communes, and teams, they worked well; in Category Two, they functioned adequately overall, though partial non-compliance and lack of enforcement were observed; and in Category Three, they were largely ineffective.
Mistakes can be corrected, provided we approach our work diligently.
With sustained effort, errors and setbacks can be transformed into their opposites—correctness and victory—rather than allowing them to weigh us down.
Certain communal dining halls are unsustainable.
A branch secretary of a brigade in Guangdong pointed out four major drawbacks to operating such kitchens: first, destruction of forests; second, wasteful use of labor; third, lack of meat (as families are unable to raise pigs); and fourth, hindrance to production.
The first three all relate directly to impeding productive activity, while the fourth serves as a concluding summary.
The issues raised by this comrade deserve serious consideration.
If they are not addressed, the dining hall will inevitably disband—either this year or next.
Even if it struggles to remain open, it will ultimately have to close after ten years of operation.
Dining halls that resort to dismantling bridges for firewood, or even tearing down houses and felling trees, are fundamentally antithetical to socialism.
It seems advisable to adopt multiple models: a small segment of the population could continue to use year-round dining facilities, while the majority would rely on peak-season kitchens.
In northern regions during winter, communal dining halls must close and allow people to return home to eat, owing to heating requirements.
Printed based on the transcript of the speech preserved in the Central Archives.
Notes [1] This constitutes the main portion of Mao Zedong’s remarks delivered at a working conference convened in Guangzhou, attended by heads of the Central Committee’s South-Central, Southwest, and East China bureaus, as well as secretaries of the party committees of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions under their jurisdiction—the so-called Southern Three-Region Meeting.
The meeting took place from March 10 to 13, 1961. [2] Refers to “On Investigation Work.”
See note [2] on page 240 of this volume. [3] Refers to the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of the Fourth Red Army, held in Gutian, Shanghang County, Fujian Province, on December 28–29, 1929. [4] Chen Boda, then an alternate member of the CPC Central Political Bureau, director of the Central Research Office, and Mao Zedong’s secretary; Hu Qiaomu, then an alternate secretary of the CPC Secretariat and Mao Zedong’s secretary; and Tian Jiaying, then deputy director of the CPC Central Research Office and Mao Zedong’s secretary.
At Mao’s direction, they led investigation teams to conduct rural surveys in Guangdong, Hunan, and Zhejiang, respectively. [5] Refers to the resolution adopted by the expanded meeting of the CPC Central Political Bureau held in Beidaihe from August 17 to 30, 1958, concerning the establishment of people’s communes in rural areas. [6] Refers to the resolution on several issues related to people’s communes, adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee, held in Wuchang from November 28 to December 10, 1958. [7] See note [6] on page 30 of this volume. [8] See note [3] on page 165 of this volume. [9] Refers to the six points outlined in Mao Zedong’s letter dated April 29, 1959, addressed to cadres at six different levels, concerning agricultural matters.
See pages 48–50 of this volume.